Le moment suprême finally arrived, today, I received the (re)print of my second book, Hypersensitivosaurus and Cold Turkey.
The print came out mirrored but I would not let that spoil the fun.
just kidding, that's what a camera does.
Here's another pic where I pull a face and reversed the mirror effect.
I realized that both pictures aren't sharp/ don't have great lighting but to see a sharp version of me or my book, you will need to either order the book itself or meet up with me ;<)
Also, this post is once again centered around the theme of imperfection.
Anyhow, let's go back a bunch of hours in time, to this morning:
Around 9:30am, Portuguese time, I decided to go out for a coffee, some bread, much needed fresh air, plus possible social time ( I always bump into people ( figuratively ), as an added bonus.
When I had descended the stairs, I noticed two piles of boxes in the portal, near the apartment door.
There was one smaller box on top of one of the piles and I immediately knew that one contained my books.
the latter appeared to be for my sister's boyfriend but that won't be part of this story
FYI: the lady of the nearby postal pickup/ delivery shop has my spare key, just in case I lose my keys and she knows my name. She decided to leave the packages inside my hallway.
It was a pleasant surprise, to say the least, eventhough I knew the books had arrived the day before ( I had been busy playing with/ kid sitting my niece and nephew ).
I have been waiting for this moment for so long and I've put in so much effort and energy.
After carrying all the boxes upstairs and bringing them inside my apartment, I opened the little box containing my books.
In all honesty, I was happy at first sigh and then...
I discovered some imperfections.
The majority of the books seemed to have a similar issue as the first print ( that arrived at my mom's and is on its way here and expected to arrive on Monday ): the binding hasn't been done well, leading to little folds, best visible from the side and some wrinkles on a bunch of pages ( see the pics in the power of complaining to get an idea of what I'm talking about. I also discovered a detail that I did not like that much, on the back cover.
My happiness faded somewhat, to make place for disappointment, replicating the wrinkles from the book on my face.
This was not what I had planned for.
So I called my mom and talked about it with her for a bit. This time she told me, basically, to focus on the positives and that is what I did.
Conclusion: I won't use this book print and bind service/ company anymore in the future. I also won't recommend them.
This was the reprint and it seems to have similar issues to the first print, that I complained about.
I don't see the point in asking them for yet another re-print as their machines seem to be where things go wrong.
On the plus side:
I now have 35 extra copies ( the reprint ) and I have even more slightly imperfect prints that could either be sold as a special edition or more easily given away, without feeling ( too ) bad about having invested so much time, money and energy in all this, without getting much back.
Soon after unpacking this somewhat underwhelming delivery, I went out for my long awaited and much needed coffee and breakfast, bringing 4 prints of my book along, just in case.
While enjoying the fresh air, the Saturday buzz on my town's main square and sipping from my coffee and taking bites from my bread roll with cheese and butter, I leafed through Hypersensitivosaurus and Cold Turkey. This was actually quite enjoyable.
The old geezer who I mentioned in two previous write ups: ex rockstar offers to edit my book and An Offer I can refuse arrived and he clearly got my message. He seemed afraid to talk to me ( or has forgotten about me, once again - he has memory issues ) and, although he sat down at a table next to me, he turned his back on me and we did not talk, aside from me offering him to set up the parasol and him saying he could handle it by himself haha!
I talked a little with the guy with whom I am arranging movie nights though and his mom and her boyfriend and basically enjoyed my time out there and later went homeward, after a short walk, bringing all 4 books I had on me, along with me.
I reached out to a bunch of people though to inform them that they have arrived and now, hours later, I am telling you all the same :<)
Long story short:
Aside from the back cover ( I later discovered I messed this up myself ) and some wrinkles, I really like the look and feel of my book.
This bit of imperfection fits me ( at this stage in my life ).
It's nice to know that a bunch of people, both online and offline, are looking forward to buying and/ or receiving a physical copy and that I can finally provide them with one very soon.
If they/ you have been following me for a while, I'm sure you forgive me for the thing not being 100% perfect ( whatever that means ). In fact, you might not expect a perfect from me, anyway ;<)
So, in the coming days and weeks, I will slowly but steadily start handing out, sending out and selling these (im)perfect A5-sized Hypersensitivosaurus and Cold Turkey books.
You might be one of the lucky ones ;<)
If you haven't already, feel free to reach out to me on discord ( VincentNijman ZENsitivosaurus#5870 )
Or, if you're on Hive and using Peakd, you can messenge me on beechat
You can of course also just leave me a comment here but I'll need your email address for a digital copy or postal address for a physical one, so we will need to DM, in private, somewhere.
I don't have a team that works for me and am sending each and every physical or digital copy out myself, so please bear with me and be patient ;<)
Much love from your favorite philosoraptor,
Hypersensitivosaurus
sometimes known as Vincent Nijman
or Cold Turkey
today's view, after my coffee