8/26/16 -- An Apology and a Promise
I screwed up. I want to get that out of the way right off the top.
It's embarrassing and I wish it hadn't happened, but the only thing worse than making a huge mistake is not owning up to it. From there, the only thing you can do is to try to make amends. Here's the scoop: the copies of "Eye of the Storm" that went out over the last 9 days were wrong. Seriously wrong.
What I mean by that is, they were riddled with errors, typos, misspelled or missing words, etc. That's my fault. 100% mine.
The short explanation is this: in the digital age everything is done electronically, and that includes the process of reviewing and approving the editor's "galleys" before printing. If you don't know what a galley is, no worries, it's just a publisher's term for the manuscript in its proposed form, all formatted and set up to go the printer. These days that's nothing more than a .pdf file with artwork. Those are now typically emailed back and forth, and like all electronic files, you name them, save them and then email them back. For "Eye" I received several galleys during the editing process, going back and forth to iron out the final edit. Then I messed up--royally.
At the very end of the process, I got my files mixed up and I sent back the non-edited version, instead of the correct one, which then went to the printer. I only realized it myself when I got my author copies delivered a few days ago, and while browsing the pages, discovered to my horror that they were full of editing mistakes.
So if you bought or received a review copy in the last week or two, and you looked at it and said "hey, this thing is sloppy and full of mistakes!" you probably weren't alone, and you certainly weren't wrong. Please allow me to apologize to you for that. The correct version has now been re-submitted and processed, which is the upside of the digital age, I suppose. Mistakes are much easier to make, but also easier to fix. All copies printed or downloaded as ebooks from here on out (as of last night, actually) are now in the correct form.
Finally, here is my attempt to make amends. If you got one of these early release "bad" copies, I will replace it with a new one, entirely at my own expense. All you have to do is drop it in the mail with a return address and I will send you a new copy, plus I'll reimburse you the cost of the postage to send back your old one.
Email me at frank@frankcavallo.com and I will send you my snail mail address. Then, just bundle up the old one and mail it, I'll send you a new one along with a check for the shipping costs, and I'll pay for the shipping on the new one too, of course. It won't cost you a thing, in the end.
This goes for anyone who got a bad copy. If you're a reviewer and my PR people sent you one--send it back to me. If you won a copy on amazon (and you're coming here to check out the schmuck who wrote this error-filled book you got) -- send it back to me. And by all means, if you paid for one and you got a bad one, please--send it back to me and tell me.
If you bought it via kindle, email me and let me know. I'll figure out a way to get you a new ebook at no cost.
If you're wondering, there is a surefire way to tell if you got a first run, "bad" copy. Every chapter heading and section heading is done in Old English script, just like the title page. The corrected version still uses Old English font for the title, but not for anything else. So chapter headings are all in a standard Arial font in the good copies. If everything is in Old English, then you got a book full of typos. Let me send you a good one. Like I said, it was my bad, and all I can do now is apologize and try to make amends.
As a part of this site's gradual re-launch, I'm reviving my writer's blog (after 4 odd years of letting it languish un-touched.)
Posts from the old blog will be linked to this new site shortly.
Since I have a lot more going on than I did when I abandoned blogging in 2008, hopefully I'll have plenty to write about here in the weeks and months to come.
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