"Too Cold for Alligators" Update

Busyness caught me again and Gail visited for a couple of days.” I sent another e-mail this morning to AuthorHouse to address other issues besides the pictures in my book Too Cold for Alligators. For a so-called good name company, I am highly disappointed.

Here is the response to my emails last week:

Good day.

I apologize for the wait.  The photos have been checked by the printer’s technicians.  Below is the response:

“This is a B&W interior book printed at 106 line screen and in spec.  If the author needs clearer, less grainy images, you may opt to upgrade to premium color instead.  This is the way it will print on B&W.”

I forwarded your concern to our resubmission team.  An assigned specialist will get in touch with you and walk you through the resubmission process.  Should you wish not to push through with the change, please let him/her know. 

Are you kidding? Needless to say, I responded saying again how disappointed I am and asked them if this is what they do to make authors spend more money to get an acceptable product. I also said that if this is the work they do, they will not get any more business from me.

Maybe I cannot blame them 100 percent. There was my own lack of experience with this type of thing. I should have known that I needed to lighten and add more contrast to the photographs. (That doesn’t excuse the lifeless, dull, grainy grayscaling.) It’s hard to change what looks good on the computer monitor to something that doesn’t look as good and trust that it will print well. Also, it was my fault that I forgot to put an insert photo notice for the last picture.

However, the first pages and first chapter can be previewed on amazon.com which includes the first picture and that doesn’t look grainy, dull and lifeless. Then again, the e-book is in color. Perhaps the problem is just with the printed copy. Still, I am very disappointed! As I don’t do e-books, the printed version is more important to me.

It’s looking to me like this might be a company that throws around big names then keeps milking the authors for more and more money.

Too Cold for Alligators is available as an e-book through amazon.com.