Well, as you can see from the photos, my novel came. As did my “Hello, My Name is Novelist” t-shirt, but that’s not nearly as exciting.

This is the Cafepress version of Downtown Dandelions, the more expensive edition, and it looks pretty good. I could probably nitpick about all sorts of things (I wish it didn’t have a glossy cover, I wish I had made the margins larger, I wish they hadn’t printed an odd off-center number randomally on the back cover, partially obscurring my url.), but for what it is, it looks pretty sharp. It does look like a cheaply printed book, especially if you compare it to everything else on your shelf. I won’t try to fool anyone. But considering that it’s the only copy in existence, it’s pretty cool.

I’m going to wait until the Lulu version comes before making an official announcement and recommendation as to which one people should buy. I expect the Lulu version won’t be as good, but it’s also cheaper. Maybe we’ll leave it as a toss up.

I also ordered a few other things from Cafepress, the novelist t-shirt and a few Monkey Outta Nowhere items, mainly because I hadn’t ordered them yet and seemed about time. All in all, I’m not too impressed with Cafepress’s t-shirts. They have a real iron-on transfer look. I have another of their shirts that looks better, so maybe the problem is my design.

I’m not really sure how to react to having my own book in print. It’s kind of amazing to hold it in my hands and know that it’s my novel. It’s also kind of scary, because I know it’s not perfect. I think my favorite part is the Georgia font I used for the inside text. It just has this bookish look to it. I love it.