The excitement of publishing

So we have spent six months going around Aucklands cafe scene. Followed barista recommendations and had a fun journey. We have finally finshed the lsit of cafes and signed off the proofs, the waiting for the actual pritned books begins....

It’s Friday and Niki and I are hoping to have some copies of the book by the end of today. We want to start showing them to people over the weekend. We have spent a week lamenting over the layout, are the photos good enough, have we missed any spelling mistakes. Eventually we have to let go of it and leave it with the printer.


The printer sends it to the binder and the binder takes the cover and glues it with the pages, viola a book. But by five o’clock we haven’t heard anything so we figure it wont happen today. At five fifteen there is a call from Paul, our printing man. The binders have just rung him and want the job to be signed off before they start to run off thousands of copies.

We agree to go and have a look. Niki and I, along with Niki’s daughter Ruby, pile in the car and head to Manukau. Off on the back streets we find a little factory tucked away in an area I have never been to before. A middle aged couple greet us and take us to a room full of conveyers and the smell of glue. They show us the book.

Niki and I both say to ourselves, “thank God its okay”. We give the go ahead and for the next half hour watch all these conveyers produce our book. We collect boxes of books and fill the back of the car.

Yahoo we have our book

Next step – see if we can sell them - Matthew