Sunday, June 29, 2014

Editing Nightmares!


I don't have a lot of hair to begin with but after publishing my first book I have even less. To start with you send your manuscript countless times to numerous publishers, each of whom what it in a different format. My favorite was like the third publishing company I sent it to and they sent their response telling me they loved my story concept. It was something different from the norm, however they couldn't accept my book at this time because they had met their quota for the year (small publishing company) and also my formatting was incorrect. UGH! They were not the only one that commented about formatting. So being the OCD person I am, I pulled up the document I sent them, compared it line for line with THEIR guidelines and had a WTF moment. They were EXACTLY what was required. Frustrated did not begin to explain how I felt. Then I met a fabulous cover artist and she had a cover that screamed at me to "Pick me! Pick me". So I did and made the decision to self publish. So now we're headed into the eBook rules and when you get it ready for eBook format, you have a whole new ball of wax to deal with. 

Let's just talk about the eBook format for now. You start out with your guidelines for setting it up, say by Amazon, for example. You format your book for the millionth time and send it in. When you look at the preview, all looks good, right? Right. Then you "publish" and it's approved; goes live; you purchase your own book for you Kindle, because no, they do not offer a free download to the author/publisher. Okay. No problem. I can buy my own book. It's all good. Right? Wrong. 

I open it up on Kindle an do a little happy dance because the cover looks amazing! Then I "turn" the page and think, 'What the heck?' Turn again and your eyes bulge out. "OMG! OMG! This looks terrible," you say to yourself as you continue to scroll through the book. 

'Tighten everything up,' were the exact words of the outline guide I used. 'Don't use indents,' 'Don't space between paragraphs,' 'No page breaks' UGH! Remind me to never follow that advice again. The format needs to have some of those things.

So..... I spend another couple of hours re-editing the format to re-submit (advantage of self publishing, you can upload changes yourself). However, once Amazon approves the changes you'd think the new version would be ready for buyers, correct? Nope. It could take up to 4 weeks for them to contact anyone who purchased the book prior to the changes, so they can download the updated version. And new purchases seem to be still in the old format as well.

Now tell me how they can already approve the updates but not get them out there for the customers quicker than that when it took less than 24 hours to get the original version "live" for purchase? Oh! And I'm not finished yet. Apparently, they have to determine that the changes were significant enough to warrant notifying the customers about the update. They WERE significant I can assure you. When I was able to preview the newer version, I was amazed at the difference. The newer format is easier on the eye and everything doesn't seem to run together. 

My point of this is to say that I admire self publishers who paved the way for all of us that are learning the process now. I can't imagine what it was like before the electronic age because trust me on this, I was ready to throw my laptop out the door on multiple occasions and I think I need a hair transplant to replace all that I lost through the process.

The good news? Yes, there is some. At least my second book won't be such a nightmare. Or at least that's the attitude I'm going to have about it. And I will say this for Amazon, the overall process of getting your eBook published is fairly simple once you get the formatting down and as for the print version, step-by-step instructions as you go. I'm just waiting on the final approval from them, then I'll order the proof copy. Once I approve that, it'll be ready for consumers to order. I must admit I'm anxious to see it in print form. While eBook is fabulous, I still love seeing and holding a book in my hands. 

On another note, thank you Riann for putting up with my rants, raves, frustration, and constant huffs and sighs I've delivered over the past couple of days. Your support is always a welcome gift that I will never take advantage of. 

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