I'm late. But, as I will demonstrate, it's better to be late
than to be wrong.
First, though, let's give a nod to Celebration of the Senses
Day, which was the 24th. Know how I celebrate the Senses every time I write?
Right! By including them in every scene that I can. We always use sight and
sound, and smell and touch aren't too hard. Taste is the hardest for me to work
in and it doesn't happen in every scene. But one of my edits is always done for
that before publication. The more help I can give readers, the more chance they'll
be there with me, right where I want them. Do you do this?
Now to the haste makes waste.
Here's the story:
I loaded all the files for my trade paperback edition of
CHOKE and they looked good. But, just to be safe, I took the time and ordered
the proof copies (5 is the max you can order from Createspace and I can always
use them for reviewers and such). They take a few days to arrive, which seems
like forever after doing digital publishing.
Lo and behold. What you see in the template document is
backwards. You see page 1 on the left, but really it's on the right. So I
started with a blank page. You turn it and my title page was on the left! Not
good.
So I fixed the file. Yeah, I fixed it. I deleted the last
blank page and added one at the front. Then, because I knew it was right, I
published it and ordered 10 copies.
OMG! When they arrived, I could see that the header and page
number started on the very first BLANK (blankety-blank) page! Chapter One
started on page 7. By deleting that last blank page, I deleted a section break,
if you're into these things. Grrrr. I could also see that people were buying
this copy! I cried.
Then I took it out of circulation as soon as I could and
fixed it. I also found that I had added an extra space in the dang header and
the book was much longer than it needed to be. With less pages now, I can lower
the price.
I'm waiting to hear from anyone who bought the early copy.
If I do, I'll try to make it right. But they should stop and consider what a
collector's item this is! It's like a mistake on a coin by the US Mint, right?
It should be worth millions in a few years.
Yeah, right.
I feel your pain, Kaye. I too struggled with the same problem, but I got really good about checking the digital editor on Createspace. It was a life saver for me because I kept goofing up! Thank goodness they let you order proof copies, too!
ReplyDeleteI did look at the editor, but didn't even notice the bad page headers until I saw the physical copy. ALWAYS order the proof. I hope I remember that.
ReplyDeleteI've had a lot of trouble trying to comment today. I hope everyone isn't having my problems. Think I'll reboot.
ReplyDelete