OY! no matter how much you try to get it right ... a totally correct manuscript is only an illusion or a pipe dream. An error free book is an impossibility. But it is a goal worth attempting.
In it's first creation Advent Journeys was submitted as a book. But when the proof arrived, there were several problems. The cover was too busy, the font was too small, and of course there were a few things forgotten. We took the option to re-submit.
And the book was better. With the increase of font each section extended a partial extra page. At first I worried about too much blank space. Then I decided to insert photographs. And I think the photographs add to the final project. The pictures taken in Israel add to each section giving more substance through the image. And a picture is worth a thousand words... so they say.
I resubmitted the book, which was much better. The book is now available for purchase: http://www.amazon.com/Advent-Journeys-David-Levine-Simon/dp/1516841735/
In it's second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh creation the book became electronic. And yes, there were multiple submissions because no matter how many times I submitted the manuscript I always found an error. First there were the pictures I added. Two of the pictures displayed a big red error message. I took them out and re-inserted them. Results were the same. Big red error messages. Then I re-created them. It did not help.
I contacted Kindle, and they told me what to do, and it worked. The picture size was too big. When I formatted the picture according to instructions, the file worked.
But in the suggestion, Kindle also told me how to get a couple other images to look better. With the broken images corrected, I went in to improve the existing images (maps). It worked.
The good thing about pictures is they contain no spelling or grammar errors. I long ago gave up on those. I thank the proof-readers of the book. There were at least four of them. One of them says the book is perfect. But I know it is not. Even books distributed by big name publishing houses with highly paid proof readers contain spelling, grammar and formatting errors. I took an extra look, and the kindle preview looked good.
I thought everything was fine, and submitted the book. Two days later I proudly looked inside on the Kindle display page: OY! Horrors! In setting up the table of contents (linked) I wrote Advent One, Advent Two, Advent Three, Advent 4, Advent 5. It was right there glaring at me. I said Oh no! And then I think I heard it laugh. "gotch ya!"
I put up the "final" document, but then again I saw some things out of place. I worked to improve the book. And with only a few quirks, it did look better. One more attempt. The book is up. http://www.amazon.com/Advent-Journeys-David-Simon-ebook/dp/B0178KO7FS/
Please, take a look at the book. Let me know what you see. Self-published, I can still correct it. But I hope all I hear is how much you enjoyed the book. You can order the print format now ... but you might wait until Saturday for the Kindle version: a surprise is coming!
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