Thursday, October 29, 2015

   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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