Showing posts with label editing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label editing. Show all posts

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!