Adventures in Self-Publishing Part III — Formatting: Why Must Everyone Want Different Formats?

Twilight of Lanar’ya is now on sale in paperback (CreateSpace and Amazon) and eBook (Smashwords and Amazon).

So, having finished my first publishable novel and decided to self-publish, everything should have been simple. I just upload the files, find someone to do the cover and the maps, and then push a button and it’s all done, right? Right?

Ha. I wish.

Finding a cover artist was simple. I talked with my friend Daniel and he recommended Keary Taylor. I checked her out, liked what I saw, and contacted her. We went through a few rounds before we had a cover that was awesome.

I spoke with several people about maps and finally got my friend John-Paul Gorgoroso to tackle that issue. Once I had the maps in hand, it was time to upload.

And it was time to start playing the “Will It Work” drinking game.

Uploading to CreateSpace was simple. I selected the file, uploaded it, did the interior check, uploaded the cover, and ordered a proof. I did wind up having to make some formatting revisions to the first proof but the second came out perfect. It helped tremendously that CreateSpace provided a pre-formatted document. All I had to do was copy my text in to it, keep the formatting from the CreateSpace document, fix a few things here and there, and then, voilà, I was done.

Uploading to Smashwords, on the other hand, was not so simple. First I had to read their guide. I opted to read the HTML version in my browser so I could bookmark and browse between sections as needed. However, most of their anchors didn’t actually go anywhere. Then, even after I had meticulously followed all of the steps, their MeatGrinder still couldn’t handle having a first paragraph intent at the start of each chapter and it kept throwing my dividers out of alignment. After a few hours of growling, cursing, and wishing the MeatGrinder could at least tell me which friggin’ page the problem was on, I managed to get a workable draft uploaded and ran a quick check on it.

Then I had to repeat the process for Amazon Kindle since Amazon doesn’t automatically accept the requests from Smashwords.

By the time I had waged and won (barely) the formatting war, my head was spinning and I was wondering just why I had thought this would be a good idea to begin with.

Stay tuned for Part IV: Planning a Marketing Campaign!

Twilight of Lanar’ya is now on sale in paperback (CreateSpace and Amazon) and eBook (Smashwords and Amazon).

I spent my twelve year old Halloween at Landstuhl Army base in Germany. This was many years ago, and kids my age were oawlled to go unescorted through out the military housing areas and trick-or-treat for hours without parental accompaniment. It was a great set-up all the housing was apartments, three stairwells per building, and four floors, made it where you could hit twelve homes per building. The steps formed a zig-zag, with a metal rail in the center. Goblins, witches, zombies and all the assorted characters of Halloween raced up and down the stairwells, filling large bags to overflowing then rushing home to dump them out and start over afresh. We rode our bikes between the buildings and covered a lot of territory in the 4 hours allotted for trick-or-treating on base. One of the kids, a year or two ahead of me in school, dressed as a hung man. He had a long, thick rope with an authentic hangman’s noose around his neck and very authentic makeup. Someone did his face with a pallid cast, dark smudges under his eyes to make them appear sunken and even some sort of jelly substance dribbled down his chin. I must have passed and then was passed in turn this boy a dozen times in the early segments of the night. He was always in a rush to get to the next building. Although we did not speak, a competition started between us to get through each building the quickest. He had one of those “Spider” bikes and he would coil up his hangman’s noose and fly down the sidewalks to get to the next building.A half-hour before the official trick-or-treat time was up, the MP’s came through the area with bullhorns announcing the time and encouraging kids to finish up and head home. I entered the second stairwell on what would be my last building for the night. As I dropped the kickstand on my bike, I could see the hangman headed into the stairwell ahead of me. By the time I got there a pile-up was forming on the first floor with kids six and eight deep at each apartment. I decided to run up the steps and work my way down. I flew past the hangman at the second floor landing.I was ecstatic, the kids were thin on the top levels and I made it all the way to the second floor rapidly, I knew that the hangman could not be finished with the top floor, and then he had to make it down four flights of steps. Except he tried to slide down the rails to get to the bottom quicker. He fell between the rails and plummeted three flights before his rope caught on an angle in the pipes stopping his descent, by the neck.Wails of horror echoed in the stairwell as adults from the various apartments surged through the crowds of kids to reach the now, truly hung, hangman. His body swayed between the rails for what seemed like an eternity. Children were screaming and many ran away, the others, more shocked stood stock still as a large Sergeant who lived on that floor lowered the lifeless boy. He all thought he was dead, and he should have been. Some how, miraculously, he was simply rendered unconscious, although he was transported to the ER, he was fine, and back in school the next day with a bit of a rope burn on his neck.However, I have to admit, that is the most scared I have ever been on Halloween

1 thought on “Adventures in Self-Publishing Part III — Formatting: Why Must Everyone Want Different Formats?”

Calin

April 21, 2012 at 03:59

I spent my twelve year old Halloween at Landstuhl Army base in Germany. This was many years ago, and kids my age were oawlled to go unescorted through out the military housing areas and trick-or-treat for hours without parental accompaniment. It was a great set-up all the housing was apartments, three stairwells per building, and four floors, made it where you could hit twelve homes per building. The steps formed a zig-zag, with a metal rail in the center. Goblins, witches, zombies and all the assorted characters of Halloween raced up and down the stairwells, filling large bags to overflowing then rushing home to dump them out and start over afresh. We rode our bikes between the buildings and covered a lot of territory in the 4 hours allotted for trick-or-treating on base. One of the kids, a year or two ahead of me in school, dressed as a hung man. He had a long, thick rope with an authentic hangman’s noose around his neck and very authentic makeup. Someone did his face with a pallid cast, dark smudges under his eyes to make them appear sunken and even some sort of jelly substance dribbled down his chin. I must have passed and then was passed in turn this boy a dozen times in the early segments of the night. He was always in a rush to get to the next building. Although we did not speak, a competition started between us to get through each building the quickest. He had one of those “Spider” bikes and he would coil up his hangman’s noose and fly down the sidewalks to get to the next building.A half-hour before the official trick-or-treat time was up, the MP’s came through the area with bullhorns announcing the time and encouraging kids to finish up and head home. I entered the second stairwell on what would be my last building for the night. As I dropped the kickstand on my bike, I could see the hangman headed into the stairwell ahead of me. By the time I got there a pile-up was forming on the first floor with kids six and eight deep at each apartment. I decided to run up the steps and work my way down. I flew past the hangman at the second floor landing.I was ecstatic, the kids were thin on the top levels and I made it all the way to the second floor rapidly, I knew that the hangman could not be finished with the top floor, and then he had to make it down four flights of steps. Except he tried to slide down the rails to get to the bottom quicker. He fell between the rails and plummeted three flights before his rope caught on an angle in the pipes stopping his descent, by the neck.Wails of horror echoed in the stairwell as adults from the various apartments surged through the crowds of kids to reach the now, truly hung, hangman. His body swayed between the rails for what seemed like an eternity. Children were screaming and many ran away, the others, more shocked stood stock still as a large Sergeant who lived on that floor lowered the lifeless boy. He all thought he was dead, and he should have been. Some how, miraculously, he was simply rendered unconscious, although he was transported to the ER, he was fine, and back in school the next day with a bit of a rope burn on his neck.However, I have to admit, that is the most scared I have ever been on Halloween

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1 thought on “Adventures in Self-Publishing Part III — Formatting: Why Must Everyone Want Different Formats?”