Maybe other people learn faster than I do, but the list of mistakes I have made going from Kindle to paper is a mile long. Just for starters, Microsoft Word Hates Headers. I mean, really HATES them. I followed the instructions step by step, but did it make any difference? Nope. Sorry, Microsoft, but this part of your Word program needs a lot of retooling.
For starters, I wanted to put teasers of the other book in each, since they are loosely connected. Well! When I did the new header entry switching to the next book, Word forgot which page number I left off on. Literally! It jumped as much as 20 numbers. And convincing the stupid program that, in this case at least, I could count was a hair-pulling exercise in frustration.
If you see my previous entries or my Goodreads blog, you will notice I was on my way to paper books on November 20th. Of last year. 2013. It is now February 18, 2014. Do I have my books in paper yet? Nope. Hopefully tomorrow.
But each time I do that last preview before hitting the “publish” button, I find another mistake. Some simple, like overlooking a slash at the end of a scripture heading. (How did I do that? Haven’t a clue.) Or overlooking the header miscount problem. (see above.) Or discovering I’d forgotten to put in the ISBN number. Or realizing the font on the header was different from the font on the page. OR – and I don’t think this is my fault – having the font change halfway through the book from the new font back to the old font. How can that happen when I hit “select all” and the whole thing was highlighted? But it did.
One other thing is that I discover editing and polishing errors better in paper. Realizing I’d used the same word several times on a single page. Finding commas that should have been periods. Typing an “If” that was supposed to be “It.” Both books changed – a bit – from the original version when I went into paper. Thank goodness reloading Kindle is simple. I just had both documents open and changed them at the same time.
So from here on in, it’s Createspace first. When I get my paper proof, I will go over the book line by miserable line and make all the changes before either version goes up.
Yep, there are things where paper just can’t be beat.
(original blog date 2/18/2014)