[stylist] eBook publishing experience, a warning about hiring eBook formatters

Sun Jun 23 18:52:51 UTC 2013

I agree. This information is invaluable. Thank you, Donna!
Myrna

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 23, 2013, at 1:46 PM, "Jacqueline Williams" <jackieleepoet at cox.net> wrote:

> Donna,
> My hat goes off to you for this tedious and challenging journey. This is a
> good resource for us. The discouraging part to me is the amount of numbering
> throughout this piece, and almost every other informative e-mail I get about
> websites, resources. I do not know what they refer to. An example:
> http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-heart-of-applebutter-hill-donna-w-hill/1
> 115426305?ean=2940016415000. If you use JAWS this is mind-blowing.
> Regardless, congratulations on the end result.
> Jackie
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Donna Hill
> Sent: Sunday, June 23, 2013 10:33 AM
> To: 'Writer's Division Mailing List'
> Subject: [stylist] eBook publishing experience,a warning about hiring eBook
> formatters
> 
> Hi Fellow Writers,
> Below is the text of my latest post on my self-publishing adventure. 
> 
> There are links to Smashwords' free Style Guide (.rtf) and to my book pages
> on Smashwords, Bookshare, Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The article starts with
> a photo of the book cover, and there's a mini sound bite at the end which I
> didn't include here (It's Sound Cloud & it works with Jaws on Firefox but
> not IE10). It's all at:
> 
> http://donnawhill.com/2013/06/20/a-writers-wormhole-ebook-self-publishing-mi
> stakes-mystifications-and-misdemeanors/
> 
> 
> 
> Enjoy,
> Donna
> 
> 
> A Writer's Wormhole: eBook Self-Publishing Mistakes, Mystifications &
> Misdemeanors: by Donna W. Hill 
> 
> June 20, 2013
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The Heart of Applebutter Hill book cover shows a cave scene: stalactites
> reflected in an underground lake, while a hand holds the Heartstone of
> Arden-Goth, a blue, heart-shaped sapphire
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> When people struggle to interpret grammatically butchered sentences, brain
> scans reveal an energy dip below the left temple. The phenomenon is the
> "left anterior negativity effect" (Discover, 12/2013, "The Brain"). I
> experienced that dip first-hand many times while in the eBook
> self-publishing stage of my novel, The Heart of Applebutter Hill. Did I say
> I was going to leave formatting to the professionals? That didn't work.
> Could my experiences be a warning to other soon-to-be self-published
> authors?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Self-Publishing eBooks Through Smashwords
> 
> 
> 
> There are loads of eBook sellers (Kindle, Nook, Sony, Apple, Kobo, and on
> and on). Wanna format, upload and keep track of each one yourself? Not me.
> Smashwords is the largest eBook aggregator, distributing books that meet
> their rigid demands to more outlets than I knew existed. Currently, they
> don't routinely distribute to Kindle; I had to publish it separately through
> Kindle Direct Publishing
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CNG6DDM
> 
> 
> Nook is the next biggest seller, so I decided to do that one through Nook
> Press
> 
> http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-heart-of-applebutter-hill-donna-w-hill/1
> 115426305?ean=2940016415000
> <http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-heart-of-applebutter-hill-donna-w-hill/
> 1115426305?ean=2940016415000&itm=1&usri=2940016415000>
> &itm=1&usri=2940016415000
> 
> 
> 
> I provided an accessible version for readers with print disabilities to
> Bookshare
> 
> http://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/639304
> 
> and let Smashwords
> 
> http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/313071
> 
> 
> 
> do the rest.
> 
> 
> 
> The Smashwords system, affectionately known as "Meatgrinder," converts
> properly-formatted .doc files (never .docx) into seven different file types.
> The trick is making that properly-formatted .doc. Smashwords has a free
> <http://www.smashwords.com/b/52> Style Guide:
> 
> http://www.smashwords.com/b/52
> 
> 
> 
> It explains everything you need to know -- almost. I've read it many times.
> 
> 
> 
> Smashwords founder Mark Coker is quite specific that you must make
> manually-linked tables of contents and not use Word's automatic TOC option.
> The process starts with writing up your table of contents, bookmarking each
> chapter in the book and then linking to those bookmarks from your TOC.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Let the Professionals Format Your eBook?
> 
> 
> 
> OK, so I hired a company to format the eBook for Smashwords. I assumed the
> professionals would use Smashword's Style Guide. My guys were great to work
> with, friendly, impressed with my book, and have an answer for everything.
> Ultimately, they refunded my money and assured me that what happened with my
> book never happens. I hear that a lot.
> 
> 
> 
> We got off to a confusing start; I sent them the wrong file -- my bad. When
> they approved my book, they asked me for the JPeg of the cover. I
> immediately sent it with the right file, an explanation and my apologies.
> Their first attempt used the wrong file anyway. They said they never got the
> right one, but had the JPeg I sent with it. Hmm, my left brain is having
> trouble processing. Did I say I'm compulsive and keep my e-mails? As stupid
> as I felt for sending the wrong file to begin with, I didn't get a warm and
> fuzzy feeling from their obviously flawed explanation.
> 
> 
> 
> Their next attempt -- using the right file this time -- came back without a
> table of contents. They had removed it. They said, to my further confusion,
> that Meatgrinder would generate one. But, to appease me, they said they'd
> re-do it with something they hoped would "trick Meatgrinder" and satisfy me.
> There's that dip again.
> 
> 
> 
> Their last attempt showed up with my Smashwords book page URL missing. How
> do you accidentally eliminate one URL in the middle of a page? I can feel
> that left anterior negativity just remembering it.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Solutions, Results & Excuses
> 
> 
> 
> I fixed the missing URL and uploaded it. It passed "Autovetter" --
> Smashword's' automatic format checker. That meant I could sell it on
> Smashwords. To get in their Premium Catalog, however, it would have to pass
> a manual inspection. It failed. The problem? "Inoperative Table of
> Contents," among other things.
> 
> 
> 
> I was so sick of going back and forth with the formatting folks at that
> point that I went to work. It took ten times to get it right, but it was
> finally approved. That's when I contacted the pros with a postmortem. By
> then, I knew how to determine how many bookmarks and hyperlinks the pros had
> created. My novel has 54 chapters -- all with names (don't be scared,
> they're quite short) -- and a half-dozen sections of front and back matter.
> My .doc -- approved by Smashwords -- ended up with 60 bookmarks. The
> professionals had none. And as for hyperlinks? How does "2" sound? And, they
> were auto-generated -- just what the SW Style Guide says not to do.
> 
> 
> 
> To my further confusion, they claimed that, despite what SW's Style Guide
> says, Smashwords does take files with Word's automatic TOC, and that it was
> really Meatgrinder's shortcomings. They were magnanimous enough to say that
> -- under the circumstances -- this was quite understandable. The real
> culprit, according to my guys, is Microsoft. MS has never fixed their fiddly
> Word program, which adds secret bookmarks and hidden code that can't help
> but wreak havoc with other software. Blame Microsoft; I'm cool with that --
> mostly -- but following the Style Guide eliminates that crap. There goes
> that left anterior negativity again.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Advice from a Novice eBook Formatter
> 
> 
> 
> Formatting is tedious; it offers none of the joys of the simplest writing
> endeavors ... until you learn that you did it right. I did it right once;
> you can too. Save your money. Do it yourself!
> 
> ###
> 
> 
> 
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