Robert Young

The journey on CreateSpace continues. As I previously mentioned, I worked diligently to get the manuscript print-ready, and was able to do this after reading, rereading, and rereading some more, along with some outstanding outside help (Cameron on the tech details, Ava on the text details). When I was finally satisfied (is one ever finally satisfied?), I started the upload. All went well, at least for awhile.

When my book file got uploaded, I received a message that there were “issues” with it. The main issue was that the margins I had selected were not acceptable. Some words were too close to the edges of the page. Okay, easy fix, right? No. Because, when you change the margins, that alters the number of words on the page and that affects where those words appear on the pages. So, you may get a page (an end of a chapter) where there is one line or even one word on it. Not good.

That means you have to go back over the entire document and check each page. While doing that, I noticed that a few pages had some extra lines spaces. They’d show up randomly, like right in the middle of pages. That required me to go back to my original document, where I found that I had made extra returns as I typed. Then the original had to be uploaded again.

To make a long story short, I uploaded the original many times (more than 10) before I got all the issues resolved. All except for one, which I’m not going to share since you will probably not even notice it in the printed (or electronic) copy.

All in all, this has been a learning experience and a lesson in extreme patience. The folks at CreateSpace, who I call often, have been supportive and pleasant. The next step will be uploading the cover, which is being completed as I type.