Two weeks ago I set most writing tasks aside to concentrate on publishing The Candy Store Generation. Working with Rik Hall, a book designer, on some interior design elements, I was able to upload the e-book to Kindle a week ago today and it went live last Saturday. A couple of days later I had the Smashwords file and uploaded that.
That left the print book to work on. I was waiting on the print book cover, but that didn’t stop me from formatting the inside of the book. I was determined to do the best I could with this before sending it on to Rik. I figured this wasn’t my first print book to format. I did Documenting America by myself. The main difference with CSG is the many graphics.
So I set to the formatting, completed it on Tuesday, and sent it off. On Wednesday Rik said it looked pretty good, though he had some suggestions for improvement. I made the changes and sent it on Wednesday. On Thursday he told me he thought it was ready to go. Also on Thursday I received the print book cover from Vicki. So Thursday night was upload night.
The cover uploaded fine. The book interior uploaded fine. But CreateSpace has a new feature. Some software on their end cruches for a couple of minutes, checking your interior. It then gives you a report on whether it finds any problems with the layout of the interior. In my case, it found 12 problems, most dealing with the graphics. Those relating to the size of the graphics (inches or pixels) I can handle fairly easily. But two are proving difficult.
One was that the fonts are not “embedded.” The message is a warning. It says CS can pick the fonts, but that it would be better if they are embedded. The problem is, both my MS Word and my Adobe Acrobat are set up to automatically embed fonts. So when I created and saved the document in Word, the fonts should have been embedded. Then when I used Acrobat to create the PDF file, the fonts should have been embedded. So why weren’t they? A check of Adobe help forums suggests that the plug-ins used with Word to create a PDF are the problem. While Acrobat is the program I used, I did it by clicking a simple button within Word. Maybe that’s the problem.
The other problem is that all my graphics are not of the quality they suggest for print. The are in the 100-200 dpi range, whereas CS suggests using 300 dpi or better. I’m using Word 2003, and it automattically resizes imported images to be 200 dpi. I spent two to three hours in Word help and on-line help and forums and I haven’t found anything yet to tell me how to get around this. A writer friend said she got the same error message about photo quality, decided to print anyway, and it worked fine.
Today I went ahead and completed the upload. It’s now in a 48 hour period where someone or something is further checking the book to make sure it can be printed as uploaded. After that I’ll order the proof copy, and see how it looks. Perhaps the graphs will be fine. Or perhaps I’ll have to get a graphics editor, something better than Paint, and learn how to use it.
Which brings me to the learning part. When I was querying agents and editors, and pitching to them, and submitting proposals and partial or full manuscripts, there was much to learn about that whole process. Now that I’m self-publishing, both e- and print, I have a whole new batch of things to learn. I can’t say that I’m looking forward to the learning process, but know I will be the better for it.
My, my, my you certainly have given your readers a LOT to think about. First, I have to say that some might think me prejudice because we are related. Absolutely, not the case. I read this book because I want to understand. I didn’t feel at any time that you were simply trying to force feed me your personal opinions. You gave me facts; this is one of your greatest strengths. You are a harvester that is for sure. I have to confess that you are my Candy Store.
I equated all the information that I was reading being gathered by someone else as a very present example of what your whole book is about. You did all the footwork. You spent hours, driven by your own convictions to make it possible for me to simply turn one page after another and feast on a subject that affects my life with little or no effort on my part but to turn the pages.
The question being is how long will the Nation’s Harvesters (the worker bees) continue to toil in the fields, come in exhausted from their hard days labor, clean, fix and even serve a plate of plenty to the Entitled Rail Preachers even before they eat themselves?
I envisioned a farmer and his family that he had to put to work in the filed with him in order to add another line of expensive to their budget called, Support for our Rail Family, finally realizing that if they could stop working a hundred acre farm and could live happily on a family garden than why keep supporting their lazy Rail watcher relatives?
Then when the date rolls around that the Rail watchers expect their Farm Family to bring them the $$ and they don’t come they call Big Brother and want to know Whatsup?
I saw a lot of this when I worked in the Health Department. I’d get out of my car and have to walk past at least three or four young healthy males dressed in the newest Reeboks and athletic wear playing “hoops” while their counterparts lounged on the porch letting their acrylic nails dry before they went to get their “weaves” done at $50 to $100 a pop barely help me find the ten to fifteen offsprings between them to give TB medication to.
Most of the males running around playing hoops were on disability due to ‘back problems’ and the ladies – uh…. Told me point blank that it was crazy to give up a check of $200 – $300 a month per kid to go to work – nasty word – for minimum wage and get just $100.
I realized that I was paying car payments, gas, insurance, childcare, and sometimes doing all this with no AC in that auto, to being them government issued medical treatments that half the time they did nothing to prevent from spreading around the community.
When I retired I felt guilty in the beginning. Then I realized that I had worked 40 some years at the time, to be able to have something to live on when I could no longer work. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t thank God for what I have and try with all my might not to abuse one dollar of it. But I realize that although I am not the only one who does this, we are the exception to the rule.
I think what has been lost along the way is that although we are a Nation that believes its people deserve certain inalienable rights, it has left off the hard work part. I have always said that our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents were a dying breed. That this nation will have lost the best of the best when they are all gone.
I want to believe that I have raised a part of the next generation who will be in the enough is enough generation. He seems to be. He has some of the same beliefs and standards as your book. He is tired of having the first 8 to 10 hours out of every pay going to support his unconstitutional Rail Family that has snuck into his household budget.
As a Christian above all this is a Creator who has a time schedule and has been watching for an eternity at the goings on of His world. The judging of the Nations isn’t a popular idea to the individual Christian. I am just glad that all this isn’t up to me to decide, inevitably.
I will definitely give your book a 5 star review. I really do think that everyone should take advantage of your time and talent. You have done the hard work, I hope people will at least take the time to do the ‘page turning’ and learn something.
Susan
Thanks for the thoughts on the book, Sue, and for the rating. On to the next one now.