Quality control in publishing is extremely important, and there are some nightmarish aspects to it. It really doesn't matter whether it's a print on demand paperback, an e-book or a small print run at a custom printer. Anything involving quality control at this end of the spectrum can be scaled up for a bigger operation. Otherwise the information would hardly be valid.
Yesterday, I decided to publish 'Selected Poems' on Amazon, which is a Kindle version. Their preferred file upload is an html file.
What I did was to get the original file, which is a .doc file for uploading onto the Smashwords platform. Then I changed the front matter, which is only polite to both Amazon and Smashwords, and uploaded the file as a saved html version. There is a process where you fill out all the information for the book, and of course quality control is important--typos are kind of 'verboten,' and that's fine.
After uploading the file, I first checked the book in the preview feature, and things didn't look good. Then I clicked on the 'download file' button and brought a Kindle version (so far unpublished) onto my desktop. Clicking on that, which opens up in a Kindle 'Whispersync' sort of interface, I found that every poem seemed to be set in about three to five spaces from the left-hand margin, and there were no spaces between the end of one poem and the next title, and then no space between the title and the text of the poem.
There are plenty of irritants available to the average writer in the course of a busy day, and this was one of them days! So the thing was parked in 'draft' mode for a while.
Then of course I thought of the versions, all frickin' eight or nine of them available on Smashwords...
We all know the obvious thing to do, right?
Right. I went to Smashwords, and unpublished the thing as a precaution. It's Read An E-Book Week, March 4-12 on Smashwords. The thing is marked for free, and a couple of people have been kind enough to download a book. A few people have sampled the book.
Much to my surprise, the thing looks fine in all formats, bearing in mind once 'unpublished' I can't check out the online viewing options. However, the Kindle version looks very good in my Mobipocket Reader, which I also keep on the desktop. It is a free download, and it has its limitations.
So, either the html upload simply failed on Amazon, in which case I should try again, or it is barely possible that I accidentally uploaded the .doc file, which doesn't seem very likely as I made the html file right on the spot for that sole purpose. That would tend to explain the wonky formatting though.
On the bright side, I guess I have learned quite a bit--for example, the Palm and LRF versions can be read on Mobipocket as well, although they have a strange 'AE' thingy with some curves that look distincly foreign. This is probably an idiosyncracy of Mobipocket Reader, which is only meant to simulate certain devices. It doesn't replace them. I check every page, and for good reason. Mistakes kind of hurt the ego.
The irritation has gone away, and so has the sort of self-flagellation that goes with really pooching it badly...which apparently I didn't do. This is why I always download the Epub and Kindle versions as soon as I publish anything on Smashwords.
As to what exactly the problem is on Amazon, that one falls under the 'trouble-shooting' category.
Having unpublished the book on Smashwords, the product requires re-submission even though it's the same file, and it sets it back in the Premium Distribution Catalog process, but I would rather be sure about it and not have to worry.
Other than the fact it is not published on Amazon, no serious harm has been done and it was probably a valuable exercise.
Just for the record, Smashwords' Meatgrinder and Auto-Vetter do not catch all errors in formatting, and neither do the human reviewers on virtually any platform, although I'm sure most of them are very good, 'statistically speaking.'
In other notes, I have ordered a proof copy of 'Redemption: an Inspector Gilles Maintenon mystery' from Createspace and expect it to arrive about March 22. Only after proofing it does Createspace allow the book to be marketed. I will be using the two free distribution channels. You can get three more for about $25.00 but it's not vital at this point in time. The reader's circumstances may be different.
That book is a 6 x 9 paperback, 216 pages, and retailing for $8.99 plus S & H. This same product is marked at $10.99 on Lulu, due to the terms of service and various other factors including their pricing policies.
Showing posts with label e-books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label e-books. Show all posts
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Kobo not recognized by PC.
My twelve year-old nephew got a Kobo for Christmas and his uncle Louis was all excited. The device comes with access to a free library numbering in the millions.
It's a nice-looking device and I had no trouble setting the date and time.
How to set up a Kobo e-reader is here.
The boy's father lost patience even with this, but he is avowedly computer-illiterate and not interested in getting involved with them. Even he was happy to buy the device for the nephster.
The Kobo was not recognized by my brother's laptop, which is connected by wireless to the internet.
I took the thing home to my place, and hooked it up to my desktop Windows PC, which is connected to the internet via cable. The machine was not recognized by the PC, and I got appropriate warning boxes popping up on my desktop.
It's too bad, really, as I would have liked to see my nephew reading Alexandre Dumas, Robert Louis Stephenson, and Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and a host of other classic authors.
As it is, I think they're going to take it back and try out a cheap touch-screen pad-type device.
During the course of my own amateur attempts at trouble-shooting, I downlaoded Kobo's free application, 'Kobo for Desktop.' What I was planning to do was to click and drag free e-books and load them onto an SD card, which the Kobo is equipped for.
That might have worked, but does not solve the real problem of going online and downloading books, free or otherwise, to the Kobo.
The free Gutenberg Adobe Digital Editions read fine on my desktop. My own product, also free, 'The Stud Farm,' doesn't seem to have any page-turning carets or buttons or any other form of icon. I can look at the cover, the middle of the book, and that's about it. The exact same Kobo file download reads beautifully in Mobipocket Reader, which I also have on my desktop. This is the way I normally test read Epub versions of the books I upload to Smashwords. It's all part of quality control.
I can't say for sure if the problem lies with my own eight year-old PC, or the Kobo app. I have sent an e-mail inquiry. If the problem persists, or if I can't fix the problem, then I will shut off the distribution channel for Diesel and Kobo until it is fixed. Because the Kobo has a button to turn pages, I am sort of assuming the product works in the actual reader.
Without a working Kobo to test with, that is an assumption, and I hate assumptions.
First you might try this: How to synchronize Kobo with Kobo Desktop.
Or download this free Pdf;
http://download.kobobooks.com/learnmore/kobo2_pdf/Kobo_ereader2_QSGuide-EN.pdf
Here is an e-mail response from Kobo regarding my desktop app
:
Hi Louis,
Thank you for contacting Kobo Customer Care with your concern.
We are sorry to hear that you are experiencing technical difficulties with your eBook.
Please delete the book from your library and reinstall it back to your device.
Then go to your list of purchased books and BOOKMARK the eBook it will then appear in your I'M READING PAGE you can then sync it to your desktop library and then to eReader.
We do apologize for any inconvenience.
Sincerely,
The Kobo Team
As a service to others in a similar boat, here is where you can ask a Kobo technician.
It's a nice-looking device and I had no trouble setting the date and time.
How to set up a Kobo e-reader is here.
The boy's father lost patience even with this, but he is avowedly computer-illiterate and not interested in getting involved with them. Even he was happy to buy the device for the nephster.
The Kobo was not recognized by my brother's laptop, which is connected by wireless to the internet.
I took the thing home to my place, and hooked it up to my desktop Windows PC, which is connected to the internet via cable. The machine was not recognized by the PC, and I got appropriate warning boxes popping up on my desktop.
It's too bad, really, as I would have liked to see my nephew reading Alexandre Dumas, Robert Louis Stephenson, and Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and a host of other classic authors.
As it is, I think they're going to take it back and try out a cheap touch-screen pad-type device.
During the course of my own amateur attempts at trouble-shooting, I downlaoded Kobo's free application, 'Kobo for Desktop.' What I was planning to do was to click and drag free e-books and load them onto an SD card, which the Kobo is equipped for.
That might have worked, but does not solve the real problem of going online and downloading books, free or otherwise, to the Kobo.
The free Gutenberg Adobe Digital Editions read fine on my desktop. My own product, also free, 'The Stud Farm,' doesn't seem to have any page-turning carets or buttons or any other form of icon. I can look at the cover, the middle of the book, and that's about it. The exact same Kobo file download reads beautifully in Mobipocket Reader, which I also have on my desktop. This is the way I normally test read Epub versions of the books I upload to Smashwords. It's all part of quality control.
I can't say for sure if the problem lies with my own eight year-old PC, or the Kobo app. I have sent an e-mail inquiry. If the problem persists, or if I can't fix the problem, then I will shut off the distribution channel for Diesel and Kobo until it is fixed. Because the Kobo has a button to turn pages, I am sort of assuming the product works in the actual reader.
Without a working Kobo to test with, that is an assumption, and I hate assumptions.
First you might try this: How to synchronize Kobo with Kobo Desktop.
Or download this free Pdf;
http://download.kobobooks.com/learnmore/kobo2_pdf/Kobo_ereader2_QSGuide-EN.pdf
Here is an e-mail response from Kobo regarding my desktop app
:
Hi Louis,
Thank you for contacting Kobo Customer Care with your concern.
We are sorry to hear that you are experiencing technical difficulties with your eBook.
Please delete the book from your library and reinstall it back to your device.
Then go to your list of purchased books and BOOKMARK the eBook it will then appear in your I'M READING PAGE you can then sync it to your desktop library and then to eReader.
We do apologize for any inconvenience.
Sincerely,
The Kobo Team
As a service to others in a similar boat, here is where you can ask a Kobo technician.
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Formatting My Novel.
c2011 (S)
After editing my fifth novel, 'Shape-Shifters,' the next step is to prepare the thing for formatting. (Because this file has been around since 2008, and it has been through a few crashes and software upgrades, this involves the 'nuclear option' for cleaning the source file of all glitches and bugs.)
This entails grabbing my bio from the short story folder, and copying and pasting in the front matter from another book. Then I simply change the title and ISBN number. I went to Collections Canada's website, where I have a publisher's account. I get my ISBN's for free. That being said, Smashwords and other publishing platforms also provide ISBN's, often at no charge. Smashwords just bought another 50,000 ISBN's according to a recent blog post by founder Mark Coker.
What I do then is to save the document as a .txt file. Then I hit the ctrl and A keys, and save the whole thing again with my mouse...paste that into a new document, (a .doc file.) Since the default on my program is a .docx, and Smashwords requires a .doc, I don't really need the .docx. 'Save as' a .doc file. Paste the .txt novel into it. Take the .docx and stick it into the recycle bin. It's there in an emergency, otherwise it's a hazard on the desktop. Right now, I have a .doc file with the file name, 'Master ShapeshiftersAug1111.doc.' I don't want to put time and labour into the wrong file, and in the past I've had problems with version control--you want to upload the most recent, updated version of a file, each and every time.
Use 'find and replace' to remove all space-bar indents. Click find, hit the space bar five times, click replace, and enter nothing. Click 'replace all,' and this should remove all of them. Turn on pilcrows to look for little dots made by the spacebar.
Otherwise it just makes you look dumb.
The title of the book is right at the top, and it is 14-pt. All chapter titles are 12-pt. The subheadings are 12-pt. There are three spaces between chapters, and no more, 12-pt Times New Roman, and 12-pt lines. Paragraphs are defined with a .25 indent, first line only, and spacing is single, at 1.0. There are links fore and aft. My bio is very short.
I use three asterisks as scene breaks. There is one 12-pt line before and after, and the break is centred, as is the front matter, with no indents. Chapter headings, the bio, have no indents. On my last upload, the only problem was that my marketing image was too small. This time I made sure the image is 600 x 900 and I have full confidence of nailing the Premium Catalogue with the simple click of a mouse.
As soon as it's published, download Kindle and Epub versions, and check them out using Kindle for PC and Mobipocket reader for the Epub. Check every bleeping page. Trust me on that one. It's worth doing.
Once you are sure the file is clean, simply save it as a .html and upload it to Amazon. By clicking on all distribution channels, (Smashwords,) and with your ISBN number, you're good to go. The global e-book market awaits you.
Notes: I'm holding back on my fourth novel, and probably my sixth novel, both science fiction, until a later date. I have over 30,000 words on my seventh novel, detective fiction, and I need to get back to writing and submitting short stories, which is obviously part of a credible overall marketing strategy.
My Amazon account is separate from Smashwords. Goodreads, Lulu, Google Books all have their own source file requirements, so read and check all that stuff carefully. When uploading to Google Books, the file name is your ISBN number with no spaces and no hyphens. It's not as complicated as it sounds. One thing at a time and a little focus is all it takes.
Anyway, the last thing I do is turn off spell check and grammar check, and turn off the pilcrows. All I would add is, 'and proof-read the book as many times as you can stand!'
After editing my fifth novel, 'Shape-Shifters,' the next step is to prepare the thing for formatting. (Because this file has been around since 2008, and it has been through a few crashes and software upgrades, this involves the 'nuclear option' for cleaning the source file of all glitches and bugs.)
This entails grabbing my bio from the short story folder, and copying and pasting in the front matter from another book. Then I simply change the title and ISBN number. I went to Collections Canada's website, where I have a publisher's account. I get my ISBN's for free. That being said, Smashwords and other publishing platforms also provide ISBN's, often at no charge. Smashwords just bought another 50,000 ISBN's according to a recent blog post by founder Mark Coker.
What I do then is to save the document as a .txt file. Then I hit the ctrl and A keys, and save the whole thing again with my mouse...paste that into a new document, (a .doc file.) Since the default on my program is a .docx, and Smashwords requires a .doc, I don't really need the .docx. 'Save as' a .doc file. Paste the .txt novel into it. Take the .docx and stick it into the recycle bin. It's there in an emergency, otherwise it's a hazard on the desktop. Right now, I have a .doc file with the file name, 'Master ShapeshiftersAug1111.doc.' I don't want to put time and labour into the wrong file, and in the past I've had problems with version control--you want to upload the most recent, updated version of a file, each and every time.
Use 'find and replace' to remove all space-bar indents. Click find, hit the space bar five times, click replace, and enter nothing. Click 'replace all,' and this should remove all of them. Turn on pilcrows to look for little dots made by the spacebar.
Otherwise it just makes you look dumb.
The title of the book is right at the top, and it is 14-pt. All chapter titles are 12-pt. The subheadings are 12-pt. There are three spaces between chapters, and no more, 12-pt Times New Roman, and 12-pt lines. Paragraphs are defined with a .25 indent, first line only, and spacing is single, at 1.0. There are links fore and aft. My bio is very short.
I use three asterisks as scene breaks. There is one 12-pt line before and after, and the break is centred, as is the front matter, with no indents. Chapter headings, the bio, have no indents. On my last upload, the only problem was that my marketing image was too small. This time I made sure the image is 600 x 900 and I have full confidence of nailing the Premium Catalogue with the simple click of a mouse.
As soon as it's published, download Kindle and Epub versions, and check them out using Kindle for PC and Mobipocket reader for the Epub. Check every bleeping page. Trust me on that one. It's worth doing.
Once you are sure the file is clean, simply save it as a .html and upload it to Amazon. By clicking on all distribution channels, (Smashwords,) and with your ISBN number, you're good to go. The global e-book market awaits you.
Notes: I'm holding back on my fourth novel, and probably my sixth novel, both science fiction, until a later date. I have over 30,000 words on my seventh novel, detective fiction, and I need to get back to writing and submitting short stories, which is obviously part of a credible overall marketing strategy.
My Amazon account is separate from Smashwords. Goodreads, Lulu, Google Books all have their own source file requirements, so read and check all that stuff carefully. When uploading to Google Books, the file name is your ISBN number with no spaces and no hyphens. It's not as complicated as it sounds. One thing at a time and a little focus is all it takes.
Anyway, the last thing I do is turn off spell check and grammar check, and turn off the pilcrows. All I would add is, 'and proof-read the book as many times as you can stand!'
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