“Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure.” George E Woodberry
So following
on from last week’s post I have decided that paying someone to format your
manuscript could be well worth it. Having uploaded my manuscript to Createspace,
I was told that automatic print checks could not be run on my file. It
immediately sent alarm bells ringing! In the end – after speaking to a writing
buddy – who I am sure is getting sick of my questions – I realised that if I used Scrivener to compile to word
and then saved it as a pdf, the file was accepted no problem! Phew- well there
was a slight problem with the pdf size but I think Createspace will accept it
if I say the layout is okay.
Anyway, I
used the Createspace interior reviewer and was pretty happy with what I saw,
but then I showed H and he said – I don’t like the fact the paragraphs on the
pages end at various lengths. Hmmm, he had a point. Clearly whatever template I
had used was getting rid of Orphans and Widows – but hanging paragraphs as
well. Personally, I don’t like the varying page lengths. I removed the function
and have decided to tinker manually. Now, the ms I'm working with is a fully
edited version and I don’t really want to start playing around with paragraph
sizes but as someone pointed out on a Createspace forum – someone may give you a bad review for it- not necessarily
because they are a widow/orphan pedant – but because having widows and orphans
can make reading difficult and therefore subconsciously someone may not like the
book.
So, tonight I
am going to have a look at house styles. What books have I read and liked
- and do they have widows and orphans?
Then I am going to start the arduous task of formatting - which will change the
size of the book, which will change the pages numbers and therefore the books
spine and the front cover!!!! Who knew self-publishing could be so difficult.
There is merit in having e-books only. But on the other hand if I master it
now, it will be a doddle in future, or so I keep telling myself! Bring on
publication date - I’ve got to get there at some point, right?
The following
day: So I looked at the traditionally published book I am using as guidance for
my formatting and in particular my widows and orphans issue(Alexander McCall
Smith’s The Limpopo academy of Private Detection) and what I have discovered is
that widows are acceptable! (When they are more than one line – say a line and
a half). Personally for me I rather have widows than uneven ends to pages.
Orphans too are acceptable (again a line and a half - maybe the length doesn't make it an orphan?!), although I don’t have any of those and runts are
definitely a non-no. A runt is the last word of a paragraph on the next
page. So I’ve been through my manuscript
and made sure it complies – my eyes hurt!!! Then I uploaded my new Pdf from a
different computer and the page size was fine, but guess what? The fonts are
not embedded – Createspace did this for me on the upload - but what I have gathered is that if the font
is not embedded then the font hasn’t travelled exactly as it should. I have two
options: 1) Continue with the ms as is, checking for any changes in font or 2)
use the pdf with the embedded font but the different page size – again an item
that Createspace has corrected! Which is the lesser of two evils? And how beady
are my eyes? They are tired - I can tell you that much. So, a bit more messing
around, methinks, before I can give the final page numbers to the Cover Designer!
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