Now that 'Call of the Black Panther' is finally out in the world I thought I would reflect on the final stages up to that successful completion. Once the document was completely edited, I looked over the formatting to ensure that everything was as I wanted it to be (ensuring that the page breaks were where they should have been, that the font size and type was all the same etc.).
One of the challenges I encountered is a difference between OpenOffice (when saving in .doc) and Microsoft Word involving page breaks. I utilised the template from the Createspace website to ensure that my book was correctly formatted, but it seemed to have hidden page breaks that would randomly make themselves apparent throughout the chapters. I would manually remove them but once I closed then reopened the document they would be there again. Eventually, I managed to solve the problem by opening the file in Microsoft Word, finding the page breaks and deleting them. I'm not sure if this issue occurred due to a programming flaw with OpenOffice's saving as .doc or a compatibility issue between the Word and OpenOffice file.
The other issue I ran into was the type of interior file I uploaded to Createspace. Originally, I believed the recommendation to be uploading it as a pdf file since this would avoid formatting changes. When I got a copy of the proof, however, I discovered that some of the text had been changed into weird characters. Thankfully, I knew why this had occurred. In one of my previous jobs I worked as an editor for the University, correcting formatting errors that would occur during file conversions. Generally this involved pdfs being changed into Word documents. Since the computer could not always recognise what letter it was reading from the image-like pdf file, it would substitute the closest thing it could find (which sometimes looked nothing like the original letter).
I, therefore, tried uploading a Word (not OpenOffice in .doc due to the page break issue) file to Createspace and the second proof looked perfect. The whole process has been very interesting, sometimes frustrating yes, but ultimately rewarding. There's nothing quite like holding a copy of your own book in your hands - one that you imagined, wrote, edited, commissioned cover art for, formatted, and then set-up for distribution.
Now comes the marketing part... Speaking of which, here's a heads-up about a Goodreads Giveaway for 'Call of the Black Panther'.
The Giveaway will occur between October 1st and 31st.
You can enter here: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/153245-call-of-the-black-panther
One of the challenges I encountered is a difference between OpenOffice (when saving in .doc) and Microsoft Word involving page breaks. I utilised the template from the Createspace website to ensure that my book was correctly formatted, but it seemed to have hidden page breaks that would randomly make themselves apparent throughout the chapters. I would manually remove them but once I closed then reopened the document they would be there again. Eventually, I managed to solve the problem by opening the file in Microsoft Word, finding the page breaks and deleting them. I'm not sure if this issue occurred due to a programming flaw with OpenOffice's saving as .doc or a compatibility issue between the Word and OpenOffice file.
The other issue I ran into was the type of interior file I uploaded to Createspace. Originally, I believed the recommendation to be uploading it as a pdf file since this would avoid formatting changes. When I got a copy of the proof, however, I discovered that some of the text had been changed into weird characters. Thankfully, I knew why this had occurred. In one of my previous jobs I worked as an editor for the University, correcting formatting errors that would occur during file conversions. Generally this involved pdfs being changed into Word documents. Since the computer could not always recognise what letter it was reading from the image-like pdf file, it would substitute the closest thing it could find (which sometimes looked nothing like the original letter).
I, therefore, tried uploading a Word (not OpenOffice in .doc due to the page break issue) file to Createspace and the second proof looked perfect. The whole process has been very interesting, sometimes frustrating yes, but ultimately rewarding. There's nothing quite like holding a copy of your own book in your hands - one that you imagined, wrote, edited, commissioned cover art for, formatted, and then set-up for distribution.
Now comes the marketing part... Speaking of which, here's a heads-up about a Goodreads Giveaway for 'Call of the Black Panther'.
The Giveaway will occur between October 1st and 31st.
You can enter here: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/153245-call-of-the-black-panther
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