So, today I should be finalizing the formatting for Tarashana in Kindle and (much, much more annoying) KDP.
There are always these weird random things that come up with formatting the paperback version. Two blank pages for no possible reason, so that you wind up having to take out the page break there and then poof! There is a correct page break and no extra blank page. No, there is no extra page break or section break or anything in the file. KDP just thinks there is.
Also, page numbers stopped at page 420, for unclear reasons, so again, have to first notice that and then go back to the manuscript and tell it, no, really, continue page numbers. No idea why that happened.
Once more flipping through every page to look for any remaining widows and orphans. Also other places page numbers might have vanished, since evidently that is a thing.
Did I remember to put in page numbers for the table of contents? (Yes.)
Did I remember to update the acknowledgment section? (I think so, but if you notice I left our your name, oops, I’m sorry, let me know and I will add your name!)
So, I should finish that this morning. As soon as the cover is finalized, I will put this book up for preorder. Probably for release on the 15th. I asked the cover artist to try one more minor change just so I can see how it looks and then it will be ready.
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Have you reported this to Amazon? I am really amazed that they’d produce such substandard software. That is 3 or 4 bugs (depending on how you count), and you aren’t doing anything fancy like mathematical typesetting, or even illustration.
No, I haven’t, but yes, I should. I don’t know why their templates should produce these kinds of problems. I have a dim memory of having to fix things like this for some other book in the past, too.
I noticed you had posted about formatting struggles in a different post. Have you thought about purchasing Vellum? It’s only on Mac but if you don’t have a Mac there are ways around that (Mac in Cloud, purchasing an old Mac that you only run Vellum on). I suggest it because it’s really simple and it makes almost all formatting woes GO AWAY. Like seriously, it takes 20 minutes and zoom you have a book in as many formats as you like: ePub, mobi, print.
Nicole Lisa, I’m sure it would be better, but as with one million other things having to do with technology, I would rather do it the way I know how to do it than learn some other way to do it. It’s really annoying, yes, but it doesn’t REALLY take that long, even if every minute seems like an hour.
If I want epub and other formats, I cheat by loading the book to Draft to Digital whether I plan to go wide or not and generating files in mobi and epub that way. Or I can use Calibre.