Sometime between midnight, when I turned off my laptop, and 9AM, my ebook went live. Now, it's available on Amazon in all its beauty. Okay, well, I'm getting a bit carried away. Just to make me stay tethered to the ground, I start looking through the Kindle version and immediately spot a typo!
Sheesh! At least it's not on the first page, but I'm sure it's not the only one. As Harl Delos, one of my wonderful Followers (thanks, Harl, for buying my book), pointed out: "You said you had updated it, and yet I hardly started reading until there was a reference to a Lotus spreadsheet."
Writers Like Self-Flagellation
Just as I was beating myself up about not changing Lotus to Excel, my husband who had been reading over my shoulder, said: "Actually, a lot of corporations still use Lotus. They drag their feet on changing over from the tried-and-true." (He went on to say he hated Lotus (He's an Excel guy.).
So, I was safe on that, but not from the aspect of a doctor using Lotus as Harl pointed out later. I'm anxious to go through page by page and make sure there aren't any other goofs and typos. I tried to do this but found the review function on Amazon Digital Text Publishing just wasn't very good.
However, Harl has turned into my reader and is catching the glitches. Unfortunately, I'm not at home where the file resides on my computer so I can't make corrections for several days.
Take Note
I think what Harl had to say is important to repeat here because it's what is fueling ebook sales: "I'm not a fan of the romance genre, but since I don't have to find room on a bookshelf, since I don't have to buy another bookshelf, since I don't have to build on a room to have more space for bookshelves, and since it was only 99c, I bought your book because of my interest in you as a blogger."
Caught Between Rock and Yada Yada
I'm almost afraid for anyone to buy it until I've been through and vetted every page. One thing I learned is that the preview mode for Amazon is like dial up 20 years ago and very erratic. I tried to preview it but couldn't get it to do every page. There's got to be an easier way to do this.
I think for my next ebooks, I'm going to trade off manuscript proofing duties with friends. If I could just find someone to trade HTML proofing, I'd have it made. Trying to read an HTML converted manuscript is a challenge for the eyesight and the brain.
So if you buy my book and find errors and typos, rest assured that I'll make corrections when I get back to home-base and reload.
Takeaway Truth
I'm excited and anxious about this adventure. In other words, it's the usual state of being for a writer with a book out.
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