Murphy's Law Applies to Ebooks

Sheesh! This sucks. My book is finally live, and Harl is making a list of all the typos! Egads! Me? Typos? Yep, it's true. (Harl, I promise I'll buy your ebook too -- even if it's a treatise on the most obscure subject possible!)

This post is about connecting the technological dots. Let me explain. I sometimes have carpal tunnel problems and right wrist to shoulder pain from the mouse. When this happens, like when I do a lot of typing which is every day, I have to switch to a different keyboard and give up the mouse.

Discovery

So last week I was using a wireless keyboard with a built-in trackball mouse. This is the keyboard I dropped on a ceramic tile floor several months ago. Something broke off inside it. I started to throw it away, but I didn't. When in pain, I pulled it out of the closet and took it apart, removed a piece of broken plastic, put it back together, and it worked fine. Or so I thought.

Friday, as I was doing email I noticed that letters were being "dropped." I was constantly having to backspace and hit the key again and again! It was different letters too, as if the wireless just wasn't communicating properly with the computer.

Exasperated, I switched out that wireless keyboard for my Microsoft wave keyboard. I never, ever, thought: "Hey, Joan, this dropping letter situation was probably happening when you were editing your ebook."

Connect The Dots, Joan

Dense? Duh. In my defense, I was operating on 90 minutes of sleep due to my husband's emergency. Now, I'm cringing with embarrassment and wanting desperately to be home (I'm at the Hill Country house.) so I can get to the computer that's got the book file. I understand it's easy to make corrections to ebooks by uploading a new version.

Oh, well, life goes on. I need to quit obsessing and get over it. I'm headed out to the porch to enjoy morning coffee with my husband and our guests. The back porch, a field of wildflowers, country air, and a good cup of java will cure most any kind of embarrassment.

If nothing else, maybe my experience will be helpful to someone else. After all, isn't that one of the reasons I blog? To help others avoid my dumb mistakes?

Takeaway Truth

Ah, life. It's all a learning experience -- especially when technology is involved.