Anthology Progress - Microsoft's Software is Killing Me

I've read about authors who work on two books simultaneously. That's insane. If I was somehow forced to do that, I'd need to go back to drinking.

As is, I'm working on publishing two books simultaneously, so there's little to no writing involved, and I'm still going nuts. 

The ebooks are only a small annoyance, although Kindle Create does some wonky things with formatting. For part of the manuscript, the paragraph indentations are normal, like this: _____ But in some sections, the indenting looks like this: __________ Trying to fix this only causes different problems. My Word doc is pristine; I always use a 5-point indentation for new paragraphs, and Times New Roman, 12-pt for the entire thing. No, it's not me; it's the Kindle Create app. With Book 1 I had to try several workarounds, and it appears I'll need to do the same for Book 2. Needless aggravations.

Because GetCovers is designing one book cover at a time, I'll need to wait for the second cover to be finished before proceeding with my second book, but I wanted to get a jump start on the book matter. While I've mostly figured out KDP's paperback formatting template, it's still a struggle to either insert or delete blank pages, and kind of a "hold my breath" undertaking, hoping nothing goes wrong. The template adds blank pages willy-nilly, no reason, and I only need one blank page at the beginning, not seven. Suffice it to say that if an author doesn't stray from KDP's layout norm, things are relatively simple, but oh no, don't try to do anything "fancy", such as adding an "About" page! 

Speaking of "About", because each book in the anthology consists of four separate stories, I felt it would be prudent to include an introduction to each of them at the beginning. By "introduction", I mean basically each story's Amazon blurb. Well, now we're in new teeth-grinding territory. When I published these novellas originally, I didn't sweat over writing their blurbs. Thus, they're quite lackluster. So, off I went to Revision Land. Truthfully, I didn't spend a lot of time on that, but surely they could be improved upon. To me, if I'm pushing a single novel, that's one thing; but if someone buys an anthology (which won't happen), they kind of get what they get, so the inside blurbs aren't exactly vital. Still, I made some of the blurbs a bit better than the originals. 

On that note, let's talk about Microsoft Word. I've used that app for, I don't know, twenty to thirty years faithfully, and I never once had to worry that it would randomly zap my documents. Well, it sure does now. I can no longer trust that a document I save is going to still be around the next day. I've tried all the recovery suggestions, from checking my recycle bin, to clicking "Recover Deleted Documents" in the app itself, to downloading a free file recovery app. Nope, they're gone--forever. I've even done full computer scans to check for malware. My suspicion rests with OneDrive. I never asked for OneDrive, never wanted it, but it insists on bullying its way into my life. Every document I create lands in OneDrive, when I'd much prefer to have it nestled safely on my hard drive. Of course, that can be done manually, but often one forgets to do that and simply clicks "Save". But my zapped documents can't be found in OneDrive, either. This problem is entirely Microsoft's fault, but they are loathe to admit it. A Google search buries the issue on the second or third search screen, but here's a partial explanation. Even this article is somewhat misleading. I haven't done any of the things mentioned as the causes, so the extent of the bug is still mostly being suppressed. 

I've now taken to emailing certain documents to myself, ones that I really, really need to retain. Granted, they might not be the most recent versions, but at least I'll have something.

And while I'm bitching about Microsoft, ever try locating a particular file? Where do you go? It could land in one of several spots. I've had files, images, etc., end up in "C" or in "Quick Access" (LOL) or in Desktop or OneDrive, or in one of several "Download" locations. WTF? I just saved something, and now I can't locate it! This is the problem with companies getting too fancy. Tech guys in general are super-hyped to write stupid-ass code, with no consideration for the end user. I've had to deal with IT for years and years, and they're just plain weird people. Plus, they speak in a language no one else is familiar with. If I ever had an urgent issue at work, one of them would stroll over (eventually--probably after they finished eating their lunch) and start gabbling nonsense words at me, which generally did nothing to fix my problem. 

Anyway, now that I've gotten that off my chest, alternating between Book 1 and Book 2 is sometimes making my head spin. I know there's something I need to fix in Book 1's formatting, but after I'm done doing something with Book 2, I've already forgotten what that is. And there are so many things to be done, it's difficult to keep track. 

In the meantime, I'm updating my KDP books with their new blurbs (why not?) and I forgot to save a copy of the doc I typed it in, which I'll need for my ebook and my paperback, and KDP isn't updating with the new blurb, even though it says it has, so I don't know what the hell I wrote and I'll never be able to recreate it. 

I also need to write an introduction for Book 2 for both the ebook and the paperback, and I'm SO sick of writing shit about "home". How much can one say on the topic? Yet, it has to read differently from Book 1's introduction. (Again, not that anyone will buy them and know that.) 

I'm so disoriented right now that I also tried to include a blurb for a story that's in the first book, rather than the second. 

Oh, and speaking of blurbs, I wrote a first draft of Book 1's Amazon description, and I can no longer find that now, either. I'm hoping I chose to save that in Notepad, where it at least wouldn't arbitrarily disappear.  

In essence, I'm trying to format four books--two in ebook format and two in paperback. Plus deal with KDP, not to mention arguing with that book blogger, who's feigning ignorance that she offered to include my article in her magazine. But that's a story for another day.

So, how's your day going?