All is Not Well

I have no explanation as to why my paperback formatting looks like a Jenga puzzle, when I did, in fact, use KDP's paperback formatting template. Everything appeared pristine the four or five times I reviewed my formatted manuscript prior to uploading it. Things may have gone haywire when I was forced to change my margins so KDP would stop giving me big red error messages. Still, it looked fine to me. 

Do I even want to attempt to fix it? What, pray tell, would that encompass? I don't even know what's wrong, other than (obviously) the way the words look on the page. Had I known at the beginning that KDP's own template had improper margins, I would have set those before I even began pasting my stories into it. But there's no guarantee that would have worked, either.

The worst part of the whole deal is that if anyone clicks on the "Read Sample"button, the issue smacks them dead in the face. (Maybe KDP could wait to mess things up until further into the book.) The introduction and the preface look great; it's not until the first story begins that vertigo sets in. Naturally, I already ordered an author copy (for $12.95, which is outrageous, since the purpose of an author copy is to review the book for problems, and there was no point in paying for an author copy of this, since I now know it's a mess.)

When I published Running From Herself, I think I ended up with about six useless author copies that I eventually dumped in the trash, because there were problems with all of them. Two bad covers, which were my own fault, then a garbled back cover blurb (again, my own fault), then my discovery of a completely missing passage (my fault? most likely). Who the hell is the author who gets it right the first time? I'll readily own up to my own stupid mistakes, but what good is a template that's configured incorrectly? At least with those, I wasn't aware of the issues 'til I held the books in my hand.

I was momentarily excited today when I pulled up my sales report and found that I'd sold one copy. I hadn't made a sale in over a month. Then I realized I'd just made a sale to myself. Neat! 

Unfortunately, I'm not done with my publishing efforts quite yet. I'm awaiting my second GetCovers design, so I can publish Book 2 of my anthology and discover how awful that one's formatting looks. So, lots to look forward to! 

On a more positive note, now that my selling career is over, I'm getting ready to dive into the behind-the-scenes workings of book promotion sites. Determining my first subject will be difficult; there are so many to choose from. And truly, I don't want to pick on the little guy who's just trying to get a foothold in the promotion game, so I'll likely "pick on" the medium-to-bigger boys.

However comprehensive my research turns out to be, trust me; I won't be publishing my findings as a paperback.