It's here! It worked!
Okay, it sort of worked.
Sigh.
At some point in the multiple changes from Appleworks to HTML to PDF to Word, all the italics disappeared from the manuscript. And I never thought to check for them.
I checked paragraph indentations (those disappeared when we switched to Word), page breaks, and for missing parts. But I never suspected all the italics would poof themselves into cyberspace like that. Oh, the words are still there, but they are now improperly punctuated. And that really, really bugs the English teacher in me. And, as far as I can tell, there's no way to edit it now.
What to do, what to do...... Hmmm....
Is it better to suffer the slings and arrows of those who may poke fun at the mistake (Thank you, Hamlet.), or to begin again and fix the thing.
Ugh.
I'm not sure I can stand to start the process all over right now.
I'll think about it.
But that's one more thing to check for when Max and I tackle the project with the print version.
And in the meantime, I've spoiled my own fun. Now I feel like I have to apologize instead of celebrating the 8 years of work.
Bummer.
Anyway, here's the link to the kindle version.
UPDATE: Apparently there IS a way to edit this, but I can't do it yet. Although the book is available to buy, my "bookshelf" (which is sort of the control panel for publishing with Kindle) says it's not "live" yet, and I can't edit it until it's "live." Only then will I be able to tell if I can edit it myself or if I have to camp out in Max's computer room and work between my laptop and his desktop (which has Word, which is how we published the thing). In the meantime, I am (reluctantly) transferring the files of Brigid to Pages from my old, favorite Appleworks program and learning how to use it. It appears there is a way to publish to kindle from Pages. Perhaps I can make it work.
I am so excited! I only had time to read a little -- but everything seems okay. I don't remember whether there were any italics in the 1st chapter, but I didn't miss them. And everything else looked fine. Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteYeah, there are quite a lot of italics missing. But everything else seems to be there.
ReplyDeleteYou are so sweet to go and buy a copy when you've read it in three or four incarnations already! Thanks!
Now if I can just figure out how to get my electronic version autographed!
ReplyDeleteIn green pen! ;)
ReplyDeleteActually, you touch on a point that has been bothering a few people since the inception of electronic books: How does one get an autograph?
A few folks have actually had their favorite authors take a Sharpie to their kindle.
I think I'll go with bookmarks. (If I can battle my way through those websites....)
The following is a comment from Mylorac:
ReplyDelete"Great job with the book! It kept me up until 6 this morning. :) I want to know how successful it is, and I'll certainly be encouraging my friends (and various teenagers of my acquaintance) to spend the buck and read it."
Thanks to Mylorac. Do I know this person? Ieg is this your other half?)
ReplyDelete