Well, maybe not perfect but it does make it a damn sight easier and quicker.
I’m talking about the formatting of a MS for upload to CreateSpace. When I initially went through the process with Tiberius Found (way back when) it was so confusing and (seemingly) complicated it forced me to abandon the likelihood of having a print version of the book, as I was spending hours screaming at my computer screen after being continually informed that there were “formatting errors” which needed amending.
As far as I was concerned I was following their guidelines to the letter and still it was screwing up. It was only once I had decided to re-launch Tiberius Found that I decided to persevere with CS and create a print version. It was still a horrible experience but a steep learning curve. The formatting issues were resolved – eventually – and a CS acceptable version was finished. But not without a whole heap of stress and swearing.
However, I made notes during the process which have proved invaluable when I started to format the sequel – Tiberius Bound – for CreateSpace upload. The book went through the whole process without any formatting errors at all and was a joy to do. Wow. After my first experience with CS I never thought I would write a comment like that, but it was. And what does this tell me about their requirements? As long as you do what they ask then there will won’t be any problems.
Any and all publishers – be they as ebooks or in print – will have their own little idiosyncrasies: Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) has many, Smashwords more in their own way, and my advice to someone trying out these self-publishing routes would be to persevere. Don’t get frustrated and stressed out enough to just give up. You’re not hurting them, you’re hurting yourself. Of course you can employ a professional to format your work for you but if you can learn how to do it (and do it properly) for yourself then so much the better. The other side of the coin is that a professional may save you time if that is a precious commodity.
Now that I have my total page count I’ve engaged the same company I used for Tiberius Found – pro_ebookcovers, on the fiverr platform – to design the ebook and print cover art for Tiberius Bound. It’ll be along a similar theme as TF and I’ll post a version here once it comes through.