On Saturday I thought I would quickly finish my publishing journey...I thought wrong. First I had a few simple mistakes that the autovetter picked up. I didn't even know what an autovetter was until Saturday! I quickly figured it out and fixed some simple source issues and crossed my fingers. Then a red box popped up. My cover image was not acceptable (it was not the correct pixel size). I had no idea how to fix that, but I explored the MacBook until I found a quality imaging program. I assured my impatient husband that I was on my last step, and then two hours later I really thought I was done. I waited, this time with my fingers and toes crossed. No messages popped up. I figured out where to find my progress and it said my book was accepted by Smashwords, but pending acceptance from the big retails, such as Apple and Barnes and Noble. I had to let it go for the time being, since there was nothing more I could do.
The next day I searched on and off all day. Finally, late in the afternoon I had a message. Imagine my disappointment when I saw another red box. I had three errors...one was simple; I used my middle name in one place and not in another -my name had to match. The second issue was relatively simple, I had to reformat my table of contents because there were a couple of links that were not working correctly. I got this done and resubmitted, and chose to ignore the third error for the time being, because I had no clue what it meant.
The following day I was very pleased to see that my revisions were accepted, but the third error remained like a raincloud that lingers overhead. It said I had extra links in my NCX. What in the world is an NCX???? Well, I did some investigative work and found out that NCX means "Naviation Control file for XML. Ok, what is XML? I still don't know, but somehow I figured out that I had left some footnotes in (I guess you cannot use footnotes in the tradtional sense for ebooks) and they were appearing as weird links at the end of my document. I still do't know how, but I fixed it and resubmitted. I did find a few font issues (diary entries, regular text, letters and emails should all be different fonts), but I am going to let them go for now and fix them as soon as I start summer break.
Today I was overjoyed to find that my book was accepted for the premium catalogue, meaning it will be available (pending further approval) at major ebook retailers. I am hoping they will be truly available within the next couple of days. But anyway, I am a published author, so cheers for me!
Here is the link to buy my book directly from Smashwords (or search for "chuchoque" at www.smashwords.com) You can use coupon code FU84E for $2 off from now until June 12.
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/443897
Let me know what you think, I welcome reader feedback. Thanks!
The next day I searched on and off all day. Finally, late in the afternoon I had a message. Imagine my disappointment when I saw another red box. I had three errors...one was simple; I used my middle name in one place and not in another -my name had to match. The second issue was relatively simple, I had to reformat my table of contents because there were a couple of links that were not working correctly. I got this done and resubmitted, and chose to ignore the third error for the time being, because I had no clue what it meant.
The following day I was very pleased to see that my revisions were accepted, but the third error remained like a raincloud that lingers overhead. It said I had extra links in my NCX. What in the world is an NCX???? Well, I did some investigative work and found out that NCX means "Naviation Control file for XML. Ok, what is XML? I still don't know, but somehow I figured out that I had left some footnotes in (I guess you cannot use footnotes in the tradtional sense for ebooks) and they were appearing as weird links at the end of my document. I still do't know how, but I fixed it and resubmitted. I did find a few font issues (diary entries, regular text, letters and emails should all be different fonts), but I am going to let them go for now and fix them as soon as I start summer break.
Today I was overjoyed to find that my book was accepted for the premium catalogue, meaning it will be available (pending further approval) at major ebook retailers. I am hoping they will be truly available within the next couple of days. But anyway, I am a published author, so cheers for me!
Here is the link to buy my book directly from Smashwords (or search for "chuchoque" at www.smashwords.com) You can use coupon code FU84E for $2 off from now until June 12.
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/443897
Let me know what you think, I welcome reader feedback. Thanks!