Her Violet Empire is now delayed until April 5, 2022, largely because I messed up. Frankly, the process is becoming a monumental drag and, instead of being excited, I find myself longing for it to be released and over with so I can go back to the parts I enjoyed. While that sounds morose, this has been a tremendous learning process and I’m documenting it here for three reasons:
- The next time I do this, I’ll have record of my errors; some of them were ignorance of the process, others were purely unforced. By the time The Beautiful Island goes to print, it’s more than likely that I’ll have forgotten all of this.
- Maybe someone else treading the same path might find some usefulness in my corrections and avoid the same pitfalls.
- Revisions are NOT FREE. Each update to your files in IngramSpark costs $25, so my inattention to detail cost me $75.
What did I learn?
- If you’re using IngramSpark, get a cover template PDF generated as soon as possible. I created my cover designs in Canva, which I still emphatically recommend. The problem has been that, without the guidelines of the actual cover template, there’s been quite a lot of guesswork around alignment, placement, and bleed areas. By centering on the *entire* area (blue and pink), rather than just the printable area (pink), a mighty chop shifted my whole back cover 2mm to the right and, thus, off-center.
- Scrivener does a fabulous job of producing print-ready PDFs. Where it presently lacks, however, is that the Windows version does not allow you to set certain sections to force-start on the recto (right). Apparently, this feature exists in the Mac version, but has not been ported over yet. Mac and I…don’t get along, so be prepared to manually add blank pages in your binder if you’re Microsofty, and watch for program updates.
- Also, be absolutely sure you do this top-down! Each adjustment to page count will shift a part or chapter page to the next page, so you might need a blank or you might not. If Scrivener fixes this in a later version for Windows, fantastic, but be thrifty about it. Every blank page is costing you money on the final print.
- As you’re doing your compile or producing your PDF for submission, I cannot stress the following enough:
- Use actual Adobe Acrobat Reader rather than a browser-based solution. Google Drive reader might work, but I have not tried it. I still prefer the authentic, free app.
- Set your view to Two Page View (not Scrolling). Also, make sure Show Cover Page in Two Page View is selected. This is a fantastic way to look at your manuscript as it would appear in print, with recto and verso in their proper positions. Had I known this, I might have saved myself a revision fee.
- Although known as the “poor man’s asterism,” I would recommend against using the asterisk character (*) as a separator/dinkus. Notice that it is top-justified, so your separators will all look off-center using this character. Try using the bullet character (Alt+0149 or U+2022) instead as it is vertically centered. Most fonts have this standard Unicode character available.
- Another little Scrivener quirk I found was that, by default, separators are indented, not centered in the ePub3 format. If you’re reasonably handy with CSS, you can add a text-align: center to the base .separator class in the style sheet and get around this easily.
- Get someone else to review these artifacts with you! You may not need an editor or beta reader for this, but preferably someone who enjoys reading, like a best friend or a spouse. Look at where your paragraphs end. If your manuscript has Parts, decide if you want them to start a certain way. Make sure this looks the way you want before you upload anything!!
- Review the absolute crap out of your eProof. Use the same PDF tricks I suggested above.
If it seems like having a computer/IT background came in handy for this, you’d be entirely accurate. That’s not to say, however, that you cannot accomplish these things without knowing CSS, for example. The overwhelming odds are that you probably know someone who’s skilled in the ways of the world wide web and would be more than happy to assist you. If not, you’re always welcome to contact me on my social medias and I’ll be happy to advise you. I really hope someone has found or will find use in this post, because I know I’ll be referring back to it frequently!