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Tuesday 29 May 2018

One step forward, two steps back ...

The final proof reading of my gridded naval wargaming book has taken place and any errors have been corrected. The text and layout were then rigorously checked several times, and a PDF of the text was created, prior to being uploaded to Lulu.com. However, when I tried to do that this morning problems began to arise.

Each time I tried to upload the PDF, it was rejected on the grounds that not all the fonts used were embedded. It has taken me over six hours (including some breaks for refreshment and to restore my personal comforts) to embed the fonts and upload the PDF ... which is a bit of a record, even for me. The book is now at the stage where I can print a couple of proof copies, and once I have received and checked them, the book should be ready for publication.

On a separate matter ... the problems with email notifications of reader's comments continues to afflict Blogger, and judging by the Blogger Open Forum, a lot of people are very unhappy that this has happened, and that Blogger does not seem to be doing anything to fix the problem.

We can but hope that they will manage to find a solution, but in the meantime, if I don't answer a comment, please be patient and I'll do so as soon as I can.

7 comments:

  1. My 'quick fix' for the current email notification problem ... making a comment myself and asking Blogger to 'Notify me' of any other comments.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Bob, I was able to just tick 'Notify Me' on my blog without making a comment and received email notifications. It saves having to make a comment, but is far from ideal.

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    2. Peter,

      I tried doing that, but for some reason it didn't work.

      I'm hoping that Blogger will sort this out soon ... but I'm not holding my breath.

      All the best,

      Bob

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  2. Bob
    I feel your pain when trying to get sthg published. From a knowledge base of zero (or somewhere below,) it took me two and a half months of work and rework at about three or four hours a day to get a PDF, which met the specifications for the printer, ready for my first book.

    my second book was written by the end of March, proof read by the end of April and I then approached the prepping of the PDF for the printer. I had however learned exactly how not to do it with my first attempt and I completed the process, which had previously taken two and a half months, in two and a half hours! Start of May and much celebrating ensued.

    Then it wouldn't upload. It has continued to not upload despite repeated tinkerings and e-mails back and forth with the printer for the whole of May. I am now awaiting the printer's final 'pre flight checks' before I can order a proof copy to check. Ah well perhaps it'll be out in early June!

    Cheers
    Andrew

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rumblestrip (Andrew),

      The whole process can be very satisfying ... when it is over! What I find frustrating is that just when you think you have got everything right, a small change in procedure or a program update can throw everything out of kilter.

      It is sort of reassuring to know that I'm not the only person who has had these sort of problems ... but wouldn't it be nice if the whole self-publishing process was just a bit simpler.

      I had suggested that it might be an idea to run a self-publishing workshop/discussion at COW so that we could exchange techniques and experiences. It might help others to avoid some of the pitfalls we have encountered.

      All the best,

      Bob

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  3. On the comment notification issue, I've just taken a look and someone from Google has replied:

    "Thea - Community Specialist said:
    Hello Xxxx and Yyyy,

    Welcome to the Blogger Help Forum.

    We're currently tweaking our emailing system, but we expect it to be working again within the next week. Thank you for your patience - we look forward to getting it out soon!

    Regards,
    Thea"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. TamsinP,

      Thanks for sharing this.

      I'm pleased that they have finally acknowledged the problem ... but a week to sort it out? Seems rather a long time considering that it hasn't been working for nearly five days already!

      Oh well ... I suppose that beggars can't be choosers ...

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete

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