Tuesday, May 1, 2012

The Ascent From the Valley of Misery

Smashwords Style Guide + Me = Frustration.
(L. K. Campbell + ME) + Smashwords Meatgrinder = Success

Okay so what do these equations have to do with my writing?  Well I have spent many moons bashing my head up against the wall with the Smashwords System.  I read the Style Guide which is very thorough and indeed gives all the information that I needed.  The problem I had was picking out the few things I needed to get my formatting straight.  The Style Guide is good at a lot of things.  Putting up a condensed version of what is required with a quick reference isn't one of them.  Paging through content isn't quick and simple.  I probably should have looked more thoroughly for a quick tip wiki or something similar but I thought I had it done correctly.  I had thought it done correctly twice before I gave up.

In the wake of my evident failure I requested for a list of freelance formatters from Smashwords.com.  The one I picked was L.K. Campbell (http://design.lkcampbell.com/).  I sent her a quck email for confirmation of price and where I might send a payment.  I received a reply in less than half an hour with the work already done with no charge and an explanation where I failed.  I had missed the paragraph spacing and since my story was really short and it wasn't too hard to fix she cut me a break.  Ms. Campbell has earned my future business with quick response and professional approach and more importantly smoothing out the bruise on my ego.  I encourage anyone who is having difficulties formatting their ebooks to visit her site.

Thank you so much for your help Ms. Campbell and when I am ready to format my future works you will be the first I email!

http://design.lkcampbell.com/

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