Bump in the Road: I Have to Fire My First Formatter

In case you haven't noticed, my book isn't out yet. I had a really tough time with my formatter, and wound up having to fire her. She was... strange. Every time a new challenge would arise, she would lecture me about how I was doing something wrong instead of working with me to find a solution. I dunno. Maybe I was the unreasonable one in the exchange? I thought I'd publish the transcript on here and see what you guys think.

NOTE: Her real name's not Elizabeth.

The saga continues

I was just looking at your book. Does this book have 425 chapters??? If so,

I'm going to have to quote you more than I originally quoted, because for

Smashwords requirements I'll have to go in and add the word "Chapter" in

front of each one of those of numbers and set each one in a heading style so

that Smashwords can generate the NCX file. It will take a lot longer to do

that for 425 chapters than I had quoted based on word count and supposing

that you had an average number of chapters (for example 20 chapters for the

42K book).

Elizabeth

So Smashwords requires the word "Chapter" to be in front of all the numbers? Eh. Lame. Fair enough.

It doesn't have exactly 425 chapters. There's a section titled "Suicide Letter" that's sort of a separate short story within the narrative on page 115 that starts after chapter 166. After that section ends, the original narrative starts back up at chapter 344. 

If I'm doing my math right, there are actually only 247 chapters, plus "Suicide Letter." Does that affect your quote?

Nathan

Yes, they do require it, because their computer that does all the conversions from Word .doc to .epub, .mobi etc. is set up to detect the word "chapter" so that it can form an NCX file (or auto-generated TOC). I don't think it's "lame". It's pretty-much conventional for most fiction books and makes them easier to read in my opinion.

247 chapters is still excessive for a 40K book and would require extra picing. The most number of chapters I've ever seen in a novel was around 100 and that was in a book 3 times the size of yours. At any rate, my pricing doesn't include determing where the chapters go, so you're going to have to that and send a revised copy back to me with the chapter in place. If you can do that today, I'll try to keep you on scheduled for tomorrow, but it might be Friday. After that, I'll be on vacation for Christmas, so you would be into the next week before I could give you a turnaround.

Elizabeth

Think you had a typo there. Your last message said "...so you're going to have to that and send a revised..." Not clear what you were trying to say. What do you need me to revise?

Yeah, I get that you have to do more work for more chapters. That's fair. I was just wondering if you still needed 35 dollars for 247 chapters vs. 425, or if that changes things. Don't wanna send you the wrong amount.

Nathan

Sorry about that. I had just gotten out of bed when I typed that and hadn't had my coffee yet. It's supposed to read "So you're going to have to do that and send revised..." (I left out the word "do") In other words, you need to divide the book into chapters, because I have no way of knowing which number denotes a scene break and which number denotes a new chapter. If you do that and add the word "chapter" where the new chapters start, then the price will only be $20. If, however, you  want to send me a list of the numbers where new chapters start, and I have to add the word chapter to each one, then the price will be $30.

Elizabeth

(I DID.)

I'm looking at your revised manuscript, and your last chapter before the Suicide Letter is Chapter 166. After the Suicide Letter you continue numbering with 344. You can can't do that and pass Smashwords' vetting process. Your numbers have to be sequential, so your numbering as to go Chapter 166, Suicide Letter, Chapter 167…etc.

Also, I'll need to get your payment tomorrow before I begin working on the manuscript.

Elizabeth

Well, it is what it is, I guess. Here's the new version.

Paying you right now.

Nathan

It is what Smashwords requires. I don't make the rules. I'll get it back to you tomorrow.

Elizabeth

Your manuscript is attached formatted for Smashwords.

Let me know if you need anything else.

Elizabeth

(AT THIS POINT I EMAILED SMASHWORDS SPECIFICALLY ABOUT THE QUESTION OF SKIPPING CHAPTER NUMBERS. THEY SAID IT WAS PROBABLY DOABLE. IN THE NEXT EMAIL I CALL HIM A "FRIEND OF MINE" INSTEAD OF ADMITTING I WENT OVER HER HEAD.)

I asked a friend of mine who works in smashwords about the whole skipping a chapter problem, and he suggested putting a notice to that effect between chapters 166 and 245. Ex:

--- END CHAPTER 166 ---

Chapters 167-244 are missing from this text. You haven't done anything wrong, and the author isn't forgetting to put them in.

--- BEGIN CHAPTER 245 ---

...or something to that effect.

Is that doable?

Thanks,

Nathan

I don't know who the person is that you talked with at Smashwords, but I've worked for them doing formatting since October 2009. I've formatted more than 3,000 e-books that are now for sale in their premium catalog, and I can guarantee you that they will reject the book if you skip those chapters in the sequential order. They will come back with an NCX Guideline #20 error and tell you that that block of chapters is missing out of the NCX file. But if you don't want to listen to me on this issue, what I will do is refund the formatting fee you paid and let you take the book elsewhere to have it formatted. I have too good of a reputation to give a client something that I know is wrong and won't be accepted.

Elizabeth

I'm afraid that's what we're going to have to do then, because I'd like to go ahead and give it a try. 

Best of luck in your future endeavors.

Nathan

I've issued your refund. But don't say that I didn't warn you. I've seen them return books with a Guideline #20 Error when just one chapter was left out by accident. I can't imagine them accepting a book with 200 chapters missing.

If you get another formatter to go along with this, they're not helping you or doing your book justice.

Good luck to you, too. You'll need it more than I do.

Elizabeth

Aaaand that's how it ended. Weird, right? I found another formatter (the fantastic Jacob Drake), who found a way around the problem by getting creative with the hyperlinks. Things are back on track! I'll get back with a specific release date soon.