LiSe Yi-blog

Publishing despairs

August 6 2019

Well - not publishing any despair, but getting despaired about publishing. When I made the Shenshu oracle, I sent it to a Dutch POD-publisher. They helped me fix a few small things and wallah! Or if you prefer voilà! A gorgeous book!

I also wanted it available in the US, because ordering from Europe means high shipping costs. Amazon seemed a good choice, they show it to people who buy something similar and knowing my own advertising skills, or the lack thereof, that seemed nice.

Then the disaster started. Every upload was refused. "Not flattened". So I googled around how to flatten my file. In Indesign I could do something which promised it, but obviously not good enough for Amazon. Then I found a way to flatten a pdf, but the option was greyed out. And then finally finally I discovered I should not save it the way the Dutch POD needed it, but as any file of good printing quality.

Now the option in the pdf was not grey anymore and Amazon accepted it. So I jumped up and down and danced around. Happy!!! Cost me almost 3 months!
Except there were still innumerable things they didn't like. Even if I made it exactly the way they told me, it was still not right. I have no idea, if it will be accepted when I push all 3000something text-fields where they want them.

Not dancing anymore.
Trying to forget the whole things for a while.
And then start again, fix, send in, fix again, send in again, repeat, repeat.

Come back for the sequel in a half year or so...
If I am lucky...

Shenshu, please tell me how to deal with Amazon?

335 An arduous journey
A long, arduous journey across a rough sea in a boat like a leaf
Now starts the achievement of passing the beach head
After a year of anxiousness only then accomplishments
In the past counting on one´s fingers how many worries one can have

Seems I will need a lot of perseverance.

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