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Making changes and getting a new ISBN--worth the trouble?
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Ken wrote: "My novel was my first experience with CreateSpace, and now I'd like to improve the formatting, tighten it up to shorten the book and lower the price a little in the process. With the current book I..."The convention is that you should use Times New Roman and 12pt for paper publications. As a web designer, I was always told that sans-serif fonts (Verdana for instance) were best for on screen content. Whether this would be applicable to mobile reading devices, I don't know - but I would have thought that was the case.
As for the ISBN - I seem to recall that anything with an ISBN ends up on Amazon automatically. Is that right? I assume that ISBN books also end up in international databases - but if anyone can confirm that I would be interested.
I think you're thinking of the ASIN for Kindle ebooks. The ISBN is for paperbacks and, I think, ebooks anywhere other than Amazon. My ebook is fine, and they're easy to change anyway. For the paperback I used Times New Roman; the size at 13 is just one point over standard.
Hi Ken, I just did a major reformat on my novel which did involve different page numbers and it went through with no problem. I think if you change the size of the book or try and change the template used you will need a new ISBN, but other than that it should be OK. You will have to redo the cover as well if the page count changes, but so far small differences in page counts hasn't caused any problems for me.
It's a difference of about 30 pages. I think they may consider that to be a major change in the size of the book. All I know is that the altered format didn't go through, and it had something to do with the ISBN. Maybe I can still fiddle with the headings and a few other things, as long as I don't cut a lot of pages--or cut no pages at all. I don't know how strict they are about it.
Ken wrote: "My novel was my first experience with CreateSpace, and now I'd like to improve the formatting, tighten it up to shorten the book and lower the price a little in the process. With the current book I..."On CreateSpace, any change to the book's interior requires a new ISBN. If you're only changing formatting and layout, I wouldn't call it a different edition.
Hi Ken. I've reduced the font size, edited the interior, and changed the page count for both my novels two times now on Creatspace without needing a new ISBN. The only change they required was the size of binding for the cover when the page count changed, and another review. I uploaded it as word DOCX without any problems. I don't know why you're having so much difficulty.I've also found out that if you want to reduce the cost of your novel, upload one copy for standard distribution, and another copy for the extended distribution. The price difference for the standard was significantly lower than when they were combined.
I hope this helps.
Almost forgot. I did have to change the edition each time.
If you think that's bad, try formatting for Smashwords. I did what they asked, and after I uploaded it to their meatgrinder, I looked at the resulting EPUB in Adobe Digital. It looked fine to me, and they still rejected it. I'm now doing the nuclear option on the format--a LOT of work. Something tells me that the whole thing is just a matter of luck.
Gregor wrote: "Ken wrote: "My novel was my first experience with CreateSpace, and now I'd like to improve the formatting, tighten it up to shorten the book and lower the price a little in the process. With the cu..."Actually, Ken, I think the ISBN rules are different if you don't list your book under your own imprint, which I do. It looks like you and James both use the default CreateSpace imprint, and I didn't think you needed to buy a ISBN for the default.
So, I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm not being very helpful.
For me the main problem with formatting for Smashwords e-books was making it too complicated. Simple worked better for me. You also have to say Smashwords edition, on the copyright page or they'll reject it. Also, do not lock permission to edit when formatting for upload. They need to be able to make changes for the different e-book formats.Make sure you put the Chapter # three Enters down from the top of the page.
If you know how to do it, check the format codes. In word, us the reverse P symbol at the top of the home tool bar.
Hi Gregor. I used the ISBN given to me for free on Creatspace and haven't had any problems.
James wrote: "Hi Gregor. I used the ISBN given to me for free on Creatspace and haven't had any problems."
I hadn't had any problems either, until I changed the page count by a large amount.
James wrote: "For me the main problem with formatting for Smashwords e-books was making it too complicated. Simple worked better for me. You also have to say Smashwords edition, on the copyright page or they'll ..."
The problem, they said, was the paragraphs running together. They didn't say which format, or how to fix it. I redid it from the ground up, and now I have to do a search to replace all the italics that were wiped out. When that's done I'll try again.
I hadn't had any problems either, until I changed the page count by a large amount.
James wrote: "For me the main problem with formatting for Smashwords e-books was making it too complicated. Simple worked better for me. You also have to say Smashwords edition, on the copyright page or they'll ..."
The problem, they said, was the paragraphs running together. They didn't say which format, or how to fix it. I redid it from the ground up, and now I have to do a search to replace all the italics that were wiped out. When that's done I'll try again.
James wrote: "Hi Gregor. I used the ISBN given to me for free on Creatspace and haven't had any problems."Yeah, you've got to buy an ISBN if you want to list your title under your own imprint.
However, I tried uploading the new doc and although the format issues are almost never made crystal clear, it appears that because of the page count difference, I'd have to get a new ISBN. Wouldn't this be another edition? And should I do it?--go to that trouble and possibly complicate issues because of something that may not matter all that much? Any advice would be appreciated.
In the meantime, I reloaded the original PDF just to get it back online, although I did make a minor change to the back cover. Still has to go through the approval phase once again.