On Publishing and Formatting

Okay, so I am a self published author, that means I have to take charge of my editing, which is fine. But here's a world or warning, to all authors going through a paid self-publishing company, watch their formatting!!!!

My book is finished and on the market, but as I look through mistakes like places where a sentence starts on a new line, but not a new paragraph have turned into several small paragraphs in the finished book. In my version, they are all one paragraph, and should have remained so. So check their formatting vigorously! In a few specific sections of the book, which I thankfully picked up on, there were parts were random letters, Ts and Js, showed up in the words. We went through this several times trying to fix it and thankfully I think we got all them out, but now I'm finding more things that I missed.

I was in school at the time, doing year 11, all I wanted was my book done so I could be a happy author and focus on my secondary studies, but I can tell you, right now I wish I had taken the time to sit down properly and re-read the entire thing, slowly and word for word. 

For you all aspiring authors out there, believe me, it's worth it to sit down and read through your book properly several time. After you've finished, after your editor's been through it, after your second and third editors have been through it, and after it's been sent to the publishing agency and formatted for printing. Believe me, it's a horrible feeling to open your book and see formatting errors as you read your finished piece.