Converting from Word

Having now received the first 20 odd pages of interior formatted text from CreateSpace, I have a few words of wisdom to pass on. First, never stop proofreading! After uploading my word manuscript, which had been edited by a professional book editor, I spoke with CreateSpace about design options and ideas (where to put the page numbers, choice of fonts, font size, where to start each new chapter and so on) and waited for the first design mock up to arrive as a pdf. It looks quite good, but errors had crept in which were not in the original uploaded manuscript. Fibres had become fibbers, Sobeys had become Sobers, and so on. Also, indents changed from the original uploaded manuscript. I don't know enough about the technology to understand how this happened, but it is important to be aware of. I had blithely assumed that if it was perfect going in as a Word file, it would remain perfect after the formatting as a pdf. WRONG. So, I am accepting the kind offer of another book editor friend of mine to go over the whole thing for me to spot the new errors. This is important, because if the mistakes are the result of their formatting, they are printers errors and you will not be charged for having them corrected. If you change your mind on something however, of course these are author's alterations and you must pay for them to be fixed, and I believe CreateSpace was charging a whopping $5 per change, which could soon add up. Which all goes to show, keep proofreading throughout the process. I would have been devastated to find all these errors once the book was in print, after thinking I had done everything within my power to submit a "perfect' manuscript. On the plus side, CreateSpace has been very helpful, making suggestions for design and also responding to any and all questions. Their community space is also very helpful, with fellow self publishers responding to questions with helpful tips and personal experiences. Until the next proof....