After much frustration over formatting issues, embedded fonts, and image resolution, I decided I needed to seek professional help.
The Issue: Although my illustrations were done in 300 dpi, they were not passing the CreateSpace Interior Reviewer test. My book was set in Microsoft Word. After setting the illustrations, the front matter and back matter of the book, I would save the file as a PDF. Upon opening my PDF in two-page display view, my pictures would not display in the correct order.
PDF Tip-to-Know: To get the PDF file to open in the correct order in two-page view –
– SELECT View > Page Display > Show Cover Page in Two Page View
Although I had applied the instructions found in the CreateSpace community, I was still getting errors that my images were below 200 dpi and that my fonts were not embedded. Some of the suggestions I had come across from the CreateSpace community was to use Open Office or InDesign to get my book ready for printing.
Resolution: I love to learn and I love to solve problems, but I have this rule of thumb that if something is taking too long to figure out (in this case, days), it is better to seek help from someone else and learn moving forward. I decided that the best thing would be to place the document in InDesign and then convert to PDF, but I did not have time to invest in learning a new software.
I reached out to a print shop in my town and after explaining the situation and spending about an hour and a half with one of their graphic designers, I was nowhere near an answer or resolution. The graphic designer did however, point me in the direction of another graphic designer at the School of Graphic Arts in my town.
DING! DING! DING! I was finally directed to the right person–someone who could help. She took one look at my files and new exactly what needed to be done. She is the one who gave me the PDF Tip-to-Know above. In no time, she straightened out my files and images and sent it to me. I put it through to CreateSpace and I received the following email:
Congratulations!
Your interior and cover files for When Freedom Came, #5340972 meet our technical requirements for printing. The next step in the publishing process is to proof your book:
I was very thrilled to see that, so naturally I ordered a proof of the book, which should arrive by May 4th.
SO YES! We are much closer today than yesterday.
Stay Blessed,
Arama Christiana
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