Hi Ray,
You raise an interesting point about the type of documents you send to
your publisher. Have you come across any issues converting from Pages to
Word?
I've found Pages has issues importing and exporting a Word document that
contains something as simple as an outline with a footer. Other
conversion related issues became annoying enough that I felt it was
worthwhile to splurge on MS Office and be done with it.
I still do the vast majority of my writing in a plain ol' text editor
(Tex-Edit Plus or TextEdit). Plain text works on my Mac, Windows box,
iPad, etc. Everything likes plain ol' text files. Docs that require
formatting, though, are a different matter entirely.
Anything that requires formatting is done in MS Word. In the long run, I
found sending actual Word files to other people easier than using Pages
and converting back and forth. This assumes the recipient needs to
actual edit the file. If editing is unnecessary, I stick with PDF.
Robert
Raymond Feist wrote:
On Jun 3, 2015, at 5:33 AM, john.leighton<[email protected]> wrote:
Don't forget that most authors would probably use word processors, it'll make
it easy to transport proof. It's just a conversion to e-book format.
They don’t use our files, I’ll guarantee it. I export to Word from Pages.
They have specific programs that convert from Word to whatever dedicated
program they work with to set type font and format in industrial printing—that
is the province of the book designer. I suspect that is what gets turned into
the various e-book formats (Kindle, eBook, etc.)
Never bothered to specifically ask, truth to tell. At some point it went from
a linotype setter—a real human being when I first broke in—to something fully
automated.
All I know is that budget cuts over the years have dumped more responsibility
on my editor with less support much to the detriment of the finished book.
Long story cut about my brilliant copy editing 30 years ago and how I miss this
lovely, quirky Englishwoman by name Elaine Chubb, who could fix typos and make
me look brilliant, who is now replaced by a program that doesn’t catch so many
things. . . sigh.
In any event, if the subject should arise next time I’m in New York with my
editor, I’ll ask how it gets done these days.
Best, R.E.F.
