Quote:
Originally Posted by avantman42
In the case of Smashwords, they are a retailer and distributor for independent authors. I suspect they chose to have an automated conversion from Word files to make it easier for people to publish on their platform. There is no reason why a human can't proof-read the output, and in fact, Smashwords encourage authors to do exactly that. I've got books on Smashwords that I had to tweak and submit several times in order to get an output that I was happy with.
Also, Smashwords are planning to introduce "Smashwords Direct" later this year, which will allow authors to upload ePub and other formats directly, bypassing meatgrinder.
|
I can't talk about Smashwords without getting emotional because I am a software programmer and it is my personal belief that their current system is UNUTTERABLY STUPID because
omg, Smashwords, you are telling me that it is easier to get a clean Word file than a clean ePUB, do you even know the first thing about .doc files and additionally your style guide is the worst user manual I have ever read to the point that -- as someone who writes user manuals for a living -- it actually OFFENDS me, and ahem. *embarrassed software engineer geekery*
Smashwords has been saying they're going to allow a meatgrinder bypass for years, so I'm cautiously optimistic. The problem is not with expecting the user to read the file after conversion -- the problem is that there's not a post-conversion tweaking option. That is SERIOUS.
Any system where the only possible way to change the output is to change the input is a bad system. And I write transforms for a living (and user manuals for them). That is the FIRST rule of transforms: if you
cannot tweak the output, no matter what, come hell or high water, then your system is fundamentally broken.