Stress in
Uploading
by Betty Mermelstein
There it was. I could hear
it across the room. My phone had just given
out the tone that signaled I had just received an
email. I had chosen the Can Can as the tone:
one, because I could could, and two, because it
sounded rather like an affirmation statement. However,
as I glanced toward the kitchen table where I had
left my phone next to my computer, I had my
doubts. In fact, my heart started doing flip
flops in my chest and my fingers began
interlacing themselves like two spiders mating.
I kept staring at my
computer, telling myself that I really should go
see if it was from whom I thought it was, but the
stress glued my feet to the floor. I had
been emailing Spindle, my ebook publishing
company, about uploading my book within the
proper format that was acceptable to them. So far,
acceptable wasn't in their vocabulary.
My first press of the
upload button had been met with an email
outlining the errors that were preventing me from
making thousands as an ebook author. Robert
said that my indents were wrong in their spacing
and that I should delete all tabs I had used. My
chapter heading page was all misaligned. I
needed to use the Heading option in the Styles
section.
Swearing had come easily as
I searched my document form, the Help area, and
anyone's answer to those who were as desperate as
I was to post a question ANYWHERE on the internet.
A second upload generated
the following from Anita (I must have sapped the
life out of Robert with my first email). She
reminded me that my cover image was not to exceed
1400 pixels on one side and that my page breaks
should be added by hand only at the end of a
chapter. I started hyperventilating as I
pulled up my cover image and wondered if it
mattered that my photo became the size of my TV
screen in width and height after entering the
desired pixels. I began to question whether
I even needed chapters.
I had walked away from the
kitchen table after my last upload. Could I
really face the next outpouring of Spindle's lack
of confidence in my formatting skills? I
told myself I had to go back to my computer, even
if at a tiptoe's pace. Besides, didn't the
latest post from the blog, You Can Do It! tell me
that there were seven days in a week and Someday
wasn't one of them?
I side stepped over to my
chair at the table and brought up my email. I
glanced away from the subject matter heading for
this most recent message. I had to face seeing
the word Spindle in the heading box. I
glanced back at the computer screen. Amazing
Dating Options was telling me where I could go
salsa dancing, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
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