Hi there. So, by now some folks will have heard that there was a little hitch in getting The Family We Make launched. Despite trying it out on 5 Kindle devices and 4 epub, it turned out that one of the margin techniques that my formatter used, trying to make it really pretty, caused words to run off the page on a few older Kindles (Keyboards and some others) and older Nooks. This is not conducive to a good reading experience, or, you know, any reading experience. *insert panicked reformatting here* Anyway, we quickly got a new version up that should work for everyone. But…
I did wonder if I perhaps finally had a day that would qualify as a clusterfuck. Because on top of finding out I’d sold people a defective file, and finding out that Amazon was really messing up the process of replacing it, I had some personal minor crises going on with both kids, plus an 8-hour crazy shift at my real job. But that afternoon I met some people whose days had been even worse than mine. So I repeated “no one is dead” and “it’s just a book” and downgraded the day to a goatfuck. (My thanks to Suzanne Brockmann’s SEALS for the distinction, and meaning no disrespect to the actual pygmy goats in The Family We Make. )
Here’s the deal. If you buy the book now, it should be fine. If you bought the book anytime from yesterday (Saturday the 16th) onward, you should have a good file. If not, I definitely want to hear about it! If you bought it before Saturday you may have a file that doesn’t work on a few older devices. Look at the first page. If the lines run off the page (or on a Nook, run right to the edge or try to scroll), it’s defective. From Smashwords or ARe, I believe you should just be able to download the new version. From Amazon…
Amazon is weird about versions. They insist on inspecting the problem and if they agree it’s needed, they may “push” the new file to previous customers. Inspection can take up to 4 weeks. Right now, if you bought it once, getting the new one is harder. If you return and rebuy the book, they will still sell you the old version. (Why? WHY?!) But I’m told if you turn on Annotations Backup you might get the new one, and if not you can call tech support and they will get the new version for you. Note – if you have a big library, turning on Automatic Book Update may result in a lot of books trying to update for you. Which could be a problem, and might make calling tech support a better option. Someone also told me they used Calibre to recreate the mobi file for them, and that worked.
Or email me at kajeharper~at~yahoo~dot~com and I will make sure the correct version gets into your hands.
I’m sorry this release had bugs. 
The picture is for my poor formatter – he tried to do something new he’d seen recommended to make the file look prettier on the page, and it worked on all our tests, but… Yeah. Not quite right. On the other hand, I love the Chapter headings and divider curlicues he used to match the title font. (The headings won’t show on some Smashwords files because… yeah, compatibility.) Anyway, he worked hard to fix this, even when he’d just had minor surgery. So thank you Michael for all the amazing effort to get it right.
Now I hope we can focus on the story. I had two lovely early reviews from Boy Meets Boy Reviews and Multitaskingmommas. It was such a wonderful lift in the goatfuck days to read those. I hope readers enjoy meeting Rick and Travis, and get to read all the words now.
Kage – thank you for your hard work to fix the problem as quickly as possible. I was one of the early 1 click purchasers with an older (amazing how that word is so relative) kindle. I tried to read the story even with the margin issue – because I just didn’t want to wait. If only I wasn’t such a frugal Yankee, I would have purchased the book again on one of the non Amazon sites. I am not in the least techie – LOL – and have never had to contact Amazon help…so FINDING that (as suggested by Michael on the Amazon review page and one of the other purchasers as the best method to prioritize this issue up the chain at Amazon) was an interesting experience. I was determined. I was also successful! Once I found the Amazon tech support page and contacted them – the entire conversation and fix took less than 5 minutes (through my USB – because I don’t have wi fi). And now on to enjoy the story (because even with the margin issue I was already caught in the story) and procrastinate from the real life tasks that will just have to wait….
Oh NO! And this is why I rarely post comments…..please accept my apology for mistyping your name Kaje….my brain just interrupted my reading with a flash of what I typed…and checking here I found to my embarrassment it was true.
No worries – I’ve actually done that myself *blushes* Plus I just sent this post off to everyone subscribed this morning, and two seconds after the click, I found I’d spelled “because” with two c’s *headdesk*
In fact right now, I’m actually cheered up every time someone else makes a mistake.
I’m glad you got a fix for your version of the story, and I’m so sorry it was messed up in the first place. I hope you enjoy the guys and their adventure.
I bought one of the early copies from Amazon – bought Friday afternoon my time. I found that it wasn’t great on my Kindle Touch but it came through fine on the Kindle app on both my laptop and tablet so I’ll try the fix you’ve suggested and keep my fingers crossed.
Really enjoyed it BTW – Sam is the most fantastic big brother ever. I found Rick a bit bratty at first but how much growing up did he have to do in a very short time. And I just want to hug Travis to death.
Thanks for letting me know. If you contact me on my email, I can get you an updated file instead of wrestling Amazon for it. And if you’re interested, I’m putting a few readers who had file problems in to a “beta tester” group who might look at future releases as ARCs for me, to check format on more devices than i and my formatter can buy. Contact me if either of those appeals to you.
Yeah, Rick began the book at 17 and I didn’t want him too perfect for a teenager. But he does grow up even more than he already had to, as the book goes along. I’m glad you liked it. I wish I could give every teenager a Sam.
I too was an early buyer but had difficulty on my older kindle. However it works just fine on my phone. Wow! Just finished reading. I wish I had Sam as a big brother, Rick was a brat but I loved his heart and oh I just wanted to wrap Travis in hugs and tell him it will be ok. Thank you for this wonderful story. This MN girl loves the MN settings!
If you ask Amazon tech support, they should be able to push you the new Kindle version. I’m glad you liked the guys (and the snow 😉 )
I loved the story!! Will there be more books in this series?
There is at least one more novel planned. There’s a lot more for Travis and Rick to work through, I think.
Awesome! I would love to see everyone live together a little more…
Just letting you know I purchased the book from amazon on 8/15 to an older ipad and no problems with the version.
That’s good to know, thank you. I hope that most people got a version that worked for them, even at the beginning.