Revisions complete. Formatting time!

I finished revisions for Thicker Than Blood on Sunday night. And what a relief it is to be done! For the remainder of this month I will be working solely on formatting for both paperback and ebook versions of the book. Here we are already in the middle of July, and I'm trying to remain calm while realizing release is not too far away.
So what does this mean for the book release? I still see it very possible to release the book in early August with the way everything is going. Today with my day off of work I managed to fix up the paperback formatting, save for a few minor things. The ebook will probably be the biggest area that needs the most attention. With SandE I had not known what needed to be done for the ebook, but this time I'm prepared and ready. I'm glad I won't need to be rushing through ebook formatting at the last minute.
In terms of formatting for the paperback all that's left to do is:

• Headers (including author name and book title)
• Footers (including page numbers)

In terms of formatting for ebook, there's a bit more:

• All font must be Times New Roman
• No symbols that can't be recognized via ebook devices
• Goodbye to indents
• Insert "page breaks"
• Possibly insert active table of contents (never done it before in my ebooks, but if I'm able to do it I will)

I might have left out some of the steps, but that's the major items I'm looking at. (Everything else has already been worked out.) Keep in mind I'm doing all of this by myself, so this is why I need the rest of this month to make sure everything is in order and ready. I have a MacbookAir, which is why I'm having some difficulty with manually working on headers and footers in Pages. However, my boyfriend might be able to shed some light on it for me. I'm used to working on Word, but since I don't have installed on my laptop Pages was much easier to work with. Once headers and footers are worked out in the paperback format I do plan to submit it to Createspace.

Preparing for Publication:

Since I'm aware not everyone is familiar with Createspace's steps for publication I wanted to brief touch on the subject. I have started a "new project" on Createspace, which is this page in the picture above. This is where I include the information about the book. Right now you can see I've only just started, but on the left side is a list of different steps in the process.
The interior step is especially vital. I want to make sure everything turns out correctly. Last time with SandE I had some issues with text that went out of the margins and fonts that did not appear correctly. This is why I'm turning this material in before release.
The cover submission is also important, thought I suspect I should run into no problems here. All I need to do is upload the book jacket for Thicker Than Blood and make sure it is accepted. If there is a sizing issue or pixel problem Createspace will let me know. (And fortunately I have friends who can help me fix this.)
The review step is also very essential because this is where I review all the material and order the proof. Fortunately with Createspace I only need to pay for shipping in regards to the proof, and I'll want that to arrive as soon as possible. It needs to arrive soon enough for me to re-read the entire book again, check formatting, check the cover appearance and meet my approval. Once again I do not want to feel rushed on this important part of the process, so I plan to order it within the next couple of days. This version of the book is very different from the one in my "mock" proof. I've added and deleted a lot of material and also fixed the formatting issues. Fingers crossed that it will all turn out as expected.
As for distribute and sales & marketing, those are the least of my concerns. I can easily work on that and have it ready to go. That's all part of deciding where the book is distributed and the pricing for paperback and ebook.
Every step in the process is important and takes some time, though this time I know what to expect. If all goes well with the proof I will be deciding on a release date and gathering together participants for the release party. Thank you to everyone from the cover reveal who already expressed their interest; I'll be contacting you soon.
All in all, I have my work cut out for me. I plan to be posting advice on formatting in more details at a later time for an self-published authors in need of advice. In the meantime, I have more formatting to do and housework as well.
Lindsey R. Sablowski