An "ah-ha" Moment

This past week I decided to put Without A Voice on Createspace. I find that reading it as an e-book just isn't good enough--I want to be able to thumb the pages, feel the book in my hands, and read it without the glare off the screen. (That's a big one)

So I started formatting the book for Createspace, which is a pain but probably more of a pain for them than for me because I keep running into things that don't show up in the PDF file so I have to resubmit it.

The point here is, I think I've finally figured out why our society is going to single syllable words. It's because of the publishing industry.

In check-check-checking the formatting of my book, I discovered many places where a line was stretched out beyond reason, leaving massive gaps between words. This was invariably when a three or four syllable word was forced down onto the next line because of the word-wrap. Because the lines are justified, these show up like (forgive the cliche) nobody's business.

This was my ah-ha moment. I think this is why publishers get so heated up over vocabulary and tell authors to dumb it down. Because a one or two syllable word isn't as likely to move down to the next line, stretching out the justification beyond readability. The publishing industry is dumbing down our whole society for the sake of the word-wrap in a printed book!

I have just solved one of the mysteries of the universe. Aren't you proud of me? :)




On another note, I'm sorry I didn't have this up on Monday--it was ready to go and scheduled, but apparently I did something wrong with the scheduling. Again.

Lauren