Please advise - No page numbers in the book.

[Tiffany Dowell]

I have selected a book, and downloaded a working copy.

I chose to use the file, as I have an epub reader and I use my computer to do these reviews, and OBC does not have a PC version of their app. The book opens, and yes, I can read it. There are no page numbers in this book.

I opened the file in both Aqulie Reader (PC epub App) and opened my OBC app and the book was in my OBC.

How am I supposed to proceed with this? Is this an error with the file, or on my end, should I mention it in the review and notes, or report a problem with the book?

No idea what the procedure here would be.

[Shirley Ann Riddern Labzentis]

Sorry, I wish that I could help more, but all of my devices are Macs. I would go to your update tab and report an error with the book and its downloading. Then, I would pick another book.

[Tiffany Dowell]

That sucks. This one I was really looking at reading. I sent a ticket asking what to do about it, and was wondering if they could make it so that since the author DID write something similar to chapter headings for it, I could use those as a "location" for the review. It seems to me, he had no editor, writing was not his best subject, probably self-published or a draft, it needs a lot of work but he it's a story that needs to be told.

[Tiffany Dowell]

There's no way that I know of to contact Scott, as his profile doesn't have PMs open.

[Laney K]

Typically if there are no page numbers you can use a location number if there is one, or what percentage through the book you are, if that is shown. I don't think I've ever had a book with none of those options, though it is possible given your reading device.

[Tiffany Dowell]

There aren't location numbers, page numbers, percentage, or even chapter numbers. Basically its all ONE long, continuously running Word document kind of thing with section headings, written like this

The Issue <-This would be the section heading, in bold and larger print, centered.

Then paragraphs, double spaced, continue until you hit the next section heading.

The table of contents list the section heading words, without numbers, neither Chapter 1 or 1. Day of Reckoning

The table of contents is just a list of these section headings that, when one is clicked, jumps you to that part of the book.

Sent a ticket asking if I could use these headings in place of page number, location, percent, or chapter etc as this is the ONLY thing remotely related to a "where" that there is in this book.

[Tiffany Dowell]

This isn't a device issue, I opened it in both Aquila e-pub reader for PC and in OBC on my phone. It's the same in both. It's submitted to us this way from the books end.

[Tiffany Dowell]

It's like the formatting was a first rough draft, not a first final draft, unedited, self-published, mostly unformatted except they put headings in to separate parts of one long document. It's weird, because it does page flip, so there is some way they got it to perform the way that normal books do in some regards, but its not formatted that way.

[Tiffany Dowell]

OH WOW, ok, I get it.

This is a rough draft, like literally he typed it out the first time and that was that, done the same way that I did the rough first draft of my own first book ever. The short story of that is I used to write, and I carried around blank journals, writing notes, phrases I liked and wanted to incorporate into writing, ideas, thought processes, whole poems, etc in this mess of writing that only I understood. I also stuck folded up notebook paper with full poems into it between pages. One day one fell out, and the school counselor demanded I enroll in the creative writing class or she would somehow affect my graduation. I enrolled, and the class said that our final grade would be our only grade. In the mean time, we had to write a book that had poetry, essays, whatever we wanted to write, but a collection, with a minimum of ONE short story in there somewhere. I finished the project, passed the class, and never wrote again.

The ONLY difference is, mine had numbers in its table of contents, but not at the section headings, and it had page numbers, as our guidelines for the class dictated for the project. We even had to landscape print our pages, then use an old bladed paper cutter to cut them in half and then bind them into a physical copy.






An example of mine
======================================================

SANCTUARY, SOLITUDE, AND JOURNEYS THROUGH A GARDEN
AN ALLEGORICAL WORK
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dedication

I’m sure that all authors have those people in their lives that make them who they are, those infinitely valuable souls whom they could not have made it through without. This book is for that wonderful supreme Father who sits on His heavenly throne and puts up with me, sharing the ever-present love, humor, support, comfort, discipline, guidance, understanding, and everything else that has no name that I know of besides love,butmeans everything to me. God is not a layer-of-laws. His purpose is to guide, father, andbefriend. Find Him. He is the spice of life. Thank you, my love.

For Juan and Anjelica Gonzales, Amy White, and all the others without whom I could not live, for their support, encouragement, humor, comfort, love, and understanding means more to me than words can say. Thank you all for believing in me so much that I began to believe in myself as well. Thank you, Juan, for keeping me insane and bleeding even when they tried to fix me permanent.

To Anjelica – pink ducks live on!

For my wonderful family: Douglass, Tracey, Jon, Mary, David, Mom, Dad, and everyone else. Thank you for everything; I love you guys. I can’t tell you that enough.

For Lynn Butterfield, who has helped me get through life in general, always knew just what to say, and is the best friend a person could ever have.

For Terri, without whom I would never have been able to take this from its messy little draft form and transform it into something beautiful.

For the millions of people who have helped me walk this treacherous path of life with dignity, encouraging me to the end to stay strong and not give up.

Mostly, for Linda Rebney. Without you, this would never have been done. You are a superb teacher, and I owe all of this to you. I never would have solidified the writer in me without you. Thank you, a thousand times over, thank you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Preface

All works were created solely by the author except for Mina’s Song, a poem written by Victor Baron.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
An Explanation of Subheadings

Spirals are longer pieces that flow like smooth rivers.

Soul Blood is the collection of pieces that came out of nowhere in particular, but have meaning and make sense nonetheless.

Journeys are pieces that have a purpose that illustrates some aspect of life.

Chaos poems are rushes of pure raw emotion that probably make no apparent sense to the reader, yet have infinite meaning to the author.

Reds are miscellaneous but share a common color, a generalization for the three pieces that were left as loners to drift in the society of the previously mentioned subheadings.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~







His is JUST like this, only my raw copy is one long scroll document with NO contents, and doesn't jump, its one document exactly like in this forum, separated by the squggle lines, that you can just scroll down till you hit.

HIS, somehow, he got it to "page flip" so that those are separated and "on their own page", which I don't know how to make mine do.

So, I get it, now I just need to know, can I just type out the section heading AS the page numbers. He has headered sections AS the pages, each section one page flip.

Took me a minute but I get it. I did the same thing. It's a raw pre draft, and actually well thought out for being a raw pre draft, it's not even a first "official draft" where you go back and stick in the page numbers and etc and send it off for editing.

What's interesting about this, is other than on things like writing.com, almost no one ever publishes a pre-draft raw like this. He really meant it, you get a raw, unedited, totally laid bare for better or for worse memoir formatted in a raw, unedited, totally laid bare, flaws and all format. It's actually quite powerful to reinforce the whole, "this is me exposed to the world" thing.

[Tiffany Dowell]

Ok, so, I'm actually pretty excited about this. Here I am getting stuck on the formatting, and I realize, wow, I feel like an idiot now. I realized what the book DESIGNER did. THIS is a new one, I promise. You are not gonna see this coming, unless you also know enough about the art world (scuplptures, paintings, etc, an example of people thinking that roman statues of people missing half their arms are are incomplete, etc.)

The first part of my review, because, well, I want to get out ahead of the same "mud" I got stuck in because there was NO WAY to see it coming.

Right away, in the Preface, the author tells us that he is taking you through his most inner thoughts and feelings without regard for how it will make him look, and/or affect his image. That's a direct quote, and it's a particularly important one for the reader to understand. Not because you are about to read a raw, unfiltered, laid bare, deep lens into the author's life, experiences, mind, heart, soul, and spirit. Yes, that is significant. But there's another reason that it's essential as well, a more technical one.

If you go to the copyright page, you'll see that Mr. Dooley authored the book in 2022, the images are by him, and something else. You'll see “Book design by Jana Rade.” This is going to be easy to miss, because this book is going to do something that you have probably never seen before.

Notice that that did not say edited by. It did not say formatted by. It very specifically said designed by. The book has not misspoken. Think about it. When have you ever heard of a book being designed. Cars are designed, clothes are designed. Not books. Not until now.

You are going to expect normal design. Numbered chapters. Page numbers. Part one and part two and so on and so forth. You are going to expect normal formatting. This is a mistake in thinking on your part, dear reader, not the authors, or the book designers, and here's why. Think of the content of this book, what the author writes, as the meat of the book. It is his most inner thoughts and feelings, raw, unfiltered, unedited, laid bare (no author publishes a rough pre-draft, right? We don't want those “laid bare”, that might be wrong or embarrassing), of his life, experiences, mind, heart, soul and spirit. In You, This Is Me… Over?, you need to think of the formatting as the bones of the book, the bones of the deeper meaning, designed that way so that even down to the formatting, the raw, unedited, unfiltered point is reinforced. This is not an editing error; it's not a mistake. It's a form of what we call style in writing, but for this book, it's not style, it's meaning.

I could be wrong, but here's the thing. When I was younger, I wrote, privately, hoarding my writing like a dragon over an egg, because it was too personal for me, never sharing it. The only difference between the author's book and the one book I have ever written, and have never shared, is this. My book is formatted the exact same way, only his book flips pages every time you switch a heading, and mine doesn't have pages at all, it's just one large, run on mess. The reason mine is a large run on mess is because I have no intention of sharing it, so it can be.

The reason his is a page flipping formatting mess to some people is because the formatting itself is reinforcing that this is going to be a messy read. I'm not talking about the technicalities here; I'm talking about the heart and soul of it. When it comes down to it, for this book, this “breaks the rules format” is actually cleaner, simpler, less confusing, more streamlined, and works better for this book that your fiction novel way of doing it is.

This is raw, just like the formatting is raw. This is not “according to the rules”, just like the content of his inner world is not according to the rules. Some literary professor Nazi somewhere is going to try to tell Clinton Beaudel Dooley that this is wrong, he needs to format his book, he needs to follow the rules. As a reviewer, I am going to say that in my opinion, that literary professor 'threw the baby out with the bathwater' and missed the most meaningful point.

Some of the most famous and renowned painters' works are considered a mess to the untrained eye. In all other forms of art, you cannot appreciate art without an appreciation of that messiness, as a matter of fact, if you think like that, you're in the out crowd, the second-grader trying to tell the Yale graduate “how it's done” about things that the second-grader doesn't have the faintest understanding of. Some say that “messy art” can be a way to express life's messiness, and that learning to listen to and express that messiness can lead to harmony and wellbeing. Embracing messy art helps people learn to deal with mistakes and imperfection in a healthy way, and in turn leads to creativity and imagination. The point of art is not to convey a message, but to elicit emotion and “move” us in some way.

That is what I think happened here. Jana Rade designed the book, when books are not designed, but art is, not to convey a message, which is what books do, but to deepen that message into eliciting emotion and “move” the reader. In short, Jana metaphorically “painted” the book using the format. That's a very, very, very clever girl, and it gives you, dear reader, something completely new, beautiful, meaningful, and unique. So, in short, if you want to be the stuffy literature Nazi who misses the forest for the trees, feel free. If you want to take this work in like a sunset, the way that it was meant to be, DON'T! (The caps are there to make a point, they're not a typo or a mistake.) No, we can't expect the average, uncultured reader to be able to appreciate this, but in some circles, You, This Is Me... Over?, is perfect. Please don't throw the power of the book away for semantics, that would be a tragedy.

Now, on to the rest of the review.