Proof, proof, proof

A number of people, including my sister and the good people at Createspace, are probably beginning to feel I'll never publish this poetry book. Today I resubmitted it, for the third time.  "It's the last time, I promise!"

Apart from page numbers, general formatting was pretty easy.  Things got unpleasant when I had to deal with the finer aspects of formatting style.  I'm happy to get free classic literature on my beloved Nook STR, and as long as there are no typos I could care less about format details.  Alas, as most people don't feel the same way, I'm trying to abide by the majority of formatting rules...

Widows and Orphans

You can imagine the surprise when my mom pointed out something called Widows and Orphans.  I must have met hundreds of these on the Nook; I am immune to them.  And logically, to me widows and orphans are preferable, as opposed to pages that aren't nice and square-looking.

Nevertheless, not to appear illiterate/unaware, I eliminated all of them, except one widow that was hard to avoid and doesn't look very offensive.  I dream of a day when square pages will become in vogue, and, indeed, if I publish a novel I may do just that.  (The negative effects are definitely more noticeable in a poem, though.)

Hyphens and Hanging Indentations

Hyphens, hyphens, more hyphens.   

Hanging Indentations are supposed to occur when a line(s) of a poem is too long.  It goes to the next line and is slightly indented.  For example, in Wordsworth's "Star-Gazers":

What crowd is this? what have we here! we must
       not pass it by;
A Telescope upon its frame, and pointed to the sky:
Long is it as a Barber's Poll, or Mast of little Boat,
Some little Pleasure-Skiff, that doth on Thames's
       waters float.

I thought hanging indentations were an e-book error--I didn't know they were the rule (is that funny or sad?).  So I added them.

Then I went back later and thought...you know, as my mom also pointed out, some of these hanging indents only contain one word.  And that does bug me, more than widows and orphans.  So I changed that, too (except for one, in which it would have looked worse for there to be two words).    

It's the last proof, really!  I believe it this time.  :)