Random crashes, all work lost

Three times today i have patiently worked to about halfway through my text, correcting the random centering and paragraph formatting that booksmart has somehow gleaned from my (correctly formatted) word document.

Then booksmart suddenly crashes, with its cheery message saying ’don’t worry, your work is probably fine’. Unfortunately it’s not – NO work has been saved, despite the fact that when you try to save as you go, another cheery message tells you that you don’t need to, as your work is ‘always’ saved. The software is also very slow.

There is no way i’ll be able to complete this project (which by the way is for my 11 year old son, who has been writing his first book of 25,000 words for the last month) with the software like this – what on earth should i do? Is there a different way of sending in text without using booksmart at all?

If it helps in any way I’ve been having a similar problem when inserting images. Booksmart crashed with large gif files so I converted them to jpg and no more probs.

On the other hand I had the same problem with properly formatted doc files which suddenly were centred, in small width columns or no obvious formatting at all. This causes a bit of a headache. A bit!? I am on third book and now cut and paste in small amounts from the word file which is where I start all projects anyway – even some which have ended life as a pdf file. Its a bit tedious and slower if you have to correct formatting but at least the work is being saved properly.

Got my first book on Tuesday and copy and photos absolutely fine (second on its way). Wish I had Blurb a few years ago when I first self-published a 16 page booklet with DTP, home printer and hand stapler. Put it on sale in local bookshops etc and bouyed by its success I added more research and it grew to a published hardback and revised paperback with a mainstream publisher. What i am trying to say is that Blurb offers a great encouragement for new writers to break into the marketplace on a small budget without resorting to large private print runs or over the top vanity publishers.

Hi Johngilham,

Sorry to hear this. Please contact support for help with this if you haven’t done so already. BookSmart does not randomly lose work when operating normally.

-Craig

Note: Because this is not something the forums community is not likely to help with, and to avoid  confusion by others, this topic will be locked from further posting.