Way to go, Donna! :D I like it when people actually try out their own ideas instead of just talking about them. I respect what you're doing, and I appreciate you taking the time to do it. Because of you, Bookshare readers will have a new book to enjoy.
I think most of us have a preference for either scanning or validating. Part of this has to do with our personality, talents, and the technology we own. Having said this, I think it helps the community if a person occasionally tries out the opposite task to see what's actually involved and how their work impacts the equation. I realize that not everyone can do both parts. I can tell you though that it was learning to validate books scanned by other people that actually taught me how to be a better submitter. Mayrie and Katie taught me what an excellent scan actually looks like. I won't mention the name of the person who taught me what a fair scan is. (grin) Man, if you want to see some bad scans, check out my first few efforts. I was getting pretty frustrated. Then Katie let me work on two of her books, and Mayrie let me validate her Deb Ralston books. I saw how clean they were. I wanted to be like these ladies, and they told me how they learned to scan. I started paying closer attention to my own scans. That's when everything turned around for me with scanning. I started using the spellchecker and checking pages as I was scanning. I started fixing things like page numbers and hyphenated words. Pretty soon, I started submitting books that were actually worthwhile. I don't think I'd have changed how I do things without having the experience of validating books for these women.
Ok, I've rambled on a bit here. (smile) Thanks for giving the validation a shot, Donna.
Monica Willyard
