One Size Does NOT Fit All..

Okay gang, guess what I'm up to this week?  I'm redoing "The Bridge"...AGAIN!

Let me clarify, I'm reformatting "The Bridge" specifically for Kindle e-readers.  Last night I got a 3 star review on Amazon, which I've been anticipating for some time.  I mean, in spite of all the 4 and 5 star reviews, it was bound to happen right?  Of course.  But when I read the review I was stunned to see where some of the problems were for this reader.  They considered the story itself a 5 star read.  But the editing and formatting were barely 1 star.  Now I've known about the editing for some time and have plans in the very near future to get the book the professional edit treatment it needs.  I'll finally have the funds to do it, I'll explain how that happened in another post.  

But the formatting issues that were raised stunned me and I couldn't help but smack myself in the head for being a fool.  Especially, when I went over to Amazon and took a look at the sample of what the book looks like in Kindle form.

I had made the cardinal mistake of assuming that when I first created the book on Createspace and used one of their templates, that the system knew what it was talking about when it offered to send the finished product to Amazon for Kindle.  BIG MISTAKE!

Now please understand, I do not own any type of e-reader.  I'm still a "Turn-the-paper-page-by-hand" Man.  So I never considered what the format might look like on an e-reader.  What works for paperbacks does not automatically work for e-readers.  

First off, I have a tendency to use space gaps to indicate when I'm changing points of view in any scene.  But I also use those for entire scene changes.  In paperback this is forgivable, but in e-reader format it can be confusing to the reader.  And if the change happens between the bottom of one page and the top of another, it's even more confusing for which I apologize folks.  These things never occurred to me. 

Plus, I got a good look at how the indentations appeared in the Kindle version.  I nearly screamed.  I had no idea the system would reformat things so unevenly.  

So I'm reformatting the entire book right now specifically for Kindle e-readers.  I'm also trying to do a bit of editing along the way, but it's still a far cry from the professional job this book needs.  Yet, I'm also close to having the money to get that done, which leaves me with a quandary.  My KDP Select ends in about 10 days.  Should I just go ahead and take the book down and send it off to be given a proper professional editing job and then put out a really good 3rd edition, along with the new formatting?  Or just reformat for now and then have that much less to do after getting the book professionally edited?

I ask you all for your opinion on this.  Personally, I'm leaning towards doing the reformat now AND then sending it off right away to the editor for a good makeover.  Then re-releasing the book to Kindle, Nook, Sony the  works as soon as the work is finished.  My only concern is that this will leave me with no books on the market in the meantime.  But a part of me thinks it might be worth the risk.  What do you all say?  Please leave your thoughts and comments below.  I really need some feedback on this one.  

Thanks.  Take care and keep writing.