I am in need of hive-mind advice on a particular issue. It may not affect anyone else, and it's possible no one else has experience with it, but I thought it was worth a shot.

I have self-hosted Wordpress using Bluehost.

My issue is on the backend. It's a cpanel site that was running on CENTOS 6. BH updated to CENTOS 7 some time back, but CENTOS 7 has been nearing end of life for a long time.

A while ago, I managed to switch from Centos to Cloud Linux 7 (BlueHost doesn't forbid the use of Cloud Linux, but it doesn't offer any update support, either.) Cloud Linux 7 is about to lose cpanel support.

Unlike updating an OS on your computer, which can be relatively easy, updating a server OS can be a real headache. Cloud Linux has designed an update pathway from CL 7 to CL 8. Hurray, that should be easy. But CL also recommends the operation only be attempted by an admin with advanced skills. That isn't me. And the introduction says basically, "This could work, but it could also blow up in your face and make your site inaccessible."

Of course, I have backups. But unlike backups of the computer, if the site is inaccessible, I have no way to restore from a backup. Hypothetically, Bluehost could, but my support experience hasn't been great with them. For a much simpler thing than this, I wasted hours before finally getting a solution from the third person I dealt with.

Logically, I should hire someone to do the job. But hiring someone for a CL serverside update doesn't seem to be a thing.

(As I type this, I realize it's ludicrous to expect anyone to have an answer to such a specific problem, but I've come so far that I might as well finish.)

Here's the only plan I can think of:

First, redirect my fans at the beginning of next month. Host a planned giveaway through the giveaway provider's own site. Link to Amazon rather than my own site for my new release. In other words, set things up so that my site could be down for days without creating an insurmountable problem.

Second, backup, recheck all the instructions, run the preupdate check. Fix what the preupdate check tells me to do (long, fiddly process, but probably doable)

Third, attempt the update. If it works, hurray! If it doesn't, then,

Fourth, work with Bluehost as long as it takes to get the thing back up. CL support and/or cpanel support may also have helpful hints.

Writing this is therapeutic in that I feel as if the worst case scenario is losing a lot of time. I can endure that.

An alternative course would be to switch hosts, in which case, I'd start with newer server software and not have to deal with the update issues. Downside is I have a three-year plan with BH, most of which still remains, so I'd lose a lot of money. I could do that if all else failed. (I'd also have a frontside backup, so I could migrate that part to another server.)

Anyone have any suggestions to improve upon that strategy?

Thanks for reading. 

That was my thinking as well. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something obvious.

I'm not sure what the motivation is, but the author really wants the ebook to display as a square. I found software called Book Creator that will produce such a thing if desired, but it's for school use and doesn't seem especially well adapted for regular book production.

That doesn't make much sense.

A square cover is of course possible, since Audio covers are like that.

But square eBook inside? That really doesn't make much sense.

It would be relatively easy to do though. You just set up a custom square paper size inside Word, and set it the top of the document. It should then put a soft page feed when the square is used. Might be a bit more complicated than that, but should be possible. You'd have to use the right view though. And maybe put a hard page feed in before uploading.

Yes, it's one of the few places left you can actually learn stuff, or just connect with serious writers, outside of private groups. Kboards is basically a promote your business (especially those continued sales on plots), or for people to stumble around, never learning anything. It's sad. That was my go-to for seeing what was going on in the self publishing world, especially for Amazon.

Last time it was asked in the Wide for the Win Facebook group (a few months ago) none of the "our store" links would work except Payhip.  Of course, if anyone wants to try one and it does work...that would be nice to know.

ETA: I tried it with my store link and store book page link. Here's the error message. The same one I got when I tried a Shopify store six months ago.



It would be nice to include our store pages in a B2R link, but I would still use the StoryOrigin (or other store) page rather than a B2R link alone.  Nothing against B2R, but the StoryOrigin book page is bigger, it shows more info about the book...and I really like it.

I have seen that error while creating UBLs. I tested then ignored the error because the link in the UBL functioned correctly.

R.C.