tangomike
New Member
Posts: 13
Joined: Jun 13, 2012 15:25:21 GMT -8
|
Post by tangomike on Jun 15, 2012 6:59:14 GMT -8
Thanks for the suggestion, and I might try that. I have to say, however, that so far I've not been impressed with the timeliness of Smashwords Support. I understand that getting a free service and then expecting a lot is not fair to them, but frankly, I'm spoiled, I guess, by the responsiveness of CreateSpace and Amazon Author Central. Click on "Call me" and the phone rings.
To take this conversation a little further back in time, I followed the style guide exactly when formatting my first book and used Word's bookmark and hyperlink feature to manually build a fully functional TOC that worked both ways. This file converted to .epub and .mobi in Calibre was flawless whether viewed on my computer or on an ereader. The same source file was rejected for the Premium Catalog due to problems with the NCX TOC. I tried to fix it and couldn't, contacted Support, and eventually received a reply that said I should remove the manually inserted bookmarks and hyperlinks.
In the meantime, I decided to work directly with Apple, and the .epub I built from that .doc file was rejected by iTunes because it wouldn't pass an epubcheck. This was the same .epub, mind you, that rendered flawlessly on an iPad. While checking this out on another forum, I was told that the manual TOC was superfluous, it causes problems with the epubcheck, and that I should remove all the manual bookmarks and hyperlinks from the .doc file and let the conversion process build the automatic NCX TOC. I did that, uploaded that file to Smashwords, and after a long delay finally discovered that the book had been accepted for the Premium catalog.
The book I'm trying to get into the Premium Catalog now is built exactly the same way and it was rejected. It has no bookmarks or hyperlinks as far as I can tell, hidden or otherwise. I took a screen grab of the offending file as shown in Sigil, and I'd be happy to send it to Support, but unless I'm mistaken there's no way to do that. They want you to do everything with FAQ's as if that will solve a problem like this.
I remain stumped for the time being.
|
|
|
Post by Ted on Jun 15, 2012 7:35:23 GMT -8
Comparing Amazon to Smashwords is like comparing Apple to Smashwords; the only commonality is they are all American companies.
Amazon has been in business many years longer than Smashwords and has a much wider known brand name, earns gobs more money than Smashwords and therefor can afford gobs more help. You can't expect top 100 company service from a relatively recent company with a handful of employees.
My only complaint with Amazon is it took them 4 months to correct the sample allowed for my ebooks for children as there was no way to increase the sample size a potential purchaser could view. Smashwords allows authors to set any sample size and that makes promoting my works much easier.
All my ebooks have manually inserted bookmarks and hyperlinks and all have passed epubcheck, once I found the screw-ups in MSWord and nuked the one offending document and started fresh, so I can't offer much guidance.
Regarding your screen grab and sending it to Smashwords; check your email for a Smashwords Support reply and use that person's email address asking them to pass it along to tech people.
The reason for all the FAQ's on Smashwords is that it - hopefully - helps cut down the lineup of people using the Support System. I'm glad you read it and I wish more authors did before using the Support System and tying it up for people like yourself who really need help.
Once Smashwords becomes the size of Amazon I'm sure you'll see a comparable if not better Support System from Smashwords.
|
|
tangomike
New Member
Posts: 13
Joined: Jun 13, 2012 15:25:21 GMT -8
|
Post by tangomike on Jun 15, 2012 13:50:42 GMT -8
I thought I made it clear that I knew it wasn't fair to expect more from Smashwords, but I guess not.
For the record, all I'm saying is that even without making a comparison and considering Smashwords all by itself, it's difficult to impossible to get an answer from support to help me with this.
With my first book, I filled out the message form and three weeks later support told me I should remove the bookmarks and hyperlinks, the same ones that the style guide suggested I include. When I asked about that, I never received a reply. A month later, all the while with my problem epub for sale because there's no option for a proofing period, I decided to upload the file with all the bookmarks and hyperlinks removed. That one ultimately was accepted into Premium.
When and if I receive a reply to my question, I'll try your suggestion about getting more specific information to the tech folks. Thanks.
|
|
sharongerlach
New Member
Posts: 2
Joined: Jun 14, 2012 18:25:16 GMT -8
|
Post by sharongerlach on Jun 16, 2012 9:42:52 GMT -8
tangomike - thanks for the information on what to look for in Sigil. Everything is leading where it's supposed to. The only thing I can find is that my link at the end of the book that leads back to the beginning was linked to the VERY BEGINNING of the book, not to the TOC. I figured it was MY choice where to link it to, but I guess not. We'll see if this works. Still not sure why it was fine in January when I put it in archives, and not fine in April when I took it out of archives.
|
|
tangomike
New Member
Posts: 13
Joined: Jun 13, 2012 15:25:21 GMT -8
|
Post by tangomike on Jun 16, 2012 21:11:19 GMT -8
sharongerlach - I think we probably all agree that the answer to why the end-of-the-book link takes you to the beginning of the book and not the TOC has to be a problem with the bookmark or the link or both. As for the gremlin that entered the file while it was archived, that's anyone's guess, but one of the reasons I stopped going to all the trouble of building a linked TOC was what I can only call Word's instability in the bookmark and hyperlink function.
I built a number of books with fully functioning TOCs in both directions, and then all of a sudden I began having problems with hidden bookmarks cropping up. I'd delete them all as the style guide suggests, then at some time later, a day, a week, whatever, the TOC would develop problems. I'd check for hidden bookmarks and find them again. I never was able to determine the source of the problem, and frankly gave up because I got tired of fighting it and the recommendations from other forums not to use a manual TOC because according to them, at least, they can cause problems with epubs passing validation.
Forum members also wanted to know why even I bothered. Why not let the auto NCX TOC work? It's fast and efficient. When I couldn't get an epub with the manual TOC to pass iTunes validation no matter how many times I tried, I finally decided to use a new workflow:
1) Build the book in Word with the Heading 1 style for all the chapter headings (and use the word "chapter" so the Meatgrinder will recognize it when it comes time to upload to Smashwords). Format the Heading 1 style for space before and after to position it down from the top of the page and the start of the main body text below the chapter heading for appearance sake. I do not insert any page breaks or include one in the Heading 1 style. I carefully scrub the manuscript for troublemakers like extra spaces, returns, tabs, etc.
2) Save the .doc as filtered .html and open it in Sigil
3) Insert chapter breaks in Sigil and generate the TOC from headings. Save as .epub.
4) Open that .epub in Calibre and convert it to .mobi.
5) Check the epub in Adobe Digital Editions and the .mobi in Kindle for Mac (I don't have an ereader). They are perfect every time, and any formatting issues I've found have always been in the source .doc file, not from the conversions.
6) Make a copy of the original .doc file and modify it for Smashwords. I add the Smashwords License Notes, and modify the Heading 1 style to include a page break before (rather than manually inserting one). In my experience, this method is more reliable.
7) For what it's worth, I also employ a user-defined style for the front matter headings and include a page break before in the style. That puts the acknowledgments and dedication, etc., each on their own page and prevents a heading from being orphaned at the bottom of a page with the text below it at the top of the next.
8) And finally back to the original issue in this thread, I have two books formatted for Smashwords in exactly the same way. Both are awaiting Premium catalog approval. The epub of the first one, downloaded from Smashwords and viewed in Adobe Digital Editions has the extra chapter one at the top of the NCX TOC, and the link takes me to a bogus partial TOC listing. The epub of the second book downloaded from Smashwords has a perfect NCX TOC.
And that's the source of my stump-itis.
|
|