I may be through trying

[tangomike]

I have three books on Smashwords, one of which finally made it into the Premium Catalog after dealing with the inevitable NCX TOC problems that appear with the epub version. I used that successful example to format the next two books, both of which failed to meet Premium requirements for NCX TOC problems. The details provided by Smashwords told me to follow the steps in the style guide, which I have done, but I repeated them anyway and upload the new versions.

A few days ago, the book in the Premium catalog was still there, but both the newer books showed "needs submission." When I checked "details," the same NCX TOC problems were shown, but can't confirm whether that's the old version of details, or if it applies to the new uploaded files.

So I did it all again, and took the opportunity to upload covers for all three books to meet the new requirements.

This morning when I checked on the status, all three books showed "needs submission." When I clicked on "details," I was told that the two newest books have NCX TOC problems, and the first one used to be in the Premium Catalog but it has to be submitted again, and no reason is given. Uploading the new cover apparently put it back in review, which I understand, but I shouldn't have to submit it again when it uploaded with no auto-vetter errors and supposedly went into review.

I just downloaded all three epubs and viewed them with Adobe Digital Editions exactly as I am instructed.

All three appear flawlessly with high-quality cover images, the TOC's are perfect, no extra chapters, no links that link back to themselves, none of that. And yet I'm supposed to submit them again.

This has become analogous to being caught in a maze, or being faced with a modification to the proverbial "catch 22."

I do what I'm told, and they tell me to do what I've done. If I could find evidence of the problem, I might be able to fix it. But there's no problem with the epubs.

A little while ago I wrote them what I think will be one final plea for someone to take a look at the Smashwords end of this collaborative effort and fix it on their end.

This end has about had it.

[Ted]

When you change your cover you have to press the Submit button; as you changed all three covers you will have received the Need Submission notices.

I wouldn't worry about the NCX warning, as you downloaded the epubs and checked them in ADE.

Just make sure you Submit your three works again since you've changed covers.

Review the Smashwords FAQ's when you have a moment. There might be some clarification there.

If NCX problem continues a day or so after you Submit your works, I'd consider nuking the darn thing. At that point it would appear there is definitely something wrong with your formatting as you continually get the NCX notice.

I give you credit for your sticktoittiveness. I would have nuked the project long ago and started fresh.

Did you look jules57's page on formatting? jules57.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/formatting-issues.html

[tangomike]

Ted, I appreciate your comments but I'm unwilling to nuke all the work I have done when three .doc files have gone through the Meatgrinder and produced perfect epubs.

If I were using Adobe Digital Editions to test only the epubs I built in Sigil or Calibre, then I might agree that there's something in them the Meatgrinder doesn't like. But that's not the case.

I don't need to read anything more about formatting, because the epubs that Smashwords produces for me to download have none of the problems listed in the details for why the books aren't approved for the Premium catalog. That in and of itself proves what I'm doing works and something Smashwords is doing doesn't work.

And that's the dilemma.

I am going to take your advice to submit them again, but I've already done that since changing out the covers. In each case I've gotten the congratulations email that there were no auto-vetter errors, and if I'm not mistaken, that should be evidence enough that the files have been submitted.

[Julie Harris]

Hey Tangomike
From what I gather, if you use the word Chapter in your chapter headings, the meatgrinder makes a viable TOC from it. One time I uploaded, the 'needs submission' was there for a few days - after clicking on the details, nothing was wrong, no autovetter errors, said it was in review yet the main page said needs submission. It automagically fixed itself after a while. Mainly because there was nothing else I could (or dared) do, I left it alone and waited patiently for a manual review and the big green tick.
Where I used to work, every time the techs fixed one issue, another was created. Maybe they've been doing a lot of work on the site, and are relying on reports of bugs etc? It's a long shot.
Is your toc a linked one, ie one you created yourself using bookmarks? If so, try it without using links - delete your self made toc and rely on the meatgrinder to create the toc for you. See if that works.
Julie

[tangomike]

Julie, thanks for your interest and taking the time to post a reply.

None of the other conversion programs I've used require anything other than the Heading 1 style to recognize text that should go in the TOC. The Smashwords style guide, however, says that the word is required for the Meatgrinder to recognize the headings and create a TOC. I've confirmed over the course of three books that this is *almost* the case. I say almost because in one of them, a page with the Heading 1 style but without the word "chapter" ended up in the TOC. go figure that one out.

My conclusion is that the Meatgrinder is fickle and sort of unpredictable. It may do something one time and not the next. I have used a manual TOC and had success. I've also used it and had the book rejected for inclusion in the Premium Catalog because of it. I removed all the bookmarks and links and bingo, it went Premium.

I did confirm (I think, we'll have to wait and see) that Ted's advice pointed out something I may have misunderstood about the submission process. I would have sworn when I finished uploading the new covers I submitted the book for review, but maybe I didn't. Yesterday I did that for all three books. The two that had previously made it into Premium will supposedly be "fast-tracked." Maybe I'll be surprised . . .

TM