Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
Take that ePub of your eBook, open it to look at the code and try to change the margins to 0 and embed a specific font and see how it's not as easy as it should be.
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Jon, why do you think it's the author's job to make a book customizable to that extent by the reader (very few of whom would want to do this kind of thing)?
Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
The problem is that Word puts in a lot of extra code that's not needed. Like color codes and font codes (for example). These can make a mess. Just look at the code behind any of your SW ePub and you'll see that it's a fair mess.
Sure, it can be fixed, but the time to fix can be a lot and there is no reason for it. All Smashwords has to do is allow the author to upload an already created eBook in the various formats and done. Then you can make sure that what you post is clean code.
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You're saying that all indie authors should learn to do the coding in all of these formats, and code according to your standards. Not going to happen. Most authors are doing well if they get a document into satisfactory shape for an auto-conversion, whether it's by SW, Calibre, KDP, Pubit, or Apple.
How do you think most writers get their epub formatted books? They feed it through Calibre, or through the Pubit or Apple version of Meatgrinder (or KDP for the mobi format). Most of them are not going to hand-code their books.
For most writers, if they get an ebook file that looks good in tests in the major reader formats, that's good enough. Get back to the writing.