Wow. I started this thread in January.. and several months later I see TOC is a issue. Since January, I've learned TOC nuances and am at peace in that regard.
Some thoughts, in no particular order of importance:
- Kindlegen(Amazon) takes undeserved hits from people. The backwards compatability angle (a.k.a. loyalty to customers) forces Amazon to have KindleGen create downright strange code. Because I believe in that loyalty to 1st generation reading devices... I plug my nose and hit "OK" when my tidy 500K EPUB grows to a bloated 4 MB mobi file. I don't begrudge Amazon because they try to take care of their early adopters as well as their new adopters. That dude in the double-wide trailer with the 2007 black&white kindle is just as important as the finance lawyer with a Kindle Fire. I respect that, and can plug my nose and tolerate Kindlegen spoodge with a clear conscience to live with that.
- Quality books = stay close to your source code.. STOP bringing in numerous tools into your workflow to hide your virgin-soul from your source code. I read "blah blah" MS Word .. then "blah blah" in Sigil .. then "blah blah" in Calibre .. then "blah blah" Kindlegen. Good god! All those transitions just introduce garbage to the code that creates your book. Get yourself dirty to keep your book clean and looking right, work the source code!
- Let's face it .. books bring the creative-types to the front (if I read one more "poetry formatting" post I'm gonna puke my guts out, who reads poems!
)... but having said that, If you don't want to face source code personally: HIRE someone who will! Don't keep playing gymnastics with various computer programs to hide yourself from coding. There exists a sea of code-monkeys who will do that for you. Hire one of those.. or walk away.
All Hail: Sigil, Calibre, text editing program, Kindlegen (the gateway with most customers).