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Originally Posted by krausj
No worries, I really appreciate the help!
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Okey-dokey.
Well, the challenge you have is that what you need are fixed-format books. Almost none of the e-reading devices that are out there can, without fixed-format coding, display text atop of background images (reliably). If you try to use an image of text--in other words, like that one page, "Theo was going in for the kill shot..." it will render poorly on many devices, and of course, the text can't reflow. This is also required if you have any spreads (two pages that need to be viewed together).
This, then, puts you in the unenviable position of needing to give Bookbaby completed books. You'll need to make a fixed-format ePUB for iBooks, one for Kobo, and then you'll need to make a fixed-format MOBI for Amazon. The good news is that Kobo and iBooks have almost identical formatting, so that will save you some time. But Amazon's coding is completely different. I don't think that BookBaby has a publisher's agreement with B&N that will allow them to upload a fixed-format kids' book to NookKids--but you said that his was for adults? So, there isn't a market or spot at Nook for this type of book, anyway, assuming it's made in fixed-format style.
And you won't be able to just change pages into jpegs and put them in a file and submit it; iBooks will reject it, which means that BookBaby will reject it. What you have there is, unfortunately, a moderately complex formatting job.
Your alternative is to remove any text from atop any images, and create it in a more "reflowable" format, so that the text for "Theo was going in for the kill shot..." comes before or after the related image, and make all your images work that way. If you do that, you can get away with a reflowable ePUB. With regard to the text and images floating...you can likely find coding here on MR to allow you to put the text and images as you have them on the page with the Wolverine. Now...if you do it with CSS, it will work on ePUB and some of the K8-enabled devices, at Amazon, but it won't work for the k7 devices. The text and images will stack, vertically. The alternative is to use tables..put the image in one cell and the text in the other cell, with no borders (the invisible border thing does not work reliably in K4iPad, BTW).
Sorry, I wish I had a better, shorter answer for you, but...your formatting isn't simple, believe it or not. Not the way you have it now, and not with the retailer's requirements being what they are. You can either simplify it (de-layer text and images, and work around/with the floating images and paragraphs), or you're going to have to make fixed-format books, one for each retailer.
I know that didn't really help, but...did it explain anything?
Hitch