[Hitch]

Originally Posted by yourvirtualwizar

Hello,

I am an author and I hired a POD formatter to take my eBook and convert it to epub so I can sell it on Amazon for the Kindle.

I really don't know the epub lingo so please bear with me.

I gave the formatter tweets and code to insert in the ebook so people reading the ebook on a kindle could tweet out that they are reading the book, etc. I gave her this type of code:

[Promotional text deleted - MODERATOR]

https://twitter.com/home?status=Elev...rtualassistant

I created the code using this site http://www.sharelinkgenerator.com/

The problem is that the formatter is getting these errors and she believes it is the tweets I sent to her. That may be the case but I need to verify.
Can you help me please? Here are the epub errors she is receiving:

• ERROR: /OEBPS/book-part-1.html(71): value of attribute "href" is invalid; must be a URI
• ERROR: /OEBPS/book-part-1.html(106): value of attribute "href" is invalid; must be a URI
• ERROR: /OEBPS/book-part-1.html(157): value of attribute "href" is invalid; must be a URI

Can anyone identify the errors for me as the formatter is doing the conversion to epub for me?

Can anyone resolve the error for me?

The formatter says I have to take out the URL out of the code and possible the .com which means that will be a problem for integrity of the tweet.

Thank you to whatever help you can offer.

Janine

Janine:

Firstly, do you know how your "formatter" is creating the book? Is she trying to create it by uploading a Word file to the KDP? Is she building an ePUB, and getting errors with ePUBcheck? Is she trying to make it with Calibre, or via a Word file to NookPress, or...?? Is she actually coding it? Because if she's actually CODING it, using HTML, this shouldn't be occuring, and that error wouldn't be an issue, IMHO, unless you are relaying the information incorrectly. Do you know?

ePUB and MOBI are discreet eBook formats. I can't tell, from your post, if you are relaying the information correctly, but simply putting HTML links in an ebook is child's play, generally.

Now, firstly, something like this:

https://twitter.com/home?status=blabbety%20blab

...should not create errors, unless she's adding them incorrectly. It's a simple link element. The *secure* part (the "s" in the HTTPS) might cause an issue, but I don't think that's the problem. It looks, from the error, like she's not actually putting the link in the coding. BUT, without seeing the actual code, none of us here can tell. (n.b.: the "s" part will require log-ins, and all that; I'm not sure about the scrambling and decoding portion of this part of the discussion, however, for a secure access like Twitter; I think that, on a viable device--more on that later--it would require the reader/user to log-in to twitter, before displaying the proposed Tweet.)

Something like this:

<a href="https://twitter.com/home?status=blabbety%20blab">Share on Twitter</a>

Should not cause an issue, either, in MOBI or ePUB format.

Before I castigate your formatter, about this:

"The formatter says I have to take out the URL out of the code and possible the .com which means that will be a problem for integrity of the tweet."

I want to see the code, because that sentence of yours makes NO sense to me whatsoever. Do you know if she is actually building the book in code, or if she's trying to use a Word file, or....? I wish I had a dollar for every link we've put inside eBooks, over the years, so I know it's doable, and it's not even particularly difficult.

IMPORTANT: I would note that a huge percentage of e-readers out there won't actually do anything, using that, you know that, right? That millions of Kindles don't have embedded web browsers, or Twitter clients, or social media? Ditto millions of other e-readers?

(I'll leave any commentary about what reader reaction would be, if they found self-promotional tweets, telling them WHAT to say, about a book, linked inside a book, as they were reading it, to others. FWIW.)

Hitch