[yarndog]

I created an open office writer .doc of my business book and used the Smashwords style guide to format it, then submitted it. It was accepted and entered into the Smashwords Premium Catalog. However, I noticed my book never got shipped to Apple, even though I followed all the Apple guidelines. Upon further searching I discovered I should download the ePub version of my book from Smashwords and run it through an epub Validator, such as threepress.org. I have done so and fixed all the errors in the ePub version, however Smashwords only accepts .doc format. I do not see a straight forward way to fix listed ePub errors in my .doc document. What I currently do, is tell open office to save it in html format, then check the ePub errors, then go see what that translates to in html, then go find that spot in my .doc document, then I copy this document into Sigil, create a new ePub version, then run it through threepress.org. This seems very convoluted and inefficient. Is there a better way? What I am discovering is that the epub validator doesn't like my blockquote, I think, because by default a blockquote tag indents. My solution is to go into the quotations style on open office and modify the style so it doesn't indent. This just seems like pulling teeth. Is there a better way to do this? The Smashwords help and FAQ just say to download the epub from their website, run it through the validator, fix the errors, then upload the revised version. Very mysterious on how to translate an ePub error into a fix in my open office .doc document. Finally, when I upload a new version I end up going through the whole process of review and waiting and then approval, then wait to ship. My book has been shipped to everyone but Apple, but it seems now I have to start over. Is there a better way? Thanks for listening and thanks in advance for your answers.