Upload ePub to B&N Error

[odedta]

Hello,

I am new to B&N, when I uploaded my validated ePub 3 this is the error I saw:

We were unable to import your Manuscript into our Editor. However, you can still publish the original uploaded file.

We were unable to import your Manuscript into our Editor. However, you can still publish the original uploaded file.
Is there a B&N publishing guide PDF like Apple's and Amazon's? do they even accept validated ePub3? any limitations I should be aware of?

So many questions... so little time...

[dgatwood]

Test on a device or on their app. They have lots of interesting quirks on top of the usual ADE issues.

Either way, that error message just indicates that their web-based manuscript editor has very limited support for basic EPUB books, and so it usually refuses to let you edit the EPUB book if doing so would end up breaking things badly enough. The manuscript editor couldn't even deal with my EPUB 2 submissions, much less my EPUB 3 submissions. It's not a problem.

And yes, I submit all my books to them as EPUB 3 these days. I haven't seen any problems from doing so. With that said, I include all the optional/deprecated EPUB 2 compatibility bits, and you should too, because Nook doesn't really support EPUB 3, last I checked.

[odedta]

I see, it's so stupid that a company this size can't make a working epub viewer...

Thanks dgat

[dgatwood]

Originally Posted by odedta

I see, it's so stupid that a company this size can't make a working epub viewer...

It isn't a viewer. It's an editor. Making a tool that can modify an EPUB file is a nontrivial task even if your tools created the content to begin with. When you get complex content with arbitrarily complex structure and CSS, the only editors that could realistically work with it would be those designed for professional book makers. Any tool designed for your average end user would be almost guaranteed to break things by being too simple, too automatic, too easy to use.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by odedta

I see, it's so stupid that a company this size can't make a working epub viewer...

Thanks dgat

Be careful what you wish for.

Originally Posted by dgatwood

It isn't a viewer. It's an editor. Making a tool that can modify an EPUB file is a nontrivial task even if your tools created the content to begin with. When you get complex content with arbitrarily complex structure and CSS, the only editors that could realistically work with it would be those designed for professional book makers. Any tool designed for your average end user would be almost guaranteed to break things by being too simple, too automatic, too easy to use.

B&N's NookPress does have an editor--and woe to the sucker that uses it! I have lost track of the books that clients come back to me about, saying "oh, Hitch, you know, I only wanted to make a few small changes on the About page, and I used the B&N editor, and now the book's all messed up." That thing should come with a warning label: "Using this Editor will be hazardous to your bookmaker's health." Or even, "Here there be dragons!"

Something.

Indeed they bloody well are (dragons!), because B&N puts their OWN CSS and CSS classes into the already-finished ePUB, and the results are VERY BAD.

I'll stick with an editor that I can control. Sigil, Calibre's HTML editor, even Blue Griffon, which is far inferior, IMHO, to Sigil. The NookPress one? Good lord a'mighty, save me from those disastrous attempts by B&N to "help" us.

Hitch

[dgatwood]

Originally Posted by Hitch

B
Indeed they bloody well are (dragons!), because B&N puts their OWN CSS and CSS classes into the already-finished ePUB, and the results are VERY BAD.

I'm not surprised. Given what a disaster Nook for Mac is, I'd be surprised if B&N wrote any software that wasn't a complete train wreck.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by dgatwood

I'm not surprised. Given what a disaster Nook for Mac is, I'd be surprised if B&N wrote any software that wasn't a complete train wreck.

Hey, y'know what? They can do whatever they damn well please with their OWN software or code. This, however--inserting their own CSS into MY damn ePUB, or, at least, the ePUBs made by my guys? IXNAY, NO, Not even, hells no. That's a different kettle of fish.

Juz sayin'

Hitch