Help with Epub formatting - Smashwords Epub Checklist

[Galimah]

Hi Guys,

I hope you could be of assistance.

I have recently published two e-books on Smashwords.
It's two comic books that has been converted from PDF to Epub.
Unfortunately it failed the Smashwords Epub checklist, and am not sure what needs to be fixed. I have communicated with several formatting authors on the site but was not able to identify the issue.

I'd be grateful if anyone could assist me please.

TIA

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Galimah

Hi Guys,

I hope you could be of assistance.

I have recently published two e-books on Smashwords.
It's two comic books that has been converted from PDF to Epub.
Unfortunately it failed the Smashwords Epub checklist, and am not sure what needs to be fixed. I have communicated with several formatting authors on the site but was not able to identify the issue.

I'd be grateful if anyone could assist me please.

TIA

Well, nobody can help you with what you've described. Nobody. You'll need to explain:

• HOW you created the ePUB; (What software you used, how you used it);
• What the error messages were, when the ePUB failed intake at Smashwords.

Once you fill us in on that, we'll probably have more questions and ask to see code, but...we have to have a place to start.

Hitch

[Quoth]

Conversion from PDF to ANYTHING is often doomed.
You need to use either HTML or DOCX and then Calibre or Sigel to convert.

As Hitch says, without more info we can't imagine the problem. There is also an online epub check run by the daisy group, who I think develop epub.

Is the complaint about TOC or content?

PDF is SOLELY a format for paper printing and perfect screen preview of the print job and defines an exact physical page size.

All ebook formats are independent of page size, being internally like HTML (or actually HTML + CSS) and not at all intended for paper. They are supposed to reflow on differing sized screens and also when font changes.

Comics may often be image based so are challenging to package up as ebooks except for larger ereader screens. Smashwords don't support any of the the specific comic / manga formats which are really wrappers on multiple images.
A PDF is also a wrapper, but can have postscript like text, vector images and bitmap images as well as layers per page. Unlike any ebook the page is a physical size and it's not meant to ever flow or resize content.

Use some other method to export your artwork than PDF.

[j.p.s]

(Emphasis added by me.)

Originally Posted by Hitch

Well, nobody can help you with what you've described. Nobody. You'll need to explain:

• ...
• ...

Once you fill us in on that, we'll probably have more questions and ask to see code, but...we have to have a place to start.

I wish I had a nickel for every post for which the above would be the optimum starting template.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

(Emphasis added by me.)


I wish I had a nickel for every post for which the above would be the optimum starting template.

Hell with that, I wish I had a nickel for every thread where we tried, ANYWAY!

Hitch

[BetterRed]

I'd rather someone start with a tentative post, as in this case, rather than splattering a thousand word paragraph of what they probably regard as Joycean prose to ask how to add inline images to their book.

BR

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

I'd rather someone start with a tentative post, as in this case, rather than splattering a thousand word paragraph of what they probably regard as Joycean prose to ask how to add inline images to their book.

BR

The problem is we seem to go between two extremes where the OP either gives no useful information and never responds to requests for more information or they give multiple pages without spoiler tags or worries about relevance to the problem.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

I'd rather someone start with a tentative post, as in this case, rather than splattering a thousand word paragraph of what they probably regard as Joycean prose to ask how to add inline images to their book.

BR

I dunno, Red, it seems to me it's not that hard to hang out here for a few hours, read threads, see how problem-solving is achieved and then follow the example.

But, noooo, as always people either don't care if they waste our time, or their problem is the end of the world as we know it, and of course, we're all psychics. (sigh).

Yes, I realize I've been on MR for a long time now and it's obvious to me, but still.

Hitch

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Hell with that, I wish I had a nickel for every thread where we tried, ANYWAY!

Hitch

I wish I had a nickel for every eBook that has poor CSS. If I did, I'd have a lot of money. as this means I get a nickle for every eBook put out by the big 5 and then some.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Hitch

I dunno, Red, it seems to me it's not that hard to hang out here for a few hours, read threads, see how problem-solving is achieved and then follow the example.

But, noooo, as always people either don't care if they waste our time, or their problem is the end of the world as we know it, and of course, we're all psychics. (sigh).

Yes, I realize I've been on MR for a long time now and it's obvious to me, but still.

Hitch

What I find is a real bother is when someone asks for help and we start to help and the OP never comes back.

[doubleshuffle]

Well, it's the kind of thread which, if it simmers on for a week or two, might deliver solutions to all imaginable pdf to epub issues, perhaps even the OP's, even if they never return...

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What I find is a real bother is when someone asks for help and we start to help and the OP never comes back.

Because of PM's I sometimes get, I know the reason some don't come back to a thread they start is because the proffered help is delivered in derogatory or belittling terms. Or so full of jargon and vernacular it's incomprehensible

BR

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Because of PM's I sometimes get, I know the reason some don't come back to a thread they start is because the proffered help is delivered in derogatory or belittling terms. Or so full of jargon and vernacular it's incomprehensible

BR

So why not just say you don't understand? We'd know to try to explain better.

[BetterRed]

Most people know when they're being put-down, some would rather walk away rather than ask why - call them snowflakes if you must. BTW I am not thinking of you, you may be many things but scornful or contemptuous you're not

BR

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Most people know when they're being put-down, some would rather walk away rather than ask why - call them snowflakes if you must. BTW I am not thinking of you, you may be many things but scornful or contemptuous you're not

BR

Thank you. I can be sometimes but only if the OP is asking for help with pirating eBooks. There are some things that trigger the thought that maybe the question is asking for help with pirated eBooks. So I will ask about it before trying to help.

And I'm not happy if the OP is asking for help on an eBook that the OP is getting paid to make without telling us first.

But other then that, I'm OK. Like with the OP in this thread. It's been said upfront that the eBook is for Smashwords.