Smashwords Formatting Problem

[JulieChristensen]

Hi! I'm formatting my book for Smashwords. I've read the guide, which answered most of my questions. However, I'm having trouble with chapter titles. My headings are two lines:
Chapter One
Dating Advice

When I convert them to EPUB via Calibre, there is a page break before each Chapter (good) but another page break between the lines "Chapter One" and "Dating Advice" (bad!). The body of the chapter starts properly after Dating Advice.

There are no page breaks in this section of my document. I've got no returns between the two lines. I cannot figure out how to fix this.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Julie

[mr ploppy]

Smashwords splits pages at "heading" styles in Word. Don't have Dating Advice as a "heading" style, have it as "normal" and make it bigger/bold if you want it to be.

[mentored1]

Originally Posted by JulieChristensen

Hi! I'm formatting my book for Smashwords. I've read the guide, which answered most of my questions. However, I'm having trouble with chapter titles. My headings are two lines:
Chapter One
Dating Advice

When I convert them to EPUB via Calibre, there is a page break before each Chapter (good) but another page break between the lines "Chapter One" and "Dating Advice" (bad!). The body of the chapter starts properly after Dating Advice.

There are no page breaks in this section of my document. I've got no returns between the two lines. I cannot figure out how to fix this.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Julie

Hi Julie!

The problem is Word's autoformatting and varying styles. I found some useful information and used it to fix problems once and for all!

I have a setup with Word that allowed me to publish on Smashwords and get in the Premium Catalog without making any corrections.

Here's what I did:

- Go into Word's format menu and go to Styles. Edit or create a new style that uses 12 pt Times New Roman Font, 1.5 line spacing, first line paragraph indents of .5", and absolutely NO autocorrect or autoformat options.

- Save the blank document as a template, so you can use it to start a new project without having to edit anything options

- For chapters or headings, simply highlight the desired text and change it to size 14, bold. It's plain but it works. I don't recommend anything over 14 or any weird font styles if you want to "fast-track" into the Premium status.

- Make sure you don't have any more than 2 or 3 blank lines (i.e. don't hit return more than 2 or 3 times in a row). Use page breaks right at the end of a chapter and start at the top of the new page, double-spacing between titles and body text.


I hope some of that helps you get published. Keep us posted!