Having Problems Getting an EPUB

I've been reviewing my file for errors for over a week.  Every time I submit it is rejected.  Have tried all file types except pdf.  Working in open office.  Have reviewed and revisited all the formatting details numerous times and I can't seem to figure out what's wrong.

Would anyone be willing to look at my file and offer some advice?

Thank you.

Comments

  • Does your document contain only text, or do you have pictures and/or text boxes? Did you use the non-printing character tool to see if there's any weird formatting issues? If your ms. is just text, I'll take a look at it. I use Open Office, you can attach the file in a reply.

  • It would be helpful if you specified what kind of error message you are getting.

     

    The thing that causes the most problems is the table of contents. You need to have the title of your book on the very first line of your manuscript and you need to assign a Heading Style One to the title (I don't use Open Office but I should imagine it has heading styles). This is the bare minimum that is needed but I would recommend that you also apply Heading Style One to the first line of your copyright notice.

     

    If you wanted to have a proper TOC show up in your ebook then you could assign Heading Style One or Heading Style Two to your chapter headings too.

  • All Text.  No photos (yet).  No text boxes I can find.  Did not make any on purpose. Yes to the non printing character tool.  No did not find anything (might be too dumb to know).  .odt file attached.

     

    thanks you very much for your kind offer.  I hope this is going to be painless for your part, and thank you again.

  • I have no idea what they think is wrong (they=the computer)as they don't give any indication as to what errors were detected.  Just a rejection notice and an invitation to have some professional help.

     

    I did not generate a TOC for my ebook.  I was given to believe the software did that automatically by virtue of the headings styles.

     

    Title is on first line.  Heading style 1 is assigned.

    Did not apply heading style 1 to copyright notice.

    Heading style 1 is assigned to every chapter.

     

    Are page breaks allowed or required or is that an issue as well.  never had page breaks until this last revision.  Now have page breaks at every chapter.

     

     

     

  • I took a very quick glance. Since it's a read-only file, I couldn't check the non-printing characters. I noticed that the title "Metro Valley" on page 6, has the grey highlight that generally one sees for a TOC. You also have footnotes; I never use them, so I don't know if that is part of your problem, but they might be, depending on how you formatted.

     

    You do have a lot of blank lines between your regional entries. For instance, between the end of your info for Metro Valley and the beginning of the info for New River/Greenbriar, there's a lot of blank space. E-books don't like blank space. Delete all those extra lines and make sure to apply a heading style for your next section/chapter/entry. Your document will look weird and crowded, but the e-book will turn out.

     

    Just noticed your other posting; ditch the page breaks. Think of an e-book like writing on a long scroll, as opposed to individual sheets of paper. 

     

     

  • The field shadings are for an index. I can easily trash the index if that's not allowed. I think I can change the read only aspect if you want.
    Inserting a page break puts all that space in there, but they are not carriage returns and those are chapter headings. How do i eliminate the space? Anyway, it got rejected a bunch of times before I put in the page breaks. I guess I can remove footnotes if they are not allowed, but will have to find other means to credit people.
    I understand about crowded look for the ebook. I'm also going to do a print, but I'm just trying to get a feel for formatting with this ebook thing first so I don't duplicate too much effort. Already on third overhaul.
  • Do I need to modify Headings so there is no space above and below when I insert a heading? I didn't do that and just left them where default had been putting them.
  • To eliminate the spaces, just delete them. The index, too. Other people may be able to help you when it comes to the footnotes. Maybe as end notes? Good luck.

  • The field shadings are for an index.

     

    EPub pages are not exactly pages. The text is converted to Flowing Text, which becomes part of software that is the ePub, which allows the font size to change or be changed and to 'flow' depending on what it is being read on. I would suggest not using any establishments at all.

     

    I can easily trash the index if that's not allowed.

     

    I am not sure what use an Index is in a ePub. EPub 'pages' have no page numbers, so what is the index indexing? One could of course turn each item in an index in to hyperlinks, but I really would not recommend that! (See below).

     

    I think I can change the read only aspect if you want.

     

    BTW. What file type did you actually upload to Lulu's Wizard?


    Inserting a page break puts all that space in there,

     

    A Page Break is just that, but they are not used in ePubs and the converter will strip them out, so I doubt that is the problem. But remove them anyway. Heading Style 1 will actually create a page break, putting the chapter heading HS1 is tagged with after where a Page Break would normally be used. If you wish to separate text sections as a change of scene or whatever, you can use a centralised *

     

    but they are not carriage returns and those are chapter headings. How do i eliminate the space?

     

    HS1 will create a space in the same way as a Page Break along with a TOC. As long as they are not multiple carriage returns they should be OK.

     

    Anyway, it got rejected a bunch of times before I put in the page breaks. I guess I can remove footnotes if they are not allowed, but will have to find other means to credit people.

     

    Footnotes, Headers, Footers, Page Numbers, are among the things not allowed. You can credit people (within brackets) or direct people to look at Credits at the back.


    I understand about crowded look for the ebook. I'm also going to do a print, but I'm just trying to get a feel for formatting with this ebook thing first so I don't duplicate too much effort. Already on third overhaul.

     

    It is all here >>  http://connect.lulu.com/t5/eBook-Formatting-Publishing/tkb-p/ebook_formatting%40tkb

     

    but you may wish to look at this section first >>  http://connect.lulu.com/t5/eBook-Formatting-Publishing/EPUB-Conversion-Prepare-Your-Manuscript-for-eBook-Conversion/ta-p/206671   (which also includes the alternative to Indexes).

    How Do. Pull up a chair. Would you like a cup of tea? Don't sit in that chair!!
  • Make all your footnotes Continuous.

     A citizen of the world.

  • I did all the things you guys said.  I still have some open spaces that I can't seem to get rid of.  Every time I reformat this section, the empty space pops back in after I format the fourth heading 3 item in this section.

    here's a screen cap

     

  • I deleted all footnotes, indexes, index entries, TOC, and removed all misc. spaces, but for two large blank spaces that just won't go away.
  • HJ_Peterson,
    You would probably have to save the document to your hard drive to be able to see the non-printing characters and to edit.
  • @ Kevin Lomas
    I have tried .odt, .rtf, .doc files. All headers, footers, page numbers, turned off. Index and all entries deleted. Footers deleted. Not showing any field shadings. Still have several major blank spaces that refuse to cooperate, however.
  • Here's the latest.  I took out all the spaces and everything else and reformatted all my headings to smaller and same fonts with no spaces above or below.  When I then changed the page size to 6x9 all the big blank spaces also went away.

  • Your heading styles are out of order. You have Heading Style 1 for Metro Valley, then Heading 3 assigned to Drowdy Falls and Upper Falls, then Heading 1 for New River/Greenbriar,  HS#3 for Babcock State park, then HS#2 for The New River Gorge. 

     

    Out of sequence headings (1, 3, 2) will cause a snafu.

     

     

  • Also, you cannot have any nested lists - either numbered or bulleted.

    Nested list means a list inside of a list or a second level of listing.

  • Looking at the most recent .doc file you added, I see you go from a Heading 1 to a Heading 3. The styles have to be in sequence, so jumping from 1 to 3 won't work, you'll need to have a Heading 2 between them
  • Working on the order of headings now.
    @Glen_Lulu - I'm not aware of any nested lists. Did you find one? Please say where? I don't see any.
  • Sub lists under reg bullets. Get rid of them all. Just make an indented list.

     A citizen of the world.

  • You had tabs everywhere.

     

    Test this one. I  made a few quick changes and replacements. Haven't tested it.

     

    Attached.

     A citizen of the world.

  • thanks, EM.  That threw an error too.  It suggested that I had headers and or footers in the document.  They are not active by any mean I can tell.  Screencap attached.

     

    So, tabs are not allowed either?  I didn't remember reading that.  What to replace tabs with that won't throw errors.

  • I was able to get it to go through and now it's online. Thanks to all of you. Now for some pictures. LOL
  • Really? I checked that under inspect document. It didn't find any, plus lulu removes them upon upload.

     

    Glad you got it to go through.

     

    Ah, teamwork. The people here...

     A citizen of the world.

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