14 replies to this topic

[JoeB]

I published 2 previous books on Smashwords and Amazon but this one is really a problem. I've gone through my latest upload of my most recent book that I sent to Smashwords and Kindle, both look lousy. I've spent the last week going line by line trying to find formatting problems but have not been successful. It keeps saying see paragraph 7a of the Smashwords style guide. Is anyone else having this same problem? I wound up un-publishing the book rather than leaving crap as my book.
Also, is there anyone here with AQC that can check the story or give some advice.
I really need the help !!!!

[C. Taylor]

What type of formatting are you using for the manuscript itself? Do you have headers/footers? Do you use page breaks for new chapters? That's where I'd start.

[JoeB]

I'm using Word without headers or footers and page breaks for all pages. I've even eliminated any additional spaces between paragraphs. I can't find any clue to the problem. And it starts at the very beginning, stops after a while and continues. It's crazy. The font is Times Roman @ size 12. Only centering is chapters and copyright page. It even shows additional spacing between paragraphs and looks like crap. I'll look again, but I try to see any hidden codes within Word and it doesn't show anything. It's got me stumpted.

[C. Taylor]

Are those page breaks breaks that you inserted at each page? Or did you keep typing and let it run over to the next page. I believe, you should only have an inserted page break (where you click on insert then go to page break) for new chapters. New paragraphs should be hard returns.

[Robin Breyer]

Try the nuclear option - save it to an ascii text file and then open and format in Word. That eliminates all hidden formatting tags and leaves you only with the text. If you use any bold, italics, or underline, it will eliminate them as well, but it may solve your problem.

[JoeB]

I have all the text in my doc. within a text box. I've tried going into page layout to page borders and hitting none. It stays. I think that is what the problem is. It even appears on new blank doc. Any ideas?

[C. Taylor]

I'd save it as a web/html doc. It tends to get rid of most formating, and will keep your italics. Just get rid of page numbers, headers and footers. The AQ crew also have a tutorial around here somewhere.

[JoeB]

But I have the text box showing on ALL docs. Old and new, so saving into a notebook or HTML and then copy and paste in new doc gives me the same problem. I know it's a WORD problem that is the problem. Need a person who knows all the ins and outs of WORD

[Paul Dillon]

Joe,

I don't think putting all your text in a text box is a good idea for epub output. Copy and paste (just the text) into a clean doc. Then save as html. If you have a Kindle, you can send the file via email to your Kindle and see how it looks.

[C. Taylor]

I'd find where you can insert it, and instead look for something to click off. Or try right clicking on it. Don't know.

[JoeB]

I found out what the problem is when uploading a novel on Smashwords and Kindle. Originally I thought I had a text box popping up on all my documents that was causing the problem. After finally clearing up that, I still had the same problem. My text would be in various fonts, even though my document wasn't. Reading in the differences between Word 97- 2003 and Word 2007 is that you can save your documents in the compatibility mode. It's fine when working on my own files but this type of doc will drive you crazy. It's NOT accepted on either Smashwords or Kindle. Neither is a Word docx. document. I've spent the last three days keeping myself from almost throwing my laptop against the wall. But, I finally was able to upload, The Ultimate Gift- Loving Blood without any errors. Yay and I am done for a while.

[Robin Breyer]

Joe, what did you finally do that worked?

[JoeB]

When you go to - Save as, go to Word doc. Then a little box appears where it says to leave in compatibility mode, uncheck that box. Otherwise it stays in compatibility form where you can work with it. When uploading a novel, that form is the kiss of death and will drive you crazy trying to go line by line finding where the hidden problem is in your fonts and paragraph spacing. Now, looking back at all the changes I made, there was a lot of fonts and additional spacing I could have left in to make it look nicer.
That little box that says keep in compatibility form is bad news. And the suggestions on Smashwords doesn't even recommend looking for that problem.

[Robin Breyer]

I will definitely keep an eye out for that. I don't use Word itself so I may not have an issue, but I'll have to see.

[JoeB]

For those writers that are considering the ebook route, Smashwords only accepts documents in the Word format. And it must be a doc. document. Just for any future reference. Maybe all along I was being naive about the proper way to do things, but I've learned from this experience. I hope others are more aware of how they're saving their documents.