A few months ago Smashwords started accepting epub files. Since then I’ve seen lots of authors having issues with their epub files. Even though the ebooks look 100% ok in their ereaders, they’re getting rejections from Smashwords filled with lots of weird sounding errors. The reason for this is because Smashwords wants your epub to pass their validator. Different validators check for different things. The one Smashwords says to use in the troubleshooting guide is the IDPF validator.

What the validator does is check the code that is within the ebook. It does this to ensure that your file will be readable on a wider range of ereaders. If the code isn’t written according to what the validator expects to see, then it’ll show an error. Even though the error may not be visible to you.

When you upload your epub file, if there are errors, you’ll see lots of lines of what looks like garbled mess. It can be difficult to figure out what those lines mean. In order to fix the errors you’ll need an epub editor like Sigil . And it’s free so that makes it even better. There are others available, like Jutoh, you can use, but Jutoh isn’t free.

So now you have your epub uploaded into the validator. Here’s what it looks like when there’s errors:

errors screen in validator

You’re probably ready to run away after looking at that. It doesn’t seem to make much sense. This is why you have to have an epub editor to fix all this mess. I’ll try to explain what each box stands for and where to find it within the file. The first box is kind of obvious it says error which means there’s something wrong in that spot. The second box tells you which  file the error is in. Often times epub files are a series of HTM files so you need to look at the title in the second box to know which file to open. If you look at the above image you’ll see, 001.htm. That is the file you need to look for in your epub editor.

This is what you’ll see in Sigil (below image). If you look on the left hand side, you can see all the files within the epub are listed on the left hand side.  Double click .001.htm to open it

epub file being edited with Sigil

Once you double click on the file, it will open in the center of the screen. In the image above, you can see the titlepage.xhtml is open. You will also see numbers on the left hand side, 1,2,3,4,5 etc, those are the line numbers. That is what the third box in the errors screen is referring to. From the above errors screen, you need to find line 12 in file 001.htm.

The last box tells you what the error is. In the above example, the error is regarding the attribute vlink. Now this type of line in your HTML code won’t necessarily make an issue when you open it in your ereader, but it’s been deprecated in HTML 4.0 and is not recommended for use.  That is the reason it’s flagged as an error. Therefore you need to update it with more current code. If you look within the error, it tells you what it expected to find so you just need to rewrite the code for that.

I realize this is a lot of technicalese (yes that’s a word). And it can be quite confusing especially if you’re not that familiar with HTML codes or using an epub editor. Most of the errors you encounter are going to be easy fixes. You can even Google the error and often times will find the solution. It just takes a bit of patience and time to work through and fix all of the errors.

I plan on doing a couple more posts on epub for Smashwords explaining what the common errors are and how to fix them. If you have specific questions, you can email them to me or leave a comment.

I can’t promise to address every question, but I will do my best to address as many as I can. Clients keep me busy these days so I don’t have as much time as I did before to do tutorials. Although I do hope to do at least one a week from now on.

Importance of a Properly Edited Manuscript in Formatting

Having your manuscript fully edited and proofread before sending to your formatter is extremely important. Especially if it’s formatting for an ebook.

Most authors don’t realize ebook formatting is entirely different from print formatting. The majority of ebook formatters use HTML to format because HTML is the best way to ensure a properly formatted ebook regardless of what e-reader someone is using. Other formats, such as word or PDF, won’t hold their formatting in all circumstances.

This means if you happen to notice you wrote “threw” instead of “through” your formatter has to  rebuild your ebook, even if it’s only a single word that has to be corrected.

I know sometimes things get overlooked. Even the traditionally published books have the occasional misspelling or grammar error. For them, they usually leave it unless there’s a second reprinting due to excess demand. But indie authors don’t necessarily have this luxury. Indie authors have to ensure their books are completely error free and for that reason they will ask their formatter to fix even the smallest of issues.

However, authors have to realize that there may be excess fees to fix these errors. Every formatter has a different policy for changes after the document has been completed. It’s important you find this out before you begin just so you’re aware of what the policy and cost may be in case you have any issues that need to be fixed later on.

Another option authors have is learning how to edit the HTML documents themselves. This isn’t very difficult to do especially if you’ve already had the document properly formatted by a professional. You don’t even need expensive software. You can simply use notepad. Just right click on the HTML document and choose open with. Then choose notepad. You should see something that looks similar to this:

image source

If you look before each sentence you’ll see something in brackets; <h1> </body> etc. You want to be sure you don’t edit any of those. Simply highlight the misspelled word and make your corrections then resave. By learning how to edit your formatted HTML document, you can help to lower your formatting costs. I always suggest if you’re unsure ask a professional whether it’s editing, cover design or formatting. But since most indie authors are on a tight budget learning how to do these smaller things can make a big different in not only your budget but in the overall appearance of your ebook.

When laying out your book, you have to decide in advance if you want squared off pages or if you want no widows and orphans. But before we get into deciding, let’s talk about what each is.

Squared off pages are pretty self explanatory. It just means every page is squared off and level with every other page.

Widows and orphans are when a portion of a paragraph, usually a partial part of the first or last sentence, is on the opposite of the rest of the paragraph. Which is the widow and which is the orphan depends upon what source you use. According to the Chicage Manual of Style, the widow is at the top and the orphan at the bottom. Other sources define it as the other way around.

Getting Rid of Widows & Orphans

In most cases, either you have squared pages or you have no widows and orphans. There are instances where you can adjust the spacing between the words/letters to bring the sentence up or to push it onto the next page, but that doesn’t always work. Especially when the page already is filled with text. By expanding or condensing the text further, it can cause the text to look crowded or too spaced out. For this reason, I normally prefer to have no widows and orphans even if that means I have a blank line at the bottom of some pages.  That’s just my personal preference. There really is not a right or wrong. If you look at most mass market paperbacks, you’ll see they go with squared off pages more often, but that means they have lots of widows and orphans. In the end it boils down to what you like best. As long as the text is spaced evenly and is easy to read then that’s all that really matters.

Although if you’re hiring a formatter and have a particular preference, it’s best to let them know up front. Every book designer has their own style and way of formatting so unless you communicate your preferences to them, then most likely they’ll format according to their own personal preferences.

So which category do you fall into? Do you prefer squared off pages or no widows and orphans?