How to get a good quality conversion out of Smashwords

[Stephen]

I followed their style guide to the letter, ensuring that all the aspects were covered.

I then submitted my polished word document and got flakey conversion in smashwords (varying fonts/sizes/indents). I didn't get any auto-vetter notifications, so my formatting was technically correct.

I then resorted to Jutoh and had it auto-generate a brand new clean version of my novel ...and yes, using styles (just like before). I then submit that document to smashwords and hey-presto, the same flakey conversion.

What exactly am I doing wrong? I'm tired of their lack of professionalism and quality conversion.

[[deleted user]]

Stephen wrote: "I followed their style guide to the letter, ensuring that all the aspects were covered.

I then submitted my polished word document and got flakey conversion in smashwords (varying fonts/sizes/inde..."

You need to go through the smashwords guide. It's about hidden formatting, things that insert blank pages, that sort of thing. You can cut and paste the whole document into textedit, then copy and re paste it into your document and re-format from there. It does work.

Personally I think I'll get my copy editor Tricia Kristufek, to format my novel for smashwords for me. It's worth the money not to have to go through the ****.

[[deleted user]]

Oh, right, just saw the book title with this question. So you've read it and followed it already....The meatgrinder is painful.

[Vickie]

I don't have trouble with the meatgrinder at Smashwords. {knock on wood}

Where I knock my head against the wall several times is dealing with the mobi format at Amazon. They screw up my dialogue (indent the second line so far in that it looks like an insert) Grrrr! so far with every book I have had to painstakingly fix it! This is after my editor has turned it into a polished doc. It drives both of us nuts.

So far, I've happened upon a way to get the dialogue from indenting. But it came with a slew of uploads and trial and error.

[[deleted user]]

Vickie wrote: "I don't have trouble with the meatgrinder at Smashwords. {knock on wood}

Where I knock my head against the wall several times is dealing with the mobi format at Amazon. They screw up my dialogue ..."

Through KDP. I haven't had that problem. *knocks on wood too*

[Justin]

All this Smashwords talk is giving me a headache. What about selling your book on Smashwords? Thats gotta be a whole complex process in itself

[Cynthia]

My sales on Smashwords were abysmal. I have had lots of downloads there when I offered it for free though. I mainly use it for the free coupon to send to reviewers.

[[deleted user]]

But they are the distributers. My Barnes and Noble figures through SM are great.

[[deleted user]]

Justin wrote: "All this Smashwords talk is giving me a headache. What about selling your book on Smashwords? Thats gotta be a whole complex process in itself"

No. No problems working it out, only the formatting is a pain in the ****.

[C.S. Splitter]

Yeah....don't count on a lot of sales from Smashwords compared to Amazon.

I'm not knocking it, just not the same reach.

Splitter

[Barbara]

C.S. Splitter wrote: "Yeah....don't count on a lot of sales from Smashwords compared to Amazon.

I'm not knocking it, just not the same reach.

Splitter"

You can get to B&N through PubIt, me and Georgina can't... we only have Smashwords! ;-) And my KDP sales are abysmal... :-D

[C.S. Splitter]

Sorry to hear that Barbara. Europe needs to decide on a format and get the publishers united.

Splitter

[Barbara]

C.S. Splitter wrote: "Sorry to hear that Barbara. Europe needs to decide on a format and get the publishers united.

Splitter"

We have XinXii - it's German, and it's the European Smashwords. If you want to try the European market, sign up with them. I joined this year and no sales yet! ;-)

[Stephen]

I fixed it. Since I had two different formats of paragraph (body text, body text first line indent), the second format wasn't getting a size directive, but the first was.

So the trick was to base the second paragraph's style on the first (instead of 'normal') to ensure that the font size was specified in the second.

I hope you were able to follow that :)

[[deleted user]]

Stephen wrote: "I fixed it. Since I had two different formats of paragraph (body text, body text first line indent), the second format wasn't getting a size directive, but the first was.

So the trick was to base ..."

Great Stephen. A relief then. :) Georgina.

[Katharina]

The best help for formatting for Kindle is from Guido Henkel. Check out his series "Take pride in your eBook formatting"

[Marjorie]

Katharina wrote: "The best help for formatting for Kindle is from Guido Henkel. Check out his series "Take pride in your eBook formatting""

Thank you so much for this, Katharina!! I've JUST released my book (via Smashwords) excepting out my Kindle version to do myself. I've never munged the HTML before so I was a little trepiditious about how to approach it. Now, at least, I have a reference of what to look for and what to use to do the work. Only drawback is learning Calibre. *groan* learning curves *groan* but it sure does sound like a worthwhile investment of time (once I have the time LOL)

Again, thanx for posting the link.

-Friday