Submitting EPUB to Smashwords

[madfilkentist]

I've got a book ready to upload to Smashwords, and because its formatting is complicated, I've created an EPUB file with Calibre to upload in addition to the Word file. When I upload the EPUB, I get a warning:

File 'META-INF/calibre_bookmarks.txt' in EPUB not listed in manifest!
 
Your .epub file is missing one or more elements in its manifest. A complete manifest is required for distribution to Apple. Here's how Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPUB) defines "Manifest":"The manifest element lists all the files contained in the package. Each file is represented by an item element, and has the attributes id, href, media-type. All XHTML (content documents), stylesheets, images or other media, embedded fonts, and the NCX file should be listed here."

I've unzipped the EPUB file, and there's an XML file called content.opf which contains a "manifest" element. It looks as if I should add something there for calibre_bookmarks.txt, but the elements are interrelated, and it's not obvious just what I should do. calibre_bookmarks.txt just contains a regular expression, and maybe it isn't needed. Just deleting it from the Zip file would be easy. Has anyone dealt with this issue before? If I get a quick response, that could help me to decide. If not, I'll try deleting that file from the ZIP and uploading again to see what happens. My announced publication date is Thursday. I did the first upload today because I figured there would be glitches like this. Thanks for any help.

Comments

[elf]

Potentially, install Sigil and open with that; it's much easier to make corrections there than with a direct text editor. (Also, Sigil will look for problems with the manifest.)

I haven't dealt with this because Calibre confuses and bothers me, so I switched to Sigil for making epubs. Means I have to do a lot more manual work but I actually understand the results.

You can certainly try just deleting calibre_bookmarks.txt; I've got no idea what that's supposed to do.

[madfilkentist]

Thanks, I'm now downloading Sigil and I'll give it a try.

[elf]

Sigil has a non-intuitive layout and steep learning curve, but is very useful once you get past that.

Also, the WYSYWIG is a lie; it's more like "what you see is somewhat representative of what you get."

[madfilkentist]

Sigil looks as if it has its uses, but it makes the bookmarks file invisible and doesn't let me edit the manifest. I just used command line zip to remove the offending file, and this time Smashwords is happy.

I still need to upload the Word file to cover the other formats, and the public announcement will be Thursday. Kickstarter supporters may get their download codes a day early if all goes well.

How did you handle?

[(Anonymous)]

hi madfilkentist - I ran into the same thing - can you describe the steps you took to resolve this? I also used Calibre and got the same rejection but it was not clear what you deleted and how?

Re: How did you handle?

[(Anonymous)]

Este problema me salio cuando publique en Smashwords la versión del archivo en EPUB. ¡y lo solucioné facilmente!

File 'META-INF/calibre_bookmarks.txt' in EPUB not listed in manifest!

Your .epub file is missing one or more elements in its manifest. A complete manifest is required for distribution to Apple. Here's how Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPUB) defines "Manifest":"The manifest element lists all the files contained in the package. Each file is represented by an item element, and has the attributes id, href, media-type. All XHTML (content documents), stylesheets, images or other media, embedded fonts, and the NCX file should be listed here."

Teneis que pinchar en el archivo EPUB con el raton, boton derecho, abrir con WINRAR. Ahora buscais dentro de la carpeta META-INF, ahí está el archivo que da el problema: calibre_bookmarks.txt. Lo borrais desde WINRAR y guardais los cambios. Con esto ya podeis subir nuevamente el EPUB y ahora Smashwords lo aceptará sin problemas. MUY IMPORTANTE ES NO ABRIR EL ARCHIVO CON CALIBRE PORQUE SINO VUELVE A APARECER EL PROBLEMA.

fontface problem in Kindle Fire

[(Anonymous)]

In the typeface section on my Kindle Fire, I cannot change the typeface to different typefaces that are offered. For example, I cannot change from a Georgia font to a Verdana font or to Courier font or to a Times New Roman font. It just remains on the same font. I have had other e-books formatted and I've always have been able to change the typeface to different choices. This needs to be addressed so readers will be able to have a choice of different typefaces and are not just be stuck with only one typeface.