Smashwords questions not answered in Style Guide

fasteddy8170

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My book is a novel. Very straightforward for formatting purposes. No pictures, footers, headers. Just text. Still, I have some questions.

-if I have blurbs from readers, should I still keep less than 4 line spaces between them as I must do in the book? My concern is that they might look jumbled together without some space between them.

-do I absolutely, positively have to have an ISBN? I was trying to put off getting one until I couldn't put it off any longer.

-on the title page, I have the same concern as the blurbs page. Is the standard still that I must have less than 4 line spaces between blocks of text?

-my book cover image is a jpeg but it isn't 500 by 800 as is suggested. It is about 400 by 600. Is that okay?

-I don't plan to set up a table of contents and will allow Smashwords to automatically do it. However, I'm not sure how it works. If I have the word "chapter" within the text and it has nothing to do with an actual chapter of the book, will it mess it up?

Thanks
 

James D. Macdonald

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-if I have blurbs from readers, should I still keep less than 4 line spaces between them as I must do in the book? My concern is that they might look jumbled together without some space between them.

The meatgrinder and autovetter don't know if those things are blurbs or part of the text or what. And the reason for fewer-than-four-lines is that they look terrible in an ebook. So, just one line, then a centered line thus:

* * *

Then the next line

-do I absolutely, positively have to have an ISBN? I was trying to put off getting one until I couldn't put it off any longer.

Only if you want to get into the iBookstore and other on-line retailers that require an ISBN. Why not get it? It's free. What does it hurt?

-on the title page, I have the same concern as the blurbs page. Is the standard still that I must have less than 4 line spaces between blocks of text?

Yes.
-my book cover image is a jpeg but it isn't 500 by 800 as is suggested. It is about 400 by 600. Is that okay?

I'd seriously suggest you make your cover image 500x800. Perhaps the book will flunk the autovetter, perhaps the cover will merely look like crap after being squeezed or stretched to fit the rectangular shape.

-I don't plan to set up a table of contents and will allow Smashwords to automatically do it. However, I'm not sure how it works. If I have the word "chapter" within the text and it has nothing to do with an actual chapter of the book, will it mess it up?

It shouldn't.
 

efkelley

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I'd seriously suggest you make your cover image 500x800. Perhaps the book will flunk the autovetter, perhaps the cover will merely look like crap after being squeezed or stretched to fit the rectangular shape.

Spot-on advice, and this is particularly accurate.

Fortunately re-sizing your file up to 500 by 800 should be a snap.