There’s More To Having a Publishing Company than Publishing Books

I’m a day late on this post. I returned from Israel just last week following a five-week stay with my daughter, her husband and my new grandson. I’ve spent this past week catching up on home chores. Today is the first day I’ve been into my Blogger dashboard since I began my journey to Israel at the end of January, though I have checked my posted blogs. Nevertheless, I was both excited and dismayed to see I have seven comments, most discussing the creation of my mobi book--excited to know folks are reading my blog and dismayed to realize I had neither published nor responded to the comments. I apologize--I didn’t know they were there. For some reason, I thought I’d be notified by the system. I’m betting I’m not looking in the right place, and it’s time to pull out my “Blogger Guide.” Now that I’m caught up with domestic chores, I’m gonna do just that. In the meantime, here’s this week’s post:

Yesterday I completed Loblolly Writer’s House’s end-of-year worksheet, which I will now submit to my tax person. She will take that data and record it on a Schedule K, then append it to our (mine and hubby’s) 1040.

Loblolly Writer’s House is a sole proprietorship. Its taxes are not complex, and I doubt it would make much difference in our tax liability if I simply “forgot” to submit the data (though Jane would probably miss it). My reason for bringing up this annual cycle is to point out what a nightmare keeping up with the books is.

Journals and ledgers, debits, credits, columns, rows--balancing all those totals! Geez. Accounting lasts all year--and ends--well, only sorta, ’cause it doesn’t really end--the year ends with the closing of “most” of the ledger accounts, then balancing the debits and credits--they have all gotta add up and equal one another. Then there are the adjustments. Now I’ve found adjustments to be very handy. In fact, I actually use “adjustments” to make the debits and credits add up.

More seriously (well, maybe only a little), legitimate adjustments have to do with perishable inventory like paper and ink cartridges. I wrote those suckers out of my accounting system two years ago. I now call such items office supplies and put them all under a single expense account. Works for me. I did simarily with “sales tax.”

Do I sound like I’m speaking to you in generalities--using keywords that sound like “accounting”? I could tell you it’s my writing style--divesting my narrative of detail so as not to bore the reader. I would not be telling the truth. I’m being simple (read as leaving out details), because when it comes to the accounting requirements of my company, I am a simpleton--or maybe just a “simple woman.” Unfortunately, I am unable to keep my accounting simple enough.

Each year at tax time, I have to pull out my course studies (I took a bookkeeping class online from Ed to Go years ago) and re-teach myself what I have to do to close out my books, gather tax data, and start up the new accounting year. I start dreading the process before I’ve got the Christmas decorations put away.

Okay, that doesn’t make me any different from a whole lot of Americans at that time of year. The point I’m trying to make is that there is a lot more to self-publishing a book than, well, publishing a book, assuming that authors are treating their book(s) as a business.

I’m sure some you are wondering, “Why doesn’t she use an accounting program?” I did use one in the beginning. [Still, I had to take time to enter data into the program. Time spent accounting is time spent, no matter how one does it.] Then one day, the software manufacturer wanted me to update--for a price. I didn’t have extra money I wanted to spend on a bookkeeping program I was happy with, and I didn’t want to update. I liked the program the way it was, and I knew it well enough to make it work; it did exactly what I wanted/needed it to do. I’m a writer for Saint Peter’s sake, not an accountant! I wanted to be left alone to enter (and print out) my information on that rare occasion (tax time) when I needed it, and I wanted to spend any free time I never came up with, writing.

Shortly after I failed to upgrade, the software program stopped working, and I did what I normally do when I feel I’ve become dependent on something taking advantage of me. I bought a journal, ledgers, and pencils, and I learned to do the accounting myself. Well...

The “disgraced”software program did do the end-of-year reports with the click of the mouse. For the past several years now, I’ve had to drag out my old school stuff and “re-invent the worksheet” so to speak. Maybe next year I’ll buy a new program, and this time I’ll keep up with the updates.

Thanks for reading,

Charlsie

Self-Publishing and Kindred Spirits

In my effort to establish an online presence through social networking, I recently joined a self-publishing group. Self-publishing is a subject I could, I think, get into and share (and grow) my limited expertise. I’m not talking about an “independent publisher” per se, but self-publishers who write and publish their own stuff. I’d like the focus to be on fiction--not because I have anything against non-fiction, I read lots of it, but because when it comes to marketing, the paradigms will be different, and in my opinion, once the focus becomes too broad, well it’s too broad. The focus gets lost.

Independent publishing includes self-publishers, but not all independent publishers are self-publishers. Small publishers are also independent in that they’re not part of the big publishing consortiums headquartered in New York. But small publishers still have editors and typesetters and cover designers, etc., and they publish other people’s stuff, just like the traditional publisher. They are traditional publishers.

What I envision is a group of people, each of whom is "responsible" for every aspect of their respective books. People interested in exploring the facets of typography, fonts, interior and cover design; digital books and upgrades to digital book software programs (i.e. Mobipocket and Epub...and KF8); people interested in following the International Digital Publishing Forum and the intricacies of various digital book structures and how the files work to make the book display on the screen. Learned knowledge, shared by all. I’d like us to explore building websites and online stores and using social networking such as Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin to market books.

What I don’t want this group to discuss is writing. I want it to be about self-publishing--the physical act of publishing--words on paper, words on screen--words heard on CD.

I thought that was the focus of the group I recently joined, but it turns out, its goal is to improve the image of self-published work--the argument being, and the point is valid, that poorly written, edited, and produced work reflects unfavorably on us all.

A worthy cause, but how can it be done without putting in place the same roadblocks to publication already present in the “traditional publishing” world? I don’t believe those roadblocks are there to guarantee good writing (which is subjective).

Theoretically, traditionally published works are better because “experts” guarantee the reader that the writing is “right.” Truth is the “experts” are schooled in what they think the reader wants to buy--editing, interior and exterior design, marketing, and distribution are the perquisites provided with the traditional paradigm--a paradigm set up to publish, distribute, and sell books, not create literary masterpieces--though I’m sure an editor is happy when one crosses her desk. Nor do I believe the paradigm is designed so that only certain authors “make the cut.”

The model was established long ago with the realization there was money to be made from the publishing and marketing of books. It has evolved to where it is today to meet that objective--by necessity there is room for only so many. And yes, the publishers had the power to decide who played the game and who didn’t. The companies belong to them, after all.

Computers and the internet have broadened the playing field, allowing others to play the game--with a different paradigm, which is, admittedly, in flux. Given how fast technology is changing, it might always be in flux.

Personally, I just want to write and publish. I don’t want to regulate or even speculate on regulating content provided by a fellow “self-publisher,” who needs to concentrate on his own writing, not the writing of others.

Thanks for your visit.

Charlsie

Thoughts on Social Networking--The Beginning

I have a website; it's been with me almost as long as my first book. I learned .html and Paint Shop Pro 8, and I created it from scratch. I update it from scratch, too, which probably explains why I don't update it more often than I do. I know people visit it--not in the thousands or even hundreds. "Scores" over several months is probably close. My point is that it's not a viable avenue for communicating with readers.

My blog--this blog--on the other hand is something I am determined to post to weekly. So far it hasn't proven a viable avenue for communicating with anyone, but I'm determined to keep plugging away. A friend, another writer who is weighing the advantages and disadvantages of starting a blog, said he'd read that it takes an average of six months to establish a blog following. I'm going to give it at least that long--I'm into my third month, but I think I have some interesting and even valuable information to pass along to others--probably a limited number of others--but others none the less. But once a week posting to this blog takes a good work day; it's an investment in time, and I want it to be a success.

I understand I have to bring people here; they aren't going to visit if they don't know about this site. That requires reciprocating interest in others' efforts to gain a following. I'm attempting to do that by participating in writing groups on Linkedin and tweeting on Twitter. I also have a business page on Facebook, but haven't done much with it yet.

Speaking of an investment in time, those Linkedin groups are one. Part of the problem is my not knowing how to "manage" the system. Nightly, I end up re-reading the same comments I read the night before. There is a way to advance to recent posts on the Linkedin groups, and that helps some, but I think the real key to success is to narrow the discussions I follow. My interest these days deals more with self-publishing than "writing," but writing groups appear to be more popular. That's not to say I'm not interested in writing. I'm a writer, but I don't want to critique other's work nor am I compelled to ask for another's advice regarding my craft.

The other connection I need to make online is with readers. That is my ultimate goal--to get my books into the hands of readers. Trying to elicit interest in one's books via an online writing forum is like trying to sell books at a "book fair." A writer's primary interest is his own book.

In a nutshell, I haven't mastered "social networking, but I certainly haven't written it off. I'll keep you posted."

Another thing about my blog is its appearance. I like this template with the books on the shelves. Appropriate, yes, but it's not really mine. I'd like the blog to look more like my website...or maybe I could put "my" books on the shelves. Good idea, huh? I need to pull out Blogging for Dummies and figure out how best to go about that.

Thanks for visiting,


Charlsie

From Early Marketing to Online Presence

It’s late, I’m tired, but I really need to get this post done. Several weeks will have passed before you read it. I leave for Israel the end of the week (I have a pregnant daughter there), but I want to maintain my weekly blogging schedule. That means scheduling my post for publication at a future date--something I haven’t done before. Neat.

I’m new to the blogosphere--well, not real, real, new. I think this will be my twelfth post. Despite that, I’m still learning Blogger. Just yesterday I had to pull out my Blogging for Dummies by Susannah Gardner and Shane Birley to recall how to update my template (I wanted to add links to the resources I used in building my first Kindle book.). Blogging is my latest attempt at marketing.

Last week, I broke down and threw away two full boxes of the “advanced reading copy” (ARC) of my first published novel, The Devil’s Bastard. The book bears a copyright of 2007, but it hit the streets in September 2006--and my brain-child, the 100+ copies of a plain, white-covered ARC--was even earlier than that. One of those boxes had never been opened, but I needed space, and that brain-child had proven a non-starter.

That large inventory of The Devil’s Bastard was an idea I had back when I first started self-publishing, a delusional attempt to market my books across the states that once made up the Old South. I was going to send ARCs to every independent bookstore I could google from Virginia to Texas and north to Kentucky and Missouri.

The idea fizzled in my home state of Mississippi. Truth is small independent bookstores don’t have the manpower (or the interest) to review a distant stranger’s self-published book--particularly one with an ugly white cover.

I was a classic “newbie.”

Additionally I did not have the time or logistics to drive and promote all over Dixie, then follow up with those stores on a “routine” basis--assuming they agreed to take a few copies of the “finished” book to begin with. Odds are very good--I know this now, I didn’t then--that if you leave a few books with a store, and those books eventually sell, that store owner isn’t gonna call you up and ask you to send more. He might take more if you ask him, but unless those suckers flew off the shelves--and beginners are unknown so they probably didn’t--you more than likely won’t be receiving a call. The author has to drive the sell, first to the bookstore owner. Once the book is in the store, she has to get the buyer in there, too, to buy the book. The latter is another story and I’m not going there today.

I did purchase plain, white-covered copies of my second book, Wolf Dawson, but wiser for those boxes of white-covered copies of The Devil’s Bastard still sitting on my shelves, I bought only 25 (the minimum from a digital printer), and those I used in the true spirit of an ARC. That was to request prepublication reviews from the standard biggies: Kirkus, USA Today, ForeWord, etc. Never got one, but I’d already learned from my attempts with The Devil’s Bastard that I probably wouldn’t. More practically, I passed out a number of those ARCs to writer/reader buddies to check for typos/usage prior to my offset print run.

With my third book, Epico Bayou, I did a full-color cover with an “ARC flag” across the top. I didn’t request one prepublication review that time around. I’d learned that lesson. But my writer/reader buddies still helped out with the proofing. If I hadn’t done the ARC, I’d have gone straight to offset and that’s too late to proof.

This fall, when I published my most recent novel, River’s Bend, I printed with Lightning Source (LSI) and forwent the ARC altogether. LSI is a digital printer and though the cost per copy for digital printing is more expensive than offset, I can order as few as one book. Once again, I sent copies of my initial short run to my writer/reader buddies for proofing. Errors fixed (most of them anyway, I hope), I uploaded the corrected .pdf to LSI and purchased a larger run--but not too large.

So far, I love dealing with LSI. No huge inventory sitting around and no hefty charge on the credit card to pay off. And by hefty, I mean several thousand dollars. Now I pay as I go.

I know much of this sounds discouraging to prospective self-publishers (and familiar to others), but things are not as bad as they sound. I’ve gotten four five-star post-publication reviews from Midwest Book Review, and I’ve found my niche in Mississippi selling primarily at craft fairs. I do have my books in independent book stores within the state (and as time passes, and my readership grows, the rest of the Old South is still on my list). LSI (owned by Ingram) provides access to the big chains across the nation. Barnes and Noble now carries the print copy of River’s Bend in its online store, whereas before Amazon was my only out-of-state retailer for print books. That new connection with Barnes and Noble would not have happened without LSI. Right now I only have one book at LSI, but one of 2012’s goals is to get all four of them there. Smashwords and Kindle have made my work available to all the major ereaders and gotten them with the major online digital-book stores.

Oh, a little brag if I could: Along with that surprise appearance of the print copy of River's Bend on sale at the Barnes and Noble online store, there was a five-star review. No, I do not know who posted it, but if he/she is reading this, thank you and I'm glad you enjoyed the story.

But whether it be a digital store or the local brick and mortar store downtown, my challenge remains to get the reader to the store to purchase my book. Loading my car, setting up a booth, only to tear it down hours later, through summer heat and winter cold is getting, like me, old. That brings me back to where I started this post, my blog and its purpose. Online marketing is a new initiative for me, and that’s the subject of my next post--next week.

I’m doing it in advance, too.

Thanks for visiting,

Charlsie

Mobi "Build" and EPUB "Zip"

Last spring (2011), I put my then most recently published novel, Epico Bayou, into ePUB format. Elizabeth Castro's EPUB Straight to the Point was my guide. I never got to Chapter 4, "Advanced EPUB Formatting", which had been my real goal. You see, I have a Nook, and on that Nook, I have the free "classics" Barnes and Noble provided with the eReader. I want my ebooks to look like those classics.

At the time, Smashwords, where my books can be purchased in digital format for any eReader, had not come to an agreement with Barnes and Noble regarding distribution of Smashword's EPUB-formatted books, and Barnes and Noble was accepting uploads to its Pubit program, which converts books into EPUB for the Nook. I considered those good reasons to delve into EPUB formatting, with the added benefit of making my books as pretty as Barnes and Nobel's "classics."

Instead, my twenty-two-year-old daughter informed her father and me that she and her Israeli boyfriend were tying the knot, and they were coming home to Mississippi to do it. Needless to say, my goals involving Chapter 4 were set back, and I planned a beautiful wedding. By the time the dust had settled, my books could be purchased for the Nook from the Barnes and Noble Ebook Store, and I had my own web page at the Apple iTunes Store--like a rock star! Yessss. Mike Coker at Smashwords had been busy. See sidebar.

So completing that final chapter of Elizabeth Castro’s EPUB Straight... and making Epico Bayou as pretty as a Barnes and Noble "classic" faded in importance, and I turned my attention to getting River's Bend on the street (in print) and ultimately into the Kindle store as a mobipocket.AZW ebook.

Now, I spent a lot of hours with EPUB Straight to the Point last year, and I learned a lot--knowledge that proved invaluable when I started putting River's Bend into mobi format. From prior experience with Smashwords and its Formatting Guide, I knew how to format books in Word (.doc) for conversion to digital format, and I knew enough .html to convert that properly formatted Word document into .html, then clean it up. Converting Word to .html creates a messy .html document.

EPUB and mobipocket have a lot in common. In fact, from what this laywoman has been able to decipher from her internet research and the International Digital Publishing Forum (see sidebar), the former is an upgrade of the latter--or an upgrade from whatever the latter derived from. The EPUB format is more complicated in that it’s longer, the headers slightly more complex, and the content greater, but certainly manageable. The two biggest problems I had with EPUB were "validating" my EPUB file by downloading and running a java script in my "current" directory and "zipping" the EPUB files comprising my book.

I know what zipping is--compressing files to make them smaller so they take up less "cyberspace" when sent over the internet--or something to that effect. But I have trouble with it. I have trouble with the tools one uses to "zip" or "unzip". I dread dealing with either one, and every time I use one or the other, I am forced to relearn what I never really learned in the first place. I know it shouldn't be that hard. I have WinZip on my new computer. The program looks like it should be able to do everything one needs with one click of the button. Maybe some people can, but I can’t, which brings me back to what prompted this post to begin with: Mobipocket Creator.

I understand enough about the conversion of documents into eReader formats to be able to do it. More often than not I don't understand what the "converters" are doing to these carefully formatted .html, .txt, and graphic files during the conversion process, but I do know that EPUB files must be "zipped" together for the iPad/iPod/S4/Nook or whatever--the eReader--to display them as a book on the screen.

I know that with Mobipocket Creator, you put the files in the publishing window and click "build." That creates the .prc, which you can then upload to various places--in my case, to Amazon where the .prc is converted into mobi’s AZW format for Kindle.

In my mind, that "build" order is equivalent to the "zip" order. But I can't find anything to confirm that. Also, when you hit "build" in the Creator's publishing window, the Creator takes you to the next screen where you have to decide not only your encryption options but also your "compression" options--one of which (the one April Hamilton suggests you choose, as a matter of fact) is “no compression.” That rules out an inherent parallel between “build” and "zipping," right?

Whatever... If there’s anyone out there who knows what happens when you hit "build" and how that equates to what happens when you "zip" in EPUB, please let me know.

What I do know is this: If I find my new .prc book faulty in any way and need to correct it, all I have to do is go to my book's folder in the "My Publications" file on my hard drive, open the egregious file with Notepad++, fix it, close it, re-upload it to the Creator's publishing window, then "build" again. Everything is overwritten, and there’s the corrected .prc. None of that zipping and unzipping I dread so much.

And lastly, I need to download some information on that KF8 format for Kindle Fire--drop caps and embedded fonts. Now that's gonna be pretty!

Thanks for reading.

Charlsie

The Guide

The guide, and I know this from personal experience, plays an important role in a mobipocket book. Not so, for an EPUB book. In EPUB Straight to the Point Elizabeth Castro says the guide is optional, its purpose to identify the role of the different files making up the book.

Not so in its mobipocket manifestation. Here, it serves as another table of contents, only this time for the "book" menu in the Kindle (or other mobipocket reading device) by turning the anchors created in the .html-formatted novel into selectable links. The Mobipocket Developer Center (see sidebar) describes guide items as content for the book’s "Go to" menu in the eReader.

For the Kindle, the "guide" requires only two anchors. Indeed, if I interpret Joshua Tallent's guidance correctly, only two are used by Kindle, the novel's "#toc" (the book’s table of contents) and "#start" (in the case of my book, River's Bend, the "start" is Chapter 1).

Other mobipocket devices use additional anchors and you can expand the guide if you like. River's Bend uses only the #toc and #start, since I figure if I can get the reader (by this I mean the human reader) to the toc, he/she can get anywhere else in the book.

If the guide is not formatted correctly, the reader can't get anywhere short of clicking the device's forward and reverse buttons. I know, because the "guide" was the last thing I had to unravel to get River's Bend to work correctly in mobipocket format.

I had trouble with River's Bend's "guide" section from the moment Mobipocket Creator produced the first .opf, but it was not until a month had passed following my first warning- and error-filled "build" and I had uploaded my hand-made files into the Creator's Publishing window and created a seemingly flawless "build" that I realized something was still wrong. In the Kindle Previewer, when I clicked on the Table of Contents in Kindle's menu on the top bar, I went to the cover. I couldn't get to any of the chapters, including chapter one the designated "beginning" (#start) of my book. Always, I went to the cover.

It took a little while longer and another review of the Joshua Tallent book to zero in on the "guide", which, in the section of his book of the same name (chapter 7), he states quite clearly that if the reference in the guide is incorrect, "Kindle will not contain active links to the Table of Contents and the Beginning of the book." Well, the "toc" and "start" reference types were both there, but my error proved to be in the href. My guide read thus:

<guide>
<reference type="toc" title="Table of Contents" href="Riversbend.html"></reference>

<reference type="start" title="Start" href="Riversbend.html"></reference>

</guide>

What it should have read (and now does) is this:

<guide>

<reference type="toc" title="Table of Contents" href="Riversbend.html#toc"></reference>

<reference type="start" title="Start" href="Riversbend.html#start"></reference>

</guide>

I fixed, I rebuilt, and I uploaded to the DTP. Amazon blessed it and put it in the Kindle Store. I downloaded it to my Kindle. It looked nice. I'd worked long and hard on it. I was so proud of the thing. That's when I noticed that when filling out my data on my DTP dashboard I spelled my name with three "s"s--Charlsie Russsell. No one would find me by that name. Could I have been any dumber? I was sick, afraid it would never upload right again.

Well, I guess I just answered my last question, didn't I? Amazon corrected it. Piece of cake, but it did elicit a final gasp and one last curse from silly me.

Hope some of you will find my struggle with creating a mobipocket book of use. Thanks so much for reading, and once again, comments are appreciated--especially if you can contribute ideas to improve my efforts at mobi production.

Charlsie

Manifest, Spine, and Tours

I decided to combine what I've learned about the manifest, spine, and tours sections of a mobipocket book's .opf document into one post. The first two are linked in that the "item id" in the manifest must match exactly the "itemref idref" in the spine. There’s not much to say about tours, but what I know, I share below.

First, I want to show you how River's Bend's final manifest, spine and tours sections turned out:

<manifest>
<item id="toc" media-type="application/x-dtbncx+xml" href="toc.ncx"></item>
<item id="item1" media-type="text/x-oeb1-document" href="Riversbend.html"></item>
<item id="item2" media-type="image/jpg" href="Riversbendcover.jpg" ></item>
<item id="item3" media-type="image/jpg" href="Riversbendlogo.jpg"></item>
</manifest>

<spine toc="toc">
<itemref idref="item1"/>
<itemref idref="item2"/>
<itemref idref="item3"/>
</spine>

<tours></tours>

The manifest lists the files that make up the mobipocket book, and the spine arranges the documents in a linear reading order. The manifest begins with a <manifest> element and contains an "itemid" for each "item" making up the book. Each item is annotated by its "media type," a declaration of what kind of item it is. Choices include "text" (the .html book), "image" (cover and/or logo and any other pictures in the book), "application," I assume that means how it's applied or used within the book (i.e. the navigational table of contents--.ncx file), and "font." That would be an embedded font, and I’m pretty certain embedded fonts are not applicable to a mobi book.

The section closes with the corresponding </manifest> tag. In the case of River's Bend, the manifest includes the toc.ncx file; the novel formatted in .html; and two graphics, one being the cover and the second, Loblolly Writer's House's logo, which appears on the book's title page. Four items, that's all.

The Spine section, as you’d expect, opens with a <spine> tag and closes with </spine>. In between, it tells the e-Reader (the machine not the person) the order in which to read the files. You can see the relationship between the item id in the manifest and the itemref idref noted in the opening paragraph of this post. Except for...

Okay, I admit it, the spine has caused me some confusion. In River's Bend's file, I called it, not "<spine>," but "<spine toc="toc">." My guidance came from Joshua Tallent in his example of the .opf file in Chapter 7 of Kindle Formatting (see sidebar).

Now, look at the manifest. The first item id in the manifest="toc" and its href is the "toc.ncx" file. Yes, that's right; it should be the toc.ncx element, but why isn't there a spine itemref idref like this

<spine>
<itemref idref="toc"/>

to make the spine parallel with the manifest?

First off, Elizabeth Castro states in Chapter 3 of EPUB Straight to the Point (see sidebar) that the spine element "must have a toc attribute whose value matches the value of the id in the item that referenced the toc.ncx file in the manifest." Now, I've noticed that what's right for epub more often than not is right for mobi. The two are kissing cousins, so that explains that. And although the "toc" attribute in the spine header is present (<spine="toc">) in Joshua Tallent's example, the itemref idref="toc" in the spine's body is not. His spine is very simple:

<spinetoc="toc">
<itemref idref="item1"/>
</spine>

"Item 1" in his example references the .html book itself, the reference to the table of contents being covered in the spine's opening tag.

Now, let's keep going. In April L. Hamilton's example of the spine in her Indie Author Guide To Publishing for The Kindle (see sidebar), there is an itemref idref="toc" in the body of the spine, but if you look at Liz Castro's example of the spine in Chapter 3 of EPUB Straight..., she does not place the itemref idref="toc" [or maybe it should read "ncx" ?] within the spine either.

I conclude that the digital book works either way. Which way is the correct way is a different matter. Certainly mine, without the itemref idref="toc" within the spine, works fine, and I'd be willing to bet everything April Hamilton formats works, too. By my own assessment (I've already told y'all I can be anal), I think the itemref idref="toc" should be in the body of the spine section. If so, River's Bend's spine should actually look like this:

<spine toc="toc">
<itemref idref="toc">
<itemref idref="item1"/>
<itemref idref="item2"/>
<itemref idref="item3"/>
</spine>

Anal or not, I'm not about to tempt fate. My River's Bend Kindle book works as is, and I "ain't" messin' with it. I will change the template, though, and see how Epico Bayou works with the itemref idref="toc" within the spine.

<tours></tours>

Here's how the International Digital Publishing Forum defines the <tours></tours> element: "A set of alternate reading sequences through the publication, such as selective views for various reading purposes, reader expertise levels, etc."

Got that? Neither did I.

River's Bend's "tours" section is empty. In truth, the tours section is deprecated. I do wonder what would happen if I deleted it from my .opf document altogether. I'd be willing to bet if my itemref idref="toc" missing from the body of my spine slips by unnoticed, the same would be true of a non-existing tours, but then I think if I ever understand its purpose, I might use it someday. It can be used and probably is by somebody somewhere. I’m just gonna leave it. Everyone else does.

Want to study more? My resources are in the sidebar.

Thanks for reading. Next week I plan to finish up the .opf file with the "guide" section.

Charlsie