After publishing over forty erotic stories during the last eleven years, I’ve started to update some of my earlier books and freshen them up. I hit a roadblock with The Runaway, initially published almost ten years ago.
As authors, we have to jump through hoops to format our smut to properly publish at Amazon, SmashWords, Apple, and other distributors. The reader doesn’t see any of this but to get a story accepted and available to readers, several things must happen.
The document file must be acceptable and in the proper format to be processed. While none of this is overly complex, a number of things have to happen correctly for this to work. I selected The Runaway as my next story to republish. I’m not talking about republishing it as a new story but simply revising the original story and reissuing it. I would like to think that my creds for writing more better have improved in ten years. For me, reissuing a story is going back through it with fresh eyes and cleaning up things I missed while checking out that hot chick’s mini skirt. No big deal, right? Wrong!
The first thing that happened was the story document file was rejected due to ePub formatting issues. If you’ve ever tried to fix an ePub problem, you’ll know it is often impossible to figure out what’s wrong.
The ePub format is commonly used for books on cell phones, tablets, and computers. ePub is a PDF or universally readable on most types of devices. In my case, I submit a Word file to the publisher. The publisher then takes the file and runs it through conversion programs that convert the file into different file types, such as ePub. Then, the resultant ePub file is run through a validator program to ensure that it doesn’t cause the reader to crash or not display properly.
As I was high fiving myself for being such a smart pervert, my computer binged with a “Not so fast, dummy!” message. My story had failed the ePub Validation step and contained a list of error messages that gave no clue as to what was wrong.
The suggested fix was to convert the Word document into plain text to strip out any embedded hidden erroneous code. I felt like Matthew Broderick in War Games when the malevolent government computer wanted to play global thermonuclear war for real.
Perfectly clear, wouldn’t you say?
After some time banging my head against the wall, I finally figured out that the Word file had the remnants of the auto Table-of-Contents generated code in it, which ePub was apparently unhappy with. Remember that this story has been sold for about ten years without a complaint beyond creating a blister from some of my enthusiastic readers.
I’ve tried everything I can think of to eliminate the hidden code that is creating the problem. Apparently, there is no way to show the offending code such that it can be eliminated. Just before I bit the bullet and pasted a plain text version into a new document, then I would have to go through the file and reformat all of the italicized and other text that was eliminated in plain text.
It struck me to convert the file to a Scrivener version and then use my current publishing method to have Scrivener compile the story into a Word-compatible file. Running a test file, it seemed to work as Scrivener ignored the original hidden code and generated a clean output that passed the ePub Validation with flying colors.
Testing the trial version of The Runaway worked, and now I’m assembling the Scrivener version to publish. In hindsight, I should have probably left the original story alone, as it’s not like I don’t have other fish to fry.
The big SmashWords End of Year Sale is starting December 15, 2023 and runs until January 1, 2024. All of Larry Archer’s erotic stories are 25% off from SmashWords during the big sale. Browse to Larry’s SmashWord page at: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/LarryArcher?Ref=LarryArcher
I’m Larry Archer, a simple writer of smut stories in both print, electronic, and audiobook
format. Foxy and I are swingers in real life, and I write about the things we
do and see. While the Lifestyle is not for everyone, it’s been fun for us. My
smut is explicit and hardcore but with a somewhat plot. My porn stories are
generally positive and fun as this reflects how enjoyable swinging has been to
us. If you’re interested in checking out my stories, I publish at all the typical outlets.
A link to all of my erotic stories can be found at the following link:
https://books2read.com/ap/RDLozR/Larry-Archer
Or check with your favorite publishing house for erotic romance stories from Larry Archer.
Larry Archer's World (LarryArcher.blog) 
I’m just laughing at the image of you beating your head against a wall…
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Sometimes, that’s the only thing that makes sense!
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Republishing using Scrivener worked! Copying to the program removed the problem code and allowed me to publish the story without any error messages.
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