eBook Problem Sightings In The Wild: So You Want To Make An eBook?

This post is part of So You Want to Make an eBook?. You can find all the posts here. If you find it useful, please drop a bit in the coffee cups or buy the book (linkage to the right!)

If you thought that the boom in digital books (now spurred on again, by Amazon dropping prices and raising features) would mean that quality formatting must be preserved… um, you were wrong.

And if you thought where you got your eBooks would be the defining characteristic of quality, you’re also wrong. Check these screenshots out:

These eBooks were distributed by Overdrive, provider of digital books to many a library (it looks like it’s a post-hoc conversion of a Louis L’Amour book).  Be aware, folks – the person who sent me this screenshots has given up on this book.  If your readers are seeing this, they’ll return your book (since both B&N and AMZ accept returns) and you’re not only out that sale, but you’re out future sales as well.

(The problem, by the way, is most likely in the CSS file.  Notice in the second screenshot how the first paragraph – without an indent – doesn’t overlap like the ones that do have an indent?  The first paragraph has a different style applied to it, but the one for the main paragraphs is borked.)

This post was part of So You Want to Make an eBook?. You can find all the posts here.