This from J. W. Manus, somebody definitely worth following if you want to do your own formatting. This guy knows his stuff.
Smashwords is now accepting EPUB files. This can be a step forward for anyone that thinks they can do a better job formatting than Smashwords’ Meatgrinder program.
Meatgrinder does have its drawbacks, since it’s formatting for such a variety of file types, but keep in mind that you NEED that EPUB file to pass a Validation Check.
Happy New Year, Happy Day: Smashwords Now Accepts EPUB Files | J W Manus.
T. W. Dittmer 
Hey Tim,
On an unrelated note, wanted to let you know that with my post talking about “The Outpost,” I couldn’t find a way to get in the flow that I was actually reading two books. I tried several ways, but in the end decided to go with a more powerful post on the topic of veterans and Afghanistan, and less about me and reading habits of tackling multiple books at once.
I’m now just over 70 percent through your book.
Semper,
Stan
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No worries, Stan. 🙂
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Oh, and on that note, I hope my weird email from a day or two was received the right way. I just got much love for you, man.
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You had asked me if I do my own formatting, and I do, but I don’t have a way to specifically turn out an EPUB. Is that what you do with Calibre? I’ve passed the meatgrinder with no problems on the last three books, so maybe I don’t need to worry at the present time?
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I don’t think you have to worry, Maddie. Your formatting is fine.
I use Calibre for conversion, then run it through Sigil to make sure it passes the Validation Check, because I wanted those headings like “Waking The Dragon” to show up in the table of contents. They don’t with Meatgrinder, and I actually had to tweak the structure detection in Calibre to have that happen.
I know… I’m contrary. 😉
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SW seems to work okay for me, though I don’t have a table of contents on any of my books. I’m totally IT illiterate and it took me a while to ‘get it’ but it seems to be working 😉
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Whatever works. 🙂
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Thanks for the tip. Not sure I want to self publish yet but need to understand it all. Great Blog!!!
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It’s a lot to absorb. Take your time and enjoy the ride. 🙂
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THIS makes me soooooo happy! Will make things a lot easier for my quest to make The First Night free on Amazon. (Reformatting sucks…)
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Believe it or not, I kinda get into it. Yep. I’m out there. 😉
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