by CJ Verburg
Some days, book publishing feels like a Vegas casino.
My 5-star noir cozy Silent Night Violent Night recently ended a 3-month stint on KDP (Kindle) Select. As part of Boom-Books’s quixotic quest not to put all its eggs in the Amazon basket, I’ve been updating back-matter links for SNVN‘s republication on Kobo, Nook, and Smashwords, among others.
OK, we’ve all heard that Barnes & Noble is sinking fast, and Nook is going under for the proverbial third time. Still, as recently as last year, Nook had the best e-book previewer and, it seemed, an impressive ability to expedite top-quality e-book production.
Apparently that’s history.
When I uploaded my revised EPUB (with nothing changed except links), lo and behold, every image in the book had vanished. In place of my title page, logo, and chapter-opening graphics, Nook displayed text with a png extension (e.g., bb small Logo.png).
Was this a problem with the Nook Previewer, or with Nook’s process to convert the uploaded files into an e-books? I couldn’t proceed with publication until I found out. So I clicked on “Chat with Customer Service.” That yielded the following exchange:
You are now connected with Marie from Nook Press
Carol Verburg: In the Nook previewer, images that are jpgs in my EPUB appear instead as text with .png extension. Will the images appear as images in the actual e-book?
Marie: Thank you for joining NOOK Press Chat Support. My name is Marie. Good day, Carol!
Marie: I understand that you are inquiring about the format of the images once it become a finished eBook.
Carol Verburg: Right
Marie: Yes, that is correct.
Carol Verburg: What is correct?
Marie: The whole manuscript will be converted as ePub since it will be saved as a whole.
Carol Verburg: It is already EPUB. That’s the form in which I uploaded it. That’s why I don’t understand why my jpgs are now showing as text with a png extension.
Marie: If you want to make sure that your images will appear perfect on the eBook, please use the “Preview” option on Manuscript Editor.
Carol Verburg: Are you a robot? or just not paying attention? It is the Preview I’m talking about.
Marie: If the image looks fine on “Preview” it is what you can also expect on the actual eBook when you take it on-sale.
Carol Verburg: If it looked fine, I wouldn’t be asking why the images have been converted into text. IT DOES NOT LOOK FINE. The images have DISAPPEARED.
Marie: I am a real person. I am sorry for my previous responses.
Carol Verburg: Is there a tech support rep who can answer this question?
Marie: Alright, please it seems like the images were not accepted by the Manuscript Editor.
Marie: Please format your ePub using the guidelines on Support page “Formatting Guidelines for ePub”.
Carol Verburg: I did. The images match the Nook specs. The EPUB passes epub check. For some reason, either the Nook process or the Nook previewer is converting my jpg images into text. I need to know if it is the previewer or the process, because there is nothing more I can do, since the images are already done correctly.
Marie: If this will not answer your question, I will be glad to raise your question to our next level of support for further assistance.
Marie: Please provide the title of your project.
Carol Verburg: Silent Night Violent Night
Marie: I see, it seems like the issue really needs to be escalated. Thank you for the information.
Marie: I will forward your concern to them. You can expect to receive a response in approximately two business days.
Carol Verburg: Then evidently it is in my best interest not to publish this book as a Nook book.
Marie: We apologize for the inconvenience this have caused you. I appreciate the time you’ve given us. Will that be all for now?
Carol Verburg: yes
Marie: By the way, to learn more about the exciting features we offer, please visit us at https://nookpress.com/support/faq and explore our FAQs. It’s been a pleasure chatting with you. Thank you for contacting NOOK Press™ and have a wonderful day!
The chat session has timed out and is now closed.
