Eating Humble Pie, Ala Smashwords This Morning!

So, after posting my first blog post in quite some time yesterday, feeling good about what I have managed to achieve so far, I hit a roadblock on my way to epublishing success! I have my file, which has been converted into a number of different formats with quite a degree of success and few changes needed, but it won't pass the epub test
So, there are three things I do when faced with an online dilemma I don't personally know the answer to. Here they are, I hope this helps!

I realize that much of this is web 101 for millenials, but for us older folks it takes a village, so, if this is kindergarten stuff, click over to the next post and I'll teach you some old school ninja tricks you haven't thought of yet.

Google the heck out of it!

Before everyone started using the term SEO in everyday conversation, you could be reasonably certain that within the top ten results of any search, your answer would appear. (if it was going to) Not so today. Today, you get a lot crap at the top of the search, so the first thing you need to do is skip down until you are past the "sponsored" results. ( most of you know this)

Next, I recommend getting into an answers, or forum style page with some experts. So adding forum to your search can help sometimes. Now that you are in, look for questions that actually match yours, not just what pops up, and follow the threads until you find something that helps.

Note: this first search is almost never a complete answer,  but  it will lead to a chain of results that will eventually, if you search long enough, yield the answer, if indeed it is out there.

Compile your results

When I am working through a tough  problem, it helps to keep track of where I have been. If you work without your websearch history, or do so much searching (like me) that you have to clean it out just to keep your machine running smoothly, try a sticky note, with the URLs of helpful pages copied and pasted onto it, and (again if you are like me) a brief description of what was helpful.

If this is an issue you are likely to face again, save that sticky note for future reference, it takes three to six times of repeating an action for it to register as something we "know" how to do, and there is only so much space in conscious memory, so keep track of it.

Write out your solution

Not everyone is a writer, but if you are reading this blog, you obviously have some interest, right?
So, that being said, don't waste an opportunity, write out your solution in an entertaining and informative way and share it!

There are a lot of sites where articles like this can be uploaded for free, and you might even get paid for hosting them there if people like your stuff, but more importantly it helps build your craft, and gets your name on one more published piece of work , even if it is just online, it's more than many people will ever do!

So, now you have an idea of what I will be spending my time on for the next little while, until I am an expert (non tech-y expert, or competent layman, really) on formatting for ebooks! Here I go!