Pulling my hair out formatting non-fiction for Kindle

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HistorySleuth

Researching History's Mysteries
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You know, I really thought all the images and linking them to the table of figures is where I was going to run into problems converting, but no. I've read all the resources here and some online and tried different things, I just don't get it.

1) I can't seem to get the book to start where I want it too. It is starting on the acknowledgements page.

2) The cover image in the book (at least when I look at it in the Kindle app on my iPad is small) The image itself is 300dpi, 1920 pixels w x 2854 pixels H. I used the Kindle online previewer too, and it looks small for the ipad and a couple of the kindle versions.

I'm using word. I used styles H1 H2, so it breaks right. I set an invisible bookmark above the title which is where I want it to start called start (unless it should be called beginning?). My normal text is set to automatic. I save it as html filtered.

If I upload the html direct or word file direct, I don't get the ncx.toc. If I do it in Sigil, I have to manually do chapter breaks which seems stupid as I already did that and I don't get the ncx.toc.

If I do it in calibre I've tried the epub>mobi. I get the ncx if I do the table of contents and it either drops at the very end or the very beginning. (I already have a table of contents before the tale of figures) I could live with it being in the back too but it's not starting where I want.

The best results so far is calibre to epub. Then run the epub through the Kindle previewer I downloaded so it makes the mobi. And it looks great, starts on the title page. I upload the mobi (or the epub) download it from Kindle, and the book starts on the acknowledgements page. :(

If I do it in draft2digital the chapters also break between H1 and H2.

I tried opening the epub in calibre editing the opf and adding
reference href=”Bread & Butter The Murders of Polly Frisch_split_000.htm” type=”text” title=”Beginning” /
(I left the <> off as I wasn't sure if you'd see it when I posted) between the guides.

Any thoughts on the cover or this where to begin issue? All my other Kindle app books have normal size covers on my ipad. I might be forgetting something as I've done this a billion times in different ways.

What am I missing here? Any insight?

PS. In other news, I have sold 4 paperbacks and one hardcover even.
 
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HistorySleuth

Researching History's Mysteries
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Never mind. I figured out why acknowledgements is first. I changed my table of contents. Although part of the delay was amazon questioning my rights to the book thanks to a plagiarizer. Sigh. I hope I cleared that up and it goes live soon. Still, I'll be sending out some take down notices tomorrow. :(
 
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