Monday Indie Publishing Brief
Period reviewed: 29 September–5 October 2026
At a glance
One consequential platform change this week: Smashwords now accepts ebook preorders. No new cover dimensions, print-interior specifications, retailer file rules, or metadata requirements were found from KDP, IngramSpark, Kobo, or Apple Books during the review period. There is also an important EPUBCheck 5.4.0 validation caveat to add to last week’s update.
1) Smashwords ebook preorders are now live
Status: In force from 29 September 2026.
What changed: Draft2Digital’s Smashwords Store now accepts customer preorders, up to 12 months before release. Assetless preorders are allowed: the final manuscript and cover may be supplied later, but Draft2Digital says both must be uploaded at least 10 business days before release. Smashwords Presales can also provide early reader access, but those require the final manuscript and cover before the presale begins.
Why it matters: You can open preorders for your own books before production is complete. For client work, this creates a hard handover deadline for the final EPUB and cover, and it separates “preorder setup assets” from “release-ready files.”
Review: Update project calendars, intake forms, client handover checklists, and any agreement that promises delivery around a launch. No cover template or interior specification change is required.
Act now
For any book using Draft2Digital/Smashwords, set the internal final-file deadline at least 15 business days before release. That gives a five-business-day safety buffer beyond Draft2Digital’s stated minimum.
Read the official Draft2Digital announcement
2) EPUBCheck 5.4.0 needs a little human judgement
Status: EPUBCheck 5.4.0 remains the latest production-ready release, but known validation problems are being tracked.
What changed: Last week’s brief noted that EPUBCheck 5.4.0 supports checking against the EPUB 3.4 Candidate Recommendation. The important caveat is that version 5.4.0 can incorrectly report aria-labelledby on a nav element as an error. The EPUBCheck project classifies this as a critical false positive and has assigned the correction to version 5.4.1.
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Why it matters: Removing valid accessibility markup simply to silence a false positive could make the ebook less accessible. A separate accepted issue also shows that, when a spine toc attribute incorrectly points to a non-NCX item, EPUBCheck 5.4.0 can emit CHK-008 and skip further checks on that item. Genuine errors inside it may then go unreported.
Review: If 5.4.0 flags aria-labelledby on the navigation document, check the known issue before changing the file. If you see CHK-008, correct the package-document reference and run validation again so the skipped item is actually checked.
Act now
Keep accessibility markup intact unless you have confirmed it is invalid. Record the EPUBCheck version used, investigate these known cases, and pair structural validation with an accessibility checker and a manual reading-system test.
Known aria-labelledby false positive
Accepted CHK-008 skipped-validation issue
The bottom line
Add Smashwords to your preorder plan, but build in more time than the platform minimum. For EPUB quality control, use the newest validator with informed caution: investigate unusual results, keep valid accessibility features, and always test the finished book beyond a single automated report.
Over to you: Does your launch checklist already include an internal final-file deadline, or will the new Smashwords preorder option change the way you schedule production?
Platform requirements and software releases can change quickly. Check the linked official sources before making a production or launch decision.
