Black screen displaying on first page of iBook Author preview

I've been working on an IBA file for three months. The first page of the file has always been an ABOUT THE BOOK text page. When I've previewed the book in the past in iBooks, the first bullet at the bottom always displayed the ABOUT THE BOOK page.

Now that I'm ready to publish, a black/blank screen is displaying on that first button. I have to swipe for the ABOUT THE BOOK page to show, and now it's on the second bullet. Any idea why this is happening? See below screenshot. When I export the book to PDF, cover art now appears in the first position/first page; and it wasn't there before. The cover art took the file up to 477 pages from 476. Is the cover what is making the blank/black page? Can I correct that?