The changes to the layout of the novel seemed to work, at least as far as the title page and the other front matter. The actual content of the book still had an issue. This was going to take some exploration. I think it may now be fixed.
The trick had to do with using Microsoft Word Professional 2016. Barnes and Noble Press let you upload your work as a formatted Word document or as a PDF. Converting from Word to PDF proved troublesome, so I used Word. It occurs to me now that the issue with the transformation may have been the same on I had with the publishing.
The book has two sections. The first is the title page and assorted front matter. Those pages do not have page numbers in my case. The second section is the actual text of the book and should have page numbers starting on page one of the story. Word lets you create section breaks and start the numbering on the start of the section.
There is an issue, however, if you use the default sections. One of the most annoying things about any Microsoft product is that it tries to be helpful. In most cases, it is about as helpful as a four-year-old. In this case, the default section settings try to optimize your layout so that you have no extra blank pages. This can end up, like for my novel, starting page one on the even side of the paper.
To fix this, you have to go to the Layout tab in their ribbon toolbar and specify that you want a section that starts on the first odd page. They have several choices, but unless you know to look for them, you would sit with the same frustration that I had. (When the revolution comes, I’m sure the Microsoft people will be lumped in with politicians and other hated figures.)
My hope is that this will finally fix the issue. I need to get it settled so I can start real promotion of the novel. I also need to stop working on it because my day job has just gotten busy with the start of the semester. By whining here, maybe this will help someone else too.