ebook-convert - text to epub conversion failing

Hello,

I am try to convert a text file to epub using ebook-convert from a bash script.

Verbose screen output:

Python function terminated unexpectedly
[Errno 13] Permission denied: u'E:\\hold\\text\\novel\\1_test' (Error Code: 1)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site.py", line 101, in main
File "site.py", line 78, in run_entry_point
File "site-packages\calibre\ebooks\conversion\cli.py", line 391, in main
File "site-packages\calibre\ebooks\conversion\plumber.py", line 1028, in run
File "site-packages\calibre\ebooks\conversion\plumber.py", line 972, in setup_options
File "site-packages\calibre\ebooks\conversion\plumber.py", line 941, in read_user_metadata
IOError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: u'E:\\hold\\text\\novel\\1_test'

My bash script:

BOOKNAME_SRC="V-37836_Using Branding Mechanicals Underwater_John Doe.txt"
BOOKNAME_EPUB="V-37836_Using Branding Mechanicals Underwater_John Doe.epub"
AUTHOR="John Doe"
AUTHOR_SORT="Doe, John"
TITLE="Using Branding Mechanicals Underwater"
TITLE_SORT="Using Branding Mechanicals Underwater"
COVER_DOC=file:///"V-37836_Using Branding Mechanicals Underwater.jpg"

ebook-convert "$BOOKNAME_SRC" "$BOOKNAME_EPUB" -v --base-font-size 11 --minimum-line-height 110 --author-sort "$AUTHOR" --authors "$AUTHORS" --smarten-punctuation --enable-heuristics --cover "$COVER_LOC" --title "$TITLE" --title-sort "$TITLE_SORT"

I also attempted the conversion from a local drive with the same result.

Manual conversion in Calibre works okay.