Invalid argument when setting periods, buffer, rate

Why does the program below issue errors for 
snd_pcm_hw_params_set_period_size(), 
snd_pcm_hw_params_set_buffer_size(), and snd_pcm_hw_params_set_rate()? 
If I raise the value of SAMPLES to 768 it only issues an error to 
snd_pcm_hw_params_set_rate(). The value "512" is important here since I 
am porting a program to ALSA which uses 512 samples as the size of its 
buffer (or 256 frames).

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdint.h>
#include <alsa/asoundlib.h>

#define STEREO              2
#define SIXTEENBITS         2
#define SAMPLES           512
#define PERIODS             2
#define SAMPLERATE      11025

void snd_error_checker(int error, char *function_name)
{
     if (error)
     {
         printf("Error (%s): %s\n", function_name, snd_strerror(error));
         // exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
     }
}

int main(void)
{
     snd_pcm_t *handle;
     uint32_t channels                   = STEREO;
     uint32_t sample_size                = SIXTEENBITS;
     uint32_t frame_size                 = sample_size * channels;
     snd_pcm_uframes_t frames            = SAMPLES / frame_size;
     snd_pcm_uframes_t frames_per_period = frames / PERIODS;
     int32_t dir = 0; // No idea what this does.
     snd_pcm_hw_params_t *params;
     int error;

     error = snd_pcm_open(&handle, "default", SND_PCM_STREAM_PLAYBACK, 0);
     snd_error_checker(error, "snd_pcm_open()");
     snd_pcm_hw_params_malloc(&params);
     error = snd_pcm_hw_params_any(handle, params);
     snd_error_checker(error, "snd_pcm_hw_params_any()");
     error = snd_pcm_hw_params_set_period_size(handle, params, 
frames_per_period, dir);
     snd_error_checker(error, "snd_pcm_hw_params_set_period_size()");
     error = snd_pcm_hw_params_set_periods(handle, params, PERIODS, dir);
     snd_error_checker(error, "snd_pcm_hw_params_set_periods()");
     error = snd_pcm_hw_params_set_buffer_size(handle, params, frames);
     snd_error_checker(error, "snd_pcm_hw_params_set_buffer_size()");
     error = snd_pcm_hw_params_set_rate(handle, params, SAMPLERATE, dir);
     snd_error_checker(error, "snd_pcm_hw_params_set_rate()");
     error = snd_pcm_hw_params_set_access(handle, params, 
SND_PCM_ACCESS_RW_INTERLEAVED);
     snd_error_checker(error, "snd_pcm_hw_params_set_access()");
     error = snd_pcm_hw_params_set_channels(handle, params, STEREO);
     snd_error_checker(error, "snd_pcm_hw_params_set_channels()");
     error = snd_pcm_hw_params_set_format(handle, params, 
SND_PCM_FORMAT_S16_LE);
     snd_error_checker(error, "snd_pcm_hw_params_set_format()");
     error = snd_pcm_hw_params(handle, params);
     snd_error_checker(error, "snd_pcm_hw_params()");

     snd_pcm_drain(handle);
     snd_pcm_close(handle);
     exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
}