I skimmed through Kindle’s self-publishing instructions allegedly explaining how to convert one’s manuscript into a Kindle book. Seems to me the instructions assume an awful lot. First, it seems they assume your manuscript is an HTML file. They never seem to acknowledge that most authors write in the real world, using something like, oh I don’ t know, MS Office? Is it just me? Where does one start with a Word doc?
Also, can I believe my eyes? The instructions actually say the conversion program Kindle recommends will generate a .MOBI file, not a Kindle Fire 8 (KF8) file? Why would Kindle bother with MOBI format? Is KF8 not a “fluid” format?
Perhaps someone can help me make sense of all to point me in the right direction. Apparently, I must be from Mars because nothing makes sense in Amazon Kindle Publishing Guidelines
Last, what the “X-Ray” feature of a Kindle book? I’ve never heard of this.
I have published five books and a short story collection on Amazon for Kindle and never once saved the file as HTML. It does take some tinkering around with your formatting but it’s not too complicated. The conversion process is pretty straight-forward from a Word file to Kindle.
Can I ask exactly how you do this? Because the instructions from Kindle are very specific that you need to convert a Word file to a filtered html file. (You can also use epub format but that’s not a Word to Kindle conversion.)
Back to Jinx:
Save as web file, filtered. It will look awkward in that form which is why you need Amazon’s previewer.
Download the offline previewer from Kindle to test the converted file before you try the online previewer that’s part of the submission process.
The Kindle process is E-Z at the expense of quality and bulk. If you can learn to turn your ms into a clean HTML file, you can skip a lot of the BS at the beginning of the process and turn out a cleaner, smaller result that’s closer to what you envisioned.
Word has gotten better at HTML export, but it’s still pretty kludgy, creating great blocks of code to make a highlighted word look EXACTLY as it did in Word, etc.
The really short explanation, assuming you know what each term means, is:
[ol]
[li]Write your booky-thingy.[/li][li]During writing or in a final editing pass, be sure a clear style is applied to each paragraph, with a minimum of overrides and manual formatting. (Ideally, create a set of unique styles that match your desired format, rather than using default styles.)[/li][li]Export to the most minimal HTML format Word allows. The file should contain next to nothing except basic HTML code, with your style tags assigned as appropriate to each paragraph. It’s worth going through with a text editor’s search-and-replace to clean up the tags and remove unneeded junk.[/li][li]Write a CSS style file that defines each of your styles. The exported file plus the CSS file should create a pleasing, balanced look when viewed in a browser. (Don’t bother defining fonts beyond sans and serif - they won’t survive the conversion.)[/li][li]Feed the content file and CSS file to the Kindle maw.[/li][/ol]
I usually include InDesign in the loop because I’m an expert user and it will do many things Word won’t, but the result is a book (thingy) I can publish to paper, PDF, EPUB or Kindle with very little post-processing effort. This becomes important if you ever want to do corrected or updated editions - you don’t really want to start from scratch on every pass.
Xap, Kindle will take any junk-ass file and turn out a Kindle-like object. They of course like bulky, awkward files because they can end up charging more for the delivery.
This is another case where Yes, By Gum, Your Dog Can Do It… but mastering some unobvious basics will pay dividends. E and Z only go so far.
I am available to do Kindle publishing help, at very modest rates to fellow Dopinskis.
I’ve never come across that. I go to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, click on Create New Title and when I get to the proper step, I upload a word file and it converts it automatically. You have to be careful of certain indentation and spacing issues, but it generally comes through fine.
I use several styles in mine and always have pictures. So they’re not pure text files. I think that’s a breaking point for Amazon’s hideous, unbelievably awful conversion software.
I agree with AB that using CSS to force styling is a better solution, but that’s not for a first timer.
A problem that is not at all obvious and is dealt with nowhere is that different platforms interpret a bare (i.e. direct from Word, not through CSS) conversion differently. Weirdly, different fonts on a platform may cause unforeseeable problems, like making italics disappear, or even all the images. You can’t test for that ahead of time.
This. They take Word doc and docx files and convert them quite nicely.
You would probably have to use HTML if you wanted cross-links, footnotes, end notes, etc., but if you’ve just got a fairly straightforward book, it’ll come over well as a Word file.
(Among other things, you can use Word to Insert Images, and these will be in the Amazon Kindle file. Nice if you want to put a map at the beginning of your fantasy novel – and who doesn’t?)
At first, Kindle leads you to believe it is this easy. But then, you read a little bit more to find it may be more involved as the “Amazon Kindle Publishing Guide” reveals…making it sound very daunting.
Bottom line: Let me ask, if I try your method, can I preview my trials with before “going live”? Can I preview them on my Kindle to see exactly how my novel will appear (and what needs fixing)?
OK, sounds easy enough. I’ll give it a try, but there’s always one more thing to know: Tell me about inserting the cover. Once an artist creates a cover within the guidelines, do I make the image the first page of my Word.doc and convert the whole shebang? Or, is the cover added once the converted file is created? Either way, what format should the graphic image of the cover be: pdf? jpeg? png?
You are also required to have an inside cover. I am not sure what this means exactly. A printed book will repeat the title, perhaps in the same font as the cover. And, sometimes the inside title is done as an outline of the big bold lettering on the outside cover. Is this what is meant by the inside cover? And, is it best to have my outside cover artist design an inside cover, too?
Note: I have yet to pick my artist, but it won’t be long.
The cover is uploaded separately, as a JPG file. There’s a step devoted to that.
I have never seen any requirement for an inside cover. I have a title page, if that’s what you’re referring to, but it doesn’t have any art, just the title and the “by” line with my name.
Section 4.2 “Internal Content Cover Image is Mandatory”, p. 17 of the Guide referenced in my original post speaks to this “internal cover” as if we all know exactly what is meant. Of course, the term “image” is open to interpretation. At first, I was thinking graphic, but it may be. I feel they state this in a rather obscure manner open to many meanings.
Like you, RikWriter, I assume they must mean a title page. Perhaps the title is an image, not just Times Roman 14 text stating the title? Perhaps something with a little flare, but not overdone like the cover…and in B&W, I wager.
Thanks, Exapno Mapcase. I will test this all out shortly. I am waiting to pick a graphics artist. Once I have a finished product for a coverI will move to the next step. I just want to be prepared.
Could you provide a link to whatever it is you’re quoting? I thought Kindle discouraged interior cover images.
And you can test out your file in preview before you have a cover image. It’s all draft until you publish it, so it doesn’t matter what you try out or how many times you change it.