[Hitch]

Originally Posted by writerkit

Hitch:


Hitch: not to be snarky, but you ARE being snarky, and I've been nothing but polite, while you've been totally ignoring the info in my answers to you. One more rehash of what I've already said, and then I'm done:

1) I'm not making this book for distribution on Amazon, so their specifications are of no consequence to me or of relevance to my original question. My ebook is intended to be sold elsewhere and sideloaded.

Wrong. Wrong, wrong, and, wrong. If you understood anything at all about mobi, you'd know that those are the ONLY specifications. Calibre is simply a tool that makes books that approximate those specifications; it doesn't have some magic set of separate "specifications" that are different than Amazon's. If you expect your books to work, sold WHEREVER they are sold, on Amazon devices and readers, those are the specifications you have to meet. Your statement is 100%, absolutely and thoroughly incorrect. But, hey, I think we can all defer to your expertise given you obviously know better than we all do, here--the folks here who've only made thousands of books. What would WE know, anyway? Clearly, you have a real grasp of the issue at hand, since you "know" that Amazon's Mobi "...specifications are of no consequence to me or of relevance to my original question."

2) I am using Calibre to create my ebook. I've already created two ebooks with it, by converting my HTML docs into several different ebook formats - lots of authors have. In fact, I learned the process from Guido's blog. This is simply the first time I've converted to the "old mobi" format. If you've never used Calibre, then you don't know what you're talking about, so why not just admit that and let it go?

Actually, it's you who doesn't know how to use Calibre. I know perfectly well how to use it. I don't, because it is not a tool used by professional bookmakers; it's a tool used by DIY'ers for their personal libraries, not commercial-quality books. And, again, your use of Calibre has NOTHING WHATSOEVER, then or now, with the correct answer to your question, which you still, apparently, can't phrase in such a way as to provide the information needed in order to provide an ACCURATE answer to the question.

I've got my answer, from the other perfectly polite people on this thread, so thanks anyway. Sorry to so inconvenience you.

Really? Well, I hate to tell you, but you still don't actually have an answer. You got a "guesstimate" answer. Everyone is "guessing" just as you guessed--that you're likely making an "old" mobi, that won't be optimized for any of the newer Amazon devices. Won't have embedded fonts, won't use the more advanced text-layout features, etc. Why don't you simply ask Guido? Doesn't that seem like the logical choice, since, hopefully, at least HE knows which type of mobi you're making, as you don't?

Good luck. I actually wasted my time TRYING to help you, and give you an accurate answer, instead of the fast and easy one, which was "no, you can't do that." That's not necessarily the correct answer, but it's the FAST one, and it's the one that will give you the least-advanced, most-primitive mobi file.

Hitch