Wish to create an AZW book, but...

[stebbo]

a) not interested in having my book for sale on Amazon.

b) Don't wish to rely on the Kindle displaying a Word file correctly.

c) Heard that PRC is being phased out.

d) Don't want any DRM rubbish.

Is there a workflow to create an AZW book? Spec? Exporter?

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by stebbo

a) not interested in having my book for sale on Amazon.

b) Don't wish to rely on the Kindle displaying a Word file correctly.

c) Heard that PRC is being phased out.

d) Don't want any DRM rubbish.

Is there a workflow to create an AZW book? Spec? Exporter?

Two things...

For right now, the only way to *READ* an AZW (DRM'd) file is with the Amazon Kindle.

Any old PRC file, with the extension changed to AZW is recognized as an un-DRM'd Kindle file. Any un-DRM'd AZW file with extension changed to PRC is recognized by Mobipocket readers. (This is, of course, subject to change at the whim of Amazon.)

Derek

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by stebbo

a) not interested in having my book for sale on Amazon.

b) Don't wish to rely on the Kindle displaying a Word file correctly.

c) Heard that PRC is being phased out.

d) Don't want any DRM rubbish.

Is there a workflow to create an AZW book? Spec? Exporter?

a) haha

b) The only concern would be pictures, tables and specially formatted text. Regular text comes through just fine.

c) Nope. Not gonna happen.

d) Okay. So don't use any.

There are 3 ways to make an ebook file for the Kindle.

1. Send the source file as an email attachment to @free.kindle.com. You will get back an AZW file.
2. Use the Windows only Mobipocket Creator to make a PRC.
3. Use Book Designer to make a PRC.

The files created by these 3 methods will be practically identical.

[stebbo]

Great answers - thanks.

Tables, graphics are the issue unfortunately. Was hoping there was some creation guidelines to ensure their successful display.

[wallcraft]

The only difference I have seen any mention of between an AZW and a MOBI file is a single integer. This is the case for DRMed files, see Aenea's post. I don't know if DRM-free AZW even has the extra integer, but in any case (as delphidb96 said) DRM-free AZW and MOBI are interchangeable.

For images in MOBI files, see Images in MobiPocket.

[bob315]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

a) There are 3 ways to make an ebook file for the Kindle.

1. Send the source file as an email attachment to @free.kindle.com. You will get back an AZW file.
2. Use the Windows only Mobipocket Creator to make a PRC.
3. Use Book Designer to make a PRC.

The files created by these 3 methods will be practically identical.

Nate,

I'm new here and a new Kindle owner as well. I have a few questions if you have a moment:

1. Is there OSX software for making MOBI or PRC files?
2. Is the file format just complex or is it unknown? (I have no problem writing my own software if needed).
3. Is anything known about the Amazon conversion process WRT:
3a. Including images with an HTML file and getting it all wrapped up into one AZW?
3b. Getting the converted file to display the author in the Kindle home page? My converted files show my email as author.

Cheers,
Bob

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by bob315

Nate,

I'm new here and a new Kindle owner as well. I have a few questions if you have a moment:

1. Is there OSX software for making MOBI or PRC files?
2. Is the file format just complex or is it unknown? (I have no problem writing my own software if needed).
3. Is anything known about the Amazon conversion process WRT:
3a. Including images with an HTML file and getting it all wrapped up into one AZW?
3b. Getting the converted file to display the author in the Kindle home page? My converted files show my email as author.

Cheers,
Bob

1. I thought Book Designer ran on a Mac, but I can't find it so I'm not sure. There are a couple people here now working on converters that are platform independent.

2. I don't know how much is actually known about the format.

3a. I know that images smaller than 600x800 come through just fine. I have not needed to covert anything larger so i can't tell you what the result would be.

3b. I haven't tried this, but it should work. Open the file in a text editor. Search for string that shows up as the author. Replace it with what you want.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by bob315

Is there OSX software for making MOBI or PRC files?

There is software that starts from single file HTML (with images) or multi-file HTML as an OEB e-book (i.e. with an OPF metadata file). The original command line tool from MobiPocket, mobigen.exe, is for Windows but works under wine (at least with Linux), and now there is an open source version written in Perl. See html2mobi (a mobigen replacement written in Perl). Post #6 includes links to other threads with mobigen.exe information. Note that html2mobi is beta software, so you can help test it out.

[bob315]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

3a. I know that images smaller than 600x800 come through just fine. I have not needed to covert anything larger so i can't tell you what the result would be.

I tried sending the html and 6 png files in one email to kindle. My Kindle got the html and 3 of the pngs.

Amazon sent back the following:

The following attachment(s), sent at 09:37 AM on Wed, Nov 28, 2007 could not be
converted and delivered to your Amazon Kindle account:
* 002-2.png
* 004.png
* 005.png

So the files that did NOT succeed were:

002-2 428@386
005 600@505
004 600@445

while the successful files were:

003 236@600
002-1 205@214
001 45@45

But, the files that I did receive were simply separate png files, viewable on their own, but not inserted in the book where I had hoped. Any thoughts?

Cheers,
Bob

[tsgreer]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

..There are 3 ways to make an ebook file for the Kindle.

1. Send the source file as an email attachment to @free.kindle.com. You will get back an AZW file.
2. Use the Windows only Mobipocket Creator to make a PRC.
3. Use Book Designer to make a PRC.

The files created by these 3 methods will be practically identical.

My experience has been that the .html files that I send through the @free.kindle.com addy don't even come close to the files that I get as a result of Mobipocket Creator (even if I don't do anything special to them). The emailed versions never seem to have working links and the left margin is always really large.

[rflashman]

Originally Posted by bob315

But, the files that I did receive were simply separate png files, viewable on their own, but not inserted in the book where I had hoped. Any thoughts?

I would try printing to a PDF document first, then sending that in. Print it as a regular PDF if formatting is loose. But if it has a lot of custom formatting and you want it to remain "identical" use a bitmap PDF.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

1. I thought Book Designer ran on a Mac, but I can't find it so I'm not sure.

No, it's PC only.

[bob315]

Originally Posted by rflashman

I would try printing to a PDF document first, then sending that in. Print it as a regular PDF if formatting is loose. But if it has a lot of custom formatting and you want it to remain "identical" use a bitmap PDF.

That's better! The pictures are all there. The ones that take the full page width are even in the right place. The ones that took only part of the page with with text flowed around them are there, but in the wrong place (a page or two away). One is even duplicated (a large ornate "W" as the first character of the book).

I use a Mac and don't see any "bitmap" option in saving a PDF. Does this have another name?

Cheers,
Bob

[rflashman]

Originally Posted by bob315

I use a Mac and don't see any "bitmap" option in saving a PDF. Does this have another name?

In my copy of Adobe Acrobat Pro, when I open a regular PDF and select PRINT, choosing the Adobe PDF driver, I can select the "ADVANCED" options. There it gives me an option to "print as image" with 300 DPI as default.

[TallMomof2]

Originally Posted by tsgreer

My experience has been that the .html files that I send through the @free.kindle.com addy don't even come close to the files that I get as a result of Mobipocket Creator (even if I don't do anything special to them). The emailed versions never seem to have working links and the left margin is always really large.

I sent one html ebook through Amazon and the TOC (links) still worked. I guess it's a YMMV thing.