EPUB -> Mobi = 4x larger file size. (4mb -> 16mb)

[Muckraker]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Use the free wifi delivery instead of the 3G one. Use @free.kindle.com as the email address.

Amazon isn't that nice to us small-fries

If we select the 70% Royalty we incur a $.15/MB "delivery cost" with each sale, regardless of how the customer receives the file. We are charged the fee even if the customer never downloads the file to any device.

If we select the 35% Royalty the "delivery cost" is waived.

So my $4.99 15MB book at 70% royalty is:
($4.99 - (15 * .15))*.70 = $1.92

And my $4.99 book at 35% royalty is:
$4.99 * .35 = $1.74

If the book was just 1MB of text+cover the 70% royalty would be $3.32. This is a pretty brutal punishment just for offering an eBook that contains images.

It's just frustrating that no matter what the conversion route an already-optimized, image-heavy book is going to get hit with at least 2x of bloat in the file size.

[kovidgoyal]

I can certainly add an off by default option in the MOBI output settings to leave image files alone, but be aware that in that case there is no guarantee your MOBI file's images will display everywhere.

Open a bug requesting the feature and I will get to it when I have a moment.

[Muckraker]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

I can certainly add an off by default option in the MOBI output settings to leave image files alone, but be aware that in that case there is no guarantee your MOBI file's images will display everywhere.

Open a bug requesting the feature and I will get to it when I have a moment.

Awesome Kovid!

I have four books this will majorly benefit and I'll pledge to donate 50% of the "delivery fee" that would have otherwise gone to Amazon to you instead--for the rest of the year.

Thanks!

-Adam

[Muckraker]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

I can certainly add an off by default option in the MOBI output settings to leave image files alone, but be aware that in that case there is no guarantee your MOBI file's images will display everywhere.

Open a bug requesting the feature and I will get to it when I have a moment.

The patch you did works great Kovid. I put a reminder to donate on my calendar for Dec 31st. You'll receive 50% of my delivery fee savings on all Amazon sales of:
The Silver Princess in Oz: Empty-Grave Retrofit Edition
The Shaggy Man of Oz: Empty-Grave Retrofit Edition
The Magical Mimics of Oz: Empty-Grave Retrofit Edition (released in May)
Untitled compilation of Oz short stories (released in May)

If all those file conversions work out like the first one I tried then you are saving me $.50 in delivery fees for each book. So expect some quarters to come your way January 1st. Hopefully it's a lot of quarters

Thanks again!
-Adam

[kovidgoyal]

You're welcome

[dwig]

Originally Posted by dwig

Just for fun I did an experiment with Lysistrata. I took the same source ePub that I had fed to calibre for conversion to MOBI and fed it to Kindle Previewer 2 (aka Fire Previewer) so that its KindleGen2 engine would create a KF8 MOBI. These result was smaller than calibre's:

ePub source = 632k
calbre's MOBI = 1853k
KindleGen2 MOBI = 1404k

Just for the info, I reconverted ( ePub>MOBI ) this GIF heavy book again, this time using 0.8.43 and checking the new option to not convert images. The result is a much smaller book, 702k vs 0.8.42's 1853k.