Quote:
Originally Posted by avantman42
I don't know about other stores, and I don't know how the process works for big publishers. With self-publishers, Amazon allow various formats to be submitted (Word, PDF, Mobi, ePub ... full list). Most of those will need to be converted before they can be displayed on a Kindle. I assume that if you upload a Mobi file, the only thing that will be changed is that DRM will be added if you select that option. That's my assumption, though - I don't have any insider knowledge 
I get the impression that publishers submit ePubs, which Amazon then converts to Mobi. I'm basing this on the fact that the copyright page tends to say "ePub edition". If I'm right, then the publishers have to take at least some of the blame for not doing the conversion themselves. |
Wait, wait, wait.
Speaking as someone who just went through this, publishers have two real options (I'm ignoring PDF/doc silliness): they can submit ePUB to Amazon or they can submit mobi to Amazon. And the mobi... comes from a conversion.
There is no way to write mobi directly. It's not like ePUB where there's a WYSIWYG tool like Sigil where you can tweak things until it's perfect. The only way to tweak a mobi "directly" is to turn it into HTML, tweak the raw HTML, and then turn that back into mobi. And that's *still* a conversion of sorts.
(And I would like to point out here that the ePUB-to-mobi conversion in Calibre is far superior to the ePUB-to-mobi conversion on Amazon.)
And it's my understanding that Amazon STILL converts the mobi in a mobi-to-mobi process, DRM or not.
It's not the publisher's fault if Amazon has implemented a proprietary format and refused to release tools for developing within that format directly. Yes, the publisher should proof the results, BUT at the end of the day, there's not a lot the publisher can do to force Amazon to make mobi easier to work in. I do think that the Big 6 can and should hire a whole division for this issue, but if we're talking an indie author, it's another thing entirely.