Quote:
Originally Posted by eschwartz
They upload EPUB through FTP, actually. They have special permissions.  |
Actually...
Most of them are FTP'ing, simultaneously, through distributors, to multiple retail outlets. Hence, ePUBs rather than MOBI.
ePUB translate fine to MOBI if what you're doing doesn't need "anything." If you need to make a "One Ring to Rule them All" ePUB, then you have an issue, as you will run into problems with media-queries in the same ePUB, if it has to pass ePUBcheck. This means--by definition--that the ePUBs being uploaded are, of necessity, more vanilla than those which are specifically made for MOBI. (Hence: non-fiction-type books which are lower in standard than need be, in order to fit into the ePUB FTP mold.) Alternatively, the retailer has to make two ePUBS w/two ISBNs; one expressly for mobi, replete with media-queries, and one without, for the ePUB vendors.
Given what we've all seen, from BPH's, in terms of formatting, this hardly constitutes an imprimatur of legitimacy. More an imprimatur of laziness and an utter failure to proof the books.
Hitch