Quote:
Originally Posted by Notjohn
If it's just a determination to beat the system, then I applaud the attempt. But is it a worthwhile effort for someone publishing e-books for a living?
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It's nothing at all to do with beating the system. It's to do with ensuring that advanced formatting (which is easily accomplished with KF8) doesn't turn to crap in the mobi version (which is extremely limited in what it can do with layouts/formatting). If all you work with are novels full of paragraphs and a few scenebreaks, it's very likely that you'll never need to worry about media-queries. Poetry, songs, tables, lists, drop caps, advanced image/caption arrangements--these are things that might end up going pear-shaped in the mobi-only version if media queries are not employed to handle them.
I find the "how many devices can be left out there?" argument to be mostly irrelevant. The pertinent point is that if you upload your book to KDP, the mobi-only version is
for sale. As long as that is true, I believe it's the content creator's responsibility to make sure the mobi-only version is at least
presentable.
I'm not saying anyone should jump through massive hoops to ensure the mobi-only version is nearly identical to to the KF8 version, but I believe an easily readable/presentable version is not too much to ask. I certainly don't think it's responsible to "just not worry about it" any more. You should "worry" about the mobi-only version of your book until no one can
buy a mobi-only version of your book.