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Originally Posted by SigilBear
Is KF8 a synonym of AZW, or is yet another format?
Your comment about Mobi being obsolete just answered another question I was about to ask.
I just converted one of my epubs to both Mobi and AZW and was shocked at the lousy CSS support in Mobi. I'm not sure if it's worth the troubling fixing.
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It most certainly is. There are still millions--millions--of KF7 devices in use. If you don't care if you omit those folks from your potential buying demographic, that's your choice, but I certainly wouldn't.
When you build a PROPER MOBI file, using Kindlegen or KindlePreviewer or the KDP, etc. it will have inside it both a KF7 and KF8 "mobi."
The KF7 mobi is effectively an old .prc file (mobipocket creator); regardless of purported or asserted nomenclature, they truly are BOTH called "mobi" by Amazon. Period. The KF8 is the version for tablets and more-advanced (newer) KF8 devices. Please note that KF7 devices were sold until 2015, or the beginning of 16--anyone remember when the DX was d/c'ed? Not that long ago.
Thus, I wouldn't arbitrarily decide that it's okay to eliminate all those folks. But, your book, your ROI, and all that.
Lastly, on the topic of selling eBooks from your own website, here's what I say in an article on my website:
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Frankly, in terms of selling from your own website, the single biggest obstacle is the (unpaid) Tech Support, which is needed for the dozens or (hopefully!) hundreds of buyers that won't know how to get the book to their device or reader. I emphasize to clients, repeatedly, that you have no idea how onerous tech support is until you are forced to provide it. Unless you are prepared to take phone calls, answer emails, and explain the "how' of how to sideload eBooks, for those dozens/hundreds/thousands of buyers who won't know, then an ePDF is likely your best way to go. That, or stick to the big retailers.
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In 3500+ eBooks, of all the clients that
insisted that they were going to sell ebooks from their own websites,
you know how many are still doing that, within 6 months of the time that they started?
ZERO.
ZERO. That includes law firms and other commercial businesses that decided that the Tech Support burden was
so onerous that they were
delighted to pay Amazon, et al, their "pound of flesh" so that they, the publishers, wouldn't have to take
ONE MORE PHONE CALL about how to sideload a MOBI file to an iPad (via a connected USB to iTunes to..), or how to get their MOBI onto their Kindle. These are the
same clients that
screeched about how ravenous and rapacious Amazon was, how they had no right whatsoever to that 30%, yadda, yadda, yadda. Today? Today they pay that 30%
quite happily, having learned firsthand
exactly what they're paying Amazon to do.
Offered solely FWIW.
Hitch
(Who would sell eBooks from her own website over her dead body.)