Quote:
Originally Posted by jinlo
I'm interested in exactly what you mean. I would have guessed that the formatting into mobipocket would utilize the same source file as the formatting for the kindle. I remember other posters here with books for the kindle have been able to create other formats fairly quickly, including utilizing the mobipocket service. What process are you using and what troubles are you running into? If there's a problem with the formatting for mobipocket, do those same problems exist on the kindle?
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Jinlo,
I am happy to explain the problem. Most readers may be unaware of it, but publishing books on Kindle or MobiPocket is not a smooth or simple process. In fact, there is usually quite a bit of work involved in transferring the printed version of a book into this new digital format. When one creates a digital book using either Amazon's DTP or MobiPocket Creator software, the text is often formatted improperly. Meaning that a host of problems such as font styles (italics, font-size, bold facing, caps), punctuation, paragraph spacing, page breaks, etc. can all be thrown out of whack making a digital book appear sloppily produced or altogether unreadable. Usually when a publisher converts the text of a book into DTP or MobiPocket form, someone has to go back through every line of text and fix all the bad formatting that occurs during the conversion process.
In the case of my books, the conversion process was a total bust (as expected) and I have to go through the entire book one word or line at a time to repair the improperly converted text. This process requires me and other publishers to reformat the ebook using html code. It is a very time-consuming and exacting process, especially for one who is unfamiliar with html. Unfortunately, this process is unavoidable.
In many cases a technician skilled in the use of writing html coding must be hired to fix the formatting errors in order to release a clean and professional looking ebook. However, many authors, such as myself take it upon ourselves to try to do this work on our own if we don't have the budget to hire someone to prepare our books for us.
Let me be clear. My situation is not an isolated case. This is a routine process of publishing ebooks for ereaders, regardless of what device the ebook is intended for.
In my case, I have noticed several conversion errors with my ebook and have begun the slow and tedious process of reformatting my book. Anything less than a clean, professional, and easy-to-read digital book is unacceptable to me. I think I owe it to my readers to produce a professional and well-formatted book. Until I can do that, I must unfortunately refrain from publishing my books for non-Kindle owners.