Quote:
Originally Posted by sundog
As I read the new guidelines on the upload pages while trying to upload my first book, it's pretty clear they are indeed now using this one file upload procedure. It stopped me in my tracks. What I don't understand is whether I need to now go back and remove the cover image file I embedded in my .mobi (so as to avoid duplicate cover pages)? Hitch, you say you still leave your 600x800 files in there, so, do you see 2 cover pages now? Also, what's your experience with Amazon's ability to produce a quality embedded cover image from your larger cover file upload that is also reasonably well compressed (to avoid excessive delivery charges)?
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Hi, Sundog:
Well, I just tested a mobi that was made with a 600x800 original cover size (n.b.: we make our mobi's from ePUBs, via Previewer and/or Kindlegen, depending upon which Crew here you query. The NoteTab Pro crowd explode the ePUB and feed the OPF to KG; the PERL gang feed the ePUB to Previewer--six of one, half-dozen, etc.) I uploaded the mobi (1.839KB) with the embedded 600x800, and then I uploaded our "standard" 960x1280px jpeg as the product image. The final file was fine, no dual-covers (and I've had no reports of same in somewhere between 3-500 books we've done since the changeover--I can't remember what date they took the "option" out), and the final file is 1.7MB...so it seems to work fine.
I'm pretty sure if we were accidentally creating dual covers, I'd have heard by now from one of our clients; I mean, they pour over the samples and Look Insides relentlessly, so certainly out of that many hundreds done in this timeframe, I'd know.
Does that help? Covers look great, or as great as can be realistically expected with that compression ratio. It's hard to walk the fence between the "product image" needs and the embedded cover needs, and so you get some lossiness, no two ways about it--but remember: the bottom line, no matter how painful it is, is that most purchasers don't really look at the embedded cover anyway--it's a pre-sale item. If you have to choose, choose what will look good on the Amazon/B&N website, not INSIDE the book, because the "grabber" is the product image version. Now--that's just my opinion, and worth what you just paid for it. ;-)
HTH,
Hitch