Using Calibre to format Kindle books

[Notjohn]

What is the thinking on using Calibre as a publication tool for Kindle Direct Publishing? Some Kindle (self-)publishers use it and swear by it. I was early warned away from it, and I've heard that Amazon sometimes rejects e-books generated by Calibre.

Thanks for any light you can shed!

[eschwartz]

Using the Editor and metadata handling is fine.

There is no good reason to specifically use calibre's ebook conversion engine when Amazon's kindlegen works as well.

Also, kindlegen creates dual MOBIs which Amazon's servers will split into MOBI for older Kindles, while ebook buyers who have newer devices will automatically get the KF8 copy of the book. You can upload MOBI to Amazon, but they will reject dual MOBI and KF8 files that weren't converted by kindlegen.

[Notjohn]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

You can upload MOBI to AMazon, but they will reject dual MOBI and KF8 files that weren't converted by kindlegen.

Such was my understanding, but there are self-pubbers who regularly use Calibre for this purpose. Most recently, a post on the Kindle Direct Publishing "Ask the Community" forum hotly disputed my advice NOT to use Calibre, saying that he (or she) had published 17 Calibre-generated books.

Is it perhaps the Calibre epub that such publishers successfuly (or so they claim) are using?

Oh, wait! I see that you are saying that a simple 'Mobi 7" file will work, and that only if there's a KF8 variant does the uploading fail?

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Notjohn

Such was my understanding, but there are self-pubbers who regularly use Calibre for this purpose. Most recently, a post on the Kindle Direct Publishing "Ask the Community" forum hotly disputed my advice NOT to use Calibre, saying that he (or she) had published 17 Calibre-generated books.

Is it perhaps the Calibre epub that such publishers successfuly (or so they claim) are using?

Oh, wait! I see that you are saying that a simple 'Mobi 7" file will work, and that only if there's a KF8 variant does the uploading fail?

They might've done either. calibre is indeed great for making your EPUB. And it is certainly possible to publish calibre MOBI7s... but that isn't the same as saying you should. I would suggest using the tools that Amazon tells you to use, i.e. kindlegen to convert any EPUB.

I believe the reason they accept any MOBI is because originally there were other tools for making it, and only afterwards did they buy Mobipocket. But they created KF8, and demand you use their tools if you want to use it.