Are there "flows" for Look Inside The Book?

[Notjohn]

On the KDP forum yesterday, there was a learned declaration about LITB and "flows". I read it and didn't understand it. I read it again this morning and again didn't understand it. I asked for an explanation and got this in reply:

The way the Look Inside appears depends on the specific display document flow assigned to your book. There are several flows (Zon tech support wouldn't tell me how many). Some open on the title page. Some open on the cover. Some try to guess where the beginning is, based on the contents, and open there. This makes good sense, since we have a service where .e.g. graphic novels share space with textbooks, poetry, experimental literature and literary classics. No single display flow could possibly work for all these.

Among other things, the document flows differ as to the line spacing and paragraph spacing. Very often, especially if your book is laid out in some unusual manner, the rules-based AI the Zon uses to pick the correct display flow screws it up and guesses wrong. When that happens, an email to Zon support is normally sufficient to fix the problem of "my book is supposed to open in place X, but instead opens in place Y" or "my book looks fine in your kindle previewer, but the look inside is screwed up in the manner X, Y, Z".

I am somewhat less befogged, but not much. David Foster Wallace gets Flow X while Danielle Steel gets Flow Y? Hitch gets Flow Z?

Huh.

Any illumination gratefully received!

[Notjohn]

Does the silence suggest that nobody knows the answer, or that everyone knows it but me?

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Notjohn

On the KDP forum yesterday, there was a learned declaration about LITB and "flows". I read it and didn't understand it. I read it again this morning and again didn't understand it. I asked for an explanation and got this in reply:



I am somewhat less befogged, but not much. David Foster Wallace gets Flow X while Danielle Steel gets Flow Y? Hitch gets Flow Z?

Huh.

Any illumination gratefully received!

Sweetie:

And what learned folk said this?

Hitch

[Notjohn]

The nom du forum is Moshe Ben-Or.

See https://kdp.amazon.com/community/thr...17120&#1617120

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Notjohn

The nom du forum is Moshe Ben-Or.

See https://kdp.amazon.com/community/thr...617120�

Well, sheesh, dude, ask him for his source on it.

Hitch

[Notjohn]

I think it's his own personal wisdom. But I'll try!

[Notjohn]

Now I'm beginning to think it was just a guess based on incomplete information. This is his reply:

I complained to Zon tech support and asked questions. They fixed the problem and answered the questions. Straight from the horse's mouth, in other words.

Since I happen to have a somewhat-unusual preview in the beginning of my books, I have been able to confuse the Look Inside feature every time. Inadvertently, of course. The second time 'round, they actually gave me some answers, because I demanded to know why it was happening and what I could do about it.

[Notjohn]

And when I expressed my theory of a WAG, he elaborated a bit:

No, I am saying this business about display flows is what the Zon technical support people told me, confirmed by observation when they switched the display flow from the default picked by the AI to a different one.

None of this has anything to do with the formatting of your book. This concerns the internal logic and behavior of the specific piece of custom software written by Zon programmers to enable the functioning of the look inside feature. Said software picks between some number of display formats, termed "flows", which differ in their properties as to line spacing, paragraph spacing and opening location. Presumably, there may be other properties as well, but these were not observed by me and did not come into the discussion.

Flows are chosen by the software based on some set of logical rules, whose nature is not known to me and is, at any rate, irrelevant to the discussion. The operative item is that these flows exist, they make the look inside appear quite different, and they can be adjusted by Zon support on request.

Interestingly, though it would be reasonable to guess that the rules-based AI cues off internal ebook formatting, the Zon people would neither confirm nor deny this, nor would they provide me with examples of e.g. html that would cue the AI onto the correct flow. Since prior discussion on Kboards focused on header tags, it would be logical to experiment with those.