ePub to Amazon, or Sigil for Mobi

[anamardoll]

So here's a question to ya'll:

I'm writing directly into Sigil and am very self-conscious about getting the epub code just right. I'm wondering about the eventual upload to Amazon, though.

Is there a mobi tool that's like Sigil but for mobi?

Or do you just send the epub to Amazon and hope for the best? (Or churn and burn through Calibre, I suppose.)

[mr ploppy]

There isn't one for mobi, don't know why. They do convert to mobi well with Calibre, but another way of doing it would be to unzip the epub and add the html to Mobicreator, which is Amazon's preferred program. I create them with Dreamweaver, mainly because I'm used to working with it.

I wouldn't upload anything other than mobi to Amazon because they don't let you download the finished file without having to pay for it so you wouldn't know if anything went wrong.

[LaoTseu]

In general, you should know that Kindle (mobi) always use the stock Serif font (no way to change the font) and ignore page or body top and bottom margins and the left and right margins everywhere. There is a monotype font available if you use <tt> or <pre> tags. Top and bottom margins should be set at the block level (p, h1, h2, h3, blockquote, pre, etc.). You can can change the left margin using <blockquote> or, with short lines, you can use test-indentation: to cheat a bit.

When converting from calibre, you need to make sure that you have a toc, cover and text references set. For the text reference, set the title="start" (all lowercase). calibre will convert those in proper mobi references (cover, toc and where to start reading).

I would not use MobiCreator. I would use KindleGen instead as it is supported by Amazon.

In any case, Kindle Previewer from Amazon will be very helpful to test your resulting mobi.

Hope that helps.

[anamardoll]

@LaoTseu, is KindleGen/Kindle Previewer a computer program or a web interface they offer for the finished product?

Because I was going to sideload the mobi I create to a friend's Kindle and proof it that way.

[JeremyR]

I've done a whopping one book with it, but it worked fine when I simply put the epub from Sigil straight into Kindlegen. It has a TOC, chapters, cover, etc, and Amazon approved it.

It did monkey with the formatting a little. I have the habit of putting a space between paragraphs. But Kindlegen changed it to the more traditional book method (no space, indented).

[JeremyR]

I take it back, if you just use Sigil, it creates the ncx files, but not an actual ToC (why it can't use the ncx files as the Table of Contents is beyond me...)

edit:

But you can generate a table of contents using this script from a thread here

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=121607

And KindleGen will make a Kindle friendly TOC if you include it.

[MartinC]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

Is KindleGen/Kindle Previewer a computer program or a web interface they offer for the finished product?

Because I was going to sideload the mobi I create to a friend's Kindle and proof it that way.

They're both programs you can download from https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishi...A3IWA2TQYMZ5J6

Watch out for the previewer, though. It appears to do some things that a real Kindle won't, particularly when it comes to tables. Use a real Kindle if you can.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by MartinC

They're both programs you can download from https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishi...A3IWA2TQYMZ5J6

Watch out for the previewer, though. It appears to do some things that a real Kindle won't, particularly when it comes to tables. Use a real Kindle if you can.

Thank you! I have a friend/beta-reader who owns a Kindle and I was planning to tap her. I'm glad that it's a program I can download and play with and not an online interface only. Thanks!!