Great Customer Response from Amazon

[astro123]

I sent a question in via email, and got a call in 1 hour -- with the right answers! That was surprising.

questions answered were:

phrases/words used in the keyword fields cannot be used in the Summary as well -- confuses searching

the Summary/Description does have to be in HTML even though it doesn't say it on the KDP page. There are several free tools available to convert it to HTML and you can cut and paste

Words from the title can be used in the Summary/Description

Also, if you use the Send to Kindle app, and then view the text on each device, that is what you will see for the final product on each device. If you see something different on any of the Kindle previewers, trust the device over the previewers. The end product should not be that different

[Dr. Drib]

Moved out of the Workshop forum and to the Kindle Formats Forum.

Don
(Moderator)

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by astro123

I sent a question in via email, and got a call in 1 hour -- with the right answers! That was surprising.

questions answered were:

phrases/words used in the keyword fields cannot be used in the Summary as well -- confuses searching

the Summary/Description does have to be in HTML even though it doesn't say it on the KDP page. There are several free tools available to convert it to HTML and you can cut and paste

Words from the title can be used in the Summary/Description

Also, if you use the Send to Kindle app, and then view the text on each device, that is what you will see for the final product on each device. If you see something different on any of the Kindle previewers, trust the device over the previewers. The end product should not be that different

Well, I don't know who, at Amazon, told you that, but the Send to Kindle app, for previewing books, is WORTHLESS. Absolutely worthless.

We never use it, because it has zero relevance to how the books will appear on the real devices, once on sale.

Sorry.

Hitch

[astro123]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Well, I don't know who, at Amazon, told you that, but the Send to Kindle app, for previewing books, is WORTHLESS. Absolutely worthless.

We never use it, because it has zero relevance to how the books will appear on the real devices, once on sale.

Sorry.

Hitch

Thanks. have you used it and found it to be awful? Would appreciate knowing why. Would also appreciate knowing the best way to accurately preview a book -- something that is browser independent, etc. thanks

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by astro123

Thanks. have you used it and found it to be awful? Would appreciate knowing why. Would also appreciate knowing the best way to accurately preview a book -- something that is browser independent, etc. thanks

The best way to preview is on an actual device with the latest firmware. So if you need to preview on multiple Kindles, buy these Kindles for previewing. There is nothing that takes the place of the actual Kindle.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by astro123

Thanks. have you used it and found it to be awful? Would appreciate knowing why. Would also appreciate knowing the best way to accurately preview a book -- something that is browser independent, etc. thanks

Yes, we have used it, and found it to be completely out of whack with what's really going to be seen on the devices, particularly if you are doing other than vanilla books. My company has done ~3500 eBooks, so while that doesn't mke us equal to Amazon, by any stretch, we do have some experience in the matter.

I find that by and large, Previewer STILL works best, if you cannot afford to buy devices (there's a good marketplace in used ones, btw). We have, in-house, a K2, a K3, KKeyboard, a first-gen K4, Paperwhite, Oasis, Voyager, Fire, FireHD, HDX 8.9", and of course, 2-3 Kindle for PCs, 1 K4Mac, 2K4Droid devices, a Win8Tablet (yet another Kindle For....reader, seriously), and oh, yeah, I nearly forgot, two iPads (one first-gen and a much newer one, due to first-gen bugs) and an iPhone. That's just for Amazon. We have another host of devices for testing ePUB.

The thing with "send to Kindle" has been that for a long while, the "send to Kindle" app used the email service, the old PDocs service, and what you got out was a KF7 eBook, not a KF8 mobi. Amazon wrongly and erroneously refers to this as xferring via "wifi," but it's not really doing that; it's still sending it to the PDocs service (or, at least, the mail-to-kindle service). I tested this recently, due to some issues, between Amazon and us, about embedded fonts, and I was still seeing a KF7 version of the file in question. That's hardly an accurate view.

Hope that helps.

Hitch

[astro123]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Yes, we have used it, and found it to be completely out of whack with what's really going to be seen on the devices, particularly if you are doing other than vanilla books. My company has done ~3500 eBooks, so while that doesn't mke us equal to Amazon, by any stretch, we do have some experience in the matter.

I find that by and large, Previewer STILL works best, if you cannot afford to buy devices (there's a good marketplace in used ones, btw). We have, in-house, a K2, a K3, KKeyboard, a first-gen K4, Paperwhite, Oasis, Voyager, Fire, FireHD, HDX 8.9", and of course, 2-3 Kindle for PCs, 1 K4Mac, 2K4Droid devices, a Win8Tablet (yet another Kindle For....reader, seriously), and oh, yeah, I nearly forgot, two iPads (one first-gen and a much newer one, due to first-gen bugs) and an iPhone. That's just for Amazon. We have another host of devices for testing ePUB.

The thing with "send to Kindle" has been that for a long while, the "send to Kindle" app used the email service, the old PDocs service, and what you got out was a KF7 eBook, not a KF8 mobi. Amazon wrongly and erroneously refers to this as xferring via "wifi," but it's not really doing that; it's still sending it to the PDocs service (or, at least, the mail-to-kindle service). I tested this recently, due to some issues, between Amazon and us, about embedded fonts, and I was still seeing a KF7 version of the file in question. That's hardly an accurate view.

Hope that helps.

Hitch

Yes - this helps quite a bit -- thanks very much.