Amazon removing ebooks with TOC at end of book

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

The actual reason for Amazon wanting the move is because it throws off their pages read count for authors in Select.
Now according to David Gaughan or Gaughran (never can remember how to spell his name), Amazon is sending notices first for authors to move their TOC.
(Yes, some authors were whining about that.)
I do wonder if it is only on the Kindle Select books.

Interesting.



I would think the appendices, glossaries, indexes and other 'end info' might do the same thing.

[mitford13]

The goodereader blog is a little out of date - as Cinisajoy mentioned, it's part of a bigger issue with links to back matter helping KU scammers. More recent KDP announcement makes it sound more like "it depends." Over time, a lot of self-pubs have moved their TOCs to the back so they don't block content/take up space when readers use the Look Inside feature before buying.

KDP/
"In many cases, putting a book’s Table of Contents (TOC) at the end of a book can create a poor experience for readers, and in general we suggest authors locate TOCs to the beginning of a book. If the formatting of a book results in a poor experience or genuine reader confusion, or is designed to unnaturally inflate sales or pages read, we will take action to remove titles and protect readers. That said, absent any other issues of quality, locating the TOC at the end of a book is not in itself outside of our guidelines.
..."
https://kdp.amazon.com/community/ann.jspa?annID=991

[whitearrow]

Ironically I think the reason publishers started doing this in the first place, way back when, was to counter the well-founded complaints that samples consisted mostly of front matter and very little of the actual book, especially in nonfiction books with introductions and forewords and such.

(I don't understand why fiction ebooks need a TOC in the first place, much less a text one.)

[DiapDealer]

I like seeing a text-based TOC. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. Even if I never use it.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Interesting.



I would think the appendices, glossaries, indexes and other 'end info' might do the same thing.

There's a discussion about it in the following thread:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=271940

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by shalym

I never understood the purpose of an html table of contents in an ebook. If I want to navigate within the book, I'm going to use the ereader software, not the html TOC.

Does anyone actually use the html TOC?

Shari

With Kindle eBooks, the HTML ToC is what the ToC link uses. So without an HTML ToC, Kindle eBooks would have no ToC.

ePub eBooks use an NCX ToC. So the HTML ToC is not needed. The only time you get ePub that doesn't use NCX is if the eBook is a 100% ePub 3 eBook. Those are few. Publishers would never publish amd ePub 3 that's not backwards compatible because they'd sell none of them (or hardly any).

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

Most ebook platforms, including the Kindle, support an external TOC. There's no need for a TOC in the text of the book.

The Kindle gets the external ToC from the HTML ToC.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Jeff L

Older Kindles don't have an external navigation facility. The ncx is used for the progress bar and for jumping from chapter to chapter (or wherever the ncx entries are pointing to). Even in that instance, older Kindles only read the top level of the ncx.

NCX is from ePub. KF8 does not use an NCX ToC.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by whitearrow

(I don't understand why fiction ebooks need a TOC in the first place, much less a text one.)

I agree. I start at the beginning and read to the end. I don't need a guide to get me there.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I like seeing a text-based TOC. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. Even if I never use it.

[ekbell]

Originally Posted by whitearrow

(I don't understand why fiction ebooks need a TOC in the first place, much less a text one.)

For people like me who can't wait to find out where the book is going. I'm currently rereading a bunch of mystery books and so far I've skipped to the end chapter of every book just to check if my memory is correct about who-dun-it before reading the body of the book. I also like being able to quickly review a previous chapter occasionally.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by ekbell

For people like me who can't wait to find out where the book is going. I'm currently rereading a bunch of mystery books and so far I've skipped to the end chapter of every book just to check if my memory is correct about who-dun-it before reading the body of the book. I also like being able to quickly review a previous chapter occasionally.

.

[skinmaan]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

I agree. I start at the beginning and read to the end. I don't need a guide to get me there.

They can be useful for short story collections, particularly if you've already read 1 or 2 of them in the past and wish to skip over these.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by skinmaan

They can be useful for short story collections, particularly if you've already read 1 or 2 of them in the past and wish to skip over these.

Exactly! I don't read that many novels, but tons of anthologies, collections, poetry, nonfiction....

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Exactly! I don't read that many novels, but tons of anthologies, collections, poetry, nonfiction....

Wait a minute. You mean you don't read the exact same things/way that I do? Well, this changes everything!