Mobi upload fail

[rhymedawg]

I converted a word file to Mobi with Calibre. It failed to be "processed" by Amazon (KDP). Alert says "There was a problem processing your file. Please check your file and try again."

Converted as a "New".

Any advice?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by rhymedawg

Any advice?

First, post your question in the "Workshop" or "Kindle Formats" forums. This forum is for Kindle users running custom software on Kindle hardware. (Now moved.)

Second, do not use calibre to convert a book for publication through Amazon. It is a great tool for Kindle users, but the files it produces are missing some of content required for proper publication. Use Amazon's Kindle Previewer or Kindle Create software for conversion instead.

[JimmyR]

If "new" refers to the "Mobi file type" in the conversion options, then that should be set to "old".

KDP accepts word documents (doc/docx). ^Plus what jhowell said...

[HarryT]

Moved to the "Kindle Formats" forum.

[rhymedawg]

I used Calibre to create a mobi file because Kindle Create was failing to produce working hyperlinks. After 5 emails back and forth with KDP tech support, they were unable to resolve, which is why I tried Calibre.

Also, I used Calibre because it changes behavior of footnotes. It has a setting to insert a page for each individual footnote (when footnote clicked). If anybody knows how to do this in Word, I'm all ears. It's important to my project—I do not want all the footnotes at document end.

As to "New" versus "Old," "Old" won't run on Kindle devices (not reflowable). At least the way Calibre is creating files for me. Anyone shed any light on that?

Finally, I was able to get an earlier version of a mobi file created with Calibre to upload to KDP—it's online right now (uploaded last week). So, it does work, its just not working now. Perhaps I inadvertently had some setting on Calibre set correctly that now I don't, which is why I am on this forum asking questions.

BTW, Kindle Previewer 3 on a Mac I have found to be buggy. Hyperlinks that work when you successfully upload a file (Word) to KDP and view in the Online Previewer do not work on my Mac Mini (OS 10.14.1) with Kindle Previewer 3.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by rhymedawg

I used Calibre to create a mobi file because Kindle Create was failing to produce working hyperlinks. After 5 emails back and forth with KDP tech support, they were unable to resolve, which is why I tried Calibre.

You might want to re-think your current workflow. You'll probably get better results, if you generate an epub book and upload it or a Kindle Previewer/KindleGen generated .mobi file to KDP:

1. Save your book as a .docx file with MS Word.
2. Convert the .docx file to an epub book with Calibre.
3. Check the epub book with the IDPF validator.
4. Fix all errors. (In Calibre Editor, click Run Check > Try to correct all fixable errors automatically.)
5. Generate a .mobi file with Kindle Previewer/KindleGen and upload it to KDP.

[rhymedawg]

So, I figured it out:

You must choose "Both," where Calibre gives you the choice of Old, New, or Both.

Simple as that. Uploaded to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) sans problem.

Moreover, footnotes appear on their own individual page with a nice "back" arrow for the user to get back to where they clicked the footnote.

And finally, book is reflowable so it can be read on Kindle devices.

My writing environment is Google Docs, which outputs files in docx format. So, the signal path is a lot simpler. Google Docs to Calibre to KDP.

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by rhymedawg

Finally, I was able to get an earlier version of a mobi file created with Calibre to upload to KDP—it's online right now (uploaded last week). So, it does work, its just not working now.

As Doitsu mentioned, this workflow is going to potentially bring serious issues.

The only official Amazon-approved tools are:

• Kindle Previewer (GUI tool)
• or KindleGen (Commandline tool)

You then upload those specially-crafted MOBIs through KDP to Amazon.

Calibre-generateed MOBI/AZW3 files should only be used for personal consumption (or if you wanted to host files on your personal site for others to easily sideload). Uploading these to Amazon/KDP is just asking for trouble (see years of topics complaining about this).

Originally Posted by rhymedawg

Also, I used Calibre because it changes behavior of footnotes. It has a setting to insert a page for each individual footnote [...].

I absolutely abhor this setting, and have no idea why it's default for DOCX Input.

In Calibre, under Covert > DOCX Input, the setting is Do not add a page after every endnote. It is default OFF, but I always put ON.

Heavily bloats the EPUB by splitting it into millions of individual HTML files. And makes paging through the footnotes a nightmare.

Originally Posted by rhymedawg

If anybody knows how to do this in Word, I'm all ears. It's important to my project—I do not want all the footnotes at document end.

Typical ebook standard is:

• Have Footnotes at the end/bottom of each chapter.
  
  • Advantage is each chapter is easily portable (ex. copy/paste a chapter to your site).
    
  • No extra load times (especially important on older devices).
• Endnotes chapter at the end of the book.
  
  • Advantage is it's "out of the way".

For more thorough explanations of pros/cons + code samples, see this 2013 topic: "A link to jump back to the original start point?"

Originally Posted by rhymedawg

My writing environment is Google Docs, which outputs files in docx format. So, the signal path is a lot simpler. Google Docs to Calibre to KDP.

Google Docs also exports as EPUB directly. But if you didn't use Styles, be prepared for a nightmare of spaghetti HTML/CSS.

If you're using Microsoft Word, then I would highly recommend using Toxaris's EPUB Tools. It is one of the best ways to export a super clean EPUBs out of DOCXs.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by rhymedawg

So, I figured it out:

You must choose "Both," where Calibre gives you the choice of Old, New, or Both.

Simple as that. Uploaded to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) sans problem.

Moreover, footnotes appear on their own individual page with a nice "back" arrow for the user to get back to where they clicked the footnote.

Warning: if you have your book in Kindle Select, and in the borrowing program where you're paid by pages read, you could be headed for serious, can-get-you-banned-by-Amazon-for-it trouble. Amazon has absolutely no sense of humor, at all, about anything that they perceive as trying to inflate the "page count" (which includes, creating utterly unnecessary additional HTML files), so as to inflate the pages read figure in this program. What you've done, by creating each footnote on its own HTML page, artificially inflates the page count of the book and the pages read. (And, fwiw, it infuriates readers who like to read footnotes and endnotes in a chunk.)

If you're not in it, AND no reader complains, then you'll likely be fine. But, don't enter into that program, or you could be in the deep doodoo.

Hitch

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by rhymedawg

Moreover, footnotes appear on their own individual page with a nice "back" arrow for the user to get back to where they clicked the footnote.

Kindle (and iBooks) users don't want to click back arrows, they expect properly formatted popup footnotes.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

Kindle (and iBooks) users don't want to click back arrows, they expect properly formatted popup footnotes.

Yeah, that too--but the KENP thing with the excess pages is a much, much larger issue in terms of being banned. The lack of popup footnotes will probably only cause a user complaint.

Hitch

[Notjohn]

Use Sigil. Upload the validated epub to the KDP platform.

The one purpose I still use Word for is to build the endnotes. It does a splendid job, though a bit of tweaking does improve it.

Keep Calibre out of it.

Avoid Kindle Create. The only people I know who favor it also like playing about with software for the enjoyment they get from it. For lesser mortals, it's Pooh trap.

As a reader, I'm opposed to pop-up notes as distracting and unnecessary. If the note actually adds to the reading experience, then incorporate it into the text. If it's merely a citation, anybody interested in sources will be happy to click back and forth or, as I do, occasionally sit down and glance through the notes one after another.

[Notjohn]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Second, do not use calibre to convert a book for publication through Amazon. It is a great tool for Kindle users, but the files it produces are missing some of content required for proper publication.

Interesting! Could you expand on that a bit?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by Notjohn

Interesting! Could you expand on that a bit?

Amazon supplies the kindlegen program (and Kindle Previewer which includes kindlegen) for conversion from source formats to Master MOBI for publication. These Master MOBI files are different from the MOBI files produced using calibre for conversion. Here are some issues that I know of that can potentially cause problems when publishing a book converted to MOBI using calibre on Amazon.

Converting to MOBI-new produces a file that lacks a MOBI7 component, which is required for older Kindle devices, and will be rejected by Amazon.

If you convert to MOBI-old you get only MOBI7 out, which will have only the most basic formatting preserved from the source format. My understanding is that user-supplied fonts and user selectable font boldness on newer Kindles do not work with MOBI7. Also calibre allows some formatting in the resulting MOBI that Amazon's kindlegen removes. These might render inconsistently in Kindle apps/devices.

Converting to MOBI-both includes both MOBI7 and KF8, but lacks a DATP record which is needed for synchronization of reading position between those formats. This could cause problems for readers who switch between different apps/devices when reading that book. It also lacks the original source file which kindlegen includes when producing a Master MOBI. That will prevent Amazon's conversion of the book to KFX format and disable the Enhanced Typesetting features of newer Kindle apps/devices (hyphenation, selectable ragged right, continuous scrolling, page flip, etc.)

[rhymedawg]

A lot of really helpful and thoughtful comments and very much appreciated.

Will consider it all—especially the footnote decision tree.

The way I used footnotes, they are not references, they are in effect, parenthetical info that could very well be made a part of the book and I will need to think on whether or not that is the best route.

I like the single page footnote approach that Calibre renders as it aids the reader in focusing on the one footnote I want them to focus on when they click a footnote number and two, it makes abundantly clear how to "go back."

But, I don't want to get banned! So, maybe need to change that.

As to Kindle Create, I have found it to be a buggy mess (which is why I ended up using Calibre).

I have lots of hyperlinks in my book (to videos and resources on web) and though I "preserved" links in KC, many of them never did work despite numerous interchanges with Kindle Support.

Support were able to duplicate my problems on their end and kicked it up to their software engineers to resolve. Still have not heard back.

BTW, I'm running a Mac Mini on the latest Mac OS (10.14.1).

Again my thanks.

For any that want to see the finished product, its available for free right now in a one-week promotional free giveaway. The version you will see still has some formatting problems (mostly involving tables) that I have since fixed, but I am waiting for the promotion to be over before I upload another "cleaned up" version to KDP.