Accurately Previewing a Kindle Book Pre-Sale

[Rand Brittain]

I'm helping a friend with the ebook version of her novel, which is going to be for sale, among other places, on Amazon, and we're having some trouble with the testing phase. When I send the book to Kindle via email, the process introduces errors that don't make sense and aren't present in the ePub (like, paragraphs that just aren't indented for no reason I can see). Converting it in Calibre and sideloading it introduces different errors that I don't feel like fixing since nobody is going to be sideloading it. In Kindle Previewer, they look fine.

Is Kindle Previewer the accurate choice for figuring out what the book will look like when someone actually buys it?

[Quoth]

The accurate preview choice is to have 2 or 3 eink Kindles or different eras and make old mobi, azw3 and KFX with Calibre.

Check you have one Kindle with NO "Publisher" option on Aa menu, that only uses old mobi.
The other kindle should be newer and have "Publisher" option in Aa or Theme menu. Make sure that the azw3 "works" in Publisher mode and also with a local default option.

The only 100% test now is to publish, then buy a copy. Select download to PC for USB transfer for each kindle (old and newer) which will give mobi/azw for old and azw3 for newer.
Whispernet (WiFi) direct delivery to a newer Kindle or PC app or Android App will give KFX. The iOS app may get old mobi.

"Send to Kindle" is worthless compared to USB transfer and the Amazon "preview" download from KDP upload is just an epub in a zip. If you upload an epub rather than docx, it's basically what you uploaded!

The "Send to Kindle" doesn't do the same as epub upload to KDP.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by Rand Brittain

(like, paragraphs that just aren't indented for no reason I can see)

If spaces and/or tabs are used for indentation the result may sometimes look ok in preview but it won’t work properly. That may be the case here.

The KDP eBook Manuscript Formatting Guide has formatting tips.

[Quoth]

In general:
Never more than one space together.
No spaces at start or ends of lines.
No tabs ever.
No empty lines.

Use styles that map 1:1 to CSS to do indents, margins, spacing between paragraphs or whatever.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Rand Brittain

I'm helping a friend with the ebook version of her novel, which is going to be for sale, among other places, on Amazon, and we're having some trouble with the testing phase. When I send the book to Kindle via email, the process introduces errors that don't make sense and aren't present in the ePub (like, paragraphs that just aren't indented for no reason I can see). Converting it in Calibre and sideloading it introduces different errors that I don't feel like fixing since nobody is going to be sideloading it. In Kindle Previewer, they look fine.

Is Kindle Previewer the accurate choice for figuring out what the book will look like when someone actually buys it?

Rand:

It sounds as though the HTML or CSS is inconsistent. The PDocs method will usually work adequately well, certainly for a novel, but if you're seeing paragraphs that are not indented, that says to me that they don't have the same coding as their "peers," so to speak. Presumably you've checked? And can't see any coding reason for those that are blockstyle to be that way?

As far as then turning around and putting it in Calibre..I mean, at that point, you ARE introducing other errors. You say you're sideloading it, but are you sideloading a MOBI? An AZW? Or...? Are you making an ePUB with Calibre, dropping that on KP3, and building a Mobi for sideloading? Too many variables and unknowns here.

And most importantly, neither of these scenarios should be happening, if the paragraph coding is right. Something, somewhere, is amiss. Do you have samples of the HTML/CSS for those that produce correctly and those that do not?

Hitch

[j.p.s]

I'm surprised nobody has yet suggested epubcheck to get hints of what might be going wrong and/ot kindlegen to see whether its log messages are clues.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

I'm surprised nobody has yet suggested epubcheck to get hints of what might be going wrong and/ot kindlegen to see whether its log messages are clues.

What? Wow, I'll bet you're no fun at parties, either, you killjoy.



Hitch

[Rand Brittain]

I'm really quite confident that there are no errors in my formatting. The paragraphs in question are just bare <p>, and sometimes one of them, exactly alike to the one before and after it, doesn't indent for no apparent reason. The book passes epubcheck and renders normally as an ePub and in Kindle Previewer.

My friend the author tells me that opening the book she receives after emailing it to her Kindle, making a meaningless alteration, and reading it again makes the problem go away, presumably because the checksum changed and Kindle no longer recognizes it as having come from Amazon, or something.

At this point I am just forced to hope that everything goes all right on the night, because I don't know that there's much I can do about it.

[jhowell]

I doubt that anyone will be able to help without an actual example. If you have an EPUB that exhibits the problem you could post it here after running it through the ScrambleEbook plugin for calibre to remove the content while preserving the formatting.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Rand Brittain

I'm really quite confident that there are no errors in my formatting. The paragraphs in question are just bare <p>, and sometimes one of them, exactly alike to the one before and after it, doesn't indent for no apparent reason. The book passes epubcheck and renders normally as an ePub and in Kindle Previewer.

My friend the author tells me that opening the book she receives after emailing it to her Kindle, making a meaningless alteration, and reading it again makes the problem go away, presumably because the checksum changed and Kindle no longer recognizes it as having come from Amazon, or something.

At this point I am just forced to hope that everything goes all right on the night, because I don't know that there's much I can do about it.

What do you mean, a "meaningless alteration?" S/he can't make an edit on the fly inside the Kindle, so do you mean that she...what? Takes the original source file, makes an edit on her desktop/laptop/whatever and then what--emails herself a new copy of the book, or...?

You say that perhaps the Kindle no longer recognizes it as "having come from Amazon," but there's still a difference between Amazon-sold/acquired ebooks and PDocs books.

Hitch

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by jhowell

I doubt that anyone will be able to help without an actual example. If you have an EPUB that exhibits the problem you could post it here after running it through the ScrambleEbook plugin for calibre to remove the content while preserving the formatting.

Yeah, I agree, there's something we're not seeing or not being told. I've seen...many, many eBooks sideloaded over the years and I've never seen this happen without cause.

Hitch

[Rand Brittain]

The book has now gone live and exhibits no errors whatsoever, so it looks like I was correct in assuming that Kindle Previewer was the most accurate tool available. Still kind of bizarre that authors don't get access to on-device previews, but I suppose I should count myself lucky they get anything at all.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Rand Brittain

The book has now gone live and exhibits no errors whatsoever, so it looks like I was correct in assuming that Kindle Previewer was the most accurate tool available. Still kind of bizarre that authors don't get access to on-device previews, but I suppose I should count myself lucky they get anything at all.

Well, emailing a file--a MOBI, typically still and yet--to a Kindle always produces a substandard view. You've mentioned that the customer/client/friend makes "meaningless alterations," but haven't explained how, which could/would have an effect, as well.

I test books on our inhouse devices all the time and I've never--never--had an experience like you've described, certainly not in the last...12 years or so. So, something else is afoot. Not sure what it is, but really, that weirdness with the paras, etc. oughtn't be happening.

Hitch

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Rand Brittain

I'm helping a friend with the ebook version of her novel, which is going to be for sale, among other places, on Amazon, and we're having some trouble with the testing phase. When I send the book to Kindle via email, the process introduces errors that don't make sense and aren't present in the ePub (like, paragraphs that just aren't indented for no reason I can see). Converting it in Calibre and sideloading it introduces different errors that I don't feel like fixing since nobody is going to be sideloading it. In Kindle Previewer, they look fine.

Is Kindle Previewer the accurate choice for figuring out what the book will look like when someone actually buys it?

Kindle Previewer is no substitute for an actual Kindle. It does not always display the same as you would see on a Kindle.

If you have errors, it could be due to the ePub having errors. If you are using Sigil or the Calibre editor, use the epubcheck plugins (both have one) to check for errors.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Rand Brittain

The book has now gone live and exhibits no errors whatsoever, so it looks like I was correct in assuming that Kindle Previewer was the most accurate tool available. Still kind of bizarre that authors don't get access to on-device previews, but I suppose I should count myself lucky they get anything at all.

You are so wrong. I recently took an ePub with drop caps and with Kindle Preview, the drop caps looked good. On the Kindle, the drop caps look lousy. So never never take Kindle Preview's word for how an eBook will look on a Kindle.