Kindly need help in veryfing a possible Amazon ebook formatting eror

Diodato · 08-18-2010, 05:22 PM

Hi all,

I really had a tough time deciding in which subforum to post; at the end decided here since it effectively concerns an Amazon ebook.
So here it goes:

I kindly ask if some of you could verify if it's really my Kindle DX Graphite International (v2.5.5) or my eyes... or in fact there is a problem with the formatting of this ebook (at least it's sample, but I presume it will be the whole ebook). Please try both on your Kindle and K4PC.

I have downloaded the sample of "Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter [Kindle Edition]" ASIN: B0028MBKRK. To me the ebook has formatting problems. I have twice contacted Amazon support and both times was replied that there is no problem with the ebook. In the first response: "I have downloaded the sample to my Kindle for PC and see that there are no issues with formatting. However, as a first step towards troubleshooting, I request you to decrease the font size so that the text and the symbols are correctly aligned.".
And the second reply: "Please try deleting the sample, restarting your Kindle, and then redownloading the book again. This should fix the problem.".

This is the problem as I see it (I quote my exact words sent to customer support):
- If from the Table of Contents you select chapter 1 ("Top of the Class) you reach the Chapter 1 that starts with the words "AUTUMN 1941 | As soon as I got home from school...". The image before this text should contain the text "1 | Top of the Class". Instead the image has the text "2 | A Tianjin Family". All the images are "shifted" and don't correspond to the section (chapters, Preface etc) they should describe.

These days I'm on vacation, so I can't test it myself on the K4PC and my DX exhibits this "formatting error".

PS: I really miss a button on the Kindle Support pages for signaling (possible) ebook errors.

jswinden · 08-18-2010, 06:49 PM

It probably is a formatting issue, but I doubt Amazon is to blame. 99.99999% of the time it is going to be the book's author and/or publisher at fault. It seems that most publishers still have limited ebook formatting skills.

AnemicOak · 08-18-2010, 07:10 PM

I get the same errors on Kindle for Mac.

FWIW I checked out the PDB sample from B&N and it seems to be correct so it's likely a problem specific to the Kindle version (the sample from Mobipocket has the same problems). I don't know if contacting Random House (Laurel Leaf is one of their children's labels) would work better than contacting Amazon or not since all Amazon can likely do is notify the publisher that there's a problem.

Diodato · 08-19-2010, 02:44 PM

Thank you both for your time and input.
I'll try one more time with Amazon, and then with Random House.

Cheers

08-18-2010, 05:22 PM	#1
Diodato Junior Member Posts: 7 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2010 Device: Kindle DXG	Kindly need help in veryfing a possible Amazon ebook formatting error Hi all, I really had a tough time deciding in which subforum to post; at the end decided here since it effectively concerns an Amazon ebook. So here it goes: I kindly ask if some of you could verify if it's really my Kindle DX Graphite International (v2.5.5) or my eyes... or in fact there is a problem with the formatting of this ebook (at least it's sample, but I presume it will be the whole ebook). Please try both on your Kindle and K4PC. I have downloaded the sample of "Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter [Kindle Edition]" ASIN: B0028MBKRK. To me the ebook has formatting problems. I have twice contacted Amazon support and both times was replied that there is no problem with the ebook. In the first response: "I have downloaded the sample to my Kindle for PC and see that there are no issues with formatting. However, as a first step towards troubleshooting, I request you to decrease the font size so that the text and the symbols are correctly aligned.". And the second reply: "Please try deleting the sample, restarting your Kindle, and then redownloading the book again. This should fix the problem.". This is the problem as I see it (I quote my exact words sent to customer support): - If from the Table of Contents you select chapter 1 ("Top of the Class) you reach the Chapter 1 that starts with the words "AUTUMN 1941 \| As soon as I got home from school...". The image before this text should contain the text "1 \| Top of the Class". Instead the image has the text "2 \| A Tianjin Family". All the images are "shifted" and don't correspond to the section (chapters, Preface etc) they should describe. These days I'm on vacation, so I can't test it myself on the K4PC and my DX exhibits this "formatting error". PS: I really miss a button on the Kindle Support pages for signaling (possible) ebook errors. Last edited by Diodato; 08-18-2010 at 05:59 PM.

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08-18-2010, 06:49 PM	#2
jswinden Nameless Being	It probably is a formatting issue, but I doubt Amazon is to blame. 99.99999% of the time it is going to be the book's author and/or publisher at fault. It seems that most publishers still have limited ebook formatting skills.

08-18-2010, 07:10 PM	#3
AnemicOak Bookaholic Posts: 14,391 Karma: 54969924 Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Minnesota Device: iPad Mini 4, AuraHD, iPhone XR +	I get the same errors on Kindle for Mac. FWIW I checked out the PDB sample from B&N and it seems to be correct so it's likely a problem specific to the Kindle version (the sample from Mobipocket has the same problems). I don't know if contacting Random House (Laurel Leaf is one of their children's labels) would work better than contacting Amazon or not since all Amazon can likely do is notify the publisher that there's a problem.

08-19-2010, 02:44 PM	#4
Diodato Junior Member Posts: 7 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2010 Device: Kindle DXG	Thank you both for your time and input. I'll try one more time with Amazon, and then with Random House. Cheers

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