Converted ePub not appearing with cover on Kindle Oasis

[ajkessel]

In preparation for Amazon ceasing support of MOBI on Kindle, I am now having ebook-convert target EPUB and then email files to my Kindle Oasis. I am unable to get covers to work -- it just shows as a generic document. When I open the file in Calibre, it shows a proper cover. I noticed that --share-not-sync is needed for MOBI files to have proper covers on Kindle, but there is no analogous output option for EPUB. Am I doing something wrong? Any tips for how to troubleshoot?

[jhowell]

That's the way it is. If you email an EPUB you won't see a cover thumbnail in the Kindle library.

See the thread Kindle to utilize epub format in late 2022 for more info. One of my posts there summarizes some of the issues.

[ajkessel]

Thanks -- so based on reading through the thread, the only viable workaround currently is sideloading?

[jhowell]

Yes. In that case you may temporarily lose cover thumbnails due to a different problem but that is fixable using calibre.

There is a possibility of getting cover thumbnails to work for emailed books on jailbroken devices. It was discussed in the thread How to set a cover for KUAL? starting around post #5.

[ajkessel]

One of my main workflows is converting Substack newsletter emails to MOBI/send-to-kindle via a procmail filter. With the MOBI format files, they all have a nice cover thumbnail pulled from the image in the newsletter. When I switch to EPUB, there are no covers. These aren't books that compete with anything that Amazon is selling -- it's just an email that I prefer to read on Kindle. Sounds like I'll be stuck unless Amazon decides to change how it processes incoming EPUBs? There isn't any technical reason why EPUBs and MOBIs should be treated differently in this respect, is there?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by ajkessel

Sounds like I'll be stuck unless Amazon decides to change how it processes incoming EPUBs?

Yes, unless you have a jailbroken kindle.

Originally Posted by ajkessel

There isn't any technical reason why EPUBs and MOBIs should be treated differently in this respect, is there?

The difference is that a kindle will extract the cover thumbnail from MOBI files but for KF8 format (produced from EPUB) cover thumbnails are programmed to match the marketing cover as shown on the sales page for the book. Personal documents do not have a marketing cover and so get the generic one instead.

Amazon could change this if they want to. I doubt they will because the handling of KF8 format has long been frozen and having non-purchased books be inferior works to their advantage.

[PangaDayWalker]

A forma como eu faco. Minhas capas todos tem 1500x2250 (isso corrige o problema das capas).

De resto, tive que parar de usar o enviar do CALIBRE e passei a apenas atachar em um email pelo GMAIL e enviar para meu email do Kindle.

Agora tudo funciona corretamente.

Google Translated

The way I do. My skins are all 1500x2250 (this fixes the skin issue).

For the rest, I had to stop using CALIBER's sending and started to just attach it to an email via GMAIL and send it to my Kindle email.

Now everything works correctly.