Content Kindles and ebook covers

[AlexBell]

One of my friends, a small press publisher in the UK, has passed on this thread which seems to indicate that the coming generation of Kindle users does not know that Kindle ebooks have covers just like print books.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/forum/kindle...RFCNF3E5K2W&cd

Look for 'Well I never knew that! - Kindle covers'

Given that Kindle ebooks do not open at the cover do you ever look at the cover supplied by the author/publisher?

Do you think not opening at the cover is a bug or a feature?

[DiapDealer]

To be honest, I didn't care about the cover art on physical books much either. I'm all about the words.

But here at least... everyone knows you can hit the back button and usually see the cover.

Mobi books can't open at the cover because the cover is part of the metadata and not the "text" of the book. All a mobibook designer has to do is place an inline image of the cover on the very first "page" of "text" and tell it to open there. Voila... cover art.

[ewy]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

Given that Kindle ebooks do not open at the cover do you ever look at the cover supplied by the author/publisher?

Do you think not opening at the cover is a bug or a feature?

To me that's a rather annoying bug of the .mobi format. The first thing I usually do when opening a book is switching back to the cover to start from the "real" beginning.
So yes, a cover is interesting to me (and when browsing for books on Amazon or other shops, the cover might influence the buying decision as well).

Greetings,

ewy

[AlexBell]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

To be honest, I didn't care about the cover art on physical books much either. I'm all about the words.

But here at least... everyone knows you can hit the back button and usually see the cover.

Mobi books can't open at the cover because the cover is part of the metadata and not the "text" of the book. All a mobibook designer has to do is place an inline image of the cover on the very first "page" of "text" and tell it to open there. Voila... cover art.

I'm sorry, DiapDealer, I don't understand what you are saying. The ebooks I produce either have a Coverpage.html file which goes first in the toc.ncx file and first in the spine section of the config.opf file, or have a coverpage section as the first part of a Frontmatter.html file, which again is first in the toc.ncx and content.opf files. But the mobi ebooks still don't open at the cover.

Could you give me a little more detail please about how to make a mobi format book open at the cover?

[JeremyR]

I think it depends on the genre of the book.

For mysteries, I never bother. But if it's fantasy I always do, also if it's pulp.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

I'm sorry, DiapDealer, I don't understand what you are saying. The ebooks I produce either have a Coverpage.html file which goes first in the toc.ncx file and first in the spine section of the config.opf file, or have a coverpage section as the first part of a Frontmatter.html file, which again is first in the toc.ncx and content.opf files. But the mobi ebooks still don't open at the cover.

Could you give me a little more detail please about how to make a mobi format book open at the cover?

I'm terrible at describing the process, so I'll just attach a sample of what I mean. The sample is a snippet from a public domain work (the words and the art), so there's no copyright infringement going on.

The sample is a Sigil built epub. If you just drag & drop it onto the Kindle Previewer's main window (or feed it to kindlegen and load it into K4PC or on a Kindle) you'll see how the MOBI opens to the cover art (terrible as it is!). It will also go to the cover when selecting "Go To->Beginning".

If you use calibre to convert it to mobi, you'll need to tweak the reference in the guide section of the opf (before converting) to get it to open at the proper point.

Change the following reference:

<reference type="text" title="Text" href="Text/coverimage.xhtml"/>

to:

<reference type="start" title="Start Here" href="Text/coverimage.xhtml"/>

Hope that helps!

EDIT: I've attached the mobi as well, for those who may not use epubs or sigil when building mobi's. Just unpack it with mobiunpack.py to see what's going on.

[soulfuldog]

As well as showing the book cover, I wish it would show you a summary. Whenever I pick up a book the first thing I do is look at the cover, then flip it over/open the cover to look at the summary, just to remind me what it's about before I start reading it.

I know you view the 'book description' via the same menu you see the cover, but that is only online via Amazon. I think this is really a missing feature of the Kindle. Perhaps it's just me though!

[DiapDealer]

I know you view the 'book description' via the same menu you see the cover, but that is only online via Amazon. I think this is really a missing feature of the Kindle. Perhaps it's just me though!

That would be a feature I would fully support. The MOBI format has a Description metadata element already. The Kindle's "book description" should default to that if it exists and then send you to Amazon's website if it doesn't.

[AlexBell]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

The sample is a Sigil built epub. If you just drag & drop it onto the Kindle Previewer's main window (or feed it to kindlegen and load it into K4PC or on a Kindle) you'll see how the MOBI opens to the cover art (terrible as it is!). It will also go to the cover when selecting "Go To->Beginning".


Hope that helps!

EDIT: I've attached the mobi as well, for those who may not use epubs or sigil when building mobi's. Just unpack it with mobiunpack.py to see what's going on.

Thanks so much; that looks to be most helpful and something I'll use a lot.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

Thanks so much; that looks to be most helpful and something I'll use a lot.

No problem.
Note that my quick example had an image that that didn't properly fill the Kindle's screen. I forget what the size (or aspect ratio) needs to be for an inline image to maximize the Kindle's available screen real estate. Shouldn't be too hard to play with that and get it right, though.

[screwballl]

I can really care less about covers, they typically change with each edition of printing anyways so I prefer seeing a title page when first opening an ebook.

[blue_skies]

Originally Posted by l_macd

As well as showing the book cover, I wish it would show you a summary. Whenever I pick up a book the first thing I do is look at the cover, then flip it over/open the cover to look at the summary, just to remind me what it's about before I start reading it.

I would really like this feature too! In fact, I've been thinking of converting my books just to include the book summaries at the start.

I also like to see the covers and would rather my Kindle books open by showing them.

[DMB]

They usually turn up when you get to the end of the book. Frankly, I don't care: for me it's content, not cover. Not seeing a cover can be a plus for me. I hate the covers on many paperbacks.

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by DMB

....I hate the covers on many paperbacks.

i love those pulpy paperback covers!!

[Avid Fan]

I’m a new Kindle owner and this is one of my big gripes – though I’m still getting to grips with it (my first ereader) so I may take longer to do things than other folks on here.

I know it doesn’t affect the reading experience, but it would be really nice to have the ebook cover more prominently available – the cover is, after all, evocative of the story and can put you in the right mood for the different genre you’re reading.

It’s quite annoying that you have to dig around on the Kindle to even locate the cover.

I read a really good suggestion that there should be an option on the Kindle for the cover to be shown when you turn it off, instead of the screensavers. Thought that would be really cool.