# Why can't Kindle writers of fiction format their books correctly?



## Ian Marks (Jan 22, 2012)

This is driving me crazy! I keep downloading fiction, usually from authors who have several books available, only to discover that there are NO PARAGRAPH INDENTS.

I've just left two negative reviews for books that obviously have a lot of merit, but I refuse to read anything where the author hasn't had the courtesy to format their work correctly. It's too hard on the eyes. I feel forced to provide feedback that says, "hey, I'll read this when you learn to format like a professional writer."

Seriously, what is the problem? I sure that everyone _here _knows how to do it, but what is keeping all those other writers from getting it right?


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Edward M. Grant said:


> One problem is that Amazon won't let you download your book for free.


So. . . .buy a copy to check it?


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## _Sheila_ (Jan 4, 2011)

I've seen books from the big publishers with the same kinds of problems.  

I bought Shania Twain's book - it has formatting problems.  (large areas are centered)  

I just bought another book from a long-standing series (can't remember which one - I've been on a buying frenzy) and it had major formatting problems.  

I bought a couple of books from a well-known writer that has lots of NYT bestsellers - the book must have had 50 typos.  Obvious typos.

I think part of it is because we live in a time when everything is instant.  It used to be that you would write your book and be excited if it were made available to the public in a year.  The turnaround is much faster now with far fewer eyes on it.

Not an excuse, but maybe a reason.

Sheila


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## George Berger (Aug 7, 2011)

Edward M. Grant said:


> One problem is that Amazon won't let you download your book for free. You can check the preview, but you can't double-check that the book as available is actually the same book from the preview.


If you go to KDP -> Bookshelf -> (select a title of yours) -> scroll down to the bottom, clicking "download book preview file" should give you the full .mobi file. At least, it does for me...


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## AithneJarretta (Jul 13, 2011)

Yes, I've encountered this problem before. Since I'm a sample junkie, I don't buy unless the sample is readable.

Having said that, I want to mention that writing a book and formatting it are two separate actions. 

The authors you've experienced with this problem haven't taken the time to learn a new system. They also may not own a Kindle and can't see what the finished book actually looks like.

I admit that I left one review on Goodreads about paragraph indents. Since then I've kept silent about it because I realize that not every author 'sees the formatting issue' the same way I do. It's an equipment error. So I count my blessings that I have the equipment and took the time to learn how to use it.

As for buying... I load each story on my Kindle before going to Amazon. This way I know exactly how everything will look before the finished book is published. (It's also a great editing tool. 

~ Aithne


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## JB Rowley (Jan 29, 2012)

Ann in Arlington said:


> So. . . .buy a copy to check it?


This is a particular concern of mine (due to pop my first Kindle book onto Amazon tomorrow). If I buy a copy to check it, can I then cancel what I have done and start all over again until I get it right? JB


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## D.L. Shutter (Jul 9, 2011)

I keep getting e-books with too much extra spacing between paragraphs, which includes single lines of speech. 


"What do you mean?"



"You know what I mean."



"No, I really don't."


Indie Sci-Fi authors seem to be really bad offenders of this. Really annoying when you're reading on a phone.


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## AithneJarretta (Jul 13, 2011)

JB Rowley said:


> This is a particular concern of mine (due to pop my first Kindle book onto Amazon tomorrow). If I buy a copy to check it, can I then cancel what I have done and start all over again until I get it right? JB


Do you own a Kindle? If so, send the mobi file to your Kindle through the registered email on that device. Then you'll see what you've got. 

~ Aithne


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## Sophrosyne (Mar 27, 2011)

You can only buy your book from Amazon once. So you can't keep rebuying to check formatting. Also, if you switch between Mac and IBM or between MobiPocket and Calibre, you're going to get formatting errors.

The main thing authors have to go by is the sample preview when you download. And sometimes, it's difficult to catch all the errors. I've had someone leave a snarky comment for me because deja vu was misspelled -- the only thing is, it WASN'T misspelled. Spell-check added an accent mark to it, (which is correct), but the conversion software went nuts over the mark and turned the word into something else. Since it only happened once in fairly long book, it took me awhile to catch it.

Conversion can be tricky, and not all authors realize how many things can go wrong. Most of us do the best we can. I tend to get very Virgo on my conversions, so when I find anything wrong, I jump all over it. But that's 'cause I'm OCD on formatting. I can totally understand other authors not going that nuts about it.


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## Seanathin23 (Jul 24, 2011)

You should be uploading the .mobi to Amazon anyway,so just load it on your Kindle before you send it to them, and make sure things look right.  If you are giving them just a .doc or html file you're asking for trouble.


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## ShaunaG (Jun 16, 2011)

Sophrosyne said:


> You can only buy your book from Amazon once.


I understand there's an "update your kindle" option and when you do that, if there are any updates to books you've bought, it'll automatically give you the latest version.


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## JB Rowley (Jan 29, 2012)

AithneJarretta said:


> Do you own a Kindle? If so, send the mobi file to your Kindle through the registered email on that device. Then you'll see what you've got.
> 
> ~ Aithne


Thank you, Aithne. I am desperate to own a Kindle but am on a tight budget at present so I am using the 'free to PC' version. I assume your suggestion will work with that. What do you think?


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## AndreSanThomas (Jan 31, 2012)

What happens is that it is quite difficult to get your book cover inserted and your paragraphs indented at the same time.  And, when you load the book, there's a feature to check, but the wording is confusing and many people skip past that without realizing it.  Then you can't go back until your book loads which takes 12-24 hours.  By then, some people of course don't even realize there has been a formatting problem.  They think that what they loaded is what actually loaded (imagine that).

So, yes, I say it is fair to note it in a review if you want.  The formatter's problems are not your problem as a customer, but that's why it happens.


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## JB Rowley (Jan 29, 2012)

Seanathin23 said:


> If you are giving them just a .doc or html file you're asking for trouble.


Oh. bummer! In the tutorial video they just click on a .doc file. It looks so easy. Looks like I still have a lot to learn. JB


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## AmsterdamAssassin (Oct 21, 2011)

I format my own work - doc to html in jEdit, then convert it to .epub and .mobi in Calibre. I have a Kindle, so I can upload the .mobi file to my Kindle straight from Calibre to check the formatting. I have a template now that works great.

Recently I read a book that was self-published by an author who used to be trade published and the formatting is a mess. Also, there were a couple of factual mistakes. So I approached the author personally through email to ask if he was interested in feedback. He was, so I gave it to him. Hopefully he can use my feedback to upgrade his novel for future readers.


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## Terri and Andi (Mar 7, 2012)

Uhg, I feel your pain, but also it is SUPER hard to get all the information you need to make sure its formatted correctly.  We waited until we had a good series to upload before we started everything.  We figured we'd work on one, see how it looked, then make sure they all looked the same.  I bet we spent more time figuring out how to get all our stories pretty than it took to work on two covers (which took a long time!), and I think that we're really pretty computer savy!  (One of us has a degree in Computer Science)  So, I completely understand people having trouble.


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## Claudia Lefeve (Dec 17, 2010)

I think I've seen more formatting issues from NYT bestsellers than indies. When I purchased The Hunger Games (not to knock the book), the text would go from normal to large, then to italics. I wasn't sure if that was the intent, but I doubt it. It's not the only book I've found massive formatting errors. For the most part, I think indies go the extra mile to ensure their book if formatted correctly. Personally, I don't do my own because I know I'll mess it up  It's worth spending the extra $$ to make sure it's done right.


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## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

The PC Kindle will not give you the same thing you see on the actual Kindle in all cases. For example, I had a formatting problem that didn't show up on the PC Kindle or the Kindle preview. It only showed on the actual Kindle. It had to do with line spacing at chapter breaks. Line count changes with font and size.


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## intinst (Dec 23, 2008)

I've seen some Nora Roberts books with bad formatting (Double spaced lines, extra spaces between paragraphs and more) so it definitely isn't just an indie problem.


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

Terrence OBrien said:


> The PC Kindle will not give you the same thing you see on the actual Kindle in all cases. For example, I had a formatting problem that didn't show up on the PC Kindle or the Kindle preview. It only showed on the actual Kindle. It had to do with line spacing at chapter breaks. Line count changes with font and size.


*nod*

I don't have a Kindle and the preview software says it's all fine. Kindle Pc says it's fine, then people email me and let me know I have errors. Then I try to fix it, and just make it worse. *sigh*


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## AithneJarretta (Jul 13, 2011)

JB Rowley said:


> Oh. bummer! In the tutorial video they just click on a .doc file. It looks so easy. Looks like I still have a lot to learn. JB


I agree with Terrence, the PC Kindle won't work. If you can download Calibre (free) that will give you a better idea of what you've got. Save your document as a 'webpage filtered'. Find that by going to>>>Save as other format>>>new window will open and then you use the 'save as type' line (under file title) and scroll to 'webpage filtered' & click that. A new window will pop up, don't panic. As long as you keep an original .doc you'll be fine. I usually add a symbol like % or # at the beginning of the file name so this doc will be different.

This may seem like a complecated procedure, but in the long run you'll learn something new and be able to do the whole process in a matter of minutes.  So it's worth spending the time now.

When you open Calibre, that's when you'll use the new document that you just made. It's easy to follow the icons across the top. After you've converted to mobi, you can open the book and view your results.

Good luck.

~ Aithne


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## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish (Feb 1, 2010)

Yeah, if you're going to self-publish, you should really try ensure you own an actual Kindle (which isn't too bad now, $79 or so, and it's not like it'd be a bad investment). Nothing beats putting the actual file you're to upload onto a Kindle and just checking exactly how it'll look.


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## Rykymus (Dec 3, 2011)

So far, I've been using Scrivener for everything, including compiling into a .mobi file to upload to KDP. I tried using calibre to convert a .docx file to .mobi, but could never get KDP to accept it. But every file I create with Scrivener comes out perfect and uploads without errors. Unfortunately, that means that if there are any formatting errors on the final version, I've got no one to blame but myself.


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## Rick Gualtieri (Oct 31, 2011)

Ian Marks said:


> This is driving me crazy! I keep downloading fiction, usually from authors who have several books available, only to discover that there are NO PARAGRAPH INDENTS.


What the ebook world needs is a MS Word plug-in that does a full WYSIWYG conversion to ebook (ePub, mobi, whatever). The problem is a lot of writers know word processors but they maybe don't understand that ebooks are HTML. What looks like a line break on the screen can either be translated into a paragraph tag or a line break tag. That heavily affects things. For someone who is neither tech savvy, nor has multiple devices to test on that can lead to issues. If one pays someone else to do this work for them, there's a bit of a leap of faith involved.

Outside of the lock-in, I love that Apple created iBooks Author. The windows world could use a similar full function word processor / conversion tool. Would probably save people from a lot of headaches.


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## Sophrosyne (Mar 27, 2011)

Dark -- thanks, good to know!

Ryk -- the only way Calibre will convert .docx is if you save the .docx as a web page first, then convert the web page.

Rick -- what do you mean by lock-in?


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## Guest (Mar 9, 2012)

Well, if folks would learn how to use the indent functionality of their various word processor programs and stop using the Tab key, that would solve a lot of it.   I suspect that is what causes a lot of it.  I get submissions all the time where the author uses the tab key to indent new paragraphs.  And doing that can screw up conversions.  Even though we specifically say in our submission guidelines to use the indent (not Tab) to indicate new paragraphs, I still get five to ten submissions a week that tab.   Stripping excess tabs, spaces, double-spacing, and such is the most cumbersome part of putting together an anthology or journal because so many people don't follow the format guidelines. It is just the nature of writers to ignore directions!


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## Paul Clayton (Sep 12, 2009)

Ian Marks said:


> This is driving me crazy! I keep downloading fiction, usually from authors who have several books available, only to discover that there are NO PARAGRAPH INDENTS.
> 
> I've just left two negative reviews for books that obviously have a lot of merit, but I refuse to read anything where the author hasn't had the courtesy to format their work correctly. It's too hard on the eyes. I feel forced to provide feedback that says, "hey, I'll read this when you learn to format like a professional writer."
> 
> Seriously, what is the problem? I sure that everyone _here _knows how to do it, but what is keeping all those other writers from getting it right?


There was a time, I think, when ebooks were just getting started, where no indents, but double paragraph returns were the norm. When I first formatted White Seed I went out with no indents. Most people didn't have a problem with it. But then... So, now all my stuff is properly formatted with indents.

By the way, your post has no indents and I had no problem reading it.

​


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## DevonMark (Jan 28, 2011)

David 'Half-Orc' Dalglish said:


> Yeah, if you're going to self-publish, you should really try ensure you own an actual Kindle (which isn't too bad now, $79 or so, and it's not like it'd be a bad investment). Nothing beats putting the actual file you're to upload onto a Kindle and just checking exactly how it'll look.


Exactly. Ask yourself these two questions:

1. Should I really expect people to fork out money for my book if I'm are not prepared to spend $79 to check it? (if you really can't afford it then find someone who does have a Kindle to check it for you)

2. Why wouldn't I want to make sure my book looks 100% perfect?

It is no excuse to say that the big six also produce books with formatting errors. YOU DON'T HAVE TO MAKE THE SAME MISTAKES! In fact producing a perfect book with a table of contents, ndx file, etc. will put you one step ahead of the game. For every reader who doesn't care about formatting there will be another one who does. All the latter will see is the sample and they will never have a chance to discover how good your actual writing is because the formatting put them off.


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## Rick Gualtieri (Oct 31, 2011)

Sophrosyne said:


> Rick -- what do you mean by lock-in?


Disclaimer: I don't own a MAC and have only played with this tool a little.

That being said: 1) it's only available for the Mac. 2) I'm not sure of the exact details but I believe if you intend to sell your book that's been generated with iBooks author, Apples license agreement says it can only be sold via
iBooks.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

I have a Kobo and a Sony, and an iPad. I'm not buying a Kindle which is going to sit in a drawer only to be used when I self-publish. I just ask someone on Twitter to try out the file for me


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## cheriereich (Feb 12, 2011)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> Well, if folks would learn how to use the indent functionality of their various word processor programs and stop using the Tab key, that would solve a lot of it.  I suspect that is what causes a lot of it. I get submissions all the time where the author uses the tab key to indent new paragraphs. And doing that can screw up conversions. Even though we specifically say in our submission guidelines to use the indent (not Tab) to indicate new paragraphs, I still get five to ten submissions a week that tab.  Stripping excess tabs, spaces, double-spacing, and such is the most cumbersome part of putting together an anthology or journal because so many people don't follow the format guidelines. It is just the nature of writers to ignore directions!


Yeah, that's what I was thinking, and it's so simple to fix the Tab issue and create the indent without it.

I still feel readers' pain on this issue. I've read plenty of ebooks since I got my Kindle, and very few are 100% perfect. As long as they are readable, then that's the main thing, but some are a bit jarring, and that's the last thing an author wants.


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## TexasGirl (Dec 21, 2011)

Among my writing group members, we have a Kindle, Kindle Fire, Nook, Nook, color, and two iPads. So we meet for coffee and bring our files and load 'em up all around. Fun and helpful.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Paul Clayton said:


> There was a time, I think, when ebooks were just getting started, where no indents, but double paragraph returns were the norm. When I first formatted White Seed I went out with no indents. Most people didn't have a problem with it. But then... So, now all my stuff is properly formatted with indents.
> 
> By the way, your post has no indents and I had no problem reading it.
> 
> ​




I think the point is, and I happen to agree with it, that there needs to be something that clearly delineates paragraphs. On the boards here, most folks don't indent, but they do put a whole blank line between paragraphs.

Like this.

Perfectly readable.

But if you're writing something fairly long and don't use line breaks, there better be indents or else how is anyone supposed to know where a new paragraph starts. I mean I could just go on writing and writing and writing and typing out the Gettysburg address; Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this new continent, etc.
And now I want to start a new paragraph but without either an indent or blank line it's not entirely obvious.  
A whole book like this would drive me bonkers.
I'd probably not bother to finish it and would probably return it if I could.

The other thing I would note is that the average reader is used to having the paragraph indent and many feel that it looks more professional that way. I am among that many.  When there's a blank line, it reads, to me, like a very casual email or forum post, and is not what I want or expect in a book.

FWIW, from a reader. ​


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

DevonMark said:


> Exactly. Ask yourself these two questions:
> 
> 1. Should I really expect people to fork out money for my book if I'm are not prepared to spend $79 to check it? (if you really can't afford it then find someone who does have a Kindle to check it for you)
> 
> ...


Seriously, when I first published I was going through a VERY bad patch financially. I couldn't have afforded even $79--although I think they were twice that at the time. It would have come out of the mortgage. (I actually borrowed the money for my first cover art) I don't think you can fairly make that kind of comment. And not everyone even KNOWS someone who owns a Kindle. There are several in my family, but that isn't true of everyone by a long shot.

I agree that we don't want to make the same mistakes as the big publishers, but I did. I put a previously published novel up without double checking that the formating converted properly. It had already been published by a publisher. Why should I?

Well, I was wrong. Sometimes you live and learn. Just recently I got a review complimenting the formatting on the same novel, but it first went out with some serious errors.

Check your formatting. Good advice but we don't have to turn it into beating each other up.


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## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

_" I believe if you intend to sell your book that's been generated with iBooks author, Apples license agreement says it can only be sold via iBooks." _

If the book is XYZ and a version of XYZ is produced with iAuthor, that version can only be sold via iTunes.

If another version of XYZ is produced with Word, and doesn't use iAuthor, it can be sold anywhere.


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## Calvin Locke (Mar 6, 2012)

Doesn't KDP have a downloadable previewer that allows you to see how the book will look on a Fire, Kindle, PC, and other Kindle apps? You upload, download the .mobi preview (which is the formatted file) and then open in the previewer. I was able to do a lot of tinkering this week with that, and caught the indent problem. You just have to set the first line indent in MS Word and then remove it for the start of each chapter. That seemed to work pretty well.

The beauty of it is you can treat it like a work in progress. Digital books enable you to have a living work that can be improved upon over time. I'm sure many authors rush their work to publication, and I don't mean this as a bad thing. Everyone's anxious to get their work out to the public. A little extra time can make your book look better. It's like what I tell my students: All the effort in the world on a paper gets erased when the reader spots errors that could have been prevented with a proofread. I've been guilty of rushing; I'm sure many of you are too.

But use the previewer and select different devices to see how your book looks. Android, iOS, Kindle, Kindle DX, and PC all look vastly different. Tweak away!


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## Rick Gualtieri (Oct 31, 2011)

Thanks, Terrence!  So yeah, lock-in, albeit more a country club prison.


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## JB Rowley (Jan 29, 2012)

JRTomlin said:


> Seriously, when I first published I was going through a VERY bad patch financially. I couldn't have afforded even $79--although I think they were twice that at the time. It would have come out of the mortgage. (I actually borrowed the money for my first cover art) I don't think you can fairly make that kind of comment. And not everyone even KNOWS someone who owns a Kindle. There are several in my family, but that isn't true of everyone by a long shot.


Yes, thanks J.R - that's pretty close to the boat I am in. Of course I will buy a Kindle when I have the money spare. I'm afraid I made the assumption that the PC kindle would be suitable for checking my book upload.


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## JB Rowley (Jan 29, 2012)

Calvin Locke said:


> Doesn't KDP have a downloadable previewer that allows you to see how the book will look on a Fire, Kindle, PC, and other Kindle apps? You upload, download the .mobi preview (which is the formatted file) and then open in the previewer.


Yes, it does say that in the instructions. Hopefully that will be enough for me to do a good check.


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## skyrunner (Dec 28, 2010)

You must have a kindle in my opinion - to check your formatting - otherwise your going blind.

What I'm now wondering is - " must I have a kindle fire " too?

My procedure, like some others have noted here, is to use Calibre to make mobi files, which I then upload to the kindle. 

This has been additionally useful for me, because I'm using a lot of images. I just couldn't have got down to the nitty gritty, without a kindle to check what was happening.


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## GUTMAN (Dec 22, 2011)

+1 on Scrivener. Wonderful program, and the converting of files is easy.


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## DevonMark (Jan 28, 2011)

JRTomlin said:


> Check your formatting. Good advice but we don't have to turn it into beating each other up.


You are right, didn't mean to come across in that way, just want everyone to do the best they can.

As regards buying a Kindle, the emulator does a good job (NOT Kindle for PC, that isn't the emulator). Personally, I haven't seen any difference between it and a real Kindle. So if you can't afford a Kindle you can download the emulator. There's no excuse for not doing that!


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## Calvin Locke (Mar 6, 2012)

I borrow a Kindle to double check and the KDP previewer (the latest version) matches up perfectly. I check it on my tablet and phone as well. 

I think that with the rapid increase in popularity of tablets, that the market will be more geared toward them than Kindles. I don't think Amazon publishes such statistics, but I wouldn't be surprised if 40% of their ebook sales are to non-kindle readers like tablets, pcs, and phones.


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## DevonMark (Jan 28, 2011)

Here is the link for the previewer:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000234621

Scroll down the page to the title "Download Kindle Previewer 2"


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## JB Rowley (Jan 29, 2012)

DevonMark said:


> Here is the link for the previewer:
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000234621
> 
> Scroll down the page to the title "Download Kindle Previewer 2"


Thanks. JB


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## skyrunner (Dec 28, 2010)

"_What the ebook world needs is a MS Word plug-in that does a full WYSIWYG conversion to ebook (ePub, mobi, whatever). The problem is a lot of writers know word processors but they maybe don't understand that ebooks are HTML. What looks like a line break on the screen can either be translated into a paragraph tag or a line break tag. That heavily affects things. For someone who is neither tech savvy, nor has multiple devices to test on that can lead to issues_"

Im using Kompozer - a free, easy to use html editor, to write the text, not a word processor. That way you have it as an html document before you sent it to calibre for conversion to a Kindle ready mobi file.

With kompozer you don't have to deal with html code - it's running in the background. There are other methods i know. software that cleans the code created when from converting a word document into html, but i decided to write directly in an html editor, which is almost like using a word processor anyways.


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## JB Rowley (Jan 29, 2012)

A big thank you to all for your comments.  I am off to enjoy my Saturday with a friend - the first Saturday I have had off for months - so noice!

I am going to check back here later lest there be any further good advice applicable to my situation. Tomorrow, when I attempt to launch my first Kindle book, I will keep my fingers and toes crossed and a bottle of red close by.  JB


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## wildwitchof (Sep 2, 2010)

My first book had formatting headaches... I had a file that had been in Word, Open Office, Scrivener, and Sigil, and various weird problems popped up on various platforms. If I hadn't bought copies of my book at itunes, BN, and Amazon, I never would've known about the errors; the preview looked fine. It took me a couple months to fix everything.

Since then I've switched to using only Scrivener before uploading. I use the Kindle Previewer, which is great, then check the actual published book on my Kindle and iPod.

My impression is: the fewer programs you use, the fewer errors you'll introduce. If you use Word, learn how to use Styles (very important) and use from page 1. The resulting file will be clean enough to survive the Kindle converter (and Smashwords, Pubit, etc.).

And if you can't afford a Kindle to check your book (or Nook, Sony, or iPod), this is a great place to ask for help. If you're ready to upload, you might find somebody here who could quickly peek at your file on their device to see if any major setting is messed up (like being in all italics, or having large sections devolve into block paragraphs).


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## Alan Petersen (May 20, 2011)

I use Scrivener and I've also used Caibre to convert the files, but I'm not confident enough that the formatting is up to standard. I do own the Kindle so I check it there and on my computer and iPad as well. 

I decided to hire someone to do it, just to be on the safe side. I've already spent money on editing, proofreading, book cover, might as well cough up another $100 or so and have it professionally formatted for epub, mobi, CreateSpace, and Smashwords. That way I don't have to worry as much. I do have to trust the person doing the formatting knows what they're doing.


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## Pnjw (Apr 24, 2011)

I'm learning to do my own formatting (a friend used to do it, but I want the flexibility to make changes at will). For those of us with almost zero knowledge the learning curve can be steep. However, once you get the gist of it, it isn't too hard. It's only taken me a week to figure it out.  

It can be super frustrating, even when you read instruction after instruction. A lot of times the instructions use terms I' m not familiar with either. So when you don't understand the instructions, it's difficult to understand the directions. lol

With that said, I am really glad I have both a Nook and a Kindle. It's true. They might look fine on the PC apps, but then you find something when looking at the device. (Now, how do I justify the iPad?)


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## NoCat (Aug 5, 2010)

I code my Kindle books in HTML with a few Kindle specific codes (to get hard page breaks and things like that).  It has the added benefit of nuking whatever formatting I was writing in.  I always buy a copy though and make extra double sure that everything formatted okay.


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## Kent Kelly (Feb 12, 2011)

I don't mind being held to the same standard as professional e-books, but if I'm being held to a higher standard that's rather annoying.


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## ETS PRESS (Nov 4, 2011)

I email my doc to my Kindle to check it before I load it. I use a simple process, and upload my MS Word doc to KDP. As long as you are not using fancy fonts and photos, I don't think there is a reason to fuss with html and mobi and all that stuff. All of that just complicates matters. I've seen more poorly formatted books from trad publishers than indies. Indies have the ability to fix things. Trad authors are subject to the publisher's whims.


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## Rykymus (Dec 3, 2011)

Sophrosyne - I was saving the docx as a odf file (per the calibre manual) and then converting it. The resulting file looked just fine on my kindle, but I could never get it to upload to Amazon. I'll try your suggestion though, thanks.

P.S. My wife likes Calibre because in Russian, 'Calibre' means 'hummingbird', which is her favorite bird.


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## Calvin Locke (Mar 6, 2012)

Another option is to go to the site, Getafreelancer.com. There you can have an expert convert the file for you to your specifications for about $20. You do need to be specific. You'll get what you ask for. I guess that's how it goes for everything in life, eh?


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## 31842 (Jan 11, 2011)

D.L. Shutter said:


> I keep getting e-books with too much extra spacing between paragraphs, which includes single lines of speech.
> 
> "What do you mean?"
> 
> ...


Before I type more, please know that I am an indent lover.

There was a brief period in formatting (probably around 1992 or so) when folks tried to introduce a thing called "block format". The comma was removed from after the salutation and replaced with a colon.

Dear Mr. Pants,
-became-
Dear Mr. Pants:

Block format also removed indents and, instead, inserted double spaces between paragraphs.

Back in the day, the internet was new and block format seemed a good way to work around the limitations of HTML.

Fortunately, we have all learned from the errors of our ways and the indent has been re-embraced by society. I dream of the day when a double space after a period is re-recognized for its beauty and elegance.


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## ETS PRESS (Nov 4, 2011)

KateDanley said:


> Before I type more, please know that I am an indent lover.
> 
> There was a brief period in formatting (probably around 1992 or so) when folks tried to introduce a thing called "block format". The comma was removed from after the salutation and replaced with a colon.
> 
> ...


I don't want to date myself, but block formatting was around long before 1992.


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## Paul Clayton (Sep 12, 2009)

Ann in Arlington said:


> I think the point is, and I happen to agree with it, that there needs to be something that clearly delineates paragraphs. On the boards here, most folks don't indent, but they do put a whole blank line between paragraphs.
> 
> Like this.
> 
> ...


Maybe I wasn't clear in my post, but I used 'double' returns, so there was a break between every para, every line of dialogue, etc.

And it seemed to work. That was then.​


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## 31842 (Jan 11, 2011)

ETS PRESS said:


> I don't want to date myself, but block formatting was around long before 1992.


(shh! I didn't want to date myself either... 1992, right? *wink wink*)


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## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

_"I don't mind being held to the same standard as professional e-books, but if I'm being held to a higher standard that's rather annoying."_

It's not really a higher standard. Traditional publishers and authors don't continue spreading the word when formatting errors are found in their work.


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## Decon (Feb 16, 2011)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> Well, if folks would learn how to use the indent functionality of their various word processor programs and stop using the Tab key, that would solve a lot of it.  I suspect that is what causes a lot of it. I get submissions all the time where the author uses the tab key to indent new paragraphs. And doing that can screw up conversions. Even though we specifically say in our submission guidelines to use the indent (not Tab) to indicate new paragraphs, I still get five to ten submissions a week that tab.  Stripping excess tabs, spaces, double-spacing, and such is the most cumbersome part of putting together an anthology or journal because so many people don't follow the format guidelines. It is just the nature of writers to ignore directions!


I think using the tab key is the biggest culprit and one which smashwords advise as a no no.

I always convert my word doc to word 2003 and then to a web filtered html file and then to a zip to add pictures. I then upload and re-download a copy of the Kindle html and double check all the indents are there.

The easiest way to get a free ePUB/MOBI, is to upload to smashwords and to download it free from there. Then download the free software from KDP that allows you to view your work on all devices.


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## HeatherVivant (Dec 30, 2011)

I've finally settled on Scrivener, with chapters exported as individual HTML files, and use of the .opf file to assemble the chapters, with tweaks to the css to customize various paragraph styles.

With the next novella, I'll try to put the CSS in its own file and then simply reference that. The Scrivener exported HTML files would still require some hand editing to replace the default CSS with a reference.

I use the Kindle Previewer on my Mac to check the various devices with different font magnification settings.

The hardest thing to do was trying to get a consistent section break graphic that worked for each device. It turns out that the original Kindle and Kindle DX don't scale graphical elements very well when a reader changes text size, and the devices also don't support Zapf Dingbats. I ended up going with a special paragraph format that was centered and used the HTML &sect; character, which seemed to work okay across all devices. (Just using spaces or asterisks wasn't good enough for my last work.)


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## Laura Lond (Nov 6, 2010)

I've had some difficulties uploading Word files, particularly with formatting. Everything would look fine in Word, but then I'd get a sample of the book from Amazon and see the errors in it. I have solved it by creating ebooks with Mobipocket Creator and uploading prc (another Kindle format) files to Amazon. I also check them on my Kindle before uploading, of course. It works perfectly.


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## Dee Ernst (Jan 10, 2011)

Thanks for all this.  I suffer from spacing between the quotes.  I've been arguing with Amazon about this and they keep telling me that as long as my Word doc. is formatted correctly, there should be no problems. I can't tell you how many times I have gone over the file and reloaded it.  Mentioning mobi. or any of the solutions offered here would have been a nice gesture on Amazons part, instead of making me think I was just going crazy.


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## elalond (May 11, 2011)

Calvin Locke said:


> Doesn't KDP have a downloadable previewer that allows you to see how the book will look on a Fire, Kindle, PC, and other Kindle apps? You upload, download the .mobi preview (which is the formatted file) and then open in the previewer. I was able to do a lot of tinkering this week with that, and caught the indent problem. You just have to set the first line indent in MS Word and then remove it for the start of each chapter. That seemed to work pretty well.


Yes, I always use the previewer too. And I always have a same problem. In some parts of the novel the text in whole paragraph gets an indent making it look like a block of text somebody moved left. So I download the .zip file, check the html codes in wordpad, and replace the 'naughty' html with the correct one (and since it's always the same code that gives me problems I can do that with an easy find and replace - though I still didn't figured out why it's doing that every single time despite that I always, always clean the text via notepad. It's so annoying). So if anybody is having the same problem and doesn't know how to solve it despite multiples tries, let me know and I'll make a tutorial for you.


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## Calvin Locke (Mar 6, 2012)

I assume everyone is pressing the Show Paragraph Marks button in MS Word to check their formatting, right? You CANNOT go by sight. Entire paragraphs indented might be a hanging indent or you may be hitting SHIFT and ENTER at the same time to end a paragraph. Both will be seen when you show the marks. Helps a lot.


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

Pro tip for WORD:

Find and replace:

^t

with

_leave this space blank_

Tabs vanish.


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## Rick Gualtieri (Oct 31, 2011)

Deanna Chase said:


> It can be super frustrating, even when you read instruction after instruction. A lot of times the instructions use terms I' m not familiar with either. So when you don't understand the instructions, it's difficult to understand the directions. lol


Agreed. After reading Amazon's instructions for Kindlegen, I wanted to put my fist through the monitor.

As for me, right now I'm using Word to Mobipocket for Kindle. I like the results and haven't had any problems with it. However, I am always on the lookout for something to make my life easier. Word has too much of a mind of its own most days.


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## Maggie Dana (Oct 26, 2011)

Two words: Guido Henkel. His instructions on converting a Word file to .mobi, ePub, etc., and how to clean up your Word doc beforehand are straightforward and absolutely correct. If you don't understand Word's 'Style' features, take the time to learn them. It will serve you well in many ways.

Guido Henkel really does know what he's talking about. He's been in the print book business (as a designer/typesetter) for years and brings that invaluable knowledge to the world of e-book formatting. Before formatting my first ebook I spent weeks/months researching what the web had to offer and found much conflicting information and misinformation out there, including that it's OK to upload your Word file directly to Amazon.

Not.

That's what causes many of the formatting problems you see in Kindle books.

Here's a link to the first of Henkel's nine-part series on the subject. Yes, it's a lot of reading, but if you follow his instructions you will learn how to to format fool-proof e-files for uploading to Amazon, B&N, iPad, etc. His method is: Word to a text editor (for HTML) to e-file via Caliber.

http://bit.ly/fDWuZ9


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## Beatriz (Feb 22, 2011)

Ian Marks said:


> This is driving me crazy! I keep downloading fiction, usually from authors who have several books available, only to discover that there are NO PARAGRAPH INDENTS.
> 
> I've just left two negative reviews for books that obviously have a lot of merit, but I refuse to read anything where the author hasn't had the courtesy to format their work correctly. It's too hard on the eyes. I feel forced to provide feedback that says, "hey, I'll read this when you learn to format like a professional writer."
> 
> Seriously, what is the problem? I sure that everyone _here _knows how to do it, but what is keeping all those other writers from getting it right?


I totally understand what you say and I try very hard to do it, because I have trouble reading without paragraphs myself, so your point is well taken and I'm sure writers who are guilty as charged will be more careful from now on.


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## kklawiter (Jan 23, 2012)

Ian Marks said:


> This is driving me crazy! I keep downloading fiction, usually from authors who have several books available, only to discover that there are NO PARAGRAPH INDENTS.


You know, the last few non-indie books I've read haven't had paragraph indents. Maybe it's a setting I have in my kindle, I don't know, but honestly, as a reader I prefer it that way. There's a line break to separate the paragraphs, so distinction isn't lacking. It looks cleaner in my opinion. The few books I have with paragraph indents, depending on what device I'm using at the time, the lines get all out of line, sometimes turning into blank chunks, the indents vary, it just looks messy and is hard on the eyes. It's not a print book, each device handles it differently.


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## Guest (Mar 10, 2012)

KateDanley said:


> Fortunately, we have all learned from the errors of our ways and the indent has been re-embraced by society. I dream of the day when a double space after a period is re-recognized for its beauty and elegance.


*Nods in agreement*


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## AmsterdamAssassin (Oct 21, 2011)

Maggie Dana said:


> Two words: Guido Henkel. [snip] His method is: Word to a text editor (for HTML) to e-file via Caliber.
> 
> http://bit.ly/fDWuZ9


I abbreviated his method to a one page document that I use myself for converting Word to .epub/.mobi. I had a problem with Word's sub-formatting - my book had been [re]written on various work computers and that meant that the surface looked uniform, but under the surface the formatting was a mess.
With the help of Guido Henkel's site and some experimenting I found that the best way to deal with the problem was to make sure that I inserted HTML code into the .doc to make sure I wouldn't lose italics and ç and á, then copy everything into Notepad to strip the Word formatting, copy the Notepad version into jEdit to turn the text into full-html document and import into Calibre, where I make sure there is no linebreak between paragraphs and every chapter, marked with 
*will start on a new page, that will also be listed in the table of contents.

The document I use can be downloaded from my Tao of Violence website, where you can find it under 'downloads'.

I check my formatting on my Kindle [which I also use for editing rough drafts], by uploading the finished mobi file straight from Calibre into my Kindle. Next Wednesday I will get my iPad 2 that will become my 'on the move' wordprocessor [with separate Adonit Writer + keyboard/case and Apple Pages for iPad], which will also allow me to check the .epub versions.*


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## Calvin Locke (Mar 6, 2012)

I can't stress enough how simple the process is if you use the previewer. Type the novel. (Wow, I make THAT sound simple) Edit with Paragraphs Marks showing. Upload to Kindle. Preview. Done. No conversion necessary. You can download your 'preview' file and use it to submit to other ebook sites. It's not a preview. It's the whole file.


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## Sophrosyne (Mar 27, 2011)

Ryk, you're welcome. That's how I do it, so I hope it works for you.

Kate, you should get into screenwriting. It still embraces two spaces after a period.


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## Jonathan Winn (Mar 7, 2012)

This was a particular concern of mine when it came to self-publishing.  Having seen so many books with atrocious formatting, spelling errors, etc and so on, I had a fear of being lumped in with "them".  Then I realized -- yeah, I'm kinda slow sometimes -- that my book could be GREAT and LOOK GREAT!

The reality, though, is that most writers aren't tech wizards and may not always know their way around converting DOC to XHTML and then to ePub and finally to .mobi  And in not knowing the lay of that particular land -- and being able to handle only so much frustration before throwing in the towel and just clicking Save and Publish --, there are bound to be a lot of mistakes.  Not an excuse, mind you.  But certainly a reason.

Thank God I stumbled across an absolute tech wizard who generously smacked and punched my formatting into place, wrote code to find certain errors I was picking up on -- rogue periods which SHOULD have been commas ... and now are -- and, of course, issues with indenting.

One thing I did learn is that now with the second book, I've set my Paragraph Format to have every First Line start at .05  That saves me the trouble of hitting Tab and then having to go through the document and delete them all when I'm ready to publish.

And, yes, using the Preview as much as possible is always a good idea.  Besides, there's something incredibly exciting about seeing your book on your Kindle.


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## That one girl (Apr 12, 2011)

Ian Marks said:


> This is driving me crazy! I keep downloading fiction, usually from authors who have several books available, only to discover that there are NO PARAGRAPH INDENTS.


I'm one of those authors who had problems with indents. For me the problem was that I want aware there was a different way to submit files from a Mac. I kept wondering what I was doing wrong for months. I couldn't figure it out and Google was no help. I finally decided to try to find instructions for formatting Kindle on a Mac and I found the answer, but it took 8 months!

I know the formatting was hurting my sales, but I've already contacted Kindle and I hope that they will email all the people who purchased my books to let them re-download the corrected Kindle file.

That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. ;-)


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## Pamela Kay Noble Brown (Mar 3, 2011)

Calvin Locke said:


> You just have to set the first line indent in MS Word and then remove it for the start of each chapter. That seemed to work pretty well.


Calvin, I was just going to ask how to do this, and you answered it by saying "set the first line indent in MS Word." However, I'm a little confused about "then remove it for the start of each chapter."

So we are not supposed to be indenting the first paragraph of new chapters? Is it a matter of preference, or is it wrong to do so?

Pamela


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## Pamela Kay Noble Brown (Mar 3, 2011)

Krista D. Ball said:


> Pro tip for WORD:
> 
> Find and replace:
> 
> ...


Krista, good information. Thanks.

Pamela


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## MrPLD (Sep 23, 2010)

Rick Gualtieri said:


> What the ebook world needs is a MS Word plug-in that does a full WYSIWYG conversion to ebook (ePub, mobi, whatever).


I'd go one step further... what the [writing] world needs is to stop using things like MS Word for producing eBooks. There's just too much flexibility in there and too many chances to accidentally tweak something by accident which later gets dumped as a bit of junk in the HTML.

It's an extreme view, I know - and it'll never happen, but it'd be nice.

*hugs his LaTeX*


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## Rex Jameson (Mar 8, 2011)

AmsterdamAssassin said:


> I abbreviated his method to a one page document that I use myself for converting Word to .epub/.mobi. I had a problem with Word's sub-formatting - my book had been [re]written on various work computers and that meant that the surface looked uniform, but under the surface the formatting was a mess.
> With the help of Guido Henkel's site and some experimenting I found that the best way to deal with the problem was to make sure that I inserted HTML code into the .doc to make sure I wouldn't lose italics and ç and á, then copy everything into Notepad to strip the Word formatting, copy the Notepad version into jEdit to turn the text into full-html document and import into Calibre, where I make sure there is no linebreak between paragraphs and every chapter, marked with
> *will start on a new page, that will also be listed in the table of contents.
> 
> ...


*

I'll probably go back to dumping to Notepad next time. I tried the filtered HTML method into Calibre this time from a Smashwords formatted Word document to see if it would be a shortcut, and Word apparently saved a dozen special characters that rendered as whitespace on my browsers and editors but black-lined squares within the Kindle version. Unfortunately, I didn't catch the squares in time and someone downloaded it on Amazon. If I get a bad review, I'll deserve it, but it's just really frustrating that something that looks like a space in Jedit, Adobe eReader, and Firefox may render as a square on Kindle. Grrr.*


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## MrPLD (Sep 23, 2010)

Rex Jameson said:


> I'll probably go back to dumping to Notepad next time.


People will heap scorn and disapproval on us for using such "primitive" methods, but I also have very much found that using a plain text editor (gvim for me) to edit the raw HTML invariably produces superior results and faster. Coupled with a simple CSS file and it's hard to go wrong.

For me, I go LyX/LaTeX -> HTML for eBooks, or LyX/LaTeX -> PDF for print publication.


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## psychotick (Jan 26, 2012)

Hi,

This may have already been discussed - unfortunately I'm such a tech dufus that a lot of what's been said has gone straight over my head.

However, I just reformatted one of my books to have a paragraph indent of five spaces at the start of each paragraph. I didn't use the tab key because one of the other posts says that it can get screwed up in either Amazon or Smashwords formats, so I actually manually went through and inserted five blank spaces all the way through. I also double spaced between paragraphs.

Only problem, I just uploaded the book and guess what, on the preview there's no paragraph indents.

So what happened to them?

Cheers, Greg.


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## MrPLD (Sep 23, 2010)

I think while it's admirable that Amazon (and Smashwords) are trying to make it easier for the writers to submit books by offering MS-Word submissions, I still feel that it's a ill conceived move that is causing damage to our reputation.  

This is one area where we should exert a bit of effort and learn how to create mobi files directly (HTML->mobi via Calibre) and load to our Kindles for verification.  When you hand over the conversion to Amazon/SW you just don't know what you're going to end up with.  One can't lay the blame on Amazon/SW directly, it's just by the very nature of MS-Word files that they're inconsistent (even Microsoft cannot reliably render the same file, and they're the ones who wrote the file format!).


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## Klip (Mar 7, 2011)

psychotick said:


> Hi,
> 
> This may have already been discussed - unfortunately I'm such a tech dufus that a lot of what's been said has gone straight over my head.
> 
> ...


George - the best thing you can do is to read this: The Smashwords Style Guide to how to format your book in Word. http://www.smashwords.com/books/download/52/1/latest/0/0/smashwords-style-guide.pdf] http://www.smashwords.com/books/download/52/1/latest/0/0/smashwords-style-guide.pdf[/url]

It's not the only way, but its easy and thorough.

To answer your question quickly though:

When you put in spaces, Word displays them, but other programs and devices dont, as you have discovered.
Here are some quick instructions how to fix your problem, but I recommend you read through the style guide I linked to as well. I dont know what version of Word you are using - mine are for Word 2003.

Firstly - you should not put in any spaces between paragraphs. I'm assuming your book is fiction, and in most fiction books,the convention is to show a paragraph break using the first line indent, with no spaces between paragraphs. But all is not lost! It's easy to fix.

Get rid of all the extra paragraph breaks like this:

*Edit to add - first make a backup copy of your work! Try this out on a copy, not the actual document, in case anything goes wrong *

In Word, go to Edit > Replace

Type the following into the "Find" field: ^p^p. 
And put this into the "Replace" field: ^p
That takes all the double paragraph breaks ( ^p is the symbol for a paragraph break) and replaces them with a single one. 
You can then either press the "Replace All" button to do all of them at once, or rather, press the "Replace" button to do them one at a time.

Now you have what looks like a single block of text but dont despair - the paragraph breaks are still there. Next thing to do is to indent the first lines to indicate where the paragraph breaks are:

Go to Format > Styles and Formatting and the Format menu will open in the sidebar.

Find the "normal" paragraph style in the list and click on the little down arrow that appears if you hover over it. Choose "Modify"

A dialog box will open. Click on the "Format" button at the lower left and choose "Paragraph" from the menu that will appear.

A new dialog box will open. In the middle there is a section labelled "Indentation". There are two fields in this section, one is called "Special" and the other "By". Click on the dropdown menu labelled "Special" and choose "First Line Indent". Then insert a numerical value like for example, 0.5 in the "By" field.

Press the OK buttons and you should now have first line indents that will read well in an e-reading device.

Hope that helps!


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## Rick Gualtieri (Oct 31, 2011)

psychotick said:


> Only problem, I just uploaded the book and guess what, on the preview there's no paragraph indents.
> 
> So what happened to them?


EBooks are just formatted HTML and HTML ignores multiple spaces unless they're formatted a certain way.

This is why I think a WYSIWYG plugin for Word would be great. Let's face facts, people aren't going to stop using Word anytime soon (sad as that may be) and a "THIS is what your eBook will look like, wanna save it now?" filter could save a lot of headaches for those who otherwise might assume what they see on Word is what the eBook will look like.


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## MrPLD (Sep 23, 2010)

Rick Gualtieri said:


> This is why I think a WYSIWYG plugin for Word would be great. Let's face facts, people aren't going to stop using Word anytime soon (sad as that may be) and a "THIS is what your eBook will look like, wanna save it now?" filter could save a lot of headaches for those who otherwise might assume what they see on Word is what the eBook will look like.


The trouble is, it'd be misleading, and likely with the very issues that send you insane when trying to debug the cause, because it never would be truly WYSIWYG; there's already disparities between the PC and Kindle editions the readers, hence I don't hold a lot of hope for a plug-in, not when there's even still problems with correlating screen look and print looks even within the same application (eg, MS Word).

The only true WYSIWYG is viewing it on a Kindle directly, everything else will always be an approximation (unless they put the Kindle system into a VM like VirtualBox or VMWare).


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## MrPLD (Sep 23, 2010)

I have to say, if you have your CSS/stylesheet sorted out, there really isn't a lot of difficulty with dealing with HTML directly;

It should for the most part look like this...

<a ref='Chapter_2' />Chapter 2

This is a paragraph in my text &emdash; maybe some more stuff perhaps? It's not difficult to understand HTML, it's also very easy to edit in a plain text editor (and a lot faster!).

* * *


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## Jonathan Winn (Mar 7, 2012)

Masha du Toit said:


> George - the best thing you can do is to read this: The Smashwords Style Guide to how to format your book in Word. http://www.smashwords.com/books/download/52/1/latest/0/0/smashwords-style-guide.pdf] http://www.smashwords.com/books/download/52/1/latest/0/0/smashwords-style-guide.pdf[/url]
> 
> It's not the only way, but its easy and thorough.
> 
> ...


This was a wonderfully helpful Reply. Thank you!


----------



## Klip (Mar 7, 2011)

MrPLD said:


> I have to say, if you have your CSS/stylesheet sorted out, there really isn't a lot of difficulty with dealing with HTML directly;
> 
> It should for the most part look like this...
> 
> ...


Absolutely agree. I much prefer doing it like this - it's like making your own bread. You know what's in there, and can adjust things to suit yourself!

I made a "cheat sheet" for the workflow if anyone is interested:  [URL=https://docs.google.com/document/pub]https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1Q4Gblc4k6ZnTb7X5xPVJekhwOETD-UGXshON_RnbKHY[/url]

Wont make any sense to you if you dont already know how the process works, but it helps me remember all the steps.


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## TJVitt (Feb 24, 2012)

Oh dear. Makes me think it's time to get a Kindle to double-check my formatting...

*Does anyone know how reading a file on a Kobo compares to reading on a Kindle?*
For example, on Smashwords you upload a single file type and their "meatgrinder" automatically produces all of the various formats. I don't own a Kindle but I do have a Kobo, so I downloaded ePub versions of each of my stories and looked at them on my Kobo. On the Kobo they looked fine to me (no wonky spaces or lack thereof, no absurd formatting). And they look fine on the Kindle app for PC, for what that's worth.

So does that mean my Amazon readers would be getting the same formatting on their Kindles, or should I be worried/rushing to order a Kindle?


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## Maggie Dana (Oct 26, 2011)

Pamela Kay Noble Brown said:


> Calvin, I was just going to ask how to do this, and you answered it by saying "set the first line indent in MS Word." However, I'm a little confused about "then remove it for the start of each chapter."
> 
> So we are not supposed to be indenting the first paragraph of new chapters? Is it a matter of preference, or is it wrong to do so?


Pamela:

Flush left (no indent) for the first paragraph of new chapters (or paragraph that follows a scene break) is a matter of preference, not an industry standard. That said, I think books look more balanced when this convention of 'no indent' is followed. It lets the reader know that this really is the beginning of something a bit new, something to be paid attention to. It's also, I think, more pleasing to the eye. At least, it is to mine. (Disclaimer: I'm a print book designer and typesetter and every big 6 client I've worked with prefers the flush left paragraph [no indent] for paragraphs that follow chapter openers, headings [in the case of non-fiction], and scene breaks [in fiction]).


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## Victoria J (Jul 5, 2011)

I find that whenever I use Calibre something always looks kind of screwy. I find it useful for other purposes but not for checking formatting.

I have to say that I've never had issues saving my file as HTML in OpenOffice or LibreOffice and uploading to KDP. It's always been very easy and the file always looks good when I preview it or download a copy to my Kindle.


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## JB Rowley (Jan 29, 2012)

My publishing efforts have met with limited success so far. I tried Maggie’s suggestion (Guido Henkel website) and that was okay to a point. When I got stuck I decided the learning curve was too great and went back to the simple method suggested by Lisa and Calvin i.e. following the Amazon guidelines of uploading a Word document and separate jpg image file for the cover. 

The text formatting seems fine (after several false starts) in the Kindle Enhanced Previewer - thanks to the meticulously outlined steps in the Smashwords manual which I have been studying for the past few weeks. However, the cover is a sticking point. I am able to view it as part of the book file in the PC Kindle but not in the Kindle Enhanced Previewer which throws up a message saying ‘Missing Cover Image’.  I tried everything I could to get around that and guzzled several pots of strong black coffee in the process, but to no avail. 

Consequently, I have sent a help message to the Amazon team and await their response promised within 24-48 hours. 

In the meantime, if anyone has any suggestions I’d be happy to give them a try. JB


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## JB Rowley (Jan 29, 2012)

JB Rowley said:


> However, the cover is a sticking point. I am able to view it as part of the book file in the PC Kindle but not in the Kindle Enhanced Previewer which throws up a message saying 'Missing Cover Image'.


Correction. I can view the cover using the Kindle Enhanced Previewer in all devices except Kindle Fire. Maybe that's normal - although I could find nothing in the Amazon instructions to warn me that would happen.


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## BrianKittrell (Jan 8, 2011)

I use the downloadable creator program and the downloadable previewer, then I look at it on my Kindle touch prior to publishing it. It's the only way to ensure 100% accuracy. Even with perfect code, the thing can get fudged up.


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## TimFrost (Jan 26, 2010)

I don't think anyone has mentioned a program called Jutoh, which is wonderful, and sorts the whole mess out for you, including paragraph spacing, table of contents, start page and cover. It also makes the other file formats - EPUB etc.

I tore my hair out with Calibre before finding this one.


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## JB Rowley (Jan 29, 2012)

Thanks, Tim and Brian, for your comments.


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## CaitLondon (Oct 12, 2010)

Definitely not an expert, but see some good stuff here. I've been using hand tagging, CSS, for Kindle/Mobicreator and then testing on my Kindle. But for epub OO has an add-in that's great, Write2epub. I usually pass thru Calibre and then a last stop at Jutoh.

FWIW: I think the acute and grave marks look clunky on a small screen and if I can get by without them, i.e. cafe, I will. I think we have to go by look on some of this, i.e. when a long word is connected to another long word by an em dash, that line, when swung around on the screen, can look odd. For my own style, I've connected the first word, em dash, then space before the next.

Also, a beginning " followed by an inside quote looks odd, I think, i.e. "' What do you think?


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## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Edward M. Grant said:


> One problem is that Amazon won't let you download your book for free. You can check the preview, but you can't double-check that the book as available is actually the same book from the preview.
> 
> I've found that broken indents are far more common; they're correct at the start but then random paragraphs are indented differently later on, probably beyond the amount you can read in the sample.


Use mobicreator to format your book at various stages, and then send it to yourself and look.

BTW, if an author uses Word and uses styles, indenting there, Amazon will always indent correctly, and it's an easy step for authors to unertake. However, I bet some authors still treat their keyboards like old Underwood Uprights and manually insert (or ignore indents, or even worse, still put 2 spaces after a period, which Amazon will also pick up).

EdwardC. Patterson


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## JB Rowley (Jan 29, 2012)

Oh my! How exciting! I finally fixed my problem with the cover. The issue seems to have been with the cover itself. In the end, I followed Smashwords’ instructions for compressing the cover image in ‘paint.NET’ to 96 pixels per inch, I uploaded it again to Amazon and I can now view it in Kindle Fire via the previewer ( as well as all the other Kindle devices). To see that was a delightful breakfast thrill. I can now proceed to the next step! This glitch was caused primarily by my ignorance but I do feel that Amazon need to lift their game as far as giving comprehensive instructions is concerned.

Through all this frustration and angst it was comforting to have people trying to help by contributing to this thread. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. JB


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## Ian Marks (Jan 22, 2012)

Whoa! I've just signed on after an absence of a couple of days and I'm so surprised to see that my original post elicited so many responses. I'm going to start reading them now. Before I do, let me just say that I wasn't trying to be nasty... I just think that e-books need to be held to the same basic formatting standards as tree-books. Anyway, on to the comments...


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