# Amazon to allow ePub on Kindle (MERGED)



## labread (Jan 26, 2011)

Apologies in advance if this has shown up on the site elsewhere, but I didn't see it! I'm sure it's all tied in to the "big announcement" everyone is anticipating, but this is about the Kindle itself, so if we can keep the discussion to that, it won't get merged. 

http://goodereader.com/blog/tablet-slates/amazon-to-allow-epub-ebooks-on-the-kindle-e-reader/


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## TraceyC/FL (Mar 23, 2011)

Interesting!!!

Hoping it turns out to be true for all devices and just not the new set and anything forward. 

Although it has to be tied to the Overdrive thing and Amazon realizing that they will sell more if they can offer the buyer the ability to read everything.


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## Will Write for Gruel (Oct 16, 2010)

> We have some rather breaking news with online giant Amazon and their highly successful line of Kindle e-readers. It seems many publishers have been told by the company that in the near-future, they should be submitting their books to Amazon in EPUB format and not exclusively MOBI. They also went on to let us know that Amazon was indeed planning something BIG and that soon the Kindle ereader will have the full capability to read ePub books. This news has been confirmed by at least 4 publishing companies we have spoken with during the last few days.


http://goodereader.com/blog/tablet-slates/amazon-to-allow-epub-ebooks-on-the-kindle-e-reader/


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## TheSFReader (Jan 20, 2011)

If confirmed, that is GREAT news !!! If/when I want to replace my Nook, I'll probably go Kindle if it's epub compatible ...


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

Cool.

One format to rule them all.


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## India Drummond (Nov 1, 2010)

Ooh, this can only be a good thing. The more formats Kindle accepts, the fewer people the number put off by its proprietary nature. I've heard people shying away from it simply because they don't want to be beholden to the amazon website for all their book buying. 

Sounds like a smart move on Amazon's part.


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

This was bound to happen.  Epub is definitely superior.  Now the question would be... could we gift to fellow nookers?


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## Ryne Billings (May 15, 2011)

I wonder if Amazon will still accept .mobi when they do this. They did say that they wouldn't "exclusively" accept .mobi, which isn't the same thing as no longer accepting it.

I'm only interested in that because I can create a .mobi file easily, but I have no experience with epub in the least.


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## JeanneM (Mar 21, 2011)

MosesSiregarIII said:


> Cool.
> 
> One format to rule them all.


LOL...love it.


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## MrPLD (Sep 23, 2010)

There'd be no reason to cease supporting mobi.

btw, technically, what is the technical 'superiority' of ePub over mobi (if any).

I for one would love to see this come to fruition. I think Amazon has seen that staying exclusive to ePub is probably costing them more people than what they'd theoretically lose in sales to other book suppliers (eg, other people who'd sell you an ePub).  The Kindle network is far too convenient to bother sourcing books elsewhere unless there was a massive disparity in the price.

Good move.


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## Linjeakel (Mar 17, 2010)

But does this mean we will be able to put DRM'd ePub books bought somewhere other than Amazon onto a Kindle? Or will it be only Amazon purchases and non DRM'd books as it is now with .mobi files? I suspect the latter.


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

MrPLD said:


> There'd be no reason to cease supporting mobi.
> 
> btw, technically, what is the technical 'superiority' of ePub over mobi (if any).
> 
> ...


I am not techie in any way. However, I read both nook and kindle books. I've noticed that books just seem to translate better to epub. It looks clean and there are fewer glitch errors (like overlapping words, missing punctuation that is actually in the original document, odd spacing, etc...).


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## India Drummond (Nov 1, 2010)

MrPLD said:


> btw, technically, what is the technical 'superiority' of ePub over mobi (if any).


I did my own formatting for Blood Faerie, and did the method of starting with a clean HTML file and then using Calibre to take that into epub and mobi formats. (Rather than uploading a Word file.) The biggest thing I noticed is that epub was less tolerant of certain characters. For example, I had to replace ALL curly quotes, special characters (like ampersand, the copyright symbol, accented letters, etc) with HMTL entities. I missed one, an accented o in a Gaelic word, because I had forgotten about it. When I reviewed my epub file, it showed up as a weird diamond with a ? in it. The mobi file didn't have any problems with it and had rendered it correctly.

It's a pain for indie publishers, but these requirements actually mean the epub format is more flexible and will render correctly in browsers and all different types of readers, because HTML entities are virtually universal.

It's a bit like the difference between a Word document and a .rtf file. Word is nicer for the writer, rtf is often nicer for the reader, because they can open it with anything on any OS.


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## Mel Comley (Oct 13, 2010)

Great news!


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## KindleChickie (Oct 24, 2009)

I worry about my mobi library.  Not as happy as every one seems to be with this rumor.


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## MrPLD (Sep 23, 2010)

I for one will probably continue to produce both formats as I currently am but I'll be pleased because now the Kindle will gain even more readers - a boon to us all 

As for the HTML rendering, yes, things like that can be a bit of a bother, though it's something that can be checked over with some search strings, thankfully 

I know for myself I'd be content to have an eReader that was simply a stripped down browser _but_ with a superior text formatting/justification engine (one that works per block, not just per line).


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## MrPLD (Sep 23, 2010)

KindleChickie said:


> I worry about my mobi library. Not as happy as every one seems to be with this rumor.


They won't cull mobi support - that'd be akin to suicide. They're simply adding ePub support.


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## TheSFReader (Jan 20, 2011)

I only hope that not only will they "read" the epub format, but also, and more importantly, that they will sell epub files... hence acknowledging the de-facto epub format as the "legitimate" one.

Other bother, is if they try and use the good old Embrace-Extend-Extinguish Microsoft strategy.


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## MrPLD (Sep 23, 2010)

Not sure the EEE method would do them much good at this point of their marketing strategy - not to say they wouldn't do it but I can't see a strong business advantage in producing a substandard ePub rendering app. If they're wanting to add new features they'll likely do it on the mobi format only in order to ensure they maintain exclusivity for things like advertising and features (else other people would be too quick to implement similar features on their own readers).

That is the one big difference these days with hardware that defuses part of the EEE problem, our ability, acceptance and ease of firmware updates.

Still... as said, who knows


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## Tim C. Taylor (May 17, 2011)

Linjeakel said:


> But does this mean we will be able to put DRM'd ePub books bought somewhere other than Amazon onto a Kindle? Or will it be only Amazon purchases and non DRM'd books as it is now with .mobi files? I suspect the latter.


I'm certain that Kindles will only read DRM-free EPUB and Amazon-DRM'd EPUB bought through the Kindle Store. That's pretty much what Barnes&Noble did with the Nook, stop promoting their proprietary and Adobe DRM and file formats and concentrate on EPUB with a Nook-DRM wrapper.

This is very interesting. Might save me a whole lot of time. I do some feelance ebook creation for small print publishers. Right now I have to hand-code the navigation points and such like for the Kindle version and then do a lowest-common denominator version through Smashwords. The publishers can't afford my time to make hand-coded/ inspected EPUB versions for the other markets. I guess now I'm going to have to learn how to code EPUB books properly 

Thanks for sharing this, labread.
Tim


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## TheSFReader (Jan 20, 2011)

The problem with EEE is that they would not produce substandard epub, but "above standard" (the Extend part), meaning that books using "their" epub would not be as well "rendered/formatted" by other devices. They could for example implement tables, mathematical formulas,  specific poetry options etc. to their own "epub" renderer... If they do it well, "epub books" could not be "equal", and Amazon epub books be "better" than others, while not beeing rendered correctly by anyhting else than the Kindle  (and sister softwares).

Don't know if epub3 manages this all...


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## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

Rumor-mongering of the highest order, by a source that seems set on an agenda ... putting ePub over as "the industry standard."

No one willing to speak on record, either.

I'll believe this (happily, mind you) once I hear it from Bezos himself. Not until.


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## KindleChickie (Oct 24, 2009)

MrPLD said:


> They won't cull mobi support - that'd be akin to suicide. They're simply adding ePub support.


Maybe not right away, but what about five years from now? I have several hundred books I have purchased. Am I expected to individually reformat them in the future to keep reading them?

Think my book buying is going way down. I have been spending on average about two hundred dollars per month. Can't see me continuing when Amazon is going to ePub. They are the only ones supporting mobi, if they go mainstream where does that leave my mobi library? I just don't see how as a purchaser this is good news for me. I can see authors liking it.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Somewhere here someone indicated that library books were going to come to the Kindle, which would imply the capability to do epub. It strikes me that this might also be an attempt to seduce users of other devices into buying from Amazon.

Betsy


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## MrPLD (Sep 23, 2010)

KindleChickie said:


> Maybe not right away, but what about five years from now? I have several hundred books I have purchased. Am I expected to individually reformat them in the future to keep reading them?


There's actually no technical reason for them to ever cease supporting the rendering of the mobi format. They might move their new books to ePub (rather unlikely) but since they've already written the mobi interpreter and have the mobi toolchain there's no need to cull it (a bit like how newer versions of Wordprocessors can still read very old file formats ).

In the situation where the very worst does happen, at least things like Calibre can batch-convert. That said, I'm not going to put any money on them dropping mobi support or even moving to ePub. I see them moving to _include_ ePub rendering support only as a way to allow them to gain more Kindle device sales from people who have existing ePub libraries.

ePub might be the chosen "standard" format for the international ebook association but declared as standard and what's used isn't always the same thing. ODF and PDF are more widely considered standards for document transfers but MS-Doc still is probably more dominant in person-to-person sharing (as much as I hate that).

Paul.


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## TraceyC/FL (Mar 23, 2011)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> Somewhere here someone indicated that library books were going to come to the Kindle, which would imply the capability to do epub. It strikes me that this might also be an attempt to seduce users of other devices into buying from Amazon.
> 
> Betsy


Betsy, I read almost weekly about someone got their nook and now wants to shop at amazon. The average, non-techy just doesn't get it. It was the same when Apple still had DRM on their music - why can't I play my songs on my Fuse?

This move eliminates and does indeed allow amazon to sell to for all ereaders, which would rock. It doesn't remove that it will remain easier to buy for your branded reader directly, just adds more shopping options.

I do not see amazon turning off the mobi drm servers. I could see a move ala apple and allowing you to "upgrade" your mobi to ePub for a small fee of _____ (and rumor has it that was driven by the publishers not allowing it to be free on iTunes). They have a strong loyal base, they would be beyond foolish to piss them off.

Time will tell how it pans it.....


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## Tim C. Taylor (May 17, 2011)

MrPLD said:


> There's actually no technical reason for them to ever cease supporting the rendering of the mobi format. They might move their new books to ePub (rather unlikely) but since they've already written the mobi interpreter and have the mobi toolchain there's no need to cull it (a bit like how newer versions of Wordprocessors can still read very old file formats ).
> ...
> 
> Paul.


Absolutely. I can't believe Amazon would ditch support for the current mobi format books. That would be commercial suicide and there's no external pressure pushing them to do that. If Kindles could read non-DRM EPUBs then that might put an uptick on Kindle device sales and make Amazon appear more cuddly open-standards-friendly. I do see some external pressure for the latter because that's what all the other main eReader device producers have done, and that currently makes Amazon look a little villainous.

Tim


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## kCopeseeley (Mar 15, 2011)

So, so so happy!!!  One less stage in formatting now.  Before, I always had to make my epub then convert to mobi and worry about what THAT would do to my text.
Also, epubs are like zip files.  You can crack them open and mess with the insides if you know what you are doing.  I don't know what you do to mess with a mobi.

As an author, this makes me thrilled.  As a reader, not really effected.


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## MrPLD (Sep 23, 2010)

Agreed, ePub is nicer in the fact that it's an easy to access container format.


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## jonathanmoeller (Apr 19, 2011)

> Agreed, ePub is nicer in the fact that it's an easy to access container format.


I agree completely. MOBI files are nasty to work with - I will almost always start with ePub and convert it to MOBI, rather than the other way around.

Plus, it would be excellent if the Kindle had ePub support - I've spent a lot of time with Calibre converting book formats back and forth.


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## MrPLD (Sep 23, 2010)

It's interesting, I actually go HTML -> Calibre  then export as ePub and mobi; as opposed to trying to convert ePub->mobi or vice-versa.


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## davidhburton (Mar 11, 2010)

Now if only Smashwords would let us upload our own epub files.


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## MrPLD (Sep 23, 2010)

Yes, then finally I could rest.


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## Jan Strnad (May 27, 2010)

Any move toward a universal standard sounds good to me. I'm cautiously optimistic.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

I guess this is why Overdrive/Amazon has said that the Kindle support for library books would be seamless for them and all their existing ePub books would be available on Kindle.  It wasn't a matter of Overdrive providing .mobi copies of all of them, it was a matter of the Kindle getting updated to be able to read the ePub books they already have.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

MrPLD said:


> There's actually no technical reason for them to ever cease supporting the rendering of the mobi format. They might move their new books to ePub (rather unlikely) but since they've already written the mobi interpreter and have the mobi toolchain there's no need to cull it (a bit like how newer versions of Wordprocessors can still read very old file formats ).
> 
> In the situation where the very worst does happen, at least things like Calibre can batch-convert. That said, I'm not going to put any money on them dropping mobi support or even moving to ePub. I see them moving to _include_ ePub rendering support only as a way to allow them to gain more Kindle device sales from people who have existing ePub libraries.
> 
> ...


Agreed. I don't see them ever dropping .mobi support. They don't want to alienate long-time customers. I doubt they'll even start making ePub the main format in the Kindle store.

It's just a way to add another popular ebook format to the Kindle. And as I said above, I bet a lot of it is tied to supporting library e-books--those are ePubs (and PDFs) currently, so the easiest way to add library e-book support to the Kindle is to just update it so it can read those ePub books.


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## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

Goodness, it doesn't take much to stir the pot here, does it?

I find the timing of this all a little suspicious.... as well as the "sourcing."

1) Within the last month, a handful of people posted in these forums trying to suggest ePub was "THE industry standard."

2) Said people were properly corrected... "Not when the most popular eReader, with nearly 2/3rds of the eReader market, is Amazon/Mobi"

3) A couple weeks pass

4) Some Web blog no one's visited before pops up and CLAIMS four publishers have told the "off the record" that Amazon's going ePub ... soonish.

5) Said Web blog then says, "This CONFIRMS that it's happening." Which is absolutely NOT any sort of journalistic standard!

6) The journalistic standard for CONFIRMING a fact is two or more sources, yes, but at least one source has to be ON THE RECORD, and preferably (for most journalistic sources' legal departments' peace of mind) at least TWO on the record sources. Anything less is pure rumor-mongering... meaning either the journalist doesn't have the sources and is reporting an agenda as fact... or is being manipulated by his/her sources for THEIR own agenda and purposes, and possibly just their amusement.

Sorry, but there's nothing to get excited about yet.


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## India Drummond (Nov 1, 2010)

Tim C. Taylor said:


> I guess now I'm going to have to learn how to code EPUB books properly


Tim, I'd suggest taking a look at the methods Guido Henkel outlines in this series Take Pride in Your eBook Formatting. It's a bit explainy (yes, I made that word up) for someone who already has technical knowledge, but it was incredibly helpful to me and helped me create flawless epub and mobi files for my latest release.


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## Sporadic (May 1, 2009)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> Somewhere here someone indicated that library books were going to come to the Kindle, which would imply the capability to do epub. It strikes me that this might also be an attempt to seduce users of other devices into buying from Amazon.
> 
> Betsy


The strange thing is that the Overdrive announcement specifically mentioned that books would be in a "kindle format" with Whispersync enabled.

What would make Amazon do a complete 180? It doesn't make much sense considering that most of the people complaining for ePub support on the Kindle, don't actually own one.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

Sporadic said:


> The strange thing is that the Overdrive announcement specifically mentioned that books would be in a "kindle format" with Whispersync enabled.
> 
> What would make Amazon do a complete 180? It doesn't make much sense considering that most of the people complaining for ePub support on the Kindle, don't actually own one.


To the first, that could just be double speak meaning that their e-pub format/drm would become a Kindle format.

Two the second, it would be a way to hopefully get some of those people to buy Kindles in the future as devices like the Sony readers continue to fade.

That said, I don't really care. Given I'm not doing any self publishing etc., I really couldn't care less what format my e-books are in. I just stick with the Kindle store, Feedbooks and Overdrive (on the iPad until the Kindle update) anyway.


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## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

The assumptions that Amazon is playing to the margins, like picking up those dropping their Sony readers for a new device, is kind of silly, and based on the idea that there's anything valid in this Blog site's rumor mongering.

No journalistic media source would consider this rumor "confirmed." There are no on-the-record sources and the site only had its own world as validation. That's not journalism, it's rumor. So all this speculation on "Why would Amazon do this" is premature at best.

At worst, there's nothing to it at all and that makes all this speculation based off rumor even more pointless.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

It's definitely just a rumor for sure.

I don't mind speculating.  It's one of the few things message boards are good for! 

Like I said, I couldn't care less about format beyond hoping that (regardless of format etc.) that all my local library's ePub books are available for the Kindle as soon as the update comes out.  I don't care if it's the Kindle being able to read them or if it's Overdrive putting out .mobi versions of all their library e-books.


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## Sporadic (May 1, 2009)

mooshie78 said:


> It's definitely just a rumor for sure.
> 
> I don't mind speculating. It's one of the few things message boards are good for!
> 
> Like I said, I couldn't care less about format beyond hoping that (regardless of format etc.) that all my local library's ePub books are available for the Kindle as soon as the update comes out. I don't care if it's the Kindle being able to read them or if it's Overdrive putting out .mobi versions of all their library e-books.





> The Kindle Library Lending program will integrate into your existing OverDrive-powered 'Virtual Branch' website.
> 
> Your existing collection of downloadable eBooks will be available to Kindle customers. As you add new eBooks to your collection, those titles will also be available in Kindle format for lending to Kindle and Kindle reading apps. Your library will not need to purchase any additional units to have Kindle compatibility. This will work for your existing copies and units.
> 
> ...


http://overdriveblogs.com/library/2011/04/20/kindle-library-lending-and-overdrive-what-it-means-for-libraries-and-schools/

Which is what makes this whole thing so strange. If they were going to support ePub, why would they use that type of language in various press releases about the Overdrive news? Wouldn't it have just been simpler to send out a press release that said something like "We are supporting ePub which means you'll be able to access library books from Overdrive and we are adding the ability to use Whispersync on them"


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

It's probably most likely that the rumor is wrong and they aren't adding ePub support.

But I suppose something could have happened where they realized it was easier to add ePub support to the Kindle than to make all the ePub selections in Overdrive available in .mobi.

Time will tell.  Like I said I don't care about format as long as every Overdrive bookis truly available in Kindle format on day 1 or shortly there after.


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## CarlBullock (Dec 28, 2010)

CraigInTwinCities said:


> Goodness, it doesn't take much to stir the pot here, does it?
> 
> I find the timing of this all a little suspicious.... as well as the "sourcing."
> 
> ...


Erm... why is ePub not the industry standard? correct me if I'm wrong but almost everyone else other then amazon uses ePub? amazon is just a single entity after all, huge but still only one company  surely ePub is the standard and amazon are the nonconformists?


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## Xopher (May 14, 2009)

I highly doubt that this means ePub will be on the Kindle. The main reason is that when the announcement was made, they stated that library books would be available to ALL Kindles (K1-K3...). If they are adding ePub support, then that would mean they would have to come out with software updates for the K1, and K2. The K1 hasn't received an update in over two years. I doubt they are going to update it now.

The more likely scenario is how they handle book sharing already. You can share books between any Kindle: K1, K2, DX, K3. All the sharing is handle by Amazon's servers. It makes more sense that Overdrive would have a link to Amazon's servers, with the server doing the .mobi conversion (similar to what Calibre does). That way, all Kindles would get library books.


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## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

CarlBullock said:


> Erm... why is ePub not the industry standard? correct me if I'm wrong but almost everyone else other then amazon uses ePub? amazon is just a single entity after all, huge but still only one company  surely ePub is the standard and amazon are the nonconformists?


70 percent (roughly) of the market is Amazon Kindle, meaning .mobi, versus 28 percent of the market with various flavors of ePub (and not all of them are cross-compatible.)

And about 2 percent of the market (maybe a bit more) still uses PDF. For example, I'm a once-and-future subscriber to BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGY REVIEW (BAR). A couple times a year, they give out a "free eBook" as a lure to join their email newsletter. It's not in .mobi or .ePub. It's in .pdf. And BAR is hardly alone in that practice...

I don't care if Amazon is one company versus two others, or 20 others... .mobi's still 70-percent of the market, and that makes it a market standard.


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## RM Prioleau (Mar 18, 2011)

Well I certainly hope this will be in the form of a software update to allow this rather than Amazon having to force you to buy an entirely new version of Kindle that supports ePub....


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## Emeline Danvers (Apr 11, 2011)

I really hope Amazon does support ePub. As far as my buying habits go, it would benefit Amazon in several ways:

1) I would never have bought a nook the first time around if Amazon had supported epub back then.

2) Yes, I finally bought a Kindle, because: a) I detest B&N's computer system, b) Amazon has better selection, c) I LOVE the text-to-speech feature. HOWEVER, a lot of people won't buy a second ereader, they'll stick with what they have. Which means buying from their device's store.

3) My husband LOVES my old nook, and doesn't like my new kindle. He'll likely never get one, because the nook is bigger and feels more comfortable in _his _hands. Right now, he can't buy Kindle books, only nook books. Money lost, Amazon.

4) If there's a book we both want, I'm not buying one nook copy and one kindle copy, and I hate sharing my kindle. So guess where we'll buy that book? Yep, at B&N. Then I'll have to borrow his nook.

Any chance an Amazon insider is listening? I'll keep saying this until someone does. Let me buy ePub books for my husband's nook at Amazon!!


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

A lot of the commentary I've seen -- here and elsewhere -- is focusing on "oh good; now I'll be able to buy books from B&N for my Kindle" or, conversely "I'll be able to buy books from Amazon for my nook." I _really_ don't think either one is going to be true. It's just a format. There will still be DRM on books bought from the two stores which will mean the books won't work on the competing reader.

At least, that's what I would expect. I suppose Amazon and B&N could make an agreement so nook could read kindle files and vice versa, but I'm not seeing where that would be advantageous to either company.

There _are_ a lot of DRM-free ePub books floating around which would become available if Kindle added ePub as a compatible format.

Amazon has already said the library lending would be available on All Kindles -- including the 1st Generation model, so, as someone else suggested, I wouldn't expect the capability to be something requiring a software update. I think it's much more likely that there will be a conversion that happens between Overdrive and Amazon. I mean, they also say that you'll be able to get the library books via their "whispernet". I haven't looked closely into how it works now, but my understanding is that you have to download to a computer and transfer via direct connection. So that makes me think that, when you order a library book, it'll go via Amazon to your Kindle, and be converted as needed. And this also allows them to save/sync any notes or marks you make in that library book -- which they've also said will be possible.

Also, a conversion process might open the possibility of sending non-DRM ePub files from anywhere to Amazon for conversion. I don't believe they'll currently do that.


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## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

Emeline,


Even if this weren't pure rumor, it wouldn't solve your dilemma.

If Amazon were to ever extend support to include the ePub format, that does not mean Kindle would be able to display a Nook-specific ePub file.

Yes, believe it or not, not all ePubs are coded identically, which is why the whole "add ePub support" idea is frivolous anyway...


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## balaspa (Dec 27, 2009)

I am intrigued by this.  I just wonder how it will potentially help or hinder us self-publishers.  I guess it would make it easier, right?  One format for everyone?


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## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

balaspa said:


> I am intrigued by this. I just wonder how it will potentially help or hinder us self-publishers. I guess it would make it easier, right? One format for everyone?


Read the whole topic. There's no objective verification here, just rumor-mongering. Not worth the time it takes to speculate about, until we hear something more certain/official.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

It still seems to be only a rumor, but if true I think it is wonderful news. I think it will help both readers and writers. Being both--well, I hope it's true.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

CraigInTwinCities said:


> Not worth the time it takes to speculate about, until we hear something more certain/official.


Well, that's just silly. . . .the whole purpose of a forum like this is to speculate and wonder.


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## Carld (Dec 2, 2009)

Even if this rumor is true I don't see any way that Amazon is ever going to pay Adobe's DRM fees. So even if the Kindle does start reading ePubs they won't have Adobe's DRM, and you won't be able to read them on a nook, nor will you be able to buy and read ePubs from other companies. Unless Amazon is planning something really huge, I don't see this mattering much even if it's true.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

Yeah, that much is for sure.  Even if they add ePub, it would just be for library books and ePub books they sell with Amazon DRM on it.  They're never going to allow other DRM'd books from the Nook store etc. on there as they want people spending money in the Kindle store.

If you want access to multiple e-book stores, a Tablet like the iPad is the way to go if you can do without e-ink.  Eventually they'll get Pixel QI or Mirasol or other dual mode screens right hopefully and we can have tablets with an LCD mode and an e-ink like mode for reading and be able to have a device with mutliple e-book store options along with a screen that's great for reading.


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## Jan Strnad (May 27, 2010)

As Ann said, the format is only part of the story. The bigger part is DRM. If it weren't for DRM, the format wouldn't matter: We'd just convert from one format to the other in Calibre!

Still, it would be a step in the right direction. So as I said earlier, I'm cautiously optimistic.


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## kb7uen Gene (Mar 13, 2009)

I wouldn't want to see PDF become the standard that ebooks are based on because it doesn't seem to allow for resizing and reformatting of the text.  I've noticed in the past when looking at PDFs which have been resized and reformatted or reflowed, that they don't come out looking right.  Can PDF documents be manipulated in the same ways mobi and epub formatted documents can be that I'm not aware of?  If so, please post how it is done to this thread.

Thanks, Gene


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

I am not completely certain . . .but I don't think ePub and PDF are the same thing. . . I mean, it's the file type used by nook, Sony, and Kobo and those readers do have scalable font sizing.  And I haven't seen any reports suggesting PDF become the standard.  . . . good as it is for physically printed documents, it lacks flexibility for an eReader because it's not scalable. . . .to change the print size you have to go back to the source document.  The same as if you needed to fix a paper print out. I think of PDF as less a file format and more of an output/print format.


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## Jenni (Feb 20, 2011)

From a technical standpoint, PDF won't become the standard for eBook. It was the basis in some ways, but it won't work. 

ePub file format seems to be emerging as the front runner. Many programs now offer a conversion to ePub like the latest Pages. Also, I think the newest Scivener has this feature?

I use InDesign to create the ePub file and load to iBooks and Kobo directly. I've tried other less expensive programs, but the iBookstore dumps them back to me, so Indesign it is.

I like to use an HTML zip file to load to the Nook and to Kindle.


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