Uploading a kindle book

The book is up.

To upload my book I did not use a program like Scrivener or an editor program to convert the book file into Mobi format. I just loaded the .doc file into the Amazon Kindle converter and let it rip.

Before loading the file into the converter I made the file as simple as I could (no special formatting or characters in the file text. Use the style settings like H1 and body text style to control how your texts looks). I used Libre Office to write the book and saved the file as a .doc file.

Problem 1. You have to set the margins and the first line of a paragraph indent using the ruler bar at the top of the screen in Libre Office or the Amazon converter program will mess the results up. The Kindle converter program outputs right and left justified text (proportionally spaced text) and if there are spaces in front of the first word of the first line of a paragraph then the first line of the paragraph will be indented unevenly (the space gets proportionally spaced making things very ragged). You will have to go back and make the first line of very paragraph indent to the ruler setting with no spaces in front of the first word (in the original .doc file). I have not found a way to do this in mass. I had to do the first line of very paragraph one at a time (all 150 pages of single spaced text). Whatever you do don’t input a file with proportionally spaced text into the Amazon Kindle converter.

Problem 2. Libre Office has the habit of sticking spaces between words in a different (its default) font in your text. I had to highlight all the text and convert it to the font I wanted to use (Times New Roman).

Why Times New Roman, because other computers (mainly Apple computers) do not use the same fonts as Windows computers. When a Apple computer reads your file and does not have the font you used it will choose a bad looking font to display your words. Windows computers are not quite as bad at doing this. Times New Roman looks OK on both types of computers. Guru after Guru says use this or that font, but have they checked that the font will look good on a windows computer and a Mac computer (iPad or whatever)? I think the only thing the reader will notice is if you use a serif or sans serif font (the serif is the little foot at the bottom of each letter. This text is in a serif font; Times New Roman). Serif fonts are easier to read. Be good to your reader.

Problem 3. I write fiction and did not have any bullet points in the words of my file. I have no suggestions on how to handle that problem. The Amazon Kindle converter does not like bullet points. It does not like you hitting the return button twice or more times.

Problem 4. What size of font to use? I use 16 point font size. For a Kindle book it doesn’t matter. It seems that the converter changes the font size to a standard size. I use 16 point font for ease of reading. I don’t think a bigger font size will increase your file size or increase the cost to transmit your file. The reader can always change the font size on their reader.

Problem 5. What file type should you use? I now use .docx file type for the input to the Amazon Kindle converter. I read somewhere that the .docx file type works better. It seems to convert faster and did not have as many problems (but that may be do to learning how to avoid problems).

The book; The Daemon Boat is now on Amazon Kindle.

Stay strong, write on.              Professor Hyram Voltage

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