HTML Fixes for Kindle: More on Self Publishing Your Kindle Book, or Tips for Touching Up HTML from Microsoft Word and Other Apps So Your Ebook Looks as Good as It Possibly Can

by Aaron Shepard

Have you ever jumped to a new chapter in a Kindle book and seen that the chapter heading had lost its formatting? Have you opened a Kindle book to find that the font started out way too small or way too large? Have you tried to change to a different font while reading and discovered you couldn't? Has a Kindle completely ignored formatting you knew was in the book?

According to Amazon, the simplest way to publish your Kindle book is to upload an HTML file you've saved from Microsoft Word or another word processor. By itself, that method can bring you maybe 80% of the way to a well-formatted, trouble-free ebook. But what about the other 20%?

In this follow-up to his bestselling "From Word to Kindle," Aaron Shepard takes your saved HTML as a starting point and tells how to quickly tweak and tune it to avoid common problems. Assuming no knowledge of HTML, he introduces the basics of the language, then reveals how to use find-and-replace and macros to touch up an entire book in seconds!

If you're serious about Kindle publishing and you're technically inclined -- but not a full-fledged geek -- Aaron provides the tips you need to bring your Kindle book to the next level, making it something truly to be proud of.

Genres: Writing, Technology, Reference

68 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 30, 2013

About the author

Aaron Shepard is the author of many books, stories, and scripts for young people, as well as professional books and resources for writers and educators. He has also worked professionally in both storytelling and reader's theater, as a performer, director, and teacher trainer. Aaron's lively and meticulous retellings of folktales and other traditional literature have found homes with more than a dozen children's book publishers, large and small, and with the world's top children's literary magazines, winning him honors from the American Library Association, the New York Public Library, the Bank Street College of Education, the National Council for the Social Studies, and the American Folklore Society. His extensive Web site, visited by thousands of teachers and librarians each week, is known internationally as a prime resource for folktales, storytelling, and reader's theater, while his stories and scripts have been featured in textbooks from publishers worldwide, including Scholastic, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, SRA, The College Board, Pearson Education, National Geographic, Oxford University Press, Barron's, Hodder Education, and McGraw-Hill.

Reviews

[Sandra Eidson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most helpful in clearing up problems with formatting was maybe more understandable clarification of any issues I had.

[Lynda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could mark "currently reading" to as this is a book I am "utilizing" rather than reading and moving on to the next book.

The author provides this "sub-title": Advanced Self Publishing for Kindle Books, or Tips on Tinkering with HTML from Microsoft Word or Anything Else So Your Ebook Looks as Good as It Possibly Can."

If you have written your book in Word and want to publish to Kindle from that format, this book is an absolute MUST for you. It guides you through all the things you will need to check BEFORE you upload the book so that the formatting of your Kindle book is clean and professional.

What I also liked about the author's approach is that it also, as it's sub-title stated, gave the info needed for "anything else". Personally I'm as comfortable in HTML as in Word. The writer gives a LOT of insight into slight formatting errors that can cause cause poor displays on Kindle. He even gives in-depth HOW-TOs for searches to catch errors.

Word writers -- you are going to HAVE to get your hands into the HTML world before uploading but the writer gives you step-by-step instruction on what tools to use (no -- it ISN"T Word) and how to use them. Those same how-to searches are just as helpful to someone who writes their entire book in HTML.

For myself, I can see using this book as a guide to creating an in-depth checklist of WHAT to look for, WHAT must be corrected, etc. before uploading into KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing).

Again -- if you are playing to self-publish a book to Kindle, then this book is a MUST-READ & MUST-DO if you want professional results.

[Blaine Moore · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a great primer for knowing what you can do to make a better Kindle book, especially if you are already familiar with HTML. It points out the problems and common gotchas where Kindle defaults are different from web defaults, and some things that you would think would work but don't or that work differently than one would expect. I don't agree 100% with his preferences for what his books will look like, but there were some good ideas in there that I plan on implementing into my own workflow so it was certainly worth the price to read.

[Tony Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those odd titles that not every writer will appreciate or need. It is fairly technical but if you invest the time it will help you tune your HTML before sending it to Kindle. Why is this important? Two reasons:

1) If your content is complex (most people's won't be) this can help make sure it works
2) You can trim your content down and reduce the size of the file. This will then (ideally) make the kindle title smaller which will help maximise your royalties if you are on the higher rate Kindle Direct scheme.

[Allyson Abbott · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to be honest and say that it was my partner who read the book, as he is my formatter and publisher. But he said it's the best, most helpful, easiest to follow and understand out of all the books that he has read. So I think it deserves a five star review, if it keeps him happy and stops him buying more books on the subject. And my books have been published without any problems, so I am happy as well. So well worth the price.

[Marilyn Stoner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very clear

Really important content. Hard to read-only if you aren't a programmer but Aaron made html understandable. Very important to understand the inner workings of formatting. I was able to fix the chapter headings in my ebook after reading.