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Question about Kindle publishing...

by sadiecopywriter
7 replies
So, I recently uploaded a Kindle book. Yea! Went in without a hitch.

I looked it over with their little viewer and found that some of the paragraph indents didn't come through - even though I put them in.

Is this a thing with Kindle? They are indented on the file I worked with but they don't show up on the kindle version.

Don't know if this is because I'm using their cheep review-reader?

Would it look different on an actual kindle?

If not, how do fix it? Is this actually a formatting issue that I need to fix?
#kindle #publishing #question
  • Profile picture of the author Tracy Yates
    What type of file are you using to create your products from Mercedes? I might be able to help with a more complete answer if I know this first

    With that said, you aren't using any type of tabs to create the indents are you? That could be the culpret right there.

    Tracy
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  • Profile picture of the author Shannon Tani
    I'm no expert, but I'd *guess* that it's because indented paragraphs aren't common in html. You'd probably have to manually insert the code. I found this link to the code you'd need:

    HTML Indenting the First Line of Each Paragraph - HTML Code Tutorial

    Love,
    Shannon
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    • Profile picture of the author marciayudkin
      Why are you using paragraph indents?

      For Kindle conversion, the simpler your formatting the better.

      I suffered through a lot of trial and error to come up with a simple system of formatting that works well for my Kindle ebooks.

      1)In Word, use the "styles" function to create a regular "body text" style with extra space between paragraphs. Use the style "heading 1" for a new chapter and specify that it starts on a new page. Avoid other formatting wherever possible. Boldface and italics come through OK, though. I have one other style for bullet points and did tons of trial and error on that to make it come out reasonably OK.

      2)Convert the Word file to RTF.

      3)Convert the RTF file to Kindle format using the free program Calibre.

      Done.

      Good luck,
      Marcia Yudkin
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      • Profile picture of the author pierrebenoit
        How do you handle the two toc when creating the ebook with Calibre? Your TOc and the TOC created by calibre?
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  • Profile picture of the author Tracy Yates
    To build on what Marcia has stated above, if you are using Word, you can place a paragraph indent in there through the "Normal" style found on the main ribbon.

    You'll want to right click on the "Normal" style, then select "Modify". From there in the lower left hand corner, click the "Format" button there, and select "Paragraph" from the drop down menu ( it actually goes up ).

    From there, you can place a line indent in the section "Indentation" > "Special". Choose "First line", and only go as high as: 0.05". I usually stick with 0.03".

    I would suggest that you use a Web Filtered .HTML file created from your Word .doc and then run that through Calibre. The indentations should stick throughout your paragraphs.


    Tracy
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  • Profile picture of the author Tracy Yates
    Then the above steps I outlined should do the trick Mercedes. The error could be from uploading the PDF file directly to KDP(Kindle Direct Publishing).

    Try creating the Web Filtered HTML file from your Word .doc and then generate a .mobi file directly from Calibre. Then upload your .mobi file to KDP and see if that doesn't fix things.


    Tracy
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