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Kindle book question...

by GlenH
10 replies
First off I want to say, that right now I know very little technically about producing Kindle formatted books.

But from what I understand you can embed 'links out' to external URLs from within your Kindle book (similar to links in a PDF' ebook).

So my question is what stops an optin form from being embedded into a Kindle book?

Is it something 'technical' in respect to formatting or coding the Kindle book in the first place.

Or is it an issue about having embedded optin forms in a Kindle book being against Amazon's TOS
#book #kindle #question
  • Profile picture of the author Caden
    I'm not technical either, but you can direct people to your opt-in form from your Kindle book. I guess that would be creating a link to your squeeze page, because as I understand it, putting in an actual opt-in form(correct me if I'm wrong, someone) would mean you would have to use HTML. I have never done that, and probably wont need to. So I hope that helps. I'm pretty sure you can put in a link to a squeeze page, especially if you can include links to your other Kindle ebooks.
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    • Profile picture of the author GlenH
      Originally Posted by Caden View Post

      I'm not technical either, but you can direct people to your opt-in form from your Kindle book. I guess that would be creating a link to your squeeze page, because as I understand it, putting in an actual opt-in form(correct me if I'm wrong, someone) would mean you would have to use HTML. I have never done that, and probably wont need to. So I hope that helps. I'm pretty sure you can put in a link to a squeeze page, especially if you can include links to your other Kindle ebooks.
      Thanks Caden.

      Yes I know you put links out of a Kindle book to say your 'squeeze page' (or any other page) or to any other Kindle books you have.

      And yes.... an optin form requires HTML, maybe that is the issue... that HTML code is not supported in a Kindle formatted book.
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  • Profile picture of the author OldLodgeSkins
    Hi,

    The actual format of Kindle books is rather poor.
    You can have basic formatting like bold / italics / titles and of course pictures, but tables for example are not well supported (since Kindle users can adapt the font size to their liking you run the risk of having a part of your table on a page and the rest on the next page for example).
    An opt-in form would require at least some sort of table formatting plus a little bit of code for the button and action to execute... Which the Kindle format doesn't support as far as I know.
    The best you could do IMHO is a nice picture to push people to visit your opt-in form, instead of a simple text link.

    Seb.
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  • Profile picture of the author travlinguy
    I don't know how Amazon feels about optin pages in a Kindle book. But if you have to have an optin why not just have a link in the book pointing to the page?
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    • Profile picture of the author GlenH
      Originally Posted by travlinguy View Post

      I don't know how Amazon feels about optin pages in a Kindle book. But if you have to have an optin why not just have a link in the book pointing to the page?
      That is why I mentioned it...as I said, optin forms in a Kindle book, may well be against Amazons TOS (if it's even technically possible)

      As to why put an optin form into a Kindle book!

      The only reason has to do with 'immediacy'.

      If the reader reads something in the book and they decide they wanted to optin to get more or of 'whatever', then they can do it then and there (while they're hot for it)

      If they have to click a link within book, then wait until a web page opens containing an optin form, and then optin....it can easily be that those few added seconds delay may give them enough time to 'think' some more, and so not bother to do anything.
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      • Profile picture of the author Sandra Martinez
        As Seb said, Kindle supports limited html, as long as I know forms are not among them.
        You could, maybe, make the image of a form, and open a pop up window with it.
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      • Profile picture of the author travlinguy
        Originally Posted by GlenH View Post

        That is why I mentioned it...as I said, optin forms in a Kindle book, may well be against Amazons TOS (if it's even technically possible)

        As to why put an optin form into a Kindle book!

        The only reason has to do with 'immediacy'.

        If the reader reads something in the book and they decide they wanted to optin to get more or of 'whatever', then they can do it then and there (while they're hot for it)

        If they have to click a link within book, then wait until a web page opens containing an optin form, and then optin....it can easily be that those few added seconds delay may give them enough time to 'think' some more, and so not bother to do anything.
        I understand why you'd want one. Again, I don't know Amazon's position on the matter but I'd guess they'd frown on it. Before and after the actual material that makes up my books I have a pile of links all but one of them is to other Kindle titles. The first one at both the front and back of the book is a link to my site. I don't have an optin there but I don't see why you couldn't. I think that's as close as you're going to get.
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  • Profile picture of the author Paul Gram
    Seb is right, it just can't be done and shouldn't be done. It could probably technically work on some devices but it wouldn't work on all devices anyway. The best thing to do is to hyperlink with text or an image.
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Maybe the newer Kindles are different, but I have an older model. And even just viewing/navigating a web page is a real PITA. Same for entering text. Everything relies on the arrow keys, so even "typing" a keyword to search in the Kindle store is a pain.

      I can't imagine someone with an older Kindle filling in an opt-in form from the Kindle.
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  • Profile picture of the author Fun to Write
    If there is enough interest in an outside source, people will go ahead and click on the text link included in the book. I don't think there's any need for an embedded form inside the book. I also don't think Amazon would ever approve of it due to concerns about spammy content, etc.
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