Mobi support

[joeymcg...@gmail.com]

Hi all,

The way I usually send books to my kindle is by emailing them to my kindle email address. I've just tried this with one of the .azw3 files on Standard Ebooks and received the following error in an email:

Dear Customer,
The following document, sent at 02:16 PM on Thu, Jun 29, 2017 GMT could not be delivered to the Kindle you specified:
* philip-k-dick_short-fiction.azw3

The Kindle Personal Document Service can convert and deliver the following types of documents:
Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx)
Rich Text Format (.rtf)
HTML (.htm, .html)
Text (.txt) documents
Archived documents (zip , x-zip) and compressed archived documents
Mobi book
Images that are of type JPEGs (.jpg), GIFs (.gif), Bitmaps (.bmp), and PNG images (.png).
Adobe PDF (.pdf) documents are delivered without conversion to Kindle DX, Second Generation and Latest Generation Kindles.
Adobe PDF (.pdf) can be converted to Kindle format and delivered on an experimental basis.
If the document that failed belonged to one of the above document types, please ensure the document is not password protected or encrypted. Note that the Latest Generation Kindles support password protected PDFs.
Helpful tips for personal document attachments:
The file size of each attached personal document should be less than 50MB (before compression in a ZIP file)
The email submitted should not contain more than 25 attached personal documents
You can learn more about transferring personal documents to your Kindle in our help pages:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/kindlepersonaldocuments/
If you would like immediate assistance, please contact customer support at +44(0)800 4962449.
Sincerely,
Amazon Kindle Support

Could .mobi files be added as a download link for books?

Thanks,

Joe

[Alex Cabal]

Are you using an eink kindle or a kindle device? Have you tried transferring them using a USB cable?

There seem to be some problems with Kindle apps (on iPads for example) not being able to read azw3 files.  Unfortunately mobi files on those apps look really bad, especially with overriding text centering.  So our options are either to distribute bad-looking ebooks, or Amazon's own format that some Amazon apps can't read for some reason.

Either way it's Amazon's pile of garbage.  I suggest a different ereading app for now, until we figure out a better way to sort this out.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Standard Ebooks" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to standardebook...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to standar...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/standardebooks.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/standardebooks/55b23d5d-adf5-4d3b-867d-e517c29ffe66%40googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[debne...@gmail.com]

Alternatively, if you absolutely require the mobi files, you could use a service like Zamzar or even Calibre itself to convert the files from say, epub, to mobi. However, doing so does, in fact, as Alex pointed out, diminish the quality of the ebook.

Debneil

[Caleb Woodbridge]

Another option is to use Kindlegen (https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000765211) to convert the EPUB to mobi files (and/or Kindle Previewer, which adds GUI and previewing). In my experience it preserves the quality of the EPUB file more reliably than Calibre conversion.

The software license doesn't allow commercial use outside KDP, but does allow non-commercial use: https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000599251

Caleb

On Fri, 30 Jun 2017 at 05:05 <debne...@gmail.com> wrote:

Alternatively, if you absolutely require the mobi files, you could use a service like Zamzar or even Calibre itself to convert the files from say, epub, to mobi. However, doing so does, in fact, as Alex pointed out, diminish the quality of the ebook.

Debneil

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Standard Ebooks" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to standardebook...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to standar...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/standardebooks.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/standardebooks/0ad2cd75-7bd6-4802-8f37-2db99a1bc227%40googlegroups.com.

[manue...@gmail.com]

Ditto Kindle email doesn't support azw3 or ePub - only mobi

Can mobi formats be added?

Emailing documents to kindle is to only way to get them on the Kindle Cloud so that they stay in sync across Kindles... also supports sync of highlights etc AFAIK

[amconc...@gmail.com]

Following this convo ... I had the same question. 

You can get an .azw file onto your Kindle by connecting it to your computer with a USB cable, then dragging the .azw file to the Kindle's Documents folder. I don't know how you'd get that into your Kindle Cloud account (which would be great). You'll only find it if you tap the Device link (not the Cloud link). If you have a Mac, the Kindle won't mount unless you first install the Android File Transfer app https://www.android.com/filetransfer/ ... then the Kindle's contents (including the Documents folder) appear in that app's window, and you can drag the .azw file that way.

If you're trying to add an .azw file to the Kindle app on your iOS device, then you need to use iTunes, as explained here:
http://epubsecrets.com/how-to-sideload-a-kindle-file-to-ios-ipad-iphone-ipod-touch.php

AM Concepcion

senecadesign.com

[Caleb Woodbridge]

Yes, supporting mobi format would make transferring ebooks to Kindle much more user friendly, since it gives the option of using Send to Kindle by email or app, and adding it to the users cloud library.

If there's a trade-off between the design quality being better preserved in azw3 and mobi being more easily accessible, then it's good to give people the choice.

Thanks,

Caleb

--

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Standard Ebooks" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to standardebook...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to standar...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/standardebooks.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/standardebooks/ad750867-5e9e-4212-a53e-0d30d78d7f06%40googlegroups.com.

[Alex Cabal]

Mobi on apps that do not support azw3 looks really crappy.  This is entirely Amazon's fault, both for having a crappy IE6-level reading experience on many of its apps and not caring to update it despite its mammoth position in the publishing industry and multi-billion-dollar budget, and for inexplicably having some of its apps not support its own format.

I would rather put out a well-formatted ebook that can't be read on some apps, than one that looks crappy, because *we'll* be the ones blamed for it looking crappy, not Amazon.  Even though it's entirely Amazon's fault.

You can always use Calibre to convert azw3 to mobi.  However once you do that I can't speak for the formatting, because I can't guarantee what Calibre will do.  (Though it does typically do a pretty good job, and we even use it in our own build process.)

Azw3 definitely works fine and looks good if side-loaded into an eink Kindle, which is the only sort of Kindle device I've ever used.  If you're using Kindle as an app on a general-purpose tablet, then I would instead recommend one of the vastly superior reading apps that can read epub files, like iBooks or Readium or Google Play Books or FBReader.  (Really, literally any other reader besides Kindle, since they all read epub *except* Kindle.)

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/standardebooks/7371C4D3-9D26-4580-A9B6-633712EE9C74%40gmail.com.

[John Hopper]

I have converted the AZW3 file to MOBI then emailed that to my Kindle, together with the cover. Seems to work okay.