Problems uploading books to Kindle this weekend

incognito · Nov 20, 2011

Hi All,

Is anyone else experiencing this? Or is it just me. I have been trying to upload a short story to Kindle this weekend. The html file wouldn't work and a conversion to mobi doesn't work either. It views fine on my own systems. I get the error:

"An unexpected error occurred. We have been notified and will look into it as soon as we can. Meanwhile, please try again in a few minutes. We apologize for the inconvenience."

Got this today and yesterday.

Irysangel · Nov 20, 2011

I was able to upload yesterday (and it's up today, actually). I didn't upload HTML directly, though? I put my cover and my html in a zip file and uploaded the zip, and had no problems. Could you try that? Worth a shot.

JWNelson · Nov 20, 2011

fwiw, that is the kind of error message that tells me they are having a hopefully brief system issue. any luck today?

incognito · Nov 20, 2011

I tried uploading a zip file - I got a "conversion error - try again after some while".

I also tried today an html file and a .mobi file and got the original error message.

If it's a problem at my end, I can't for the life of me think what as the file opens fine in a web browser.

JWNelson · Nov 20, 2011

incognito said:
I tried uploading a zip file - I got a "conversion error - try again after some while".

I also tried today an html file and a .mobi file and got the original error message.

If it's a problem at my end, I can't for the life of me think what as the file opens fine in a web browser.

That kind of thing makes me want to :e2thud:

vlindahl · Nov 20, 2011

HTML did not work well for me, so I converted it to epub using a program called Sigil, and mobi using a program called Calibre. The final formatting on Amazon was spot on, exactly like what I saw at home. Active TOC and everything.

These programs are free, but I kicked a donation to each of them because they work so well.

JWNelson · Nov 20, 2011

Anyone using Mobipocket Creator? Also, I have gotten the impression that Smashword will produce formats for the major e-pub platforms. Correct?

brianjanuary · Nov 21, 2011

I used the Mobipocket Creator and had no problems.

Is your book properly formatted? Is the cover in a suitable size? If you are including a Table of Contents, is it properly formatted?

Incorrect formatting can result in your error. A good place to go for answers is the KDP Formatting forum.

Brian January
http://amzn.com/B005WM0HN6

JWNelson · Nov 21, 2011

brianjanuary said:
I used the Mobipocket Creator and had no problems.

Is your book properly formatted? Is the cover in a suitable size? If you are including a Table of Contents, is it properly formatted?

Incorrect formatting can result in your error. A good place to go for answers is the KDP Formatting forum.

Brian January
http://amzn.com/B005WM0HN6

That is good to hear, Brian! Thanks! And the KDP Forum is a good resource, as you mention.
I get the impression that a table of contents isn't necessary for straight fiction (unless you want to get "fancy"). True/false?

brianjanuary · Nov 21, 2011

There are a number of discussions on the forum about the inclusion of the TOC for fiction. The general consensus seems to be that if you have a detailed chapter description TOC (like chapter titles or locations), then it's a good marketing tool for potential buyers, but if you just have "Chapter One", "Chapter Two", etc., then there's no useful point to it, except to make it easier for readers to scroll directly to the start of a chapter. But it's already pretty easy to navigate through a Kindle and the TOC causes a lot of people upload problems, so it's up to you.

I hope it works for you!

Brian January
http://amzn.com/B005WM0HN6
http://amzn.com/B006QCZF3S

JWNelson · Nov 21, 2011

Thanks for the tips, Brian!

brianjanuary said:
There are a number of discussions on the forum about the inclusion of the TOC for fiction. The general consensus seems to be that if you have a detailed chapter description TOC (like chapter titles or locations), then it's a good marketing tool for potential buyers, but if you just have "Chapter One", "Chapter Two", etc., then there's no useful point to it, except to make it easier for readers to scroll directly to the start of a chapter. But it's already pretty easy to navigate through a Kindle and the TOC causes a lot of people upload problems, so it's up to you.

I hope it works for you!

Brian January
http://amzn.com/B005WM0HN6

Jason E Thummel · Nov 21, 2011

It might also be worth a mention that you can make a ToC with hyperlinks within the book, so that the reader can jump straight to the About the Author section, or Other Works by the Author section, if you've included those.

So even if your chapters are only numbered, there might be other considerations with regard to going to the trouble of creating a ToC.

Just a thought, and good luck.

JWNelson · Nov 21, 2011

Jason E Thummel said:
It might also be worth a mention that you can make a ToC with hyperlinks within the book, so that the reader can jump straight to the About the Author section, or Other Works by the Author section, if you've included those.

So even if your chapters are only numbered, there might be other considerations with regard to going to the trouble of creating a ToC.

Just a thought, and good luck.

Thanks for that suggestion! I am going to have to re-read the Smashwords section on how to get the MS Word doc TOC properly configured.

incognito · Nov 22, 2011

I sent an email to Amazon about this - they replied!:

"I'm sorry for the trouble you had while trying to upload your book file. Our technical team is aware of this problem and are working hard to fix it as soon as possible.

Thanks for your patience while we fix this problem."

No idea what the technical problem is, but it seems to be their end. Weird that others weren't effected when I was.

JWNelson · Nov 22, 2011

vlindahl said:
HTML did not work well for me, so I converted it to epub using a program called Sigil, and mobi using a program called Calibre. The final formatting on Amazon was spot on, exactly like what I saw at home. Active TOC and everything.

These programs are free, but I kicked a donation to each of them because they work so well.

Thanks for the tip!

incognito · Nov 23, 2011

Another update on this. I replied to Amazon after a couple of days still without no joy. I was starting to wonder if they had just fobbed me off with a standard reply, as it seemed no one else was having trouble. They now say:
[FONT=&quot]"[/FONT]I'm very sorry for any frustration this issue has caused. We'll need a little time to look into the trouble that you are having while trying to upload your book file. We will contact you with more information by the end of the day on Tuesday, November 29.
Thanks for your patience."

The plot thickens! At least it seems there is a genuine problem that genuine experts are genuinely looking into.

(yes, I use Calibre to convert to other formats after creating an HTML. It's a good program)

merrihiatt · Nov 23, 2011

Sorry you are having trouble. I uploaded a file last night and it seemed to go through without a hitch. I use Word, convert to HTML and then use Mobi Pocket. That's the format I've done with each of my books and it has seemed to work well. Hope the glitch gets fixed soon. Frustrating not to be able to get your book uploaded and have to wait even longer for an answer as to why.

Sherrie Cronin · Feb 20, 2012

Uploaded one yesterday and it went without a hitch -- and then I had to re-upload it this morning because of a dumb mistake and it went fine again. The only issue is that my imbedded images did not go with my text. I suspect that is user error, not a kindle issue, as this is my first time doing this.

merrihiatt · Feb 20, 2012

Sherrie, did you cut/paste your images or did you insert them into your document? Cut/paste doesn't work.

Norman D Gutter · Mar 25, 2012

brianjanuary said:
I used the Mobipocket Creator and had no problems.

The last three things I uploaded to Kindle I used the Mobipocket Creator, all with no problems.

Tonight I uploaded a long novel. After saving it as filtered html, I saw that they say that file can be uploaded. So that's what I did. It loaded fine, and should appear for sale sometime tomorrow morning.

Problems uploading books to Kindle this weekend

incognito

Irysangel

She of Many Names

JWNelson

JWNelson

incognito

JWNelson

JWNelson

vlindahl

Write like mad, edit like hell.

JWNelson

JWNelson

brianjanuary

JWNelson

JWNelson

brianjanuary

JWNelson

JWNelson

Jason E Thummel

JWNelson

JWNelson

incognito

JWNelson

JWNelson

incognito

merrihiatt

Writing! Writing! Writing!

Sherrie Cronin

imagining doing the impossible

merrihiatt

Writing! Writing! Writing!

Norman D Gutter

Engineer Sonneteer