Must you use epub for ibooks and mobi for kindle

You want your Kindle book to have reflowable text as more devices will accept it, in which case it must be MOBI. But you can upload it as html or .doc.

ajenery said:

Okay, many thanks for your help Thing is, I use openoffice writer to create original works which only allows you to export to pdf by default (unless you download OO extensions which I don't really want to do) and the resulting pdfs look exactly how I want them to look, so I want my ebooks to have the same formatting as the pdfs. So if both iBooks and amazon compatible devices can open/read pdfs (which they can), why can't one just stick with pdfs?

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Because .PDFs aren't resized to fit the various screens. So someone like me, who's visually disabled, can't make the text larger.

Also: .PDFs convert poorly to ebook file formats because most people don't know what they're doing when they typeset. They use tabs for paragraph indents. They have extra returns. They don't know how to set em-dashes and quotation marks. They don't format chapter openings correctly. They don't set ellipses correctly. They don't know about the invisible characters set by word processors.

Seriously, use .doc to autoconvert if you must autoconvert.

And because people using an iPad or Kindle to buy your book via the Apple's store or Amazon won't be able to buy it directly. They'll have to use a computer and then transfer the file.

ajenery said:

Okay, many thanks for your help Thing is, I use openoffice writer to create original works which only allows you to export to pdf by default (unless you download OO extensions which I don't really want to do) and the resulting pdfs look exactly how I want them to look, so I want my ebooks to have the same formatting as the pdfs. So if both iBooks and amazon compatible devices can open/read pdfs (which they can), why can't one just stick with pdfs?

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You can't really think of ebooks as something with a fixed layout. The whole point of them is to have scalable (and changeable) fonts and text flow. ePub and mobi both handle this differently.

Personally, I hate reading pdfs on an ereader, and I avoid it whenever possible.

As for the "required" formats for iBooks and Amazon - having not read their TOS for authors, I can't say, but I suspect you're stuck there. I know there are services (like Smashwords) that can help you with the conversions; try the self-pub forum for a definitive list.

ajenery said:

the resulting pdfs look exactly how I want them to look, so I want my ebooks to have the same formatting as the pdfs. So if both iBooks and amazon compatible devices can open/read pdfs (which they can), why can't one just stick with pdfs?

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Because people read their iBooks and Kindle content on screens of many different sizes, in a great variety of environments and constraints, and providing a pdf gives you absolutely no idea what the file will look like on their screens or how readable it will be for your readers. (Typically, a pdf will look like shit, and probably like shit of an entirely inappropriate size.) Trying to read a pdf on a Kindle is an exercise in frustration and rage! And really, the point of ebooks is to make your text accessible to your readers in a way that THEY control. If you want to control the appearance of your work, stick to print.

Pdf ebooks? Just, don't.

To create ebooks in appropriate formats, just download Calibre (it's free!) and go to town.

ajenery said:

Yea, I see. I guess I was guilty of thinking exactly like that - I wanted my ebooks to be fixed like the e-equivalent of a physical book. BTW, I googled 'pdf page on kindle' and 'pdf page on ipad' and looked at 'images' and some of the examples were okay to me. Why do you hate reading pdfs on an ereader? Is that just being pc? Obviously if the pdf is say A5 or A4 then there would be problems, but A6 would fit kindle for instance. Dunno.

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Many people, me included, read using the Kindle app on a phone screen, which is smaller than the size of a page in a paperback book. Having to resize every page and drag the PDF page around the screen to be able to see it is unbelievably frustrating. Like Liz, I pretty much won't even read PDF copies of books anymore.

Anna Iguana said:

Many people, me included, read using the Kindle app on a phone screen, which is smaller than the size of a page in a paperback book. Having to resize every page and drag the PDF page around the screen to be able to see it is unbelievably frustrating. Like Liz, I pretty much won't even read PDF copies of books anymore.

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In addition to this, I often change fonts for readability. And I prefer light text on a dark background. I can't change these defaults for a PDF.

Most of the PDF books I have are technical books I read on my laptop. On my iPad, for recreation? Nope.

Yes, save as .doc -- rtf might work too.

rtf is a horrid format. I played around with it to convert a .doc file to EPUB but no luck.

I'm moving this to the self-publishing forum.

Note that there are a number of FAQs about making ebooks.

ajenery said:

But in OO or Word, etc, I can have the pages set to say A6 (which is about standard novel size) and so the pages in the pdf will be same size

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The issue isn't the pages in the pdf, but the screen display on your readers' devices. Phones don't do A6. Even the biggest modern phones & e-readers have tiny screens compared to a typical small-format book. You have absolutely no idea what a reader's individualized display preferences are -- and it shouldn't matter to you. If someone needs to enlarge the text to max size, or prefers light text on a dark screen, or extra-wide margins & line spacing, or a specific font, or likes to hold their screen in landscape mode, there ought to be nothing in your ebook that prevents them seeing it the way they find most readable. Your job is to provide the reader with text that flows and displays according to the software settings & user preferences -- whatever those are.

AW Admin's suggestions are generally good ones.

For Kindle, the kdp forums are a good resource. Anyone there will confirm that uploading as pdf is a mistake. If your .doc output doesn't make good use of styles you can either clean it up yourself or use liberwriter.com which is only $40 and includes permanent archiving of the manuscript.

If you upload your kindle in fixed format you can never change that listing back to reflowable. So resist the urge to "just try it out".

I have found that it is best to let go of micro-management with ebook formatting. You can get readers your words, you can’t necessarily get them your dropcaps.

True. The simpler the formatting, the better chance that it will readable across all devices.

To the OP: You don't need a .mobi for KDP. I upload the same validated ePub file to KDP and the other retailers, and it works just fine.

Al X. said:

rtf is a horrid format. I played around with it to convert a .doc file to EPUB but no luck.

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It depends how it was created. It's a perfectly valid format, but if you "saved as RTF" from Word, then yes, you'll get a lot of garbage.

Keep in mind the prime directive for any "pushbutton" conversion from one format to another: garbage in, garbage out.

In other words, make sure the source document is formatted as perfectly as possible before converting anything. For word processing software, that means strict use of paragraph styles for everything (no tabs or spaces for indents, no empty lines between paragraphs, etc.). I highly recommend reading the free Smashwords style guide, even if you don't plan to publish through them.

Also, if you publish through KDP, Draft2Digital, or Smashwords, you can upload a properly formatted .doc file directly.

Epubs can be read on desktop computers, for free, with Adobe Digital Editions. I'd stay away from MOBI; PC users almost always do not have software to read MOBI documents. To maximize interest, Epub. I'd do PDF for things like textbooks.

Enlightened said:

Epubs can be read on desktop computers, for free, with Adobe Digital Editions. I'd stay away from MOBI; PC users almost always do not have software to read MOBI documents. To maximize interest, Epub. I'd do PDF for things like textbooks.

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There's a free Kindle app for desktop use, so there's absolutely no problem if someone wants to read a mobi on a pc. There are also other apps (like Calibre) that can read mobi files but not necessarily Amazon's new proprietary version -- which if you're self-dubbing is not so much of an issue.

Also, keep in mind that a large majority of e-readers are Kindles.

You definitely DO want to make your books available in MOBI format.