Whoo-hoo! (I think…:-)) I just published “Joel’s BookProgram: The Simple Secret to Writing a Book in 30 Days at 1 Hour a Day!” and “Every Man a Hero, Every Woman a Coach” (on marriage) to the Kindle. It wasn’t easy, but I got it done. I don’t know how well they will sell, but I am hopeful.
Amazon’s conversion process runs through a website you access through Amazon.com, by going to the Kindle page. Uploads are accepted in Word doc, html, and pdf, but will be converted to html. If you have ever used Word’s html output, you know that it is–to put it kindly–quirky.
I fought my way through the weird artifacts in Word output with “The Simple Secret.” But the more extensive formatting in “Every Man a Hero” just was too much for the process. I wound up saving it as plain text, then going back and doing the formatting in Word’s weird html editor, keeping it simple.
Remember, Kindle (as well as the Kindle reader on the iPhone) doesn’t have a fixed page width, so the html needs to accommodate that–just as it would within a browser.
If you have a book, there is no reason NOT to put it on Kindle! More discussion to come, especially when I can report some sales stats.
Meanwhile, I am greatly enjoying the free Kindle app on the iPhone. Have read several books, mostly in Starbucks, waiting in line, and in bathrooms. Addictive–and a danger to the wallet…:-)
Mr. Orr, Indeed, Word’s html output is atrocious. I was wondering if printing the Word file to PDF would have yielded better results?
Brian
Hi Joel! @ChristineRose also has a book on Kindle, but so far it appears she’s still continued to have more success with the tangible paper copy. How do you intend to market the Kindle format?
Simon
Good question, Simon. I frankly haven’t given it much thought. I think I will try a Tweet or two. I’ll post my results here.
Joel
Brian, I thought so too. But the PDF-to-html conversion was not smooth. Ultimately, going all the way back to plain text and adding simple formatting–mostly chapter headings–turned out to be most effective for me.
Joel