Fixing Typos in Your Uploaded Amazon E-Books
Another question I get a lot is how to edit our existing ebooks in order to correct small mistakes. (Another reason you might want to download an already-published ebook is to update the back matter with links to new releases.)
While I enjoy paginating my own print editions, I prefer to have someone else create my ebooks. There are little things that can go wrong with ebook creation that causes issues for readers on older devices. I swear by the folks at Polgarus Studio. You get perfect .epub and .mobi files without paying an arm and a leg.
But sometimes you just need to make a small fix to an existing file. For this tutorial, I started with an email from Amazon notifying me of errors in one of my ebooks. I then show you how to download that ebook file, convert it to an .epub with Calibre (download here), and then edit it with Sigil (download here).
Both programs are free. Donate to the developers if you can!
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If you are dealing with Amazon KDP, you can fix typos directly in the HTML version of your ebook. This might seem a little daunting for some folks, but it's actually pretty easy for fixing a simple typo or two. And you don't need any tools or software other than what is already on your system. First, download your ebook from Amazon KDP as an HTML file. Then you can open the HTML file in notepad (in Windows, or whatever the Mac text editor is -- DON'T use any word-processing program!), search for your typo, fix it, and save the file, preserving the html extension. Then just upload the corrected HTML file to KDP.
Yes, if you are not used to looking at HTML code, you will see a lot of junk. Don't let it bother you. Just use the search function to find the words you want to correct and leave all the funny looking code alone.
Also, before you re-upload the corrected file, you can view it in any web browser to verify you fixed what you wanted to fix and didn't screw anything up. If the file looks OK in a browser, it will convert OK on Amazon.
Note: If you want to fix or update the links in your ebook, you'll have to know some HTML to use this method. If you don't know any HTML, or if you need an epub file, stick with Hugh's method.
Or if you use Word you could edit your file and upload it again.
Speaking of editing, I wondered if you had seen https://graemereynolds.wordpress.com/... with regard to Amazon's grammatical requirements. I'd enjoy hearing your thoughts on it.
Hugh, I too use Polgarus Studio, but for Print too--I tried formating my first book and considered using many acts of violence on my computer. Now, I happily let Jason handle everything. Anyway, as part of the agreement, you can submit so many corrections (forget how many) to them and they will update all the files: print, .mobi, & .epub for free. One more reason to love them.MLB
Dawn Lee