Help, please: A question about formatting for Kindle

[Patricia]

I have a new problem with the file for the book I'm currently writing for the Kindle. In the past, I could send the file, saved as a web page, to my Kindle and I would see what it would look like when offered in the Kindle Store. But now the font is tiny when I view it on my Kindle. I have to go to the biggest size to read it. The jump from the second to last size to the biggest size is quite a jump.

Changing the size of the font in the file does not help.

Is there a way to remove font formatting to let the reader choose the size and font style? The Paperwhite gives readers a choice of fonts and size but they're essentially meaningless with my files. I can't change the font when the file is on my Paperwhite, and there's the size problem I already mentioned.

Any help will be appreciated. I do not want to use a different word processor. I do not want to learn a lot of complicated (to me) formatting. I just want to be able to fix the font -- as simply as possible.

[Andre Jute]

The common method is known as the nuclear option because it fixes all problems, including those you don't yet know about.

Open your file. Select all the text. Copy all the text.

Paste all the text in plain text processor. (You can't just save it as plaintext out of Word; Word doesn't save real plaintext but carries the hidden formating with it...) Make plaintext if that is a separate step. Select all the plaintext. Copy all the plaintext.

In your word processor make a new, blank document. Paste into your new, blank document. Reformat the plaintext. If you work smart, it shouldn't take more than 20m for a whole novel.

[Patricia]

Since when have I ever worked smart?

What's a plain text processor? Only word processing program I have is Word.

[Andre Jute]

Patricia wrote: "Since when have I ever worked smart?"

So why did you have to leave the San Fernando?

Patricia wrote: " Only word processing program I have is Word."

Rubbish. There are any number of word processors sitting on your computer, straight out of the box. You just haven't found them.

Patricia wrote: "What's a plain text processor?"

If you have a Mac with OS X, the one that came with your computer is called TextEdit. If you have a Windows system, it is Notepad.

[Patricia]

Notepad it is. I don't think of that as a processor since it doesn't process anything. I'll give it a try, but when I paste the nuked text into a new doc, I'll still have to select a font/size, won't I? I don't want to be locked into one.

What's that about San Fernando? Remember, I'm a dull girl.

[Andre Jute]

You don't have to select anything. Word will select Normal for you. You send that up to KDP, and it selects Times New Roman for you at 10 point. Won't be fancy but it will be better than some of the "styling" the incompetents entertain us with daily. At least it will be consistent.

The San Fernando is a valley in southern California. It is also The Valley. When Jackie Susann clocked out, she was working on a sequel to The Valley of the Dolls called The Valley of the Bimbos. One guess where it was set.

[Patricia]

So no matter what font/size the Kindle owner chooses, the book will display in Times New Roman? Size 10 point when the book is opened?

My manuscript is already on "Normal" but I think I set what is normal. I work in Times New Roman, 12 point.

I'll nuke it and see if that helps. In my current file, for no reason I can figure out, the font changed to Helvetica in a few places in about a 16 to 18 point size. Sometimes I hate Word.

Valley of the Bimbos would have been a bestseller.

[Andre Jute]

Select the entire manuscript, apply the Normal style, and KDP will honour most of it, including the font size. Don't make body copy bigger than 12pt though, because it's unnecessary and irritating.

Valley of the Bimbos would probably have made a better movie than the book, too.

[Patricia]

Thanks, Andre.

[Andre Jute]

It's not good enough just to hate Word. That's actually the best of the programmes Microsoft bought in, though they've done their best to screw it up. I used versions of Word 5.x until the computers I used it on would recognize no other current software...

What you must do is to hate Microsoft and all its works, and Bill Gates, and that common bald shouting man who fronts for him, with all your heart and soul. Wax models with pins are not beyond the bound of decency, in this case at least.

[Patricia]

Remind me never to cross you, Andre.

[Andre Jute]

I'm just a harmless little old bespectacled intellectual.

[Patricia]

Riiiight.

I downloaded the KDP previewer software today and see that the Paperwhite is stubborn on the font size problem. Other Kindles have more gradual size changes in the upper realm.

[K.A.]

I suggest you try a software update to the paperwhite. There is a known bug in the Kindle software that does this. I thought it was taken care of by Amazon, but see if it helps.

Its worth a try before you drive yourself crazy thinking the fault is yours.

If you really hate Word there is always Scrivener - it will 'print' pub files and mobi files. Of course you'll have to learn it...but you can get a free 30 day trial to see if you like it or not.

[Patricia]

I have Scrivener but never "learned" it. I'm awfully lazy.

There haven't been any updates to the Paperwhite software yet. Looks to me like Amazon is too busy worrying about the hardware. Lots of returns for screen issues.

[Andre Jute]

I've had Scrivener for a long time. A film producer who was trying to persuade me to doctor a script bought me a copy 'cos it's his house word processor. After the recent round of unbridled passion for Scrivener from our Kat and other girlish enthusiasts, I tore the cellophane off and had a look. It has some nice features, intelligently applied, which I used for a fast first pass through the OCRed screenplay A CRIME OF INFLUENCE (currently only available in the omnibus THE TIME-LIFE CONSPIRACY) before handing it over to Lisa Penington of the Editorial Menagerie to knock into shape. Also, Scrivener significantly offers quality MOBI and EPUB output. On the downside, Scrivener expects you to work in "projects" made up of bits, or novels made up of separate chapters or parts or something. It presumes you're an idiot who sticks together random pieces of thisthatandtheother which somehow magically makes a novel. That's not how I work; I don't know any successful novelist who works that way. I don't need all these crutches. I just start the novel and then I finish it without referring to the research again, one single large file. I suspect that people who think they "need" Scrivener actually need instead to put their minds in gear. All the same, if they think Scrivener does something for them that Word expects them to do for themselves, perhaps that's one less distraction to getting on with the writing.

****

The best writing tool is having something to say. I wrote my first novel in hardback exercise books with faint-lined pages, with a Cross fountain pen my grandmother gave me for my 13th birthday.

[K.A.]

I like the fact I can use it as a database for all the bits of stories I've got hanging around as well as a way to sort Mom's 350 odd stories.

You don't have to chop up the documents.

[Patricia]

I'm still lost in trying to fix the font on some of my books. KDP support is now trying to figure it out. They had me send them some files, then told me it will take time for them to come up with an answer. I "think" I'm doing what Andre told me to do, but obviously something's not right and it seems to be with just the Paperwhite. I went into the "community" forum to look for guidance and the thread I found was totally over my head.

[Patricia]

KDP was no help. Everything they told me assumed that I had more computer know-how than I do to implement the guidance, thus it was completely foreign and lost on me. Maybe I should re-download Scrivener and see if I can figure it out this time. My last nerve is fried over this Paperwhite mess. Tried MobiPocket Creator and KenGen; couldn't make sense of either one. Have formatted and re-formatted roughly a zillion times with failures each time. Looks like I have to depend on a pro to do my formatting. I'm beaten down and sick to death of computers at the moment. I'm just gonna go hide for a while.

[Andre Jute]

I doubt a pro will do much better. Some failures are built into the system. I've given up worrying about them.

You can't win 'em all, so pick the battles you can win.