Kindle changes formatting on tablets

[Anna]

Hi J,
Did you format it yourself? If so, my hat is way off to you! I attempted to format my first book but I encountered all sorts of odd issues like you mentioned.

I found Go Published who are very reasonable and make every book look perfect. I’m sure there are other formatters out there but I’ve used this one a lot and can’t beat the price. Hassle averted.

Best of luck,

Anna

[Karl]

Hi J.M.,
Contact AMAZON/Kindle. They will transfer you to the right department. Since you Self-published, this is the way to go.
Best of luck.

[David]

Hi J.M.,

I once formatted a book and it nearly drove me crazy. Fortunately someone in a discussion group recommended a software programme called Vellum to me. Ever since I have written all my books on the Vellum platform. One of the main reasons why I do this is because when you are ready to publish you simply click a button marked 'Generate' and Vellum automatically formats your book for all Ebook platforms (including Kindle, Kobo, Apple etc) and for print books.

You can import your books from Word directly into Vellum and it will format your book for you and create a Table of Contents.

The one drawback with Vellum is that it only works on Macs using MacOS software. However there are other similar products for Microsoft products. I have not tried any of these products so I cannot say how well they work. Just Google "writing software free."

[Joseph]

David wrote: "Hi J.M.,

I once formatted a book and it nearly drove me crazy. Fortunately someone in a discussion group recommended a software programme called Vellum to me. Ever since I have written all my book..."

I've heard of Vellum. Does anybody know of a Windows based product that does the same thing?

[Richard]

On Windows, I use Sigil for EPUB formatting and convert to MOBI format with Calibre as needed. They are both freely available. And may require some practice.

My general advice on formatting e-books is to keep things simple and don't try to be fancy.

http://sigil-ebook.com/
https://calibre-ebook.com/

[Joseph]

Richard wrote: "My general advice ... is to keep things simple and don't try to be fancy...."

Seems like great advice for writing in general. Thanks.

[Jess]

I am having a nightmare and a current argument with KDP over this very issue. I did everything as you're supossed to. Then when readers have downloaded the e-book there have been numerous formatting errors. The latest, which I saw yesterday, is that all the letter "f's" had been removed! Other very random issues are change of font and font size, letter and line spacing. So now I have reviews that are 2 out of 5 stars that are nothing to do with my book but the formatting.

I have ended up paying for the book to be formatted - but, of course, I can't remove the negative reviews :-( It's very disheartening and KDP say there's no issue.

I would strongly suggest you get it formatted by a professional to avoid these issues.

[Carole]

I couldn't agree more!

[Jeff]

I experienced a similar issue, that being formatting. This generated several negative reviews too. After getting the issue corrected, I replied to each of the reviews and thanked them for making me aware of the issue, and that it had now been corrected and that they were welcome to download a "fresh" copy. I've never had cause for any poor reviews since.