Kindle Direct Publishing recommends format incompatible with Kindle devices | Hacker News Reader

Kindle Direct Publishing recommends format incompatible with Kindle devices

stackingthebricks.com

4 pointsrmorey5 comments

> When I set up The Tiny MBA in Amazon, I used an official Amazon tool called “Kindle Create.” It’s promoted prominently right on the dashboard of the KDP portal.

> Further, I noticed an option in KDP to convert my beautifully designed PDF book files into a KPF file, one of the options that prepped the book for sale on the Kindle store.

> I found out that the KPF file that was created by Amazon’s own Kindle Create software will only be available on Kindle Fire devices and the Kindle App.

Yawn. Clickbaity drama.

So Kindle Direct Publishing supports formats that are supported by all kindle readers except some old hardware e-reader devices that don't support some capabilities.

And those formats are supported as one of many alternatives.

Is this supposed to be a problem?

The format doesn’t support the Kindle Paperwhite, Amazon’s flagship ereader...

You got it entirely backwards: software support document formats, not the other way around.

And no, Kindle Paperwhite is not Amazon's flagship e-reader. The first gen Paperwhite was released way back in 2012. I don't expect any company to add support for new doc formats for e-readers sold clearly a decade ago. The features specifically mentioned in the article were pinch and zoom, which as you might imagine are CPU and graphical-intensive and out of scope for BW readers designed to paginate through reflowable books.

I think the thrust of the article is: the author tried to follow standard KDP practices, using the recommended format and got burned because: 1) That format isn't support by (imo) the most important devices in the Kindle line. 2) There was no recourse to change the format after publication 3) There was no recourse to provided those that bought the book a refund

I'm not claiming serious malfeasance on Amazon's part, just bad documentation and publisher/customer experience

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