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carlangel
carlangel
Known Participant
June 22, 2020
Question

Conflict with InDesign > Kindle Previewer > Look Inside Feature

  • June 22, 2020
  • 2 replies
  • 698 views

I have a book that was done in InDesign and formatted through Kindle Previewer for Amazon.

 

Has anyone had any experience with conflicts between the way the ebook looks on Kindle Previewer and the way it looks on the "Look Inside" feature? I have an angry client whose book looks horrible when viewing the ebook through their "Look Inside" function.

 

Looks fine on Kindle Previewer on my mac, so I thought it was fine format-wise. Is it an Indesign thing, a Kindle Previewer app thing, or an Amazon thing? I would like to know if anyone has had experience with this and how they resolved it.

 

Trying to assuage both our frustrations. Thanks, folks.

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2 replies

ianb83149437
ianb83149437
Participant
July 4, 2020

I was just looking for an answer to a very similar problem when I came across your post.

I've just published my first book through KDP. Looked good in Kindle Previewer, looked good in the KDP Previewer and looked good once it had gone live in 'Look Inside'. Two days later though and what I see in 'Look Inside' is as if the book has lost its style sheet. Not yet sure what the downloaded book looks like.

Derek Cross
Community Expert
Derek CrossCommunity Expert
Community Expert
June 23, 2020

A few questions:

Which version of InDesign and OS?

Is this FXL ePub or Reflowable ePub?

Did you use the Kindle Previewer to convert your ePub to mobi?

Have you Validated your ePub successfully?

Which devices and readers have you tested the mobi on?

Isn't the "Look Inside" feature implemented by Amazon?

 

carlangel
carlangelAuthor
Known Participant
June 23, 2020

Hi Derek,

Nice to make your acquaintance again. 

- InDesign 15.0.3 (however, the book was completed about a month ago), mac OS Catalina 10.15.5

- It's a Reflowable ePub

- I did use Kindle Previewer to convert it to .mobi (in addition to checking out how it looks on Books, Calibre and Adobe Digital Editions)

- I tested and validated each chapter as well as the whole compiled exported book

Yes, the Look Inside feature is Amazon's. I was consulting our peers on the ePrdctn Facebook forum and the general consensus was that the Look Inside feature is basically horrible in translating whatever's given to them and that there's not much I can do about it. However, the client is also coming up on stylistic errors and inconsistencies when reading his kindle book on Amazon's cloud reader.The book has tables where the text shrinks dramatically inside the cells, as well as bizarre styling and justification issues that aren't in my layout. Pretty much everything is attached to style sheets so I don't understand why some elements are okay and others not. I also mentioned that to the FB forum and was told that Amazon's cloud reader is horrible as well, but I'm trying to see what I can do on my end to make the export as least problematic as possible. Any insight or advice is appreciated.

Thanks, Derek.

carlangel
carlangelAuthor
Known Participant
June 23, 2020

I mean, it's already up on Amazon, but after this mess, I'm probably going to have to redo a new epub layout for another iteration.

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