Anyone else published on Kindle?

[ALB2012]

So I have just published on Kindle but their forums seem inundated with people having various formatting issues. I did too which I have mostly fixed. However the forum users work around seems needlessly long winded and you need to know a good bit of HTML, which I don't.

I was wondering if anyone had any tips. I personally don't think its too bad and it wouldn't stop me buying a book unless it was awful but I know a good few people are whining. It seems every book I look at on kindle is different.

[zizban]

I used Smashwords and they made it dead easy to do Kindle stuff.

[ALB2012]

Thanks. I will look into that.

[Benjamin Clayborne]

I've published a couple of short stories on Kindle. I export from OpenOffice (LibreOffice, now) to HTML, and then use the html2mobi perl script to convert the file (after I run it through a vim macro to clean up some of the utterly horrifying HTML output that *Office generates). Haven't really had any problems.

Then again, my day job is as a web developer, and I run Linux on all my machines, so I may be slightly above the average when it comes to technical know-how

[Veronica]

There's a free guide for publishing to Kindle that I'd downloaded from Amazon before putting my first piece out there. Having gone through the Smashwords 'meatgrinder' with other works, I found the Kindle guidelines easier and more intuitive. The guide is "Building Your Book for Kindle," and while it references MS Word for the formatting, it should be easily translatable for the more tech-savvy who prefer other word processing programs.

[Steerpike]

I also exported to HTML from Libre Office, then just went through and manually removed all of the excess HTML tags and added a few of my own (for the cover, for example). Was simple.

[ALB2012]

I've published a couple of short stories on Kindle. I export from OpenOffice (LibreOffice, now) to HTML, and then use the html2mobi perl script to convert the file (after I run it through a vim macro to clean up some of the utterly horrifying HTML output that *Office generates). Haven't really had any problems.

Then again, my day job is as a web developer, and I run Linux on all my machines, so I may be slightly above the average when it comes to technical know-how

Ok I understood up until "I've published a couple of short stories on Kindle." Then my "someone talking about programming" reflex switched on ( I live with a man into all that). I get the impression if you know programming its fine, those of us mortals who don't speak computer have to muddle by

If I ever understand I will keep in mind your advice. I use Open office too. Buying Scrivener next week. i just assumed if they ahd an upload software it wouldn't muck it up.

[Telcontar]

What did you have to do to the LibreOffice HTML, Ben? I export to HTML and upload directly to KDP, and my books look fine. Never saw the need for an intermediate step.

[ALB2012]

I think it depends really. I see so many different formatting styles on kindle. After I fixed the weirdness it was ok. It isnt fully justifies as when I tried it looked damn strange. Going to leave it as it is for now and then upload again when I fiddle with it in scrivener for the printed copies

[Christopher Wright]

I use a program called Jutoh which allows me to take a single source and spit out LibreOffice, HTML, PDF, mobi, and eBook. I generate eBook for Nook/iTunes (and soon Kobo) and mobi for Kindle (Amazon will convert mobi to its latest format). Worked pretty well for my first book, we'll see how it works going forward.

Smashwords is a royal pain to work with. I hate that damn meatgrinder.