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Do You Make eBooks With Kindle Textbook Creator?

4878469142_5756fe1377_bIf you know anything about Amazon’s textbook creation app, please get in touch. In particular, if you have made an ebook with KTC, or can point me at one I can buy, or if you’ve taken one of these files apart, I would like to hear from you.

I have a bunch of questions ranging from how easy the tool is to use, to what devices the ebooks work on. I also want to find out what exactly is in the files.

Any accounts of or links to first hand experiences would be deeply appreciated, because all I know right now are the basics that Amazon announced when the KTC was released in February and updated in April.

Thanks!

image  by andymangold

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Comments


Rob Siders August 31, 2015 um 7:11 am

Why not just make one using sample/dummy content?

Nate Hoffelder August 31, 2015 um 7:15 am

That’s probably what I am going to do, but I also want to connect with technical experts (here’s one which i found via Twitter)

Nate Hoffelder August 31, 2015 um 7:56 am

On a related note, R Scot Johns is another technical expert in this area (although some of the details he gave me were wrong),


R. Scot Johns August 31, 2015 um 9:18 am

Which part?

Nate Hoffelder August 31, 2015 um 10:23 am

It was your dismissal of the older KPR format as being different from the KPF file made by Kindle Textbook Creator.

The link I posted above shows that the KPF file becomes a KPR file when it is sold in the Kindle Store. Chris’s post suggests that one file is a precursor for the other, making them directly related. (In fact, at this point I would bet that KPF stands for Kindle Project File.)


Roger August 31, 2015 um 10:08 am

We have written and published several books on the game of English Billiards. Since these contain many shot diagrams, placed to align with the relevant text, we thought it would be a perfect fit for KTC publication. I had previously spent time evaluating various other e-book approaches but nothing came close to what I wanted…..and nothing else was this easy to produce!

The first book we’ve published this way is "The Snooker Player’s Guide to English Billiards"

Nate Hoffelder August 31, 2015 um 10:23 am

Thanks, Roger!


R. Scot Johns August 31, 2015 um 11:51 am

No, Nate, what I said was that the four year old KPR file you pointed me to had no bearing on what I am able to do with KPF test files I produce today using KTC. Any other files are irrelevant for practical testing purposes.

Nate Hoffelder September 5, 2015 um 4:44 pm

We must be talking past each other Scot, because I see that older file as very relevant.

When it is uploaded to the Kindle Store, the test file you create becomes the same format as the older file. That is the more important detail, IMO.

The intermediate project file format matters less to me than the file format that Amazon sells to consumer. It’s like an InDesign project file from which is made Epub and Kindle ebook files. The latter are important, not the InDesign project file.


R. Scot Johns September 14, 2015 um 9:05 am

Then you don’t understand the testing process at all.


Andy May 26, 2016 um 6:56 am

I’ve just given the tool a go and it looks great. However, the previewer seems rather primitive. I *REALLY* need to see the file on an actual device to know how it’s going to perform. I’d also like to show off sample work to clients. I don’t see any equivalent to "send to Kindle" for the KPF format. So how do we developers test these files for real?

This could be a real boon for developing the occasional super-complex titles that we get from time to time.


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