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Kindle Reader Format

Kindle Reader Format
Kindle Reader Format

Kindle Reader Format

The Kindle ebook reader reads .mobi, .doc, and PDF, but if you have an ebook in a format that it cannot read, you can send the file to an Amazon email address where it will be converted into the special Kindle reader format and be sent back to your email address. This is an excellent feature, but it would be better if the various routines to translate files into Kindle reader format were embedded in the ebook reader software itself.

There are basically two Kindle reading devices, the nine inch and the six inch versions, but they both use the same Kindle reader format, so there is no problem transferring files from one version of a Kindle to a newer model.

The actual Kindle reader format is irrelevant to the user and not even really relevant to the ebook writer, because, if an author uploads his or her ebook to Amazon, it will be automatically converted to Kindle reader format and if someone buys (or acquires) your ebook and the Kindle cannot read it, Amazon will convert it for you.

If you have written an ebook, it is easiest to write it using a Microsoft Word type program and then convert it to PDF (portable document format), which can be read by any computer or digital handheld book readers. PDF is a universal software format that was created by Adobe and that has been adopted as the industry standard.

You can convert MS Word documents into Adobe PDF files very easily using Open Office. Open Office is a free MS Office look-alike suite from Sun Micro Systems, which is at least as good as MS Office, but it also has a function for converting MS Word files into Adobe PDF files.

Amazon is quite happy to receive files in PDF format, so write your ebook in MS Word format, then convert it to Adobe PDF, if you like, and upload it to Amazon’s book store, but into your own account, of course, so that you get commission on sales initiated from your personal affiliate link.

Amazon will then convert the PDF file which is your ebook into their proprietary Kindle reader format. By the way, the Kindle reader format can be read by all the Kindle look alike ebook readers that have come onto the market since Amazon Kindle’s success.

One of the great things about the Kindle, and most other ebook readers really, is that they can read most ebook formats. It has to be like this because there are so many ebook formats due to the lack of an industry standard. This is not actually a new problem but goes back to the Seventies.

in the early days of ebooks, they were produced for very small niche markets, so the format was not a problem. Now that reading books on electronic reading devices is becoming more popular, the electronic publishing industry needs a standard.

This battle is not yet over, but it looks as if Adobe’s PDF and the Kindle reader format will have to get together.

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guest-written by Mary James

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