Uploading a Book to Amazon with Images

Hopefully someone smarter than me (which is everyone) can answer this, but I believe in order for the pictures to be right it has to be a .zip file. I just don't know how to make one of those. Maybe on the KDP boards community there are some answers.

Send your files to Jason Anderson http://www.jasonga.com/ebook-formatting. He will send you a perfect file, do it quickly, and charge a reasonable fee.

Unless you can format quickly and correctly, there's no good reason to bother with this yourself. It's not worth the time and misery.

Jill James said:

Hopefully someone smarter than me (which is everyone) can answer this, but I believe in order for the pictures to be right it has to be a .zip file. I just don't know how to make one of those. Maybe on the KDP boards community there are some answers.

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To create .zips you need to use a compression program, like WinZip. I assume the requiring a .zip file is to keep the file size down.

I appreciate the replies. I don't think you fully understand what my problem is (which is probably my fault for not explaining it).

I don't need the book formatted. The book is formatted correctly.

I saved the book in HTML format. I then zipped up the HTML file with the image files and uploaded it. However, there are some problems when I did this. Specifically, it seems to have turned lots of plain text into anchor links.

I used the same method to upload my previous book in HTML format and it was fine, so I suspect the problem is something to do with the zip file.

Jeff said:

Did you save your Word file as a web page, filtered?

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No it's unfiltered

Edit: think that was the problem!! Doh!

Kevin Muldoon said:

My latest book has images in it. I initially uploaded the book in Word format. It looks perfect when I download it on my iPad and kindle 3G, however the preview on Amazon.com is all messed up (no paragraphs, spacing etc).

For my first book, I uploaded the book in HTML and later kindle format in order to fix the preview. That worked. It doesn't seem to work with images. For some reason, I cannot get the book to look good when I upload in HTML or kindle format. I'm clearly not converting or uploading the file the right way.

Any tips on what the best way is to upload a book (created in Word) that has images.

Thanks.
Kevin

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I had all kinds of problems this past summer after the KF8 changes came about. These instructions helped me from another KBer....with a post at her website. She writes erotica (just warning) but she knows her stuff for formatting and getting it to look good on Kindle. I just used her instructions again for an update I had to do for my three novels for Amazon. Here's the post at her website with the instructions...
http://www.klerotica.com/?p=114

Jeff said:

Try saving it as filtered then zip it up with the images as your did before. I've uploaded dozens of books that way without any problems.

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That's exactly the way I uploaded the file. It does work, but the formatting of the book messes up when I do it that way.

Katherine Owen said:

I had all kinds of problems this past summer after the KF8 changes came about. These instructions helped me from another KBer....with a post at her website. She writes erotica (just warning) but she knows her stuff for formatting and getting it to look good on Kindle. I just used her instructions again for an update I had to do for my three novels for Amazon. Here's the post at her website with the instructions...
http://www.klerotica.com/?p=114

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I'll check that guide out. I'm not a big fan of Calibre but I'll give it a try.

Kevin Muldoon said:

That's exactly the way I uploaded the file. It does work, but the formatting of the book messes up when I do it that way.

I'll check that guide out. I'm not a big fan of Calibre but I'll give it a try.

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Well, yes...I used to do all my Mobi files in InDesign 5.0 but it got so messed up after the Zon made their changes and I couldn't get it to work. (Readers couldn't see the type on black background). Her instructions were exceptional. I reverted back to Word (less of a fan of that program), did the web filtered version save, and created both ePub and Mobi files with her instructions.

I go direct with Apple so the payoff is great because I pass ePub check every time before I upload. Now, I know images are tricky that may still be your hang up on the ePub side, but I do have images (small ones) at the back of my book in Mobi for Amazon and it turns out fine. Good luck!

I've been an idiot. Jeff was 100% right. I had save the html file as filtered first but when I saved my next version it was unfiltered...and that's where the problem was. The problem was, I didn't realise I had saved the HTML file in the wrong format the second time.

I appreciate you help Jeff & Katherine. No software necessary. Simply ensuring I saved the book filtered and then zipped it up with the images was all I needed to do.

I'm quite annoyed with myself for not noticing before.

Why not load to createspace first (as pdf) then have them publish to kdp? I would think that would preserve pictures an their page placement

CEMartin2 said:

Why not load to createspace first (as pdf) then have them publish to kdp? I would think that would preserve pictures an their page placement

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The formatting is perfect now. All I had to do was ensure it was saved as filtered and then upload the zip. Very very easy (once you know how haha).

CreateSpace is what I'm tackling next. Need to see if this is easy for me to do or if I should someone else. Onwards and upwards

Kevin Muldoon said:

The formatting is perfect now. All I had to do was ensure it was saved as filtered and then upload the zip. Very very easy (once you know how haha).

CreateSpace is what I'm tackling next. Need to see if this is easy for me to do or if I should someone else. Onwards and upwards

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If you can get your file uploaded with images, you'll do just fine with CreateSpace. The nice part about createspace is you can preview the
entire thing online and catch any glaring errors before ordering your proof copy. It's a great feeling to hold the physical
thing in your hand. Good luck!

R M Rowan said:

If you can get your file uploaded with images, you'll do just fine with CreateSpace. The nice part about createspace is you can preview the
entire thing online and catch any glaring errors before ordering your proof copy. It's a great feeling to hold the physical
thing in your hand. Good luck!

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Yeah I'm looking forward to it. thanks