[Brad Andalman]

Someone I know got the email below from Amazon and is of course very scared. Has anyone gotten this? She had uploaded several other books formatted with Vellum before without any issues. A few people said that this is KDP response because of page flip and to just ignore the message. I would like to know if anyone got this, what did they do, if anything and what's Vellum position on this. Thank you.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Error Category: Formatting-Others; Comments: We noticed that your eBook which is currently in high demand with the customers is not enabled with enhanced typesetting.

Issue: The Epub file consists of tag/property "Mobi media query" which is not currently supported in Enhanced Typesetting conversion.
Issue location: The tag/property is present in CSS file inside the Epub.
Associated Class: The media query is used in all classes in CSS file media.css.
Proposed Solution: The Mobi media query is used to give particular properties to non-kindle devices. These media queries are not supported in Enhanced Typesetting conversion, hence remove the screen size properties from the media queries. This will enable the title with Enhanced Typesetting features.

This will not affect the availability of your book. After you've made the correction, please upload your revised content through the Book Content section of your KDP Bookshelf. If you have further questions, please reply directly to this email and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.
For more information about specific book errors (including why some errors are more critical than others), see our Help page: https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A1MMQ0JHRBEINX

For a complete guide to building a book for Kindle, see the Kindle Publishing Guidelines: https://kindlegen.s3.amazonaws.com/AmazonKindlePublishingGu…

Thanks for using Amazon KDP.

This message is a relatively new, and needlessly scary, form response sent whenever Amazon fails to apply their "Enhanced Typesetting" to a title.

As the message states, the book's availability isn't affected. It just means that Amazon's Enhanced Typesetting feature won't be enabled for that book.

 

[Gone 9/21/18]

Is enhanced typesetting anything except the weird hyphenation? Or is that even part of it?

 

[LeeMountford]

Can anyone give any guidance on what the best size is for print out of the options given in Vellum Press? I'm going to be producing a paperback through Createspace soon (hopefully), so just wondered what the best size is for this?

Apologies if this has been asked earlier.

 

[Gessert Books]

Is enhanced typesetting anything except the weird hyphenation? Or is that even part of it?

Enhanced typesetting mainly refers to hyphenation, but it appears along with other KFX features like Page Flip.

 

[WDR]

Can anyone give any guidance on what the best size is for print out of the options given in Vellum Press? I'm going to be producing a paperback through Createspace soon (hopefully), so just wondered what the best size is for this?

Apologies if this has been asked earlier.

This is going to sound awfully vague: it depends.

Industry standard for print is Garamond 11.5 in a US Trade 6x9. If you are going to be printing to a smaller format, then you will want to consider using a smaller font size to keep the page counts down.

If your book is fairly long, 140K+ words, then you might want to avoid the smaller paperback formats, because that would push up the page counts so high that the book could be many inches thick. That would be uncomfortable to hold while reading. To balance that, you could push the font size so small, that it would be straining to the eyes to read it.

Set a format size and font size, then generate the PDF and look at how many pages it is. Next, look up the paper thickness used to print your book and multiply that by the number of pages-cut that number in half and that should be the thickness of your book. (Half because each piece of paper has two pages on it.) If it is too thick, drop the font size or move up to the next size book format.

It's a balancing act. Book size, font size, font face, margins, gutter-all these come into play when formatting a book for print. Go and grab a few of your favorite books and hold them. Determine which ones feel the most comfortable and try to target that size.

 

[Word Fan]

Industry standard for print is Garamond 11.5 in a US Trade 6x9.

I don't know where in the world you came up with that nonsense but let me state this plainly for the Original Poster:

THERE IS NO ABSOLUTE INDUSTRY STANDARD FOR TRADE PAPERBACKS.

Did you get that WDR?

Don't believe it? Take a ruler to any decent-sized bookstore that has bunches of trade paperbacks and actually measure them. Then look inside a bunch of them and compare typefaces.

THERE IS NO ABSOLUTE INDUSTRY STANDARD FOR TRADE PAPERBACKS.

There is a often-used range of book sizes and Vellum gives you a few of them from which to choose. There is even less commonality among typefaces and line lengths and margin sizes. Those are adjusted as desired by the publisher to result in a page length that fits the book's budget. If the number of pages is a bit short, there is even a thing called "loft" that can be specified in the type of paper used in the book so the book will end up being of an acceptable thickness without being overly heavy.

So, to the O.P.: there is no "best" size. You have to adjust the options to fit your own desires. Generally that means the number of pages, since that's what affects the cost of the book.

 

[WDR]

I don't know where in the world you came up with that nonsense but let me state this plainly for the Original Poster:

THERE IS NO ABSOLUTE INDUSTRY STANDARD FOR TRADE PAPERBACKS.

Talk to an actual book manufacturer. Not a "printer", but a manufacturer. The guys who do the printing for the Big-5 and most small publishing houses. King Printing, Lowell, Massachusetts.

Garamond 11.5 is their standard choice, and then they adjust from there depending on format, pages, etc. That's where I get the numbers from. As I said in my post, you have to adjust depending on format, pages, font face choices, etc.

 

[Used To Be BH]

I'll have to agree that it's a question of trial and error. I wouldn't under any circumstances go lower than 11 point. (I wish Vellum gave the point sizes, instead of just unlabeled spots on a continuum.)

I also wish Vellum would allow some control over outside and bottom margins. The bottom in particular, if one isn't putting page numbers down there, could be set somewhat smaller and still look good.

We can manipulate the inside margin, but that's really driven more by the length of the book than anything else, and making it too small would be a big mistake. (I find I need to add a little to the CS specs to avoid having text too close to the gutter.

By the way, Vellum 2.0.3 appears to have a little glitch with smaller point sizes and line spacing. I was doing some experimenting and discovered that going down a couple of notches on each throws off spread balancing (making the facing pages have the same number of lines by subtly altering line spacing after correcting widows). I've reported the issue, and it will doubtless be fixed soon, but it's worth noting right now as something you need to watch for. The problem doesn't occur with the defaults.

 

[LeeMountford]

Thanks for the advice everyone! Looks like this is something I will have to play around with.

 

[Used To Be BH]

I measured 50 fiction trade paperbacks (from traditional publishers, not Createspace) while watching the World Series of Poker Final Table.

Here are the actual trim sizes and the count for each size. Note that the most common size by far is 5.5 x 8.2. There were only two 6 x 9 and one of those was 778 pages.

5.0 x 7.7 1
5.0 x 7.8 1
5.0 x 8.0 1
5.1 x 7.8 1
5.1 x 7.9 2
5.1 x 8.0 1
5.1 x 8.3 1
5.2 x 8.0 5
5.2 x 8.3 1
5.3 x 8.0 5
5.3 x 8.2 2
5.3 x 8.3 1
5.4 x 8.2 1
5.4 x 8.3 2
5.4 x 8.5 1
5.5 x 8.1 1
5.5 x 8.2 17
5.5 x 8.4 2
5.5 x 8.5 1
5.6 x 8.9 1
6.0 x 9.0 2

I'm enough of a bibliophile to think that might not be a representative same. My collection has grown fairly large over the years (7,000 or so titles the last time I counted--yes, I'm eccentric), and eventually I started shelving by size to maximize storage space. Because of that, I know that 6 X 9 is the single most common size in my collection. That said, some of those are hardbacks, so it's possible the average for paperbacks alone is a little smaller. (I assume we're talking trade paperback. Mass market ones are definitely smaller, but that format works well only for relatively short books. Otherwise, they get too thick.)

When reorganizing, I have to measure to be sure, though, as most of the sizes close to 6 X 9 aren't that easy to tell apart visually. This would suggest to me that the average consumer isn't going to care. That being the case, I'd go with 6 X 9 over the slightly smaller sizes simply because it lowers production costs. An author could go with one of the smaller sizes if he or she preferred, though, because, as I've said, the difference isn't that visible.

This is the kind of issue authors stress over that readers don't really care about.

 

[Gone 9/21/18]

The first books I did, I chose a smaller size, thinking they would be more like "real" paperbacks. Then I had a 138,000-word novel and did it in 6 x 9, and found I liked it better. The larger size made for a longer line length, which made formatting without large gaps between words easier. It's the size of a hard cover, not a paperback, but then none of the Create Space sizes are really like a conventional paperback.

Create Space claims 6 x 9 is it's most popular size, for what that's worth.

As for readers, I doubt whether anyone who purchases worries about size before making the purchase. Once they get it, I bet the story is more important than the size.

 

[CandyCromwell]

Question on spacing/justification/some other typesetting word I don't know? Although I'm referring only to ebooks right now.

I previously wrote one book with Vellum, last year, and the book was originally written in Pages on Mac (I don't recall specifically but I must have 'saved as' doc to import it into Vellum). I don't remember having the problem I'm having now on my new novel, which is that when previewing in various modes (both as Vellum emulating various devices, and in iBooks or kindle apps on my iOS devices), I occasionally spot sentences where    very    awkward    spacing  like    this  is used to make a line fit, even when one of the leading or trailing words on an adjacent line is very short (would have fit in the spaced-out line) AND the sentence is ending a graph.

The main difference on this novel vs the last one is that it's been written mostly in Word 2016. Have I inadvertently changed or set some setting that's adding formatting to cause this? I've tried turning off Word's full justification on some of the affected paragraphs, although I haven't tried turning it off for the whole document.

I can provide screenshots if that would help, but something tells me I've just made some common error (this is only my second novel, and I don't have a lot of current-day word processing knowledge).

P.S., love that re-import has been added back.

 

[LeonardDHilleyII]

Am I right in thinking the option to pay per ebook has now gone, and you need to buy the full product?

Yes, but it's worth every penny.

 

[Used To Be BH]

Question on spacing/justification/some other typesetting word I don't know? Although I'm referring only to ebooks right now.

I previously wrote one book with Vellum, last year, and the book was originally written in Pages on Mac (I don't recall specifically but I must have 'saved as' doc to import it into Vellum). I don't remember having the problem I'm having now on my new novel, which is that when previewing in various modes (both as Vellum emulating various devices, and in iBooks or kindle apps on my iOS devices), I occasionally spot sentences where very awkward spacing like this is used to make a line fit, even when one of the leading or trailing words on an adjacent line is very short (would have fit in the spaced-out line) AND the sentence is ending a graph.

The main difference on this novel vs the last one is that it's been written mostly in Word 2016. Have I inadvertently changed or set some setting that's adding formatting to cause this? I've tried turning off Word's full justification on some of the affected paragraphs, although I haven't tried turning it off for the whole document.

I can provide screenshots if that would help, but something tells me I've just made some common error (this is only my second novel, and I don't have a lot of current-day word processing knowledge).

P.S., love that re-import has been added back.

I'd get tech support from the Vellum folks. They're very good about helping out and could probably identify the issue faster than any of us.

That said, sometimes the effect you describe is caused by extra spaces in the source material. Go back to the Word document with "view nonprinting characters" turned on. (In recent versions, that's the Home Tab, Paragraph Section, icon that looks like a paragraph break symbol on the far right of the section. It should have a gray border if it's turned on.) Anyway, go to the sections that were problematic in the Vellum version and check for things like extra spaces and manual line breaks, both of which could cause odd results in justification.

You can also try uploading the Word file to Amazon and seeing what the mobi conversion on the Word file looks like. If it previews with the same justification issues, you know it's a Word issue. If the problem disappears, it's more like a Vellum issue.

 

[JDMatheny]

Yes, but it's worth every penny.

I pulled the trigger and picked up a used Mac and purchased Vellum. Loving it so far!

 

[WDR]

I'd get tech support from the Vellum folks. They're very good about helping out and could probably identify the issue faster than any of us.

That said, sometimes the effect you describe is caused by extra spaces in the source material. Go back to the Word document with "view nonprinting characters" turned on. (In recent versions, that's the Home Tab, Paragraph Section, icon that looks like a paragraph break symbol on the far right of the section. It should have a gray border if it's turned on.) Anyway, go to the sections that were problematic in the Vellum version and check for things like extra spaces and manual line breaks, both of which could cause odd results in justification.

You can also try uploading the Word file to Amazon and seeing what the mobi conversion on the Word file looks like. If it previews with the same justification issues, you know it's a Word issue. If the problem disappears, it's more like a Vellum issue.

Good point: one of my foundation editing habits is to do a search-and-destroy (aka "Find-and-Replace") on double-spaces in my manuscripts. They get created inadvertently when I cut-and-paste a section or delete something in the middle of a phrase. Even when I think I am being careful, it is amazing how many of these artifacts can creep into the manuscript over time.

 

[CandyCromwell]

I'd get tech support from the Vellum folks. They're very good about helping out and could probably identify the issue faster than any of us.

That said, sometimes the effect you describe is caused by extra spaces in the source material. Go back to the Word document with "view nonprinting characters" turned on. (In recent versions, that's the Home Tab, Paragraph Section, icon that looks like a paragraph break symbol on the far right of the section. It should have a gray border if it's turned on.) Anyway, go to the sections that were problematic in the Vellum version and check for things like extra spaces and manual line breaks, both of which could cause odd results in justification.

You can also try uploading the Word file to Amazon and seeing what the mobi conversion on the Word file looks like. If it previews with the same justification issues, you know it's a Word issue. If the problem disappears, it's more like a Vellum issue.

Yep, I see the extra/unneeded markup in the source now, and removing it straightens out the justification when I reimport. Now to see if I can bulk fix it somehow, as there's a fair bit.

Thank you for the step-by-step instructions on revealing that stuff.

 

[SunshineOnMe]

Is there anyone here also interested in large print books? Currently, Vellum doesn't offer this, and I was just curious how others handled it?

 

[CandyCromwell]

Question on spacing/justification/some other typesetting word I don't know? Although I'm referring only to ebooks right now.

I previously wrote one book with Vellum, last year, and the book was originally written in Pages on Mac (I don't recall specifically but I must have 'saved as' doc to import it into Vellum). I don't remember having the problem I'm having now on my new novel, which is that when previewing in various modes (both as Vellum emulating various devices, and in iBooks or kindle apps on my iOS devices), I occasionally spot sentences where very awkward spacing like this is used to make a line fit, even when one of the leading or trailing words on an adjacent line is very short (would have fit in the spaced-out line) AND the sentence is ending a graph.

The main difference on this novel vs the last one is that it's been written mostly in Word 2016. Have I inadvertently changed or set some setting that's adding formatting to cause this? I've tried turning off Word's full justification on some of the affected paragraphs, although I haven't tried turning it off for the whole document.

I can provide screenshots if that would help, but something tells me I've just made some common error (this is only my second novel, and I don't have a lot of current-day word processing knowledge).

P.S., love that re-import has been added back.

Quoting myself for posterity's sake:

After Bill Hiatt pointed me in the direction of Word's underlying code, I think I identified the main problem. It wasn't double spaces, but I think an artifact of me sometimes selecting the spaces on either side of a word of phrase when I italicized it. The italicized spaces seem to be coded differently from normal spaces (they show a different little character). Word for Windows wouldn't let me easily copy/paste that kind of space into a Find and replace, it just found normal spaces when I tried. However, Word for Mac recognized the difference between an italicized space and a normal one, and thus I was able to find and replace them all with normal spaces. This seems to have knocked out the problem, although I'm still proofing.

 

[NoLongerPosting]

Removed due to site owner's change to TOS.