Guide to Kindle Content Quality

Content published though Kindle Direct Publishing is held to the high standards customers have come to expect from Amazon. If readers tell us about a problem they’ve found in your book, we will make sure you know about it and point you in the right direction to get the problem fixed. 

The information listed here will help you understand the types of quality issues we see most frequently, and will give you an idea of what you should be paying close attention to when building your book. 

Typos Table ErrorsUnsupported CharactersDuplicated TextCover Issues Missing ContentImage Quality Wrong ContentFormatting Content Unsuited for Reading on KindleLinks

Identifying Errors 

It is very important to search your book for errors before uploading the original file or prior to uploading a new file after fixing problems post-publication. 

Some errors cause a book to be incomplete or unusable. We refer to these as Critical Issues. Because Critical Issues significantly impact the reading experience, any Critical Issue will result in the book being removed from sale until the correction is made. 

Reviewing Your Book 

When you review your book for quality issues, we highly recommend that you use Kindle Previewer. This free program will allow you to preview how your file will look on various Kindle devices and apps. If you are using Microsoft Word to build your book, be sure to check out the free Kindle book Building Your Book for Kindle (B007URVZJ6) for tips, tricks, and advice on formatting a successful book. 

Typos

Typos are among the most common quality issues customers report. In order to produce a high quality ebook, please do your best to ensure your book is free of typos. Typos may be caused by a variety of issues: mistyped words, poor optical character recognition for scanned texts, copy/pasting across source documents, or multiple conversions of a source file. Here are some examples of common typos: 

Example Type: Example: Should be:

Numbers in place of letters 5arasota Sarasota

Incorrect punctuation The dog ran,The dog ran

Letters in place of numbers 1o66 1066

Soft Hyphens re-peat repeat

Missing letter Nothi g Nothing

HTML tags in place of characters< sup >® ; ®

Junk characters •”gainst Against

Fixing and Preventing Typos 

If a typo is present in your book, it is important to search for the term throughout the text. It is also important to review your text for errors of a similar nature. The search function of Kindle Previewer can be very helpful for locating and fixing all instances of a repeated typo. 

Sometimes improper or dialectic spellings are intentionally used by the author. These are not considered errors. Common examples would include character dialogue. Spelling differences which occur between US and British English are not considered errors. 

Unsupported Characters

If your text appears in Kindle Previewer as either strings of jumbled characters or boxed question marks, this usually means your book contains an unsupported accent mark or character. To ensure your book does not have any unsupported character, review your book in Kindle Previewer and look for square boxes or jumbled characters like these: 

 

 

Preventing and Fixing Unsupported Characters 

If an unsupported character is present in your book, it is important to look for this issue throughout the text, as one unsupported character is usually indicative of others. Use the search function of Kindle Previewer to locate all instances of an unsupported character. For more information on which characters are and are not supported, please see section 3.1 in the Kindle Publishing Guidelines and the section on Supported Characters in the KDP Help Pages. 

Cover Issues

A high quality cover image may have an impact on a reader’s decision to purchase a book. Here are some of the most common issues with covers: 

• The cover either has extra space in the margins or is too large and doesn’t fully display • The cover image is blurry • The cover is missing 

Creating and Adding a Cover 

Be sure to check out the Creating a Catalog/Cover Image Help page to learn more about adding a cover image to your book. You can also find information in Section 3.2 of the Kindle Publishing Guidelines. 

Image Quality

Having clear, readable images in your book is an important part of the reader experience. Images with text can be particularly problematic if the source quality is poor, so make sure that the text is readable on Kindle by previewing on Kindle Previewer. Also make sure that the images in your book are not blurry as it could be annoying for the reader and may impact their understanding of your content for images that require high levels of detail. 

Critical Issues Do not make an eBook composed of scanned pages of a physical book. Books that are entire scans will be removed from sale, as they become unreadable on Kindle devices and the reader will not be able to change text size. Manga, comics, children’s picture books, etc. are excluded from this requirement. 

Below are some examples of other Image quality issues: 

• Blurry image • Image with illegible text 

Ensuring High-Quality Images 

The best way to ensure your book has clear images is to select the highest possible quality in your source images when importing them into your book. For specific guidelines and best practices for image formatting, please see the section Formatting Images Within Your Kindle Book, and section 3.5 in the Kindle Publishing Guidelines. 

Formatting

Formatting issues occur on the visual or layout level of a title and include problems such as extra spacing between paragraphs or forced text justification. Formatting errors in your book may prevent readers from customizing their reading experience to their preferences, and also may include issues that cause text flow to be unintelligible or confusing. 

In order to produce a high quality book, please do your best to ensure your book has proper formatting. An effective way to do this is by viewing your book with Kindle Previewer. This tool can help you identify formatting errors before making your book available for sale. 

Ensuring Correct Formatting 

Please see the Simplified Formatting Guide for tips on building a well-formatted book. Check throughout your book for similar issues because recurring formatting errors tend to occur throughout the book—for example, incorrectly set left or right margins would appear on each page. 

Critical Issues 

• Body text rendered as bold, italicized, underlined or hyperlinked text • Extra body text margin padding that is more than 1/4 of a screen wide • Primary content is oriented in landscape mode without any detail page disclaimer • Body text not set to default color • Forced white text or forced black background that causes text to be unreadable. For example, forcing a code such as Font = white will cause text to be unreadable while reading on a white background mode or on an e-ink device. • In-line page numbering is present 

Page numbers entered within the book file break the flow of the reading experience and must be removed. 

Here are some examples of other formatting issues: 

• Forced alignment of body text • The size of the body text is forced, causing it to be larger or smaller than standard text sizes • Body text incorrectly changes size • Bullet points missing from a bulleted list • A list has bullets which appear on a different line that the list contents • Missing list formatting 

A best practice is to preserve the reader’s customizable reading experience by not forcing formatting for text. 

Note: Lists without proper formatting can be unintelligible to the reader. 

• Incorrectly added line break • Missing indication of paragraph separation (indentation or single line spacing between paragraphs) • Missing line break that indicates a section or scene change • A hard page break in the middle of a section or chapter • Extract or block quote not differentiated from body text 

Note: Additional or missing breaks may confuse the reader and break narrative flow. 

• Sidebar text interrupts a sentence, paragraph, or section • A footnote interrupts a sentence, paragraph, or section • An image interrupts a sentence or paragraph. 

Note: Improperly inserted sidebars, footnotes, or images can fragment the reading experience, leading to confusion. 

• Extra body text margin padding that is less than 1/4 of a screen wide • Double spacing between each paragraph • Consistent incorrectly added line padding between section/chapter headings and first paragraphs 

Note: Readers should set their own reading preferences and not have to page forward more than needed. 

• Split monograms; the first letter of each chapter in your book should appear on the same line as the rest of the word. • Individual paragraph incorrectly rendered as bold, italicized, underlined or hyperlinked text • Forced black text or forced white background that causes text to be unreadable. For example, forcing a code such as Font = black will cause text to be unreadable while reading on a black background mode on a color device.

Links

All links in your book should navigate correctly to the place where the reader would expect them to go, and the user should be able to navigate to the guide items in your book. Please test links, including guide items, on your Kindle device to ensure the links in your book navigate to their intended places before making your book available for sale. If you don’t have access to a device, Kindle Previewer is a helpful tool that will reproduce how content will appear on a device. 

Preventing Linking Issues Broken or incorrect links usually occur when a mistake has been made in the link URL or an incorrect link location has been pasted in. Check the HTML or inserted links in your text to correct this problem. Below are some examples of linking issues we see in books. 

• A guide item that does not work—a guide item is the navigational locations that readers can access from the ‘Go To’ menu • A link in the Table of Contents (ToC) that does not work • An unlinked footnote • A prohibited external link • An external link that does not work • An internal link (ToC, NCX, & other) that does not link to the correct location • Reference to an unlinked page number • Missing Table of Contents • Missing NCX 

For more information regarding the Table of Contents and NCX, please see sections 3.3.1 and 3.3.2 in the Kindle Publishing Guidelines. 

Table Errors

A common complaint we receive about tables is that part of the table is being cut off, which usually happens when tables are used for formatting non-tabular data (e.g., sidebars, lists, large chunks of text, etc.). It’s best to avoid using tables to format text or to try to make book elements appear in a certain way. 

Critical Issues 

• Each table with content cut off at bottom of screen when viewed at font size 3 (the default) 

Note: This causes content to be inaccessible for the majority of readers. 

Below are some other tables issues we see in books: 

• A table that consists of non-tabular data • A table that requires the user to pan right over non-tabular data 

Note: Tables with non-tabular data often force readers to take additional action to be able to read plain text content. 

• A table with forced line breaks • A table with a word in a cell split across 2 or more lines 

If the data absolutely must be displayed in tabular form and you still see the error, try breaking it up into more cells so that there are more available break points. For more information on table guidelines, see section 3.6 in the Kindle Publishing Guidelines. 

The Previewer and Kindle for PC will not always reproduce table display very accurately. If possible, make sure to check table formatting on a Kindle device, especially if it appears to be a critical issue. 

Duplicated Text

This refers to any text which repeats in the book when it is not intended to repeat. Usually this is the result of a copy-paste error, and can be fixed by removing the duplicated text. 

Critical Issues 

• A repeated chapter that is also mislabeled 

Other duplicate text issues include: 

• A repeated chapter • A portion of text that is repeated within a chapter or section, excluding single words 

Missing Content

Missing content issues occur when some intended part of the book is either mistakenly removed or includes references to a portion of the book that does not exist. 

Critical Issues 

• More text is missing than just a short phrase • Missing image section that the product description or the contents of the book indicate should be included • Product description indicates book includes CD, DVD or other ancillary content that is not accessible • Missing or unplayable audio/video content in a Kindle Enhanced with Audio and Video 

Other missing content issues include: 

• A short missing phrase • A missing image 

If you are experiencing missing images and provided your book in Word format, especially with the fill-in camera icon, please see the following excerpt from Building your Book for Kindle for a common path to fix the issue:

Useful image formatting tip: Avoid pasting in images

Images should be inserted in JPEG (or .jpg) format with center alignment (don't copy and paste from another source). o Click "Insert" at the top of the screen in Wordo Click "Picture", which brings up a dialogue screen to locate the picture that will be inserted in the document o In the dialogue screen, locate and select the file

Wrong Content

Books with wrong content are always removed from sale. 

Wrong content occurs when a customer receives something other than what is advertised. This is most commonly caused by uploading an incorrect file, but can sometimes also occur if updates are made to the product information or copy/paste issues make the description incorrect. The easiest way to fix it is to upload the latest version of the correct file. 

Content Unsuited for Reading on Kindle

Books that are not suited for Kindle are removed from sale. 

Some books are simply not well suited to the Kindle format. These include any kind of book where the main purpose is to allow the reader to write or color on the pages. These books are better suited to publishing in a physical form. Examples of books not suited to the Kindle format include the following: 

• Puzzle books • Blank Journals • Pattern books • Coloring books • Facing page translations (left page in one language, right page is same content in another language) 

Types of FormatsKindle Direct Publishing (KDP) lets you upload and convert your final draft from several formats. For best results, we recommend that you upload in DOC/DOCX (.doc/.docx) or HTML (.html) format. Be sure to read through the tips below for your preferred format prior to publishing your work with KDP. 

We accept the following formats: 

Word (DOC or DOCX) HTML (ZIP, HTM, or HTML) Mobipocket (MOBI) ePub (EPUB) Plain Text (TXT) Rich Text Format (RTF) Adobe PDF (PDF)

Word (DOC or DOCX) 

KDP accepts most DOC & DOCX files for eBook conversion; however, some files which contain complex formatting may not convert well. Be sure to use the previewer to check your files conversion if it contains tables or is graphic intensive to ensure conversion was successful. To troubleshoot any conversion errors, we suggest reviewing our Simplified Guide to Building a Kindle Book. 

Kindle books can be viewed in different font sizes, depending on the reader's preference. For this reason, page numbers, font sizes and margins set in Word do not apply. The "Page Break" feature in Word should be used to create intentional page breaks (i.e. ending a chapter for a smoother transition and better reading experience). 

Images can be added using the 'Insert' function in Word to create interest within your eBook. Do not use the copy/paste function. 

If you're submitting your file in DOC or DOCX format, the entire book text should be uploaded in one file. Please do not include a cover in your file, as we will automatically embed your product image as the cover of your book. 

HTML (ZIP, HTM, or HTML) 

If your HTML document contains images, please compress all files into a single ZIP file before uploading. 

For help with HTML please see our Basic HTML Formatting Guidelines. 

The following pages provide information for advanced HTML formatting. 

Supported HTML Tags Custom HTML Tags Supported Images Paragraphs Tables 

Important: Save your html file using Web Page, Filtered (*HTM & *HTML) (for PC) or Web Page (.htm) (for Mac), which will include any images on the page. The resulting HTML file and images subfolder can then be compressed into a ZIP file for upload. 

If you don't have images you can upload your HTML file directly, without compressing it into a ZIP file. 

Mobipocket (MOBI) 

KDP handles MOBI file formatting and images very well. For more information about the Mobipocket format and the Mobipocket Creator, please visit the Mobipocket Creator homepage. 

Important: Only unencrypted MOBI files are supported. Also, if your book file is not in one of the formats listed here, use the "Save As..." or "Export" function in the program you used to create the file to export the contents into HTML format. 

ePub (EPUB) 

KDP converts unzipped EPUB files. Prior to uploading an EPUB file, we recommend validating the file using epubcheck. This will ensure your file converts properly for Kindle. 

To validate your file using epubcheck, please visit: http://code.google.com/p/epubcheck/ 

Plain Text (TXT) 

KDP converts all text to HTML. Image locations referenced in the TXT file will not result in an image displaying in the eBook after conversion. For this reason, TXT files should only be used when your book file does not contain images. 

Rich Text Format (RTF) 

KDP converts rich text format files. 

Adobe PDF (PDF) 

While we accept Portable Document Format (PDF) files for eBook conversion, PDF files contain special formatting (and sometimes images) which may not export well in the conversion process. It is difficult for optical character recognition systems like our KDP converter to interpret the embedded formatting and image placement. 

Publishers have reported formatting and conversion issues when uploading PDF files, such as irregularly bolded text, irregular page breaks, inconsistent font sizes, inconsistent text flow,

and missing or oversized images. If this occurs, we recommend converting your PDF to DOC format and following our Simplified Guide to Building a Kindle Book.