How Do I Fix Formatting Errors After Uploading Books To Kindle?

Ugh, indentation chaos. Some paragraphs are displaying huge tabs, while others appear to have no indentation at all. In some cases, the spaces between words are rendering as little square boxes instead of normal space characters. This sort of problem is a sign that your document was created using a bunch of random space and tab characters as opposed to CSS styles for paragraph indentation. For the reader, it can be a problem to work around, but in most cases toggling the “Publisher Font” on and off will reset the paragraph to its proper formatting. Also, if you change the font size up or down by one notch, the text will reflow to proper indentation in most cases. But, oh, the page will look awful in the meantime. This kind of problem is a sure sign that the author did not hire a professional to format the work, and makes me worry about the quality of the editing as well.

As someone who has done a lot of formatting of book pages for manuscripts and print ready PDFs, I can say that there is nothing more annoying than a wonky margin, a line of text that splits to a new page unexpectedly, or a font that just doesn’t look right. Most of these problems are simple to fix if you check the basic settings first. So, check the size of the pages you are using. Are you using 6×9 for trade paperbacks, or A4 for your docs? Also, check for ‘keep lines together’, ‘prevent widow orphan pages’ and similar options in your word processor. These are often found in the paragraph formatting options for Word and Google Docs, and can be toggled on and off to test their effect. There are times, however, where more serious reformatting is called for. This can include troubleshooting consistent font display or unGhosted hyperlinks. It’s rare that I’ve had to convert a file to a ‘clean’ format in order to allow reformatting from scratch, but such has been the case with both Word .doc and Google Doc files. Once in plain text (.txt) these can be reimported into almost any program. For eBook reformatting, however, I use the wonderful free software, Calibre, which also allows for reformatting of EPUB errors. For print, it’s worth noting that InDesign’s ‘package’ feature creates a zip file including all used fonts and linked graphics – which is very handy when distribution to printers/copy shops etc. It’s also very simple to have a second pair of eyes scan a test print for subtle errors such as: over running headers to the bottom of the page; and images bleeding into the gutter. It’s a little puzzle, but ultimately very rewarding when sorted.

Follow the steps in this order to go through the troubleshooting systematically: 1) restart your Kindle; 2) Make sure Wi-Fi is on and not in Airplane Mode; 3) Make sure there is enough space on your device; 4) Delete and then re-download single book; 5) Try reading a different book; 6) Deregister and then re-register your Kindle; 7) Update your Kindle’s software manually; 8) Contact Kindle Support. It’s okay to contact support first and have them walk you through the steps, but doing them first can save you a lot of time on hold. They’re going to make you go through all of these steps anyway, so having a list of steps to go through can turn your frustration into an orderly process.

I get asked by family and friends a lot about how to add books to their Kindle. My answer to them is now use the email method as it’s the least complicated way for non-techy people to add books to their Kindle. I then just have to remote into their computer and use Calibre to add the books to their Kindle if they end up with a huge file or very weirdly formatted file from some shady website but usually it works 90% of the time or so. Using the email method first is just less of a barrier to entry as it seems like magic when it does work as it usually does.

The 'Publisher' metadata field is often ignored, but can contain useful information for indie authors or web novel followers - I fill this in with 'RoyalRoad' or the Patreon name of the author for books that I have read online. This metadata does not transfer to the Kindle, but it is very useful for tracking books in your master library, and additional metadata fields such as 'Date Read', 'Rating' and 'Source' can be added to Calibre's views to aid in this. For tracking whether a book was read in EPUB format, as a scraped web novel or as an audiobook, I add a 'Format' column to the views. This metadata is stored in Calibre and is a very powerful database of all your reading for life.

For extremely academic content with lots of citations and a bibliography, proper formatting is crucial. Inline citations ([1,2]) have to be rendered as superscript and the bibliography has to be complete and not messed up by the converter. You can use ‘Extra CSS’ to style common citation patterns. For example, will style all tags with the class “citation”. Also, make sure the converter recognizes the bibliography as a separate section and not as just more paragraphs. You can help the converter by marking the bibliography’s heading tag (e.g. ) as a major division in the ‘Structure Detection’ settings. This will then also ensure proper page breaks before the bibliography.

It’s also worth noting that the source file may need some tuning before side loading, as I found out with some poorly converted EPUBs leading to wonky spacing. Using ebook-convert from Calibre (on the PC) to reformat the book to a Kobo Clara optimized ebook (in EPUB format) sorted the spacing out completely. This also cleans up the CSS and reflows the content, stripping out any numbers of render snagging formatting tags. Some older ebooks contain font-size tags that the Clara’s relatively simple ebook reader interprets strangely. And then make sure to safely eject the device from your computer, to avoid writing metadata that messes up how your ebooks appear to read. A soft reset (hold the power button for 20 seconds or so) usually will fix up newly added ebooks too. Note, though, that the ultimate reset to resolve such persistent problems and get your Kobo back to full, factory-default operation is also to perform a full factory reset. (Yes, a real pain, but there it is.)

For purchased titles I just use the “Cover View” but since the PDF’s don’t have any covers, they just show up as boring old doc icons to me. And I’m done trying to find ways to “organize” them. The process of adding sideloaded titles is it’s own special trip within Amazon’s walled garden, and the existing set of “tools” are really only functional enough to claim existence. And each update seems to bring a fresh round of workarounds falling apart. I spent an entire afternoon following an excruciatingly detailed how-to using a variety of command line tools. Once it worked. Never again.

First, check that the Amazon-approved email address for your Amazon account is correct in Calibre. Then check your Amazon account settings under 'Manage Your Content and Devices' for approved senders. Sometimes an error will occur because the file is too large or is in an unsupported file type. MOBI or AZW3 conversions tend to work okay. I’ve recently been reading ‘Alpha’s Regret: Chasing My Rejected Mate’ for a light and quick read that can be easily sideloaded as a file to my Kindle. It’s a very fast-paced story and follows the exiled heroine as she builds a powerful new life. ‘Alpha’s Regret: Chasing My Rejected Mate’ is often available for free to read on a number of different serials sites.

I’ve noticed lately that some of the books I borrowed through Libby aren’t showing up on my Kindle. I’ve gone back to the Libby app or to the OverDrive website where I borrowed the book and clicked on “Send to Kindle” (as I do with each newly borrowed book). But for some reason, they aren’t downloading. I have to go to the “Content and Devices” page of my Amazon account and approve the download manually. It’s just one of those things that doesn’t sync properly from time to time. In the meantime, I started reading Accidentally Marked By The Alpha King. This is a good werewolf romance with some nice tension as the heroine has mistakenly been identified with another person and soon finds herself in the midst of a royal political struggle — against her will.