Here is a simple method showing how to convert your book from ePUB into a MOBI file for Amazon Kindles. It can use the same steps as for a conversion from MS Word. If you have a lot of photos and pictures, or weird or fixed layouts then this won’t be quite right for you, but if you have a text or fiction book with a few pictures this should be fine.
- Download Amazon’s KindleGen program (http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000765211). Get the latest version. Save it to the same directory/folder as the epub file you want to migrate.
- Create a new text file and call it runkindlegen.bat. Put the following text into it (change the two names “your html file.epub” and “your book name.mobi”) and save the file. @echo off “kindlegen.exe” “your html file.epub” -c2 -o “your book name.mobi” -verbose pause
- To create the .MOBI just double-click on the runkindlegen.bat file you have created. It will open a small black command window and as ‘verbose’ is set it will list any errors, warnings and information messages on the screen.
- Go through the messages and look for any that start Wxxx or Exxx. You can ignore the ones that start Ixxxx as these are just for information. If you don’t include a cover file then there will be at least one warning message for the missing cover. For any other messages check to see what the problem is and if you can fix it.
- Download and install Amazon’s Kindle Previewer (http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000765261), and use it to check the .MOBI file loads and reads ok.
The KindleGen program page (http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000765211) has some help options if you want more control on the formatting.
If the ePUB includes a cover, then if you’re planning on uploading the MOBI file to Amazon then you should remove the cover from the ePUB first otherwise you end up with two covers.
Good luck.
Originally posted on wordpress.com on 19 October 2014.