How do I copy and paste text from Windows 8 Kindle app book to Microsoft Word I need to open up my Windows 8 Kindle app and while reading a book, I want to cut and paste certain passages to a Word document. I did this before a while back but can't seem to do it again (or remember how I did it before). I used the dual screen that Windows 8 allows and then highlighted the passages and somehow copy and pasted them into the Word document. I think I used the Ctrl+c to copy and the Ctrl+v to paste, but that doesn't work. Any suggestions?

You can't do it directly from the desktop reader app for Windows 8.

You can, however, do one of the following things instead:

1. Use Kindle Cloud Reader

Highlight the text you want to copy.
Go to https://kindle.amazon.com/your_highlights and find the highlight in question.
Copy and paste the text from there.

Of course, use this within the limits of copyright, etc.

See this related question about essentially the same thing.

2. Use the Windows 7 app

If you can stand the non-Metro layout, you can run the Windows 7 app on Windows 8 (see this discussion.  The Windows 7 app allows copying: when you highlight text and right click, "Copy" is one of the options:


Is there an epub reader for a PC which lets the user take notes? I was asked if there is some software for a PC for reading ebooks (in epub format) and take notes in them. If I have ever to browse an ebook on a PC I use the reader in Calibre which does not offer this functionality, so I am at a loss. Which readers do exist which save notes? Being able to use them elsewhere is a plus, of course.

You can read books and add notes with Microsoft Edge. However, you can't export them.


What options do I have for reading eBooks on an Android tablet? I have recently purchased an Asus Nexus 7 (2013) and would like to use it for reading. To that end, I have had a look through many of the various applications touting themselves as "eBook readers" on the Google Play store and come across the usuals like the Kindle application but also some others like Aldiko, Kobo and Moon+

What options do I have for reading eBooks on an Android tablet?

How do these stack up against each others in terms of features?

As DVK has commented, your question is a little broad, without specific requirements. However, if all you are looking for is an objective, feature comparison of Android ereader software, wikipedia is your friend.

There is a breakdown of the following (as of Dec-23-2013):

File formats supported
Navigation features
Display features
Edit-tool features
Book source management features
Other software e-book readers for Android
See also
References
External links


What is a good software for reading ebooks out loud? I enjoy having the ebooks read out loud. My previous solution has always been to highlight the chapters I want to read and then turn on voiceover in Adobe Reader on my Mac. The advantage is that I can select from all sorts of voices and control the pitch and speed. The disadvantage is that it sometimes takes quite a bit of time to highlight things and subtitles and page numbers often get read out as well, interrupting my reading.

I just tried iBooks and although .epub files read marvellously, it doesn't read .pdf files.

Is there any software that is available that can read ebooks out loud, preferably one that works for pdf files and lets me control pitch and speed? I would like to have books read aloud to me on my (google) tablet, especially as most of the books I'm reading are textbooks and don't have audiobook versions.

There are several screen readers available, these are high end products used by totally blind and visually impaired user to operator a computer.  JAWS is preferred by all the blind computer users I know.  According to this there is a version designed specifically for tablets.

Be aware, the creators of PDF documents, often do so without consideration for screen readers.  PDF is used to create fixed format document for the a sighted reader to look at.  Even if there is text for a screen reader to read it is often difficult for a screen reader to translate it in to a helpful format.

If the PDF file is actually a scanned image of a printed page, Jaws will not be able to read it.  There is software called OCR that is able to "read" pictures of words and convert them to a text layer that JAWS, or MS word, etc can consume.

Lastly if the PDF is laid out with lots of columns, boxes, images, cute little conversation bubbles, etc, it will be extremely difficult for any program to translated it into something meaningful to you.

Calibre has an option that will convert PDF to most ebook formats, there is a listing here of some of the issue you may encounter.


concatenate several files generated by send to kindle amazon plugin to consolidate multiple page documents I'm happily using the Amazon Kindle chrome plugin but very often the web pages I would like to read on my kindle are split among different pages, for example in the case of pagination, or separate chapters.

I would like to be able to concatenate the content of several pages together, so that I have a consolidated file with the entire text.

I found online a few tutorials to convert the azw3 files from my kindle to pdf, which I could then concatenate and reupload to the kindle, but that's not what I am after, although it is an option, in case I have no alternatives.

For some password protected pages, I found sendtoreader.com composer, but that doesn't work on the password protected pages.

How to get this concatenation done?

You can try GrabMyBooks.
It can be used to grab webpages and create an ebook from them; I don't own a Kindle and I don't recall if it saves in formats other than ePub, but you can easily use Calibre to convert it if needed. You can send the ebook to your device then and read it like any other ebook.

Another possible solution, if it integrates also with Kindle (it does with my Kobo), is to use Pocket.


CSS: display: none - Is it supported by all devices? Does anyone here know if the CSS property display: none is supported by all ereaders?

Let me explain why I'm asking...

I'm turning a 500-page book that's in the public domain into an ebook. The index is 40 pages of fine print. Now that I've finished typing it up, the hard work begins - linking all those entries, all of which are linked to page numbers in the original book.

Then I figured out a way to automate it to some extent. I simply find the place in my text where page 33 begins in the original book and change the following...

California was the first...

to this...

33California was the first...

I can then give class a PageNumber a style that makes it really stand out, so I can see where all the original pages begin and end.

When I'm finished with my index, I can then change the style to display: none. The page numbers will still be there, serving as anchors, but readers won't see anything at all.

I know that more advanced CSS isn't supported by all ereaders, but I think display: none is an older, more established style. I just wondered if this strategy could create problems.

Try to use anchor tag as shown below and link these id in your index page.

Example:

California was the first...


How do I repack a .mobi file? I used Kindle Unpack in Calibre to unpack a .mobi file, so I could correct mistakes in images and text. It was easy - images were JPGs or JPEGs and text was .html or .htmlx files. Now I need to repack it all as a .mobi file and I'm stumped. The folders I have before me are now:

HDimages (empty folder)
mobi7
mobi8
META-INFO
OEBPS
mimetype
kindlegenbuild.log

(it looks like the the last 4 all go back into a kindlegenbuild.zip file.

I've looked for a plugin for Calibre that does it, but no luck.

KindleUnpack is primarily intended for debugging KindleGen issues. If your original Kindle books is an AZW3 book or a MOBI book generated with KindleGen, you can edit it with Calibre Editor.

Simply select the book in Calibre, right-click it and select Edit book. This will automatically unpack the book and open it in Calibre Editor. If you save the book it'll be automatically reassembled.


How practical is it to learn to develop apps for e-ink Kindles? I provide e-ink kindles to schools in Kenya (10 schools so far) where we also help the schools acquire relevant ebooks for teaching the pupils based on curriculum topics. We'd like to develop apps for the teachers to use on their e-ink kindles however there seems to be little information on how to do so.

Please can you suggest what skills are needed to develop these apps and good approaches to learn them? And any recommendations on useful resources (paid-for and free) would also be helpful.

Learning to develop apps for eBook readers is very practical:

The reason being, the same technology that applies to creating ebooks; also applies to developing websites, software, etc.

Meaning that the skills you learn from developing apps for eBook readers improves your overall skills as a Web or App Developer in general.

These skills in turn can allow you to start developing more complex skills for becoming a Programmer, Software or Application Developer.

Now that we know the type of jobs related and the career path that follows, we can look at the skills and technology required and used by those in the related industry; to learn how to do the same development.

Basic Skills Required by Web and App Developers:

HTML
CSS
Javascript

An ePub is a zipped up package of content, containing items such as the above, for the purpose of creating the ePub Book/App:

HTML (eBook content)
CSS  (eBook code to stylize layout, etc.)
JavaScript (For Advanced Use) such as eBook App development.

If we learn the above technology then we will have the core skills needed to develop applications for eBook readers.

Learning Priority Order:

Learn first: HTML this is the document that holds all your content.
Learn second: CSS this is the document that stylizes your HTML content.
Learn third: JavaScript this is the programming language that gives the 'app' like look and ability to your HTML, CSS content.

Where to Learn Online:

http://www.lynda.com/

courses such as:

"HTML Essential Training"
"Developing Applications for Amazon Kindle Devices"
"Creating Ebooks for the Kindle"

Udemy is another website for online learning.
Code Academy (learn to code)
Coursera - (Take free online classes from 120+ top universities and educational organizations.)

Learning Offline:

Books of course! O'Reilly is a good publisher to checkout for technical skills.

Comparison Chart of eReader Features and Supporting Platforms:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_e-book_formats#Comparison_tables
I apologize, there are many more resources and links I'd like to give you but for now my reputation will not allow more than two links so I've provided the most important two links.

However, learning to develop apps for the e-ink kindle devices specifically is a bit too narrow for me to personally consider it "practical".

For example the Kindle Fire has much better support for epub3 formats, app like content, etc.

That being said, what is practical may depend on your use or application as it is a matter of opinion.

What you DO NOT need to know for eBook App Development:

Databases such as MySQL, MongoDB, etc.
Frameworks (although you may find boilerplates that help your app development, packages, libraries, etc.)
C++, C#, Python, Java to name a few.

Good to be Familiar with but may not Need:

AJAX/JSON
PHP

Above Skills related to Web Developers more so than having practical use for eBook app development

Final Thoughts:

I've worked for a major Distribution Book Publishing company for the last two and a half years as a digital content engineer managing the QA of our eBooks and can say without doubt, that if you use the above information, it will lead you into the correct direction.

That being said, there are many vendors that provide a service for ebook conversions and ebook app development. At some point you may consider or decide to look into what is available if you have the time or resources.


Are there any Ebook libraries in Canada Are there any programs that allow library books to be checked out, as ebooks, specifically in Canada?

NOTE: Based on this meta post and this question, I have created this Canadian version of the question.

That's going to vary by the library system. Not all library chains support lending ebooks. My local library system only started that in the last few years. Even with the system that's available, there's only a finite number of titles available, and a limited number of copies per title. My local library also lends out Kobo e-reader devices.

My local library is the Greater Victoria Public Library (British Columbia). Landing page for electronic content. Looks like the GVPL uses Overdrive as well.


Calibre to Kindle Book Transfer I just bought a Kindle Paperwhite. I am having troubles transferring books from calibre to Kindle. The major problems that I face are as follows:

Font size even after changing the PDF format to either MOBI or AZW3 format remains so small that I am not able to read the book.
Whenever I transfer books from Calibre to Kindle, the dictionary disappears every time. I have downloaded the dictionary five times so far.

Could somebody help me with that?

Increasing font size and spacing is a frequent problem for PDFs, especially for tablets that are 6 inch. PDFs are supposed to be printable documents, and so font size and other things tend to be fixed proportionate to the document size.

Merely converting to .mobi will not solve this.

If your original book were .epub, this is less likely to be a problem because it is based on HTML which is reflowable.

My recommendation is to try to read the PDF on a mobile PDF app instead of doing another conversion. Also, the larger the tablet size, the easier the PDF will be to read anyway. I have a 9 inch device where PDFs are generally easy to read.

Another idea (if you are desperate) is to try to copy the text in the PDF to a MS Word file, and then do the conversion from MS Word. Those kinds of conversions tend to produce significantly better results in Calibre.


How much does Amazon make on Royalties earned but not paid? A recent answer here indicates Amazon has a pretty restrictive payment policy. So minor authors selling books in multiple countries could have hundreds of dollars due them that have not yet hit the 'threshold'.

In the US there are rules about accounts considered inactive or unclaimed.  But I am not sure how it applies to Amazon.

I don't believe there is any way that anyone outside of Amazon could truly answer this. The best anyone could hope for would be to guess or speculate, and that's not what this site is about.

As for your comment that "authors selling books in multiple countries could have hundreds of dollars due them", that is simply not correct. The threshold you mention is only applied to authors who choose to be paid by check, and the threshold is only $100. If an author is selling any books in foreign markets, I can guarantee they aren't counting on those sales to pay the bills. Those who are fortunate enough to sell really well in foreign markets will likely have no problem at all meeting that threshold.

Furthermore, if an author chooses to use Electronic Funds Transfers (EFT), then there is no threshold, regardless of where the sales occur. That reason alone is why the vast majority of authors use EFT. If there are any authors who ARE losing "hundreds of dollars", then they can easily resolve this by doing the same.


How to convert Kindle format (.mobi or .azw) with annotations to PDF? I'm looking for a way to convert a Kindle book, with several annotations in it, to PDF format, so that my annotations are also saved in the PDF file.

Converting from .mobi or .azw to PDF seems pretty easy with Calibre, but is it possible to retain the annotations as well?

EDIT: How can I find Kindle locations in a PDF with the same text of the Kindle file? That is, how many characters or words are one location number? If this can be answered, I might be able to write a script to pass the annotations to the PDF file.

Thanks!

This might be helpful. http://the-digital-reader.com/2015/02/21/how-to-download-your-kindle-notes-and-highlights-and-export-them/

My guess is that because PDF is ultimately a fixed layout format, the annotations from Kindle won't mean anything in PDF because they would need to be placed in certain positions on the PDF. But ebook formats aren't really about positions but flexible reflowable text.

If it's possible to convert to PDF, it might be possible to build a calibre plugin to position the annotations as well... But someone would have to do it...


Can't find books I have bought I have bought many books but only a few showed up on my Kindle even though they are listed when I go to my account at Amazon.  The Help app says go to "storage" but I can't find it.  How do I correct this problem so that I can see the titles of all the books I have.  Do I need to go in and delete some titles.  I've already done that with the books I have finished.  Thank you for your help. Marge

Go to Manage your content and devices and verify that these ebooks are listed. If you have uploaded content instead of purchasing them, I may have to change the dropdown  from Books to Docs.

Piece of advice. Create collections to categorize your ebooks -- (History, Fiction, etc). When in collection view, you can see uploaded ebooks and purchased ebooks together.

On my android device, the kindle app lets me see all ebooks I have purchased and uploaded. If the cover image icon doesn't have a check, that means it exists only on the cloud, and you must download it separately for this device.


Problems with reading MOBI documens from Aldiko on Kindle I've used once handy to read e-books and I've used some app called Aldiko, that was downloading e-books in MOBI format.

After buying Kindle I've copied them into it, but when I try to open it, the book is opened on the end (at about 98%) and I can't navigate to first site. Navigating to 'begin' moves me to that 98%...

So it seems that the MOBI document is in some way 'broken' so that Kindle can't read it correctly. Is it possible to 'fix' it? And what can cause such incompatibilites?

How did you manage to get those books to your kindle? By cable or by email? If cable I would try to send them over your kindle mail - it will got parsed one more time and that could help.


What was the average income from ebooks for independent authors in 2013? Ebooks have been a boon to independent authors, providing a path to audiences, unmatched in the history of publishing.  The field is rather new, and currently there is not even Wikipedia page Independent author.

If possible what is the number of Independent authors who published English language works in 2013, and what was the average incoming from those 2013 works?

Statista (The Statistics Portal) looks like it has some relevant ebooks revenue information (though not exactly what you are looking for). Unfortunately, you are forced to sign up for a premium account to access most of the reports. A sample report that they actually show you some of the information for is here (Global e-book revenue from 2009 to 2016*, by region (in million U.S. dollars), obviously some is projection).

I did manage to find an informal survey done by Marie Force about independent publishers here (covers total unit sales broken down between 2010, 2011, 2012 and some of 2013) . Here is an excerpt:

  The conversation on the loop led to me post an informal survey to get
  an idea of how our members and their self-publishing friends are
  really doing. I didn't ask people to give dollar amounts, but rather
  just their number of sales in 2010, 2011, 2012 and so far in 2013. I
  asked them to list their most successful book in 2012 and how many
  copies it sold. At the outset, I want to say that this survey was
  informal. There is nothing scientific about it, but it does provide an
  interesting snapshot of how self-published authors are really doing.

  To give context to the numbers, I wanted to also provide a guide to
  what the most popular price points translate to in actual dollars.
  Using Amazon's conversion chart, here it is:

  0.99 (35 percent royalty): $0.35 per sale
  1.99 (35 percent royalty): $0.70 per sale
  2.99 (70 percent royalty): $2.04 per sale
  3.99 (70 percent royalty): $2.74 per sale
  4.99 (70 percent royalty): $3.44 per sale

  While I didn't ask authors to list their most common price point
  (which I will add to the survey next time), I thought the breakdown
  above would be enlightening to the authors out there who might be
  waffling about whether they ought to try their hand at
  self-publishing. If you are thinking about whether or not you should
  dip your toe into the revolutionary waters, ask yourself these
  questions: When was the last time I made $3.44 on the sale of one
  book? When was the last time I made even $2.04 on the sale of one
  book?

She then goes on to post a bunch of survey results broken down by author. Here is a sample of one of the survey results:

  Elisabeth Naughton Romantic Suspense and Paranormal Total number of
  self-published titles: 12 Total number of self-published sales in
  2010: 0 Total number of self-published sales in 2011: 0 Total number
  of self-published sales in 2012: 102,179 Total number of
  self-published sales so far in 2013: Jan-March 2013: 370,059 Most
  successful book in 2012 and how many sold: MARKED - 30,673 copies

  I've been traditionally published for four years and my income comes
  primarily from my self-published titles, NOT my traditionally
  published titles.


Web service that sends html pages with code to kindle I have a kindle and I am trying several web/cloud services that send a web page converted to kindle format to my kindle using myname@free.kindle.com.

Unfortunately I need to convert web pages that contain programming code (java, etc.) and the services I have tried fail to render the code correctly.

Are there any services that render code correctly? If so which?

Have you tried Push to Kindle from fivefilters? I tried a couple of webpages with java code on them and worked pretty good.


Calibre can optionally use a server to send mail I tried calibre share/send to, but it failed with:

Sending failed...

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/calibre/calibre/gui2/email.py", line 44, in run
    self.func(*self.args)

I was just curious, really, how calibre sends to my Kindle account because I don't recall authorizing it, nor do I see sent messages from it.  (Not that I configured it with my e-mail settings.)

Does Amazon just "trust" the calibre software?  if so, good.  Curious.

Yes, I suppose I could go look in the above python script...

Calibre uses the address that was entered in the Sharing books by email dialog box. Apparently, the developer didn't anticipate that someone would try to use send without configuring email settings.

You might want to contact him and let him know about this issue. (He usually fixes problems the very same day.)


How to extract epub file up to chapter one and create new epub with extracted content I have an epub file which has n number of chapters. I have to copy or extract up to 1 chapter and make a new epub file which contains only 1 chapter in order to show a sample file which contains only one chapter to the user. If the user purchases the book I need to show the original book.

I know epub.js viewer, but how can I meet the above requirement with PHP and jQuery/JavaScript and also with any other language like .net, Java, or Python, etc.? Any suggestions?

An EPUB file consists of multiple entries in a ZIP file. To extract the first chapter, you have to first determine how you know where the second chapter starts, as this doesn't have to coincide with an entry in the ZIP file.

Essentially what you need to do is:

Extract and analyse "META-INF/container.xml" to determine where is the root content file of the document which can be in the root of the EPUB, but also in a subdirectory)
Walk over the items in the content file to start building up the first chapter and accumulate data until you hit the second chapter.
On the way there you might have to take care of included images, cross references and the like.

Once you have gathered this data, write out the first chapter into a new file. Care should be taken this is a valid EPUB file, that adheres to the restrictions on EPUB entry sizes that some older readers impose (i.e. split the HTML for the first chapter in small enough chunks). Any language with a good XML library (including namespaces), HTML parsing and a handling zip files should do the job. I tend to use Python for that.


Where are books downloaded from Amazon Kindle app stored in Android? I download a book from Amazon Kindle app to my Android 4.4.2 phone (Kyocera Hydro Icon), and would like to transfer it to my laptop. Where is it stored in my phone?

Is it possible to find it out using some download history of Android?

Is it possible to search the file (with guessed file name) in the file systems on my phone using some command or program?

Where is Amazon Kindle app stored? Can the book be stored in the same directory?

The path should be something like "mnt/sdcard/android/data/com.amazon.kindle/files"

Just navigate to it with file manager of choice.

Download history won't be of help.
App and it's data are usually stored in separate places.

Many file managers allow searching for a file, but most often then not it's a pain in the arse to do so. (With Root Browser, atleast)


What are serif and sans serif fonts on different ebook reading systems? In epub and kindle css, you can specify a fallback font by specifying

 p {font-family: "Georgia", serif}
 h1 {font-family: "Helvetica", sans-serif}

If various reading systems have defaults for serif and sans-serif, can you tell me what they are?

I.E. Kindle e-ink, Kindle android app, Google Play Books, ibooks, Kobo, Adobe DE.

On a related question, can I assume that all titles are in the default sans-serif font? When a customer overrides publisher defaults and chooses a certain font (like Bookerly on kindle), does that leave the title fonts still in the default sans-serif?

UPDATE: Someone on KDP forum has confirmed that user-selected fonts for kindle systems are the same for body fonts and heading font. Therefore, you would need to specify a heading font if you want it to be different.

UPDATE 2 I encourage people to post fonts existing on  the mobile devices or reading systems that they have. Please indicate whether there is an option to specify Publisher Defaults on the reading system. Also, if you have any insight as to which font would be considered the default Serif or Sans Serif choice by the reading system, please mention it.  Thanks!

UPDATE 3 (5/2017) A commenter has pointed out that some Amazon  Kindle devices are using  fonts for Indic languages written in Bengali/Devanagari/Gujarati/Kannada/Malayalam/Tamil/Telugu. On the device this font is referred to as
"Noto Sans."  Noto is a multilingual font developed and supported by Google, but Amazon has only used  portions of this Noto   font for  Indian languages.  I have seen no official announcement yet.

Kobo ereader devices

My 1st gen Kobo Glo has the following fonts pre-installed (I suppose other Kobo devices use the same set; it is possible for the user to add more but I think this is beyond the scope of your question):

Serif: (1)

Amasis
Caecilia
Georgia (Default Serif font; also default font if nothing is specified in the ebook)
Kobo Nickel
Malabar

Sans Serif:

Avenir Next (Default Sans Serif font)
Gill Sans

Other:

KBJ-TsukuMin Pr6N RB (Serif) (2)
KBJ-UDKakugo Pr6N M (Sans Serif) (2)
OpenDyslexic

Of course, these customizations are optional, and it is possible to default fonts as defined inside the ebook.

About titles, if there are not specific settings inside the ebook stylesheets, they are treated like other text: besides having a larger size, if not explicitly set to something else, the default Georgia is used.

Kobo app for Android

Compared to the ereaders, the app is more limited in the customization options:

Default settings
Droid Serif
Droid Sans

1. Including slab serif
2. I'm not really sure but I think that these are used for Chinese/Japanese languages compatibility.