The truth behind Kindle’s EPUB update.

Is Amazon's update to support EPUB on Kindle really that great? That's what we talk about in today's video.

0:00 Video Starts
1:00 What is EPUB?
2:03 The EPUB Update
5:27 The End of MOBI

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Hi there! My name is Maneetpaul Singh, but my friends call me Maneet (pronounced muh-neet).

I'm based out of NYC and make YouTube videos about Book Tech and digital reading.

Think of me like the MKBHD of books 😅

Whenever you’re ready, here are a few other ways I can help you:

1. Read a new book with me every month

2. Check out the books I’ve written

TL;DR:

[light-master]

Love how Calibre allows you to put any ebook from any vendor onto a Kindle without paying Amazon a dime, and let's you put any owned (licensed) Amazon epub on any other e-reader. Completely defeats the purpose of them being d*cks about it.

[Maneetpaul]

I guess you could call this… an EPUBDATE 😅

[eric-rounds]

Thanks! I was just asked by a client to set up selling her ebooks (pdf) on her site. I want to make them into epub assuming it’s a way to load it on a kindle or Apple Books. Your video is incredibly helpful and remarkably timely for me. Thank you!

[andreasplosky]

The first reason I never even considered buying a Kindle is their boycott of ePub.
The second reason is Amazon's attempt to lock you into their ecosystem, and all the bs that comes with that.
The freedom Kobo gives me is of immense value. It can read anything I sideload, and Kobo never attempted to delete books on my e-reader for example.

[Vatharian]

At this point Calibri is the best companion app for kindle.
Thank you for your summary!

[foxedfolios]

Thanks for taking the time to clarify what the latest update ACTUALLY means. 😊👍

[Mthundrd]

I would be so happy if they updated their zoom feature on PDFs. The one that we have today is horrible

[TomAlmy]

For about a year now Amazon had stopped accepting MOBI (their format) and required EPUB instead for book submissions (with a few exceptions) to Kindle Direct Publishing (their bookstore). So this is not really a surprise. Also I could see no difference in the final book when I submitted in MOBI or EPUB format. As far as I know both formats are actually HTML format with wrappers so it should always be easy (but for any DRM) to convert from one to another.

[rafisics]

4:32 The cover disappearance issue of EPUB books in the Kindle library is really annoying to me. Hope it is fixed soon.

[jonathanbernard]

I did get that notification. What you explained makes MUCH more sense than the blurb from the company. Thanks!

[xJillie]

I am really hoping they allow the covers to show in the library before they remove the mobi support. As of now, I can email Mobi docs to my kindle and the covers show. I’m going to be really upset if they don’t update that feature into the epubs 😩. Or maybe they could actually allow us to send AZW3 files over email.

[deedd]

here's the trick ... it allows Amazon to decide whether or not Any File will reach your email .This year it could be "we got this, let us convert it for you " the next year it could be " We're sorry but the attachments have been stripped off the email as they violate our corporate greed policy "

[Lorran]

This is the next step Amazon is taking to close the siege with sideloaded books, insinuating customers to buy books only through Amazon Store. This update sounded good, but, in fact, that's just the opposite. MOBI books, when sent via e-mail, appear with cover, but now, when sending an epub file, there's no cover at all. And guess what?! Amazon will stop the MOBI support via e-mail service. This is just ridiculous.

[danarossa]

Whoa. Tbh even with such corrections I'm not disappointed with this feature. I always use "send to kindle" feature because in such a way books are saved in the cloud (not just locally)

[ProfMannion]

You can email your pdf's to your kindle with "convert" as the subject and it will convert so you can use fonts other features.

[kylethor]

This video is straight fire! Incredibly straight forward and smart. Yes, it is not an EPUB, yes it annoys me that the cover does not show up, yes many EPUBs are not readable through send to kindle on a kindle device. Thanks for breaking it down! Subscribed.

[stefanobianchi]

Maybe I'm just used to do "unorthodox" things, but to me it's really not a big deal the only MOBI files on the kindle.
1. The conversation from EPUB to MOBI is immediate and you can do it directly online. Yes, it is an additional step though.
2. I stubbled across the Thumbnails prooblem too, but I managed to solve it. If you plug your kindle on your pc, look for a path called "/system" (you have to type it manually). Among the rest, in this path you find a directory "thumbnail" with all the Thumbnails of your books. Whenever you load an EPUB usually it's image is set as the "No Image Found" default one, which is actually a thumbnail that you can FIND in "/system/thumbnail" path. You simply paste in that folder the image you want with the name pf the "No Image Found" thumbnail, and you have the image.😉

[Xharaly]

6:44 Honestly, I don’t care what Amazon wants to do T_T I want my covers! And mobi supports covers. Until “epub” starts showing my covers, I will still use mobi.

Thank you for letting me know I can still sideload my mobi files. I was losing my mind with the news.

[Jasminis]

aww i was living in hope. in Australia our libraries only have epub available for lend.

[mahirlabib]

I was researching for a long time whether i should buy a kinde or not...!
After this video, I decided not to buy it.
Thanks for making informative video in details.