I received this in an email from Aaron Shepard this morning. I didn’t get permission to copy this, but I’ve done what I can to make sure you know this is Aaron’s writing. Evidently, Kindle book modification is still a problem after they are uploaded in the name of “better typography”. Aaron has some serious questions about this process. It is certainly something of which to be aware. The following quote is from Aaron’s email:

One of the problems in writing about Enhanced Typesetting is that it’s very much a work in progress — SLOW progress. I’ve actually been in direct contact with the development team since last year, and they’ve been responsive in dealing with some issues, such as paragraph indents and spacing. But other problems have gone months without fixing, such as loss of transparency in images and ignoring of nonbreaking spaces — which turns out to have been intentional! It’s alarming how much was broken in the cause of “improving” Kindle typography. At the same time, the tools I originally used to poke around inside Kindle files no longer work with the new file structure, so it’s much harder to figure out what’s going on.

I encourage all Kindle publishers to download the new Kindle Previewer 3 Beta to see exactly what Enhanced Typesetting is doing to your books, and then to COMPLAIN about problems, using Send Feedback on the Help menu. Remember, the changes from what you expect are being applied AFTER publication, so you cannot see them in normal proofing.

Kindle book modification still a problem

Amazon remains a bit less than author-friendly with KDP. It’s still a toss’em-in-the-air, upload, and hope they end up readable.

I wish they would make a new InDesign plug-in with kfx controls

I know they’re working on things, and it’s a difficult thing to drag all the old Kindles along with the new. But designers need help—especially those of us who do not have the time to waste playing with code.