This is a two part video series. NOTE: This is for Kindle only and uses the formatting of one HTML file for a final MOBI file. It does not include creating the TOC, or the logical TOC (toc.ncx) file.
Video 1: Part 1, How to add a cover image for Amazon Kindle e-book
Video 2: Part 2, HTML code to add book cover to Kindle or EPUB ebook
To zip a file for upload to Amazon’s KDP service, the file MUST BE in HTML format. To eliminate all the coding garbage created by word to HTM, use Amazon’s built in converter to obtain your HTML file, then add the cover image and pagebreak code, Zip and upload.
Process
Once you have created your MS, you need to upload it to the KDP service. To do this you need to set up an account.
- Go to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing page: https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/signin
- You can sign in using your Amazon account or you need to register.
Open a new file and scroll to the bottom. To upload a file, you first need to choose your DRM. Do not worry, you can change this later.
- Upload your Word doc file.
- Click the Preview link. Notice at the top a blue link “Download HTML”
- Click “Download HTML” and save it to the same folder as your Word file. It will save as a zip file.
- Extract the zip file and open the HTML file in your text editor.
- Scroll past all the coding to the body tag, which should appear something like this:
<body color=”#000000″> - Add the code for the book cover just after the body tag:
- Save your file. Re-zip the HTML with your image and upload (See Video 2)
NOTE: The quote tags must not be Smart Quotes —
meaning not curly quotes; they need to be straight,
up and down quotes.
Video One:
Zipping Image and HTML together for upload
Before you upload to the KDP service, you need to package the HTML and cover image together. To do this you use a ZIP program such as Stuffit (Mac) or WinZip (PC).
- Select both and right click and compress two items. Or you can open your ZIP program, such as Stuffit (Mac) or WinZip (PC), and drag the HTML and image to compress into one file.
- Go back to the KDP program, and upload the ZIP file.
- Preivew the upload, and you should now see the cover photo
Video Two:
Mini HTML tutorial
- img is the image tag
- src is the source
- cover.jpg is the image name of your cover
- alt is the alternate name, commonly the name of the image
- <mbp:pagebreak /> is a tag specifically created for the Kindle Mobi file for page breaks. This will not work with EPUB files.
