Amazon Kindle How-To Series: Fast Steps to Creating Free Kindle E-Books

Fans of Amazon's Kindle e-book reader have plenty of content from which to choose. Amazon offers over 260,000 (as of this writing) e-books, newspapers, magazines, and other publications that can be transmitted by wireless to the Kindle. With all of this content you may wonder if you'll ever need another source for your reading enjoyment. But think of all of the other content you may have stored away in your computer in the form of Adobe Acrobat .pdf files, text files, or .HTML files you've downloaded from the Internet. Wouldn't it be great to be able to put these on your Kindle as well?

As a matter of fact you can! There are several ways you can do this. Amazon offers a file conversion service for Kindle owners. Check our web site at the address below for an article that provides the steps to use Amazon's service. But, there is another way that we'll describe in this article and that is with the Mobipocket Creator software. Mobipocket Creator software is designed to convert documents into the Mobi .prc format that can be read by the Mobipocket e-book Reader software for PCs and for phones using the Palm Os, Windows Mobile, Symbian Os, and Blackberry operating systems. Interestingly Amazon owns Mobipocket and the Amazon Kindle's book format is based on the Mobipocket format.

What does this mean to you? It means that files you convert with the Mobipocket Creator software can be loaded onto your Kindle through your computer and read as any other Kindle e-book! Here are the instructions for converting your files with Mobipocket Creator software:

1. Realize that this software ONLY works with unprotected files. If the file you want to convert have any sort of DRM (digital rights management) protection then you cannot convert your books.

2. Download the Mobipocket Creator software from Mobipocket's web site - you'll find the link below. Make sure you download the "Publisher" edition and not the "Home" edition. The current version is 4.2.

3. Install Mobipocket Creator software on your PC following the installation instructions.

4. Open Mobipocket Creator - you will be at the "Home" page.

5. You will see "Import From Existing File" on the right side of the "Home" page. For this example we'll convert an Adobe Acrobat file so choose "Adobe PDF" from the menu - this will bring you to the Import File Wizard.

6. Choose the file you wish to convert (using the "Browse" button) and the location in which you wish to place the imported file (again - use the "Browse" button). Click the "Import" button.

7. You will be brought to a work screen that shows you the Publication File or files you've imported. From here you can either build your final output to save on your Kindle, or modify some of the options for your e-book.

8. If you wish to add a Cover Image or Table of Contents choose the appropriate menu items under the "View" menu on the left side of the program window. You also can modify a number of settings for your e-book and add or modify the book's metadata by choosing other options under the "View" menu. Note that you do not have to modify any of the settings under the "View" menu - they are there as options for your use if you choose.

9. When you are done click the "Build" button on the toolbar at the top of the program window. You will be brought to the "Build Publication" window. You can choose the compression settings for your e-book ("Standard" is fine for your Kindle) and also encryption options (choose "No Encryption"). Click the "Build" button just above the progress bars when you are ready to create your e-book.

10. You will go next to the "Build finished" window.  This window will let you know if you've successfully created your e-book. You may get a message that says "Build succeeded but with warnings." Normally this indicates a minor error or notification such as when you choose not to add a cover to your e-book. This will not prevent you from loading the e-book onto your Kindle. 

11. Click the "Open folder containing eBook" then click "OK." The folder you provided in step 6 will open and you will see a number of files. This will include your initial Adobe PDF file,  plus files with the extension .html, .opf, .xml, and .jpg. You also will see the file you need to transfer to your Kindle, the file with the extension .prc. 

12. Attach your Kindle to your computer using the USB cable. Open your Kindle and locate the "documents" folder. Copy the .prc file you created with Mobipocket Creator into your Kindle's download folder. Close the Kindle > documents window and disconnect your Kindle by opening "My Computer", right clicking on the "Kindle" drive icon, and selecting "Eject" from the menu.

13. Your new document will appear on your Kindle's Home Page. You may need to refresh your Home Page view by pressing and holding down the "ALT" key and then pressing the "Z" key.

14. You can now enjoy your new Kindle e-book.

This process will work for Microsoft Word (.doc), Adobe Acrobat (.pdf), Text (.txt), and HTML files. You can download the Mobipocket Creator software from the Mobipocket web site - http://www.mobipocket.com.

By the way - if your new e-book file does not appear the way you expect on your Kindle 2 and you wish to delete if from your Kindle simply highlight the book and move the 5-way navigator to the left.  The "delete" button will appear, press down on the 5-way navigator and then confirm the delete.

Congratulations! You now know how-to convert files into e-books you can read on your Kindle wireless reading device.