Begin After Front Matter Problems

Scrivener Scrivener for macOS
1

I’m trying to get my Kindle ebook to compile so that it begins on the first chapter. When I set to “begin after front matter” it goes to the first chapter on Kindle Previewer and on iPad versions of Kindle. However, it starts in the middle of the introduction on my Kindle Fire and Kindle Paperwhite (I send the compiled file through "Send to Kindle).

I’d settle for it just starting at the beginning of the front matter, but when I don’t click the “begin after front matter” button on those later two devices it begins in the middle of the table of contents.

(I’ve also tried playing with <$ebook_start>, but that doesn’t seem to have any effect.) I’ve gone through the forums and see this problem has cropped up before, but I can’t seem to find a definitive answer to solving it. Maybe I’m missing something.

2

I saw one report that leaving the cover image out of the .mobi file seems to resolve the bug in KindleGen that sets the start point. Unfortunately that isn’t the best of solutions. Whatever the case, if you examine the source files (there is an option for that in the KindleGen compile option pane), you’ll find that Scrivener is setting everything up correctly. The start position should point directly to whatever file you indicated in your settings—like I say, it seems to be a bug entirely within KindleGen that only impact some people. You’ll find reports all of the place on it, not just in relation to Scrivener (again, we aren’t doing anything odd here).

3

That’s helpful to know. Thank you.

What’s the downside to not including the in the mobi file? You just don’t have a cover in the ebook Amazon will include the cover on the sales and promotion pages? Frankly, I’d rather have the book start in a proper place and leave the cover out, than than have it and have the book start in the middle of something.

4

Someone else may know better what the answer to that question is, perhaps on the KDP or MobileRead forums. How a Mobi file is handled, and how it becomes a product that other people can buy and download is something I’m not terribly familiar with. I can only provide hearsay, which is that there is a way to supply the cover graphic separately during the publication process, but as to whether that actually ends up in the book once it is sold, I don’t know.

As to the cover bit, that is only a secondary trigger, there is something else required to trigger the bug (I think it is safe to say the vast majority of e-books are converted correctly by KindleGen, otherwise we would be hearing about this constantly—plus I’ve never actually managed to reproduce it myself), but to my knowledge nobody (not even Amazon) knows what it is. Here is the best thread I have found on the topic. That’s a great forum for figuring out technical issues with e-books by the way.

My point being, if you play around a bit, particularly with any aspect of the compiler that you changed from the defaults (you could maybe test the stock “E-Book” compile format and see if the problem still occurs, making no changes save but for adding your cover image), or testing conversion without any content in the book that might be considered “complicated” like tables, you may find that trigger. I’d be interested to hear what it is, if you do. It’s probably nothing we can fix, like I say, we’re putting together the book correctly for KindleGen—but it might help other people in the future.

5

Okay, so I have some answers, if not the final answers.

First, you’re correct, if I remove the cover from the compile (I actually removed it from the entire Scrivener file), it then begins at the correct place (start of chapter) on all the devices I have. That is, without a cover, if I use “Send to Kindle” it starts after the front matter on a Fire, Paperwhite, and Kindle for iPad. (It always worked fine in Kindle Previewer.)

Second, I did some checking and it is recommended that you don’t include the cover in your text file when you upload to KDP. The cover should be loaded separately. Not only that, but I went ahead and did it myself. The complied text file without a cover, loaded the cover separately, and put the book up for sale. Amazon added the cover and the books now up for sale.

You can check it out here: amazon.com/dp/B00VTQ9D0M

So happy ending? Not really. Unfortunately, for some reason when Amazon put the cover back in, it doesn’t start after the front matter, it (generally) starts at the table of contents (on iPad for Kindle and Paperwhite). Worse, the glitch reappears when I check it on my Kindle Fire.

Conclusion: yes, there’s some kind of bug in Kindlegen or something, and it’s almost surely on the Amazon side.

So what to do? Probably it’s just something that has to be lived with. I would personally recommend everyone compile without a cover for mobi and upload the cover separately. I’m also going to check with Amazon support to see if I can get the start page changed by them. I’ll let you know if that works.

(By the way, I did try compiling stock ebook and the glitch didn’t appear. And it didn’t appear when I just added my cover (so it wasn’t something in my cover itself). It did, however, reappear when I added in the text of my original novel (which I had exported into RTF). Something in that. Length of text? Something in the text? I didn’t fully debug it all, because I thought I’d try uploading to Kindle for sale. And since Amazon reintroduced the bug, it kind of doesn’t matter.)

6

Thanks for posting your findings!

That probably rules out any compile settings then, that’s good to know. It’s very strange that something about the content itself is causing the underlying problem. Can you think of anything beyond text that you may have, such as tables or pictures in the work itself?

7

Nope, I don’t think it’s the compile settings.

One possibility is this, and I just haven’t had the time to test it:

Hidden in the middle of the first chapter must have been some HTML code. Because when I viewed the Amazon published file in sepia, there were a few words of text that were highlighted white. I missed this in all the other compiles and tests because I always viewed it in white anyway.

I think this HTML code came because I captured the words (a short latin phrase) off the web. So somehow when I pasted it into the text, the HTML went with it. (But I never noticed it because all it said was make the text white.) That’s the only thing I can think of, and I haven’t tested it all out because it’s kind of moot. (I did fix the white spot in the Kindle version).

When I have a moment I might try that. But if someone else is struggling with the issue, something to consider is if there is some hidden, possibly innocent, html in the text.

Speaking of which, is there a way to select all the text and remove any possible imbedded html? (I got rid of it simply by deleting all the text and rewriting it.)