M.A. Nichols

Electronics are wonderful things if you understand how to use them. Otherwise, they're just very fancy, very expensive paperweights. I've written about how great Kindles are for readers, but there are probably some of you out there who don't know how to get your ebooks into your Kindle. You could dig through the Amazon website to try and find the answer, but I thought I'd put together an easy-to-use guide for you instead. I use a Kindle, so this information is really only helpful to Kindle users.

 

Uploading eBooks

Most people simply buy their ebooks through the normal channels (like purchasing directly from Amazon), but what about if you download a book from Project Gutenberg or some other site that provides copyright-free copies of ebooks?

 

Easy.

 

There's the manual way, which includes plugging your Kindle directly into your computer and transferring it, but there's a super easy, super fast way to do it. Amazon has a website that allows you to upload it straight to your Content Library. Simply upload it there, and in a matter of minutes, it will appear on your Kindle or Kindle app.

 

Some things to keep in mind:​

• The books need to be in the .epub format (technically, it accepts other formats, but I think this is the best one if you want it to look right on your ereader). The easiest way to convert it is to use an online converting website, like ePubConverter.com.

• When your ebooks arrive on your Kindle, they won't be on the "Books" tab. Only books purchased through Amazon will be available on that tab. Anything you upload to your Kindle will be on the "Docs" tab. Most Kindles and Kindle apps will allow you to put them in Collections just like your books, so it's not an issue.

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Hope that helps.