This is driving me nuts. (So what else is new?) I have a simple book (a novel) in ID/CS6 going to Kindle via Amazon's “Export to Kindle…” plugin. Everything is working fine (a great relief) except for the “Start Location” setting.
When I set the Start Location field in the export dialog's Content section — a bookmark in a sensible location (the title page, the dedication page, the opening quote page) — the Kindle 3 opens the book (for the first time) on the tail end of the TOC. This means the new reader sees a cryptic list of 3-4 links with no explanation — it isn't even obviously the TOC. This isn't acceptable, as it looks like the book was Kindled by an idiot.
I've tried using no Start Location at all, but then it starts up on the Prologue, missing the all-important opening quote. If I select the Title Page bookmark, it starts up at the end of the TOC. If I select the opening quote, it starts at the tail end of the title page. In effect, whatever location I select, it opens the book about 1/3 of a page before the correct bookmark.
If I just drag the MOBI file onto the Kindle 3, everything works as expected — all the bookmarks are honored and I can start at any one of them. But if I send the MOBI to my Kindle via Amazon's email-attachment mechanism, when it gets converted to AZW3 the Start Location is thrown off. The Kindle Previewer works fine in all 3 model modes. The Kindle Reader on my Android phone usually shows the same nutty locations as the K3 reader.
My problem is that I don't know what will happen if I publish the book. Since I have only the MOBI to upload to Amazon, it seems likely that the resulting Kindle edition will go through the same AZW3 conversion and end up with a looney start location. I've tried all kinds of possible work-arounds (just one bookmark, several bookmarks, different kinds of page breaks for the bookmarked pages, bookmarks 1/3 of a page beyond where I want, etc.) but even if I can get close enough to work, all the other Kindle readers (devices and apps) take the work-around literally and now they have weird start locations.
If anyone know anything about this situation, or has any suggestions on what I might do to solve this problem, I would be most grateful.
Thanks in advance,
Allen
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