Has Amazon KDP given up mobi for epub?

[antares]

An email prompted me to go to the KDP page for Supported eBook Formats, where I found this (in bold):

If your MOBI file contains reflowable content (i.e. text-heavy books), we recommend you upload an EPUB file instead.

Text-heavy books = novels

On the same page, ePub is a recommended format; mobi is only a 'supported' format.

Is Amazon walking away from mobi?

[Eric Thomson]

The new standard for Kindle books is azw3 which is essentially a compiled epub file. Mobi is pretty much last decade's format. They shouldn't be produced any more. Whenever I create Kindle files for clients, I give them azw3.

[Simon Haynes]

Yes. I started updating yWriter last month so you can set up several exporters, producing different epubs for different online stores from the same project. Before you could only export 1 mobi (kindle) and 1 epub (other)

Since then I've been uploading epubs to KDP with no problems.

I'll upload a beta of yWriter soon, but I'm deep into Nanowrimo at the moment.

[LilyBLily]

This brings up an interesting point. Some purists claim that we need a separate ISBN for every file format we use. Thus, not one for ebook and one for print, but one for mobi, one for epub, and one for pdf. Presumably, if you customize the files for each publisher online bookstore, you'd need a separate ISBN per publisher bookstore, too.

Ah, no.

[Simon Haynes]

I haven't used ISBNs for ebooks for over 7 years now. I still use my own ISBNs for each paperback edition.

(But yes, I used to register one for mobi, one for epub and one for print. What a waste!)

[Eric Thomson]

This brings up an interesting point. Some purists claim that we need a separate ISBN for every file format we use. Thus, not one for ebook and one for print, but one for mobi, one for epub, and one for pdf. Presumably, if you customize the files for each publisher, you'd need a separate ISBN per publisher, too.

Ah, no.

One ISBN for hardcover
One ISBN for paperback
One ISBN for ebook, no matter whether it's azw3 or epub

That is all.

[LilyBLily]

I stop at two ISBNs, but that's in part because they are so expensive in the U.S. If they were free, as they are in other countries, I'd sprinkle them around like fairy dust.

[Gessert Books]

It is likely not so much that they are walking away from MOBI, but rather that they want as many books as possible to support Enhanced Typesetting. Books made via something other than Amazon's Publishing Tools don't support Enhanced Typesetting, so it benefits them to handle that final conversion themselves. As an example, MOBI files made with calibre don't support Enhanced Typesetting, but a well-made epub uploaded and converted by Amazon probably will.