New eBook is displaying oversized text!

[MacLarens Pub]

Hello, all! Long time no talk!

I just bought the Hunger Games Trilogy: Kindle Edition from the Amazon marketplace. When I transferred it over to my Kindle 3 Keyboard (via whispersync), I noticed that the book displays the text at a size 6 (6 from the left), although my Kindle is set to display text as size 3. I've already emailed Amazon requesting the possibility they could send me a properly formatted version of the $17 book I just bought.

My question for you guys is if you know of any way I can fix this myself if, worst-case scenario, Amazon cannot help me? Sure, I could change the font size on the book to size one, but every time I want to read another book, I would have to change it back to size three. I shouldn't have to do that. All of the other books I've bought from Amazon display the same text size as what I have set in the Kindle's settings.

One thought I had would be to run the book through Calibre (after stripping the DRM) and looking for a way to resize the text. But the problem with that, though, is that I'm not very sure of how to do that, and I wouldn't want it to format all text to be the same size (Chapter titles are usually a size or two larger than the chapter text).

I won't know anything until I hear back from Amazon, so in the meantime, does anyone have any suggestions?

UPDATE:
Amazon emailed me back apologizing for the inconvenience and said "I've checked our account and I haven't found any Kindle book for "Hunger Games Trilogy" of fixed font size." They then credited me with $5. Sadly, this does not fix my problem. I've emailed them back with some new information. Turns out, it's only book one in this trilogy set (All three books are in one ebook file) that displays the oversized text. Books two & three are both normal. I've offered to return the $5 they credited me with in order for them to contact a Kindle ebook tech (if such a person exists) to see if they can analyze and determine the cause of the problem and patch it up in order to send me a fixed version. I have not heard back yet.

[history_lover]

I think the formatting is done by the publisher - I don't think Amazon can do anything about it except pass along the info to the publisher who may or may not resolve the issue.

Did you buy the trilogy within the last 7 days? If so, I would get a refund (Amazon will refund any Kindle book within 7 days of purchase) and then buy all three books separately - with the $5 credit they've given you, it actually works out cheaper than what you paid for the trilogy set. The set was $16.85 and the separate books add up to $18.37 so with the $5 credit they gave you, it will only be $13.37 to buy them separately. I checked the sample of the first book (to buy separately) and it does not have the font size issue. In the future, use samples to check for this stuff before you purchase.

If it was not bought within 7 days, you may be SOOL - maybe someone else has another suggestion.

[Ann in Arlington]

Sometimes there is an encoded font size or even typeface, as part of the ebook file.  If that's the case, there's not much you can do except switch the font size.  I've had it happen occasionally with a book that it shows smaller than I'm used to based on the usual size setting I have chosen.  I just switch it when I need to. . . .I don't see it as a huge deal.  At best a very minor annoyance.

[Morf]

I just bought the Hunger Games Trilogy: Kindle Edition from the Amazon marketplace.

Now this puzzles me. How can a Kindle book be on the Amazon Marketplace? Surely Kindle books are sold directly by Amazon whereas the marketplace is for third-party sellers.

I've searched amazon.com and I can't find the trilogy that you bought, only the individual books.

Am I missing something?

[MacLarens Pub]

I'm sorry about the mix up. I refer to Amazon as "Amazon Marketplace" sometime. Is that a specific part of Amazon?

[history_lover]

I'm sorry about the mix up. I refer to Amazon as "Amazon Marketplace" sometime. Is that a specific part of Amazon?

Yeah, the Amazon Marketplace is where users can sell new or used books or products themselves - so instead of buying from Amazon, you're buying from third party seller. It confused me at first too but I figured you just misspoke.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Marketplace

[Morf]

OK, putting that confusion aside, I'm still unable to find the trilogy on Amazon. Can you post a link to it?

[MacLarens Pub]

No problem!

http://www.amazon.com/The-Hunger-Games-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B004XJRQUQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1328305299&sr=1-1

[Morf]

Ah, it's not available to me as a UK resident, which is why I couldn't find it with any searches.

OK, I've been putting two and two together and getting five... I was taking your mention of Marketplace and the fact I couldn't find the book to lead me to think that you'd somehow been tricked into buying a... err.... "dodgy" version of the book. Clearly that's not the case and this is a legitimate Amazon version.

In that case, I can't really add to other people's comments - there are some books which have fixed font sizes (usually, but not always, in "Topaz" format), I think your only choices are to accept that this is how the book is, or try to get a refund on it and buy the individual books instead.

As history_lover mentions, it's always a good idea to grab the free sample of a book first and make sure you're happy with the quality of it before you buy. I've looked at one or two books in the past that I wanted, but the sample has put me off - either for the font problems you mention, or if I find typos that indicate poor proof reading (which really annoys me!).

[MacLarens Pub]

I received an email back from Amazon, this time saying "
Thanks for bringing this to our attention! We will investigate this problem further and do whatever possible to correct it."

Should I still press for a refund, or should I wait and see if they can get the problem fixed? I'm worried that if I continue to press matters like this with Amazon, it might upset my reputation with them. From what I've read in past threads that if people constantly complain or ask for refunds (even when the products are genuinely defective), Amazon gets suspicious, and, in some cases, can ban the account.

Granted, it's a worst-case scenario, but still, I'm hesitant to send them another email about this. I really wanted to read the books, and I'll buy them separately if I have to. I just don't know how to best handle the situation with Amazon.

[Andra]

That is the version I have and when I open it on my K4, I am getting the same font size that I had in the previous book (4). I checked a few pages into each book and they are all the same.
Have you tried removing the book from your Kindle and redownloading it? I don't really know why that might make a difference but it is a simple thing to check.
Mine was purchased st the end of September 2011.

[MacLarens Pub]

I have done that. I've removed the book from my device, and I've redownloaded it to my Kindle, but it's the same. Perhaps I should open up the files on the computer and erase those as well?

Update: I've removed the files from my Kindle and redownloaded it through the whispersync. No change; same large font size for Book one. Ugh.