Claude kindle ebook skill

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name: kindle-ebook description: Use this skill whenever the user asks to create an e-book, ebook, "livro para Kindle", KDP book, or any long-form .docx book/guide meant for Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing — even if they don't mention "Kindle" or "Look Inside" explicitly (e.g. "crie um e-book sobre X", "faça um livro digital sobre Y", "monte um guia em docx para vender"). Always apply the Amazon "Look Inside" / free-sample optimization rules from this skill so front matter doesn't waste the free preview, always build an elegant styled .docx (colors, section themes, decorative cards) instead of a plain document, and always offer to generate a matching persuasive cover at the correct KDP pixel dimensions. Do not wait for the user to ask for a cover or for "Look Inside" — proactively apply both.

Kindle Ebook Creator

This skill packages everything learned from building Portuguese-language Kindle e-books: how to write and structure the manuscript so Amazon's free preview ("Look Inside" / "Enviar amostra") actually sells the book, how to build an elegant, colorful .docx instead of a plain Word doc, and how to generate a persuasive cover at the exact KDP pixel size.

Always apply this skill's rules automatically for ebook requests — don't wait for the user to ask specifically about "Look Inside," colors, or a cover.

1. The "Look Inside" rule (most important, and most often skipped)

Amazon's "Look Inside" on the product page, and the "send free sample" button on Kindle, both give readers roughly the first ~10% of the book for free, front matter included. That 10% is the single biggest sales lever the book has — if it's burned on decorative filler, the sample ends before the reader ever sees the good content.

Apply these rules to every ebook built:

1. Minimize front matter. One cover page + one short TOC is enough. Do NOT add a separate half-title page, dedication page, or multi-page copyright/legal boilerplate unless the user asks for one. Every extra front-matter page pushes real content further past the sample cutoff.
2. Put a hook before the outline. Immediately after the TOC (or even before it), include a short, punchy paragraph or two that creates curiosity or promises a specific payoff — not a generic "this book will cover..." intro. This is what the free sample needs to convert a browser into a buyer.
3. Front-load the best material. Within the first section/chapter, lead with the single most surprising or compelling item, not the driest or most chronological one. Assume only the first section will be read for free — it must stand alone as a reason to buy.
4. Estimate the cutoff and tell the user. After generating the manuscript, roughly compute: sample_pages ≈ total_pages * 0.10. Tell the user in plain terms what a reader will and won't see for free (e.g. "amostra grátis cobre até aproximadamente a página X, ou seja, o leitor verá a introdução e as primeiras N curiosidades da Parte I antes do corte"). This lets the user judge if the hook lands before the cutoff.
5. Never put essential payoff only after the estimated cutoff. If the book's single strongest content is in Part 3, consider moving a teaser/preview of it earlier, or explicitly flag this tradeoff to the user.

2. Building the elegant .docx manuscript

Always read /mnt/skills/public/docx/SKILL.md first for the baseline mechanics of docx generation. On top of that baseline, apply this skill's house style, validated in past builds:

• Use the docx npm package directly (not just python-docx) when you need per-paragraph background shading and colored left-borders — this is what makes the doc look like a designed book instead of a Word default.
• Structure: Cover page → short TOC → hook/intro (see Look Inside rules above) → N thematic parts, each with its own accent color → conclusion.
• Give each part its own color theme (an accent color + a light shade color), e.g.:
  • Part I: accent 9C6B30 (gold/brown), shade F6ECD9
  • Part II: accent 1F4E79 (blue), shade DCE6F1
  • Part III: accent 7A2048 (wine), shade F3DEE7 Reuse this exact 3-theme palette by default unless the topic calls for different colors (e.g. a tech book might want blue/teal/graphite instead of gold/blue/wine).
• Section title pages: centered kicker label (small caps, accent color) + big subtitle + short italic intro paragraph, on a shaded background, own page.
• Content items as "cards": each list item / curiosity / tip gets its own paragraph block with a colored left border (BorderStyle.SINGLE, size ~24, accent color) and a light background shade matching its part, bold colored title line + normal body text. This is the single biggest visual upgrade over a plain docx — always do this for listicle-style ebooks (curiosities, tips, facts, etc.).
• Fonts: default to a serif font (Georgia if available at render time, otherwise let LibreOffice substitute) for a "book" feel, not a sans default.
• Page size: use Kindle trim size in DXA units for the docx page: width 8640, height 12960 (6in × 9in), margins ~1000-1100 DXA.
• Reference scripts/build_docx_template.js in this skill for a full working example (structure, helper functions for cover/TOC/section pages/cards) — adapt the data.js-style content object rather than rewriting the builder from scratch.
• Always render a few pages to JPEG via LibreOffice + pdftoppm and view them before delivering, exactly as the docx skill instructs — colored/shaded design is easy to get subtly wrong (contrast, spacing) and must be visually checked.

3. Building the persuasive Kindle cover

Amazon KDP's recommended cover size is 1600 × 2560 px (portrait, ratio 1:1.6; absolute minimum 625×1000). Always generate the cover at 1600×2560 unless the user asks otherwise.

Process (validated approach — no browser/headless-chrome needed):

1. Build the artwork as SVG (full control over gradients, text, decorative elements), then rasterize with rsvg-convert (install via apt-get install -y librsvg2-bin if not already present — it's on the allowed network).
2. Use elegant, non-default fonts instead of system sans defaults. This skill bundles:
   • assets/fonts/Cinzel.ttf and CinzelDecorative-Regular.ttf — for titles/headers (elegant, all-caps friendly serif display face)
   • assets/fonts/CormorantGaramond.ttf and CormorantGaramond-Italic.ttf — for subtitles/taglines (refined italic serif) Copy these into ~/.fonts/ and run fc-cache -f before rendering. If the topic doesn't suit a "sacred/classic" look, it's fine to swap in other Google Fonts fetched from raw.githubusercontent.com/google/fonts/main/ofl/<font>/... (this domain is allowed).
3. Cover content hierarchy that sells (in this order, top to bottom): small kicker/credibility line → optional emblem/graphic relevant to the topic → big number or bold title → subtitle stating the specific promise/benefit → a short persuasive hook line in a ribbon/banner (a curiosity-gap or benefit statement, not a repeat of the title) → decorative close.
4. Add depth: gradient background, a soft radial glow, a subtle vignette, and an ornamental frame with corner accents — flat single-color backgrounds read as amateur.
5. Reference scripts/build_cover_template.js in this skill for a full working generator (rays/halo/frame helpers, gradient defs) — adapt colors and text per topic instead of rewriting from scratch.
6. Render, view the PNG/JPEG at actual size before delivering, and export a final JPEG (convert cover.png -quality 92 cover.jpg) since KDP accepts JPEG/TIFF.

4. Delivery checklist

Before presenting the final files to the user, confirm:

• Front matter is minimal (cover + short TOC only)
• A real hook/teaser appears before the outline, not generic boilerplate
• Told the user roughly where the ~10% free-sample cutoff falls
• docx uses a 3-part (or N-part) color theme with shaded card-style content blocks, not plain paragraphs
• Pages were rendered to image and visually checked
• Cover is exactly 1600×2560 px (or the size the user requested), uses non-default fonts, has a clear hook line, and was visually checked at final size
• Both files (.docx manuscript + cover image) are copied to /mnt/user-data/outputs and presented together