E-Books: Are chapter hyperlinks Important?

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A good number of readers like them, including me. It's not unnecessary grunt work, it's an important part of putting out a professional product that meets the needs of your customers. It's not hard.

I add them because it's no effort to do so really. When I make my basic html file, the chapter heading format is controlled by a class called 'chapter'. Calibre recognises that, and turns all those headers into a contents at the back of the book. I'd have to mark the chapter headers anyway in order to format them, so it's no extra work.

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I never use them, but I'm planning on putting them in for an anthology. Chapter hyperlinks, maybe not that useful, but links to individual stories strikes me as useful...

There are two groups of readers: one which finds hyperlinks unimportant; and one which finds hyperlinks helpful.

If you don't use hyperlinks, the first group won't notice but the second group will. They'll find your book harder to read, and that will affect their enjoyment of it.

If you do use hyperlinks, the first group still won't notice. The second group will use them, and find them helpful, and will enjoy your book more.

It makes sense to me to use them. Especially if it's as easy to include them as Polenth says.

I found it pretty easy. I hyperlink to other thinks like acknowledgements, about the other, other books by me, etc. Calibre did it automatically for me if they were headers.

I think there is also a group that never thinks about hyperlinks at all. Smashwords requires at least one way links (TOC to chapter). I have them in my last few books but not the earlier ones and have had no feedback either way.

If you are going to have a TOC IMHO the number of chapters doesn't make a big difference. It is just conditional formatting and the text will be their regardless.

They make a positive impression on me, even though I rarely use them. They're something I associate with a professional product.

Depends.

It really doesn't take long to make the chapter hyperlinks and I would suggest it if you have that long of a book. Readers, most anyways, will appreciate it. And, what does it hurt you but a little time?

Speaking as a reader, I like to at least have a functional TOC; it's a nice perk in an eBook, to just be able to jump right to where you want to go. It also tends to make a title feel a little more polished, IMHO, like the author took some extra time to consider me, the end-user.

It's not a dealbreaker not to have hyperlinked chapters (or stories in an anthology/collection), but it's still nice. So if it isn't too onerous a task to splice them in, you might consider it.

I DEFINITELY use hyperlinks. I am actively annoyed by books that don't hyperlink the chapters.

I think, as others have said, it comes down to the reader. Readers who use them will be annoyed by their lack, but readers who don't use them won't be bothered by their presence, so it's best to include them. It isn't that hard -- in fact, if you're finding that part difficult you might want to pay for formatting, because if hyperlinks throw you there might be other formatting elements you've overlooked that will contribute to the professionalism of your book.

(Just a note -- I wouldn't take a lack of customer complaints as an indication that people aren't bothered, as I get very bothered but have never complained because, you know, effort. Lack of hyperlinks has even stopped me reading -- especially short story anthologies; sometimes I'll open it up intending to browse through and read the stories out of order starting with the authors I've heard of and am excited about or the titles that sound interesting, and there are no hyperlinks so it seems like too much work and I go to another book I'm reading instead. I also read on many devices and they don't always sync up properly, so I use them for novels as well. AND I'm the type of person who flips back to check my memory of scenes when a twist happens. I can easily imagine a scenario where I stop reading a novel because it's too much work to find my place again -- I'm always reading about 7 books at once so I accidentally put books down and don't pick them up again all the time, and if I click to other books enough times because I don't feel like figuring out where my place was by doing a binomial search with locations, I may very well do that with an electronic book as well. PLEASE include the hyperlinks.)

The absence of a linked TOC may cause the ebook to fail verification for some retailers. There's lots of information about how to produce them in the ebook production FAQs.

As a reader, I don't use them. But the retailers do want you to have them.

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RikWriter said:

slhuang said:

It isn't that hard -- in fact, if you're finding that part difficult you might want to pay for formatting, because if hyperlinks throw you there might be other formatting elements you've overlooked that will contribute to the professionalism of your book.

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Wow, that's pretty condescending. Not to mention totally incorrect.

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Rik, I don't think slhuang's point was condescending or incorrect.

If you have a problem with a post here, use the report post button rather than calling people names: it's more constructive. Also, you might like to re-read our Newbie Guide and reacquaint yourself with AW's one rule: respect your fellow writer. Thanks.

If you think someone is incorrect, then saying so is not terribly helpful. Explaining how you think they're incorrect, and what you think might be more accurate, is helpful.

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Although I myself don't use hyperlinks, I put them in my book for the customers that would like to have them.

If a book did not have a working TOC, I would be very annoyed. I have yet to come across a book without a working TOC, though. One of the reasons I like the TOC is so I can quickly check how long each chapter is and plan my reading accordingly.

I have no interest in self-publishing at the moment, but I do make e-books so I can read my writing on my e-reader. I set the chapter titles as headings in Word when I write my manuscript, and the e-books I make in 2 minutes in Calibre have a TOC without me adjusting any settings. I do not know anything about other software that might be used for creating e-books.

RikWriter said:

Ah, I see...so saying that someone's post was condescending is a personal insult, but her saying that since I think chapter hyperlinks are unnecessarily complicated that I must be an idiot who can't format for Kindle is just A-Okay and a shining example of respecting your fellow writer?

Gotcha. Nice to know the rules.

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I can't see anywhere in this thread where you got called an idiot. Can you quote that part directly for me, please?

Moving on, Rik, I don't think you read my previous comment properly. Let me repeat part of it:

Old Hack said:

If you have a problem with a post here, use the report post button

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I hope that's clear.

Now, if you think I'm being unfair to you, you could always continue complaining in-thread, in which case you'll probably end up with a short ban from AW; or you could contact Mac, who owns AW, and make a direct complaint. Or you could step back and consider how you're coming across here (I'll give you a clue: it's not well), and see what you can do to change that.

This might help. Why don't you re-read the part of my comment I'm going to quote below, and see if you could have another crack at it?

If you think someone is incorrect, then saying so is not terribly helpful. Explaining how you think they're incorrect, and what you think might be more accurate, is helpful.

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How was the line you quoted incorrect? Exactly? How could it have been improved? You're a writer: use your words.

I have used them and will continue to use them.

A Table of Contents made of hyperlinks can be automatically generated. So I do it.

If you’re talking about hyperlinks INSIDE chapters, I see them as useful in non-fiction but an annoyance in fiction.