Since around the start of this year, Amazon has been testing out a spell checker for ebooks published on its Kindle Direct Publishing service and now it seems to have the checker in full operation across KDP.
Amazon’s KDP spell check highlights possible spelling errors and allows you to view them and ignore the ones you consider to be correct.It’s a really useful addition to KDP, although there have been some complaints that the check slows down book uploading and highlights some correct spellings, as do all spell checkers. You can choose to ignore any highlighted words which are spelled correctly.
It operates not only on newly uploaded books but also on books which have been on KDP for some time. I was horrified to see that two books I published a few months ago contained typos, admittedly only one and three apiece.
I had proof-read and spell-checked these books several times before putting them on KDP but inevitably mistakes can still be made, so I think Amazon should be applauded for adding this service. It does mean you have make changes to your book file and upload it again but that’s a minor inconvenience compared with ensuring your book is typo-free. It would be fantastic if you could make the changes on the fly within KDP but that would probably be a complex and expensive system to implement.
Perhaps the next move for Amazon should be making the spell-check results public. If the book description said: “This book has 277 spelling errors” perhaps the writers and publishers who produce error-strewn books would be shamed into sorting out their mistakes.