diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/rtf/rtfml.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/rtf/rtfml.py
index 3869c05152..590beb85de 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/rtf/rtfml.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/rtf/rtfml.py
@@ -191,6 +191,10 @@ class RTFMLizer(object):
     def dump_text(self, elem, stylizer, tag_stack=[]):
         if not isinstance(elem.tag, basestring) \
            or namespace(elem.tag) != XHTML_NS:
+            p = elem.getparent()
+            if isinstance(p.tag, basestring) and namespace(p.tag) == XHTML_NS \
+                    and elem.tail:
+                return elem.tail
             return u''
 
         text = u''
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/txtml.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/txtml.py
index bb730c0720..d71212fa8e 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/txtml.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/txtml.py
@@ -155,6 +155,10 @@ class TXTMLizer(object):
 
         if not isinstance(elem.tag, basestring) \
            or namespace(elem.tag) != XHTML_NS:
+            p = elem.getparent()
+            if isinstance(p.tag, basestring) and namespace(p.tag) == XHTML_NS \
+                    and elem.tail:
+                return [elem.tail]
             return ['']
 
         text = ['']