diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/oeb/transforms/split.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/oeb/transforms/split.py
index 65fdb91698..24a77fe0e6 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/oeb/transforms/split.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/oeb/transforms/split.py
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ class Split(object):
         if splitter.was_split:
             am = splitter.anchor_map
             self.map[item.href] = collections.defaultdict(
-                    am.default_factory, **am)
+                    am.default_factory, am)
 
     def find_page_breaks(self, item):
         if self.page_break_selectors is None:
diff --git a/src/calibre/gui2/tools.py b/src/calibre/gui2/tools.py
index e2136cf0ed..4ee5e9bb2a 100644
--- a/src/calibre/gui2/tools.py
+++ b/src/calibre/gui2/tools.py
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ def convert_single_ebook(parent, db, book_ids, auto_conversion=False,  # {{{
                             index_is_id=True)
 
                 out_file = PersistentTemporaryFile('.' + d.output_format)
-                out_file.write(d.output_format)
+                out_file.write(d.output_format.encode('utf-8'))
                 out_file.close()
                 temp_files = [in_file]