diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/mobi/writer.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/mobi/writer.py
index b3f8160e3a..0c33dffef2 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/mobi/writer.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/mobi/writer.py
@@ -1818,7 +1818,7 @@ class MobiWriter(object):
             text = text.strip()
             if not isinstance(text, unicode):
                 text = text.decode('utf-8', 'replace')
-            text = text.encode('utf-8')
+            text = normalize(text).encode('utf-8')
         else :
             text = "(none)".encode('utf-8')
         return text