diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/input.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/input.py
index 9b1d80be3f..7be1a3449a 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/input.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/input.py
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ class TXTInput(InputFormatPlugin):
                 html = convert_markdown(txt, disable_toc=options.markdown_disable_toc)
             except RuntimeError:
                 raise ValueError('This txt file has malformed markup, it cannot be'
-                    'converted by calibre. See http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax')
+                    ' converted by calibre. See http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax')
         else:
             html = convert_basic(txt)
 
diff --git a/src/calibre/web/fetch/simple.py b/src/calibre/web/fetch/simple.py
index ecb0315bb2..7101facbf9 100644
--- a/src/calibre/web/fetch/simple.py
+++ b/src/calibre/web/fetch/simple.py
@@ -191,9 +191,9 @@ class RecursiveFetcher(object):
         if isinstance(url, unicode):
             url = url.encode('utf-8')
         # Not sure is this is really needed as I think mechanize
-        # handles quoting automatically, but leaving it in
+        # handles quoting automatically, but leaving it
         # in case it breaks something
-        if re.search(r'\s+|,', url) is not None:
+        if re.search(r'\s+', url) is not None:
             purl = list(urlparse.urlparse(url))
             for i in range(2, 6):
                 purl[i] = quote(purl[i])