diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/rtf/rtfml.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/rtf/rtfml.py
index 590beb85de..53ba7ecbd8 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/rtf/rtfml.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/rtf/rtfml.py
@@ -192,7 +192,7 @@ 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 \
+            if p is not None and isinstance(p.tag, basestring) and namespace(p.tag) == XHTML_NS \
                     and elem.tail:
                 return elem.tail
             return u''
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/txtml.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/txtml.py
index d71212fa8e..3ecb6940f8 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/txtml.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/txtml.py
@@ -156,7 +156,7 @@ def dump_text(self, elem, stylizer, end=''):
         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 \
+            if p is not None and isinstance(p.tag, basestring) and namespace(p.tag) == XHTML_NS \
                     and elem.tail:
                 return [elem.tail]
             return ['']