In this article (7 sections)
For a plain-text book, the fastest reliable path to a Kindle edition is a clean Word file with real chapter styles, a working table of contents, and a check in Kindle Previewer before upload. For a book with images, tables, drop caps or a designed layout, build it in Kindle Create (or a professional tool) instead. Which path you pick matters more than any single formatting step, and the checks at the end are what keep a finished book on sale.
Amazon’s own formatting guide is the page most people land on. It is accurate, but it only teaches the Word route, and the list of problems that can get a book removed lives on a separate quality page. This guide puts the decision and the checks in one place, using only what KDP’s help pages state.
Step one: choose the file path
KDP’s format page lists the formats it recommends. Here is how they compare in practice:
| Path | What KDP says | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Word (DOC/DOCX) | Most files convert well; files with complex formatting may not. | Plain-text books: novels, simple non-fiction. | Conversion surprises. Always preview. |
| Kindle Create (KPF) | Handles typesetting for all Kindle devices and apps; themes, a table of contents and image placement built in. | Books with images or styled elements. Beginners who want fewer surprises. | Supports eBooks in Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish (plus beta languages). |
| EPUB | Accepted if it meets the Kindle Publishing Guidelines. | Books already produced in a professional tool. | Validate in Kindle Previewer before upload. |
| MOBI | No longer accepted for fixed-layout eBooks from March 2025. | Not for new projects. | Skip it. |
If you are unsure, the decision rule is simple. Text only and no special layout: Word. Anything with images, tables, drop caps or styled boxes: Kindle Create or a professional tool. If you outsource, see our guide to what eBook formatting costs.
Step two: format the manuscript in Word
KDP’s Word guide comes down to a handful of settings. Use styles, not manual formatting, so one change applies everywhere:
- Set paragraph indentation in the Normal style. Tab spacing does not convert to Kindle, so set a first-line indent of 0.2 inches (5 mm) in the paragraph settings instead. Set spacing before and after to 0 pt and line spacing to single.
- Apply Heading 1 to every chapter title. This is what the table of contents is built from, and KDP suggests centring the titles.
- Insert real page breaks (Insert tab, Page Break) wherever a page should end. Do not press Enter repeatedly. KDP specifically warns against hard returns at the end of every line.
- Leave out what eBooks do not use. Page numbers, headers and footers do not apply because eBooks reflow at any font size. KDP also advises against text boxes and shapes for diagrams (insert them as images) and says to keep Track Changes out of the final file.
- Keep the cover out of the manuscript. Upload it separately.
- Add front and back matter. KDP expects a title page with the book title and author name.
Step three: build a working table of contents
A table of contents is not optional. KDP says a working one lets readers navigate between chapters, and a broken one is a listed quality problem. There are two parts: a TOC page near the front, and the Kindle Interactive TOC that appears in the Kindle menu from anywhere in the book.
In Word (per KDP’s instructions): apply Heading 1 to each chapter, insert an Automatic Table of Contents from the References tab, then choose Custom Table of Contents, clear “Show Page Numbers” and set “Show levels” to 1. Finally, select the TOC title, add a bookmark named toc, and put a page break after the contents.
In Kindle Create, the tool finds chapter titles automatically when you import the file; you confirm them and the interactive TOC is created.
Step four: prepare the cover
KDP’s cover requirements, from its help page:
- Format: JPEG or TIFF.
- Dimensions: ideal 2,560 pixels high by 1,600 wide; minimum 1,000 high by 625 wide; maximum 10,000 on either side. Aim for a height-to-width ratio of at least 1.6:1.
- Colour and size: RGB, under 50 MB, uploaded with minimal compression.
- A pale cover needs an edge. KDP notes that covers with white or very light backgrounds can disappear against the white page, and suggests a narrow, medium-grey border of three to four pixels.
- Keep promotions off it. KDP lists references to advertisements or promotions, such as the word “free,” among common cover problems.
Step five: the pre-upload checklist, ranked by severity
KDP’s Content Quality guide sorts problems into three tiers, and the tier decides what happens to your book. Critical issues get a book removed from sale until corrected. Destructive issues stop readers understanding the intended meaning. Distracting issues briefly pull readers out of the book; excessive amounts can still lead to removal, and a moderate amount can leave the book on sale with a temporary quality warning on its detail page.
Check these in Kindle Previewer, which shows the book on tablets, Kindle e-readers and phones:
Critical (fix before anything else)
- Body text rendered bold, italic, underlined or as a hyperlink.
- Excessive body-text margins (KDP’s critical threshold is padding more than a quarter of the screen wide).
- Forced text colours, such as white text or a forced black background, that make the text unreadable.
- Tables with content cut off at the default font size. Avoid tables for non-tabular content such as sidebars and lists; if you must use one, add more cells so there are more places for it to break.
- A repeated chapter that is also mislabelled, usually a copy-and-paste error.
Links and navigation
- Every table-of-contents link works, and the Go To menu items (cover, beginning, table of contents) land where a reader expects.
- Footnotes are linked both ways. KDP lists an unlinked footnote as a link issue.
- External links work, and none point to other commercial eBook stores.
Destructive and distracting
- Typos, including the sneaky kinds KDP lists: numbers in place of letters, junk characters and stray HTML tags.
- Metadata that matches the file: the title, series and subtitle in your manuscript should match what you enter in KDP, and metadata should not contain URLs, keywords or promotions.
- Blurry images, or images containing text that is unreadable at Kindle sizes.
- Cover problems KDP lists as common: a blurry cover, a missing cover, extra margins or an oversized image that does not display fully, and a cover image inserted into the manuscript file.
- Unsupported characters: strings of jumbled characters or boxed question marks in Previewer usually mean an unsupported accent or symbol.
Do one more pass on a real device if you can. KDP warns that Previewer and Kindle for PC do not always reproduce table display accurately, so check tables on a physical Kindle if one is available.
Step six: upload
If you used only Word, save as DOC or DOCX and upload it from your KDP Bookshelf. If you used Kindle Create, click Publish in the tool to prepare the KPF file and upload that instead. Use the Online Previewer inside KDP for a final check before submitting.
When to hand it off
DIY formatting is realistic for a plain-text book if you can spare a few evenings and are formatting once for one retailer. It stops being realistic when the book has illustrations, complex tables, several retailer formats or a designed layout. Our eBook and digital publishing service covers formatting through distribution, and the pricing guide linked above shows what each route typically costs.