Formatting your Word document for publishing on Kindle for Amazon KDP

(Revised 31st March 2021)

(EDIT) Now KDP accepts Microsoft Word documents without saving them as "Filtered HTML", which makes things easier. Also, the updates to office have moved things around. Spelling & Grammar is now under "Editor". Software engineers do love to fiddle with things. I'm sure you can work it out. Good luck!

Today on the “Captain’s Blog”, I’m going to give you the basic tips on how to format your book in order to successfully publish on Amazon Kindle. If you’re anything like I was before I published for the first time, then you’ve probably written your book, most probably in Microsoft Word, and you are thinking “Right! What do I do next?”

Formatting your book is really difficult… the first time you do it. You’ll almost certainly have done some of the formatting wrong and will have to re-edit the whole book. As the Hitchhiker's Guide proudly announces on its front cover...

DON’T PANIC!

It’s alright. Breathe slowly and I’ll get you through this. I had to completely re-edit the whole of my first book and take out every single tab and return. It took HOURS. But, when you've done this once, you’ll know for next time and the formatting will become second nature to you.

I’m assuming that, being a writer, you have a reasonable grasp of Microsoft Word. The instructions below work for my, rather old version of Word (2002). You may have to experiment to find out how to do the same thing if you have a more recent version of Word or you are using another word processor.

(EDIT: I've had to learn the chapter headings all over again in the updated version of Office 365, but the basic skills here are correct.)

Unless you’re including pictures inside your book, file size shouldn’t be a problem, but it must be kept less than 50 meg. I looked into adding pictures and on my first run, my brain melted, so I didn’t bother. I’ll leave it up to you to work that one out. I’m concentrating here on a purely text novel. Do NOT paste in images, it won’t work.

So, let’s begin…

1) Do NOT use tabs!

This is the biggest mistake. I made it and, as mentioned above, I had to re-format my whole book. Instead of using tabs, you set the automatic first line indentation as follows:

Format > Paragraph > Indents and Spacing > Indentation > Special > First Line 0.51cm

This sets every first line in a new paragraph automatically to 0.51cm, which gives a professional “book” look. The measurements are set in your preferences to either cm or inches. Do not forget, however, to remove the indentation at the very start of each new section within a chapter. Simply click before the first word of the new section and press backspace. This is a mistake that I see in a lot of indie books and it doesn’t look professional. Look at a print book and you won't see any indent at the start of a chapter and each subsequent new section.

(EDIT: All my screen grabs are from Office 365. You'll have to experiment to find where stuff is in your version.)

2) Do NOT use returns to put spaces in between sections.

The way that a Kindle reader works means that it doesn’t recognise things like font size and returns. If you do use returns, then the book might look wrong on a Kindle viewer. To insert a space between sections…

Format > Paragraph > Indents & Spacing > Spacing > After > 24pt.

I use 24pt to separate sections and 24pt after a Chapter heading. You can use whatever you wish. To make sure that you don’t have any errant returns hiding in your book…

View > Show Paragraph Marks (Tick ON)

This will show a mark wherever there is a return. If you’ve used the method above, there should be no marks in between lines of text.

3) No Headers or Footers (Like page numbers)

A reader of your book can set the font size to whatever they want. This means that, unlike in a paperback, there are no set page sizes. That in turn means that headers and footers generally don’t work and mess up the formatting. Don’t use them.

4) Do not use different font sizes.

Similarly, as outlined above, different font sizes will not show properly on a Kindle because the reader can change the font size to whatever they want. Stick to one font size for the whole document. I use Garamond, 11 Point, Line Spaced Single.

5) Justify both sides.

This seems obvious, but it makes the final document look more like a book page.

6) Insert page breaks at the end of chapters.

Again, this is quite obvious, but necessary to separate the chapters so that your “Table of Contents” navigator will work properly.

Insert > Break > Page Break

7) Chapter Titles.

This bit is VERY important. The look of your Chapter headings can be as you wish, within reason. They should be the same font and size as the rest of the document. I usually centre mine and make them bold and CAPS. I don’t use underlining, but that’s a personal preference.

In order for your Table of Contents to work properly, you need to tell the Word document that this is a Chapter Heading and not body text. There are other ways to do this in Word, but this is the simplest way and it works for me. Highlight the whole Chapter Heading with your mouse, then…

View > Toolbars > Outlining

With the Chapter Heading selected, change the text in the Outlining box from “Body Text” to “Level 1”. I know for a fact this works differently in later versions of Word, but it took me five minutes to find out how to do it. The main point is to make your Chapter Headings something other than “Body Text”, however you do it.

(EDIT: In later versions of Word, the text styles are under the "Home" tab and in the big white ribbon at the top of the screen.)

So that’s how to deal with the bulk of your novel. Now let’s talk briefly about the front end of the book. You should have the following pages right at the start AND in this order.

TITLE PAGE:

This should have the book title and authors name. They should be centred and I make mine bold too. Insert a page break after the author, just as at the end of each chapter.

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION:

This should have the same basic information as your product page on Amazon. The blurb comes first, then any special information like the series number. Lastly, I include a warning about the swearing in my books.

COPYRIGHT PAGE:

Look at some other books to see what language they use and place something similar here. Again, it should be centred. Page break afterwards. I also include the edition number of the book here.

DEDICATION:

“To my darling whatsit, this book is for you my dear because you are geet lush!” Include any acknowledgements to people you want to thank. Centred: Page break after.

CONTENTS PAGE:

This is a bit trickier. To insert a Table of Contents (TOC), first create a page after the Dedication. Put the title “Table of Contents” at the top then a single return. Click underneath the title on the next line down.

Insert > References >Index & Tables > Table of Contents (Click on the Tab).

Set “Show Levels” to “1” and un-click “Show Page Numbers”

This will insert an automatic TOC with all the Chapter Headings that you made earlier into “Level 1” . If you don’t like the font or bold or justification, you can simply highlight the whole TOC and change it. If you need to change chapter titles, add or remove chapters at a later date, you’ll need to update the TOC. To do this simply click anywhere inside the TOC and press F9. You’ll see the whole TOC refresh.

(EDIT: Confusingly, the new version of Word has the TOC under "References"...)

Now you need to Bookmark the Table of Contents. This will enable readers to navigate straight back to the TOC from anywhere in the book and then skip to a chapter of their choice.

Highlight and select the page title “Table of Contents” at the top of the page with the mouse.

Insert > Bookmark > Type in “TOC” then click “Add”.

If you want to check that this works, scroll down to a later section of your book and then click…

Edit > Goto

A box comes up that enables you to navigate to bookmarks that you’ve inserted. Choose TOC and it should take you straight there. You can insert any bookmarks that you like, but I stick to just the TOC.

Your Cover:

According to the guide, your book cover artwork should be a JPEG which is 1000 x 1600 Pixels. I create all my covers as 2000 x 3200 Pixels at 300 dpi initially. Then I save a copy at half that size ready for upload. Try and stick to just the Title and Author on the cover. Too much text clutters up the cover, save that for the product description. Your cover should still be legible when zoomed down to a thumbnail, as most people will see it that way on Amazon.

Lastly, before you upload your book to Kindle:

1) Spell check - AGAIN! Make sure you haven’t missed something obvious.

2) Double check the formatting. Check your TOC works and there are no tabs, returns etc. Go through EVERYTHING above.

3) Get someone else to proof-read your book, preferably someone with language and grammar experience. My wife does mine and she is a qualified teacher. She is exceptional, but occasionally, even she misses something. Don’t just rely on friend who may read the book for the story, but not bother to point out your mistakes.

Once all that is done, save the Word document as “Filtered HTML Document” or “Web Page Filtered” (depending on your version of Word). When the message pops up “Remove Office Tags?” click on yes.

Your book is now ready for Uploading! Hurrah!

Log onto Amazon. Click on “Sign In” and then once you’ve put in your e-mail and password click “Add New Title”.

Follow the instructions on screen. I won’t go into details here as the on screen instructions are pretty good and there is a very thorough help page.

When you’ve put in your book details, uploaded the book content and the cover, preview the book using the online Kindle previewer. Review the front matter. Ensure the TOC links work for every chapter. This is laborious, but I go from the TOC to every chapter and then back again until I get to the last chapter. Check the Artwork looks okay. Close the previewer.

Hit "save" and the website will take you onto the page where you decide the price for your book. Again, follow the on screen instructions and then hit “Save and Publish!

That’s it, you are now an author!

Now comes the hard part. You thought that writing the book was difficult? Next you have to promote it. I wish you all the best. Drop by Twitter and say hi if you have any further questions. @JonGardener

I'm off for a walk in the snow. Good luck!

Jon.