Amazon Kindle eBook Formatting (Simplified Guide)

One of the most important factors that decide whether your book is going to be a hit or miss in Amazon is its formatting. Well, that might surprise you, and for good reason.

Many think this that having excellent content alone is important to make sure that your book is liked by everybody.

We tend to disagree with that because we think that good content, or story, is just one of the reasons for your success.

In the grand scheme of eBooks and ePublishing, formatting has played the crucial role it is now. As such, it is important that everyone wants to publish their work on Amazon Kindle Publishing must know how to publish a book on Amazon to succeed in their efforts to reach the heights they aspire to reach.

We have created this guide to help you make the process of formatting for kindle more effective and effortless.

Follow the below-given process step-by-step to get the same done like a professional company offering Kindle conversion services in the market.

Step#1: Build Your Book 

In order to make the process of formatting easier, we recommend that you use Microsoft Word for building your book. You can either write the book in MS Word or have it converted to the Word format later.

If you want to have the best presentation of your book, the following tips will help you to make kindle formatting in word effortless;

The File Format: Make sure that the content is saved either in DOC or DOCX format.

Tables: If you need tables in your book, use ‘Insert Table’ in MS Word.

The Layout: Though MS Word has plenty of options to choose from when it comes to paragraph indentations, headings, bold characters and italics, it is always preferable to use the default setting for all of it.

Further, refrain from using special header, footer and/or fonts since they do not translate at all into the Kindle format.

Page Breaks: Make sure that each page of your book has a Page Break at the end to keep the texts from running into each other. You can select ‘Insert’ from the menu bar of MS Word and then ‘Page Break’ for the same.

Line Breaks: Since Word automatically takes you to the next line while you type, you need not hit enter with every line as you type. If you need to have a line break in the middle of your paragraph or a sentence, press Shift+Enter to keep the spacing same throughout the document.

Image Placement: In order to create the best user-experience for the readers, always insert files in the JPEG format aligned to center. This creates a great viewing experience.

Avoid copying and pasting the image from any other source.

To insert an image in the file, go to Insert on the menu bar and click on Picture. Locate the file you have saved and open the same. It is important to make sure that you do not include the cover image in the manuscript file as doing so can pave way for issues.

It is automatically added even you publish or republish your book.

Editing and Reviewing: While you can use the default ‘Spelling and Grammar’ under ‘Review’ section on the menu bar, it is always important that you thoroughly proofread your document. The manual process is in fact very crucial. 

Step#2: The Front Matter

It includes the beginning pages of your book as Title Page, Preface, Prologue, Dedication and Copyright Page.

The Title Page: You need to center the title page. The title of the book must come on the top with the name of the author underneath.

You can then insert a page break to the same. 

Now, select ‘Insert’ from the menu bar of MS Word and then ‘Page Break’ for the same.

The Copyright Page: After the title page comes the Copyright Page. After entering the details regarding copyright, insert a page break.

Dedication: In case you need to have a customized Dedication, it must come after the Copyright Page. Do not forget to add a Page Break.

Preface: In case you need to have a Preface for your book, it must come after the Dedication. Do not forget to add a Page Break.

Prologue: In case you need to have a Prologue for your book, it must come after the Preface. Do not forget to add a Page Break.

Formatting the Text 

After creating the front matter, you can begin formatting your content. You must include the text spacing, indentations, and separate paragraphs as you build your book. You must also keep in mind to insert Page Break at the end of the last sentence of every chapter. While this is time-consuming, it is really an important matter since it will improve the reading experience of the user.

Hard Returns 

Hard returns can help you start a new line irrespective of the ways how the margins are set.  As such, when you have Hard Returns in the document, it will make sure that each of the lines will end at the same place even when there are changes in the margin set.

Paragraphs 

Instead of tab spacing your paragraphs, it is important that indent the paragraphs.

In order to do that, Open the ‘Page Layout’ and click on the ‘Paragraph Dialog Box Launcher’.

Choose the ‘Indents and Spacing’. You can see ‘Indentation’ under the ‘Special List’. Click on the ‘First Line’ option and then check the ‘By’ option you can see there.

Set the value you want for the indent.

Creating a Table of Contents 

A Table of Contents is really important to make the process of navigation easier. As Kindle produces reflowable eBooks, page numbers aren’t used while creating Table of Contents.

Use the built-in option in MS Word to create a Table of Contents

You can only create a Table of Contents on Mac with the help of Bookmark and Hyperlink functionalities.

The Font to Be Used

In case your book has unique font styles in the Word file and you want to keep them, together with the font file, use an HTML source file.

Page Numbers and Page Count 

Since the eBooks in Kindle are reflowable, the concept of page numbers does not really count here.

Also when it comes to Amazon Kindle publishing, content that is too short will not be allowed to be published as Amazon looks not to publish anything that disappoints the readers.

Text Boxes and Shapes 

If you need to insert visuals onto the book, it is important to put them as images for the best experience.

Drop Caps 

Drop Caps are the large capital letter that you can see at the starting of a cluster of textual content with a few lines of normal text.

 

Typically, they are used as the first letter of a paragraph at the beginning of a chapter.

While the Drop Caps are supported by the Kindle format, it may not appear as you want if uploaded directly from the Word document. As such you need to edit the same in the HTML manuscript to ensure that you get it as expected.

Saving the eBook as Filtered HTML 

Now that you have given the required Page Breaks to the eBook and are confident about the layout of the same, you can begin to upload to Kindle. For this, you need to save the Word file under the Document folder or at Desktop in Web Page or Web Page, Filtered format.

Upload the eBook for Sale on Amazon 

After you have the eBook that appeals well too and satisfies your expectations, you can now upload the file to the KDP Bookshelf via your account. This will take you to the final stage of Amazon Kindle direct publishing.

If you find the process of Kindle publishing harder than you thought, you can use the support of an eBook conversion company like us at a really affordable rate while being assured of impeccable quality.