How to Format a Book for Kindle (2026)

Kindle ebook formatting by the numbers

The handful of hard numbers in Amazon's Kindle rules, each from a KDP help page read on 22 Oct 2026.

What Kindle formatting actually means: reflowable text

A paperback is a set of fixed pages. You decide where every line breaks, what sits at the top of page 47, and how wide the margins are. A Kindle book has none of that. It is closer to a web page: a stream of text with structure (this is a chapter title, this is a paragraph, this is a picture) that the device lays out at the moment of reading. Change the font size and every line, screen and "page" changes with it.

That one fact explains almost every Kindle rule. There are no page numbers because there are no pages, and KDP's ebook formatting guide adds that ebooks have no headers or footers. A chapter starts on a new screen only if the file says "break here". A contents page works only if its entries are links. Fonts, sizes and spacing belong to the reader, so the file's job is to describe structure, not appearance.

The exception is fixed layout, where every screen is a designed page (children's picture books, comics, some cookbooks). That is a different kind of Kindle file, made with Kindle Create's comics and kids' tools or a fixed-layout EPUB, and most of this guide does not apply to it. If your book is mostly words, it should be reflowable. If you are making a picture book, see how to self-publish a children's book on Amazon and our picture book maker.

So the practical meaning of "format a book for Kindle" is: get the structure right, keep the styling light, and test on more than one screen. The paperback is a separate job with its own rules (trim size, margins, gutter, bleed), which our KDP formatting guide covers in full, with a margin checker. If you are setting up print by hand, the KDP paperback template page has the files.

Which file to upload: EPUB, DOCX or KPF

KDP's supported formats page (read 22 Oct 2026) lists three recommended manuscript formats for ebooks and a handful of additional ones. All three recommended formats work on Fire tablets, the Kindle apps and Kindle e-readers.

Our recommendation: upload an EPUB 3 if your tool can make a clean one, because you can check exactly what Amazon receives, and the same file works at every other ebook store. Upload a DOCX if you work in Word and your styles are tidy. Use KPF if you like Kindle Create's themes and only sell on Amazon. The ebook formats guide explains how EPUB, PDF and the rest differ, and KDP Select vs going wide helps decide whether Kindle-only is enough.

Headings and a linked table of contents

A Kindle book has two tables of contents, and readers use both. The first is the one you can see: a contents page near the front, with each chapter title as a tappable link. The second is invisible: a navigation file (the EPUB 3 nav document, or the older NCX) that feeds the Go To menu and the chapter list in the Kindle app. KDP's navigation guidelines call this logical table of contents especially important for books longer than 20 pages.

Both are built from your headings. That is why the single most useful thing you can do to a manuscript is apply a heading style to every chapter title. In Word, that means the Heading 1 style, which KDP's own formatting guide asks for; sections inside chapters get Heading 2. A title typed in bold 18-point body text looks the same on your screen but is just a paragraph to every tool that builds a contents page.

KDP's contents rules, in short

• Near the front, not the back. Place the visible contents page toward the beginning of the book.
• Every entry is a link. Readers tap an entry to go to that chapter. KDP's quality standards check that each one is clickable and lands in the right place.
• No page numbers. They are meaningless in a reflowable book and KDP asks you not to use them.
• No tables. Do not build the contents with a table to line things up.
• Two levels at most. Kindle supports two levels of nesting, such as parts and their chapters, or chapters and their main sections.
• Book order. Entries must follow the order of the book; Amazon requires the NCX to match it.

Keep chapter titles consistent. If chapter one is "Chapter 1: The Arrival", chapter two should not be "TWO" or "Low Tide" alone. A mixed list reads badly in the Go To menu and makes the book look unfinished. The checker above flags gaps in numbering, duplicates, typed page numbers and a third level of nesting. If you are still choosing titles, the title generator works for chapter titles too.

Images: size, format, and what they cost you per sale

Images in a Kindle book have two jobs: look sharp on a large tablet, and not make the file so big that every sale costs you money. KDP's image guidelines for reflowable books set the quality side:

• Width. Photos and other pictures at least 60% of the screen width; images with text (graphs, diagrams, maps) at least 80%, so the text is legible on small devices.
• Format and colour. JPEG for photos, PNG for line art, in the sRGB colour profile. Kindle does not support CMYK, TIFF, animated GIFs or transparent areas (transparent backgrounds are turned white).
• No text as pictures. Text that can be separated from the artwork, captions and tables should be real text, not part of the image.
• Alt text. Every image needs a description; purely decorative ones can carry an empty one on purpose.
• Sharpness. Amazon flags books with blurry images, or images with illegible text, with a content quality warning on the book's detail page.

KDP publishes no single pixel size for interior images. A full-width photo around 1,600 pixels on the long side matches the cover's ideal width and stays sharp on large tablets; beyond that you add file size, not detail. Our guide to ebook images goes deeper on compression and placement.

The delivery cost at the 70% royalty

At the 70% royalty, Amazon deducts a delivery cost from the list price (less VAT) before working out your share: a rate per megabyte of the file as Amazon measures it, rounded up to the kilobyte, minimum one cent. The 35% royalty has none. KDP's average is $0.06 a copy, about 0.4 MB on Amazon.com: a text-only book. Images move the number.

File size also sets the lowest price at the 35% royalty: on Amazon.com, $0.99 under 3 MB, $1.99 from 3 MB to under 10 MB, and $2.99 from 10 MB. For 70%, the list price must sit between $2.99 and $12.99 on Amazon.com (since 7 July 2026; £1.77 to £12.99 and €2.69 to €12.99), and at least 20% below the list price of any print edition. The KDP royalties guide works through the whole calculation, and the royalty calculator compares stores.

Front and back matter for a Kindle book

KDP says your ebook should include a title page with the title and author name. Beyond that, keep the front short. Amazon's "Look Inside" preview and the free sample a reader downloads both start at the beginning of the file, so every page of front matter is a page of your sample spent on something other than the story or the argument.

Some authors move acknowledgements to the back so the sample reaches chapter one sooner. A print index with page numbers does not work in a reflowable book: link the entries or leave it out. For the wording of the copyright page, use our copyright page template, and see do you need an ISBN (KDP does not require one for Kindle ebooks). If the book was written with AI help, KDP asks about it at publishing time: KDP's AI disclosure policy explains what to declare.

Preview with Kindle Previewer before you upload

Kindle Previewer is Amazon's free desktop app for checking a Kindle book. The current version, Kindle Previewer 4, runs on Windows 10 (64-bit) or later and on Intel and Apple silicon Macs with macOS 12 or later. It opens EPUB, KPF, DOC and DOCX (Word support is limited to English-language content) and HTML, and shows the book as it will look on Fire tablets, the Kindle apps for Android and iOS, and Kindle e-readers, in portrait and landscape, with different fonts and sizes.

After upload, KDP's online previewer shows the converted book in tablet, phone and e-reader modes (the e-reader in greyscale), with a spell check and an image check that flags images likely to look blurry. Use Previewer before upload and the online previewer after it.

A ten-minute preview routine

1. Open the contents page and tap every entry. Each should land on the right chapter title.
2. Check the Go To menu shows the same list, in order.
3. Page through two chapter openings at the default and largest sizes on the phone view.
4. Find every scene break and check it is visible, including one that falls at a screen boundary.
5. Look at every image on the phone view, then in greyscale on the e-reader view.
6. Switch to dark mode on the tablet view and check no text has disappeared.
7. Check the title page, the copyright page and the last page of the book.

How to format for Kindle in Word or Google Docs

Word is still the most common route, and KDP accepts the DOCX directly. The work is mostly cleaning up.

1. Start from styles. Set the Normal style to a first-line indent (KDP's example is 0.2 in), 0 pt before and after, single spacing. Use Heading 1 for chapters, Heading 2 for sections.
2. Clear direct formatting from the body text so the styles take over, then re-apply italics where needed.
3. Remove print furniture: headers, footers, page number fields and manual line breaks inside paragraphs.
4. Find and replace tabs (^t) with nothing, and double paragraph marks (^p^p) with single ones, unless you have marked scene breaks with a symbol first.
5. Insert page breaks before each chapter (Insert, Page Break).
6. Insert the contents from References, Table of Contents, with page numbers turned off so the entries are links.
7. Insert images in line with text, at their final size, and add alt text to each.
8. Save as DOCX and open it in Kindle Previewer.

Google Docs handles the same steps with its own menus: apply Heading 1 from the style list, set the indent in the ruler or paragraph options and update Normal text to match, insert a contents block with blue links (not page numbers), and add page breaks from Insert, Break. Then download as a Word document (.docx) or as EPUB (File, Download), and check either in Kindle Previewer. Our manuscript import guide shows how to bring a Word or Docs file into Inkfluence AI with headings intact.

Kindle Create, Vellum and Atticus

Three formatting tools come up whenever authors ask how to format for Kindle. Facts below were read on each maker's pages on 22 Oct 2026.

Kindle Create suits a straightforward novel sold only on Amazon; its limits show with lists, tables and notes. Vellum produces beautiful books on a Mac; Atticus is the cheaper cross-platform choice. All three expect a finished manuscript. If you are choosing between the two paid apps, Atticus vs Vellum compares them side by side, and our best book formatting software ranking covers the wider field.

Kindle formatting checklist, step by step

The whole process in order.

1. Mark the structure. Heading 1 on chapter titles, Heading 2 on sections, one naming pattern throughout.
2. Clean the body text. Indents in the style; no tabs, blank lines, fixed sizes, colours, headers, footers or page numbers.
3. Break chapters and scenes. A page break before each chapter; a visible centred symbol for each scene break.
4. Prepare the images. sRGB JPEG or PNG, no transparency, about 1,600 px for full-width photos, alt text, packed into the file.
5. Assemble front and back matter. Title, copyright and linked contents at the start; About the Author at the end.
6. Export the file. EPUB 3, a clean DOCX, or KPF from Kindle Create.
7. Make the cover. 2,560 x 1,600 pixels, RGB JPEG, legible as a thumbnail.
8. Preview. Kindle Previewer 4 on every device view, two font sizes, dark mode, every contents link.
9. Check the size and price. Work out the delivery cost and price inside the royalty band you want.
10. Upload and check again in KDP's online previewer.

Then publish. The account, listing, categories and pricing steps are in self-publishing on Amazon KDP, and how to sell ebooks on Amazon KDP covers what happens after launch. Planning the paperback too? Start at paperback publishing on KDP and choose a size from the KDP trim sizes guide.

Sources

All checked 22 Oct 2026. Amazon changes KDP help pages without notice; if a number here and KDP's page disagree, KDP's page wins. Inkfluence AI facts come from our product code on the same date.

• KDP: Supported eBook formats: DOCX, KPF and EPUB recommended; HTML, RTF, TXT and PDF additional; PDF languages.
• KDP: MOBI support for eBooks: reflowable MOBI ended 1 August 2021, fixed-layout 18 March 2025.
• KDP: eBook manuscript formatting guide: no page numbers, headers or footers; Heading 1; page breaks; indents not tabs; drop caps; title page; cover not in the manuscript; footnotes.
• Kindle Publishing Guidelines: Navigation: HTML contents and logical contents (nav, NCX), links, two levels of nesting.
• Kindle Publishing Guidelines: Text (reflowable): default body size, fonts and licences, drop caps, indents, spacing, colour.
• Kindle Publishing Guidelines: Images (reflowable): screen widths, formats, sRGB, alt text, quality warnings.
• KDP: Cover image guidelines for Kindle eBooks and eBook cover guidelines: 2,560 x 1,600 px, limits, formats, RGB.
• KDP: eBook royalties: 70% formula, average delivery cost $0.06.
• KDP: Pricing page: delivery cost per MB by marketplace, minimums, rounding, print-price rule.
• KDP: List price requirements: 70% band $2.99 to $12.99 from 7 July 2026; 35% minimums by file size.
• KDP: Kindle Previewer: version 4, systems, file types, device views.
• KDP: Upload and preview book content: online previewer, spell and image checks, language mismatch.
• KDP: QA standards: quality issues, file limits, suppression.
• KDP: Kindle Create: import, themes, contents, images, limits, KPF.
• Vellum: prices, Mac only, EPUB output.
• Atticus: price, platforms, exports.
• Google Workspace Updates: Export Google Docs files as EPUB.

Amazon, Kindle, KDP, Kindle Create and Kindle Previewer are trademarks of Amazon. Vellum, Atticus, Microsoft Word and Google Docs are trademarks of their owners. Inkfluence AI is an independent tool and is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of them.