What file format does Kindle Direct Publishing accept?

For ebooks: DOCX, KPF (from Kindle Create), EPUB, HTML, RTF, plain text, and PDF with limited language support. MOBI has not been accepted for fixed-layout books since March 2025. EPUB is the format to send if you have a good one. It is what everything else gets converted into anyway.

Should I use Kindle Create?

If your book is going to be sold only on Amazon and you want to do no work, it is a reasonable choice: it is free, it is Amazon's own, and it produces a KPF that Amazon handles perfectly. What it does not do is produce a file any other retailer can take, or a print interior worth printing, so it is a dead end the moment you want to be on Kobo as well.

Do I need to pay for formatting?

No. Formatting services charge between about $50 and $400 a book, and for a straightforward novel they are doing something a tool can do in a minute. Pay for it when the book is complicated (heavy illustration, tables that matter, footnotes at the foot of the page, an academic apparatus), or when you would rather spend the money than the afternoon.

How do I make a table of contents for Kindle?

Do not type one. A Kindle's contents menu comes from the EPUB's navigation document, which is generated from the chapter structure; typed page numbers mean nothing in a reflowable book. If you also want a contents page inside the book, generate that too, but the menu is the one readers actually use.

Why does my Kindle book start on the copyright page?

Because the file declares no bodymatter landmark, so the reading system opens at the first document in the spine. Landmarks are two lines in the navigation document and they are what makes a book open at chapter one.

Can the same file be used for the paperback?

No, and this is the mistake that costs the most time. An ebook is reflowable: no pages, no margins, no fixed type size. A paperback interior is a PDF of fixed pages with mirrored margins and a gutter sized to its page count. They are different objects produced from the same manuscript.

How to format a book for Kindle

Amazon will accept almost any file you give it and convert the rest. That is the problem: nothing tells you the result is poor. Here is what to send instead, and what Amazon does with it.

Checked against the published specifications on 2026-10-17.

Kindle Direct Publishing is unusually forgiving about what you upload, and that is the trap. Hand it a Word document and it will convert it, show you a preview, and publish the result. Nothing in that loop ever says “the chapters did not split, every paragraph is indented including the first, and the contents menu is empty”. You find out from a review.

What Amazon accepts

Format	Verdict
EPUB	Send this. It is what everything else is converted into, so sending it means you made the decisions rather than Amazon's converter
KPF (Kindle Create)	Fine for Amazon only. It is a proprietary package no other retailer reads, so it is a dead end the day you want to be on Kobo or Apple Books
DOCX / DOC	Accepted and converted. Works; produces an average result; gives you no control over the parts that make a book look set
HTML, RTF, TXT	Accepted. No reason to prefer any of them over EPUB
PDF	Accepted with limited language support, and almost always the wrong choice for an ebook: a PDF has fixed pages and a Kindle reflows. Reserve it for fixed-layout books
MOBI	No longer accepted for fixed-layout books since March 2025. The format is retired; do not spend time producing one

Read from Amazon's KDP help pages on 2026-10-17.

Before you format anything

Three things are worth settling in the manuscript, because they are much harder to fix afterwards:

Apply Heading 1 to your chapter titles. Two minutes in Word, and it is the difference between chapter detection being right and being a guess. Every formatting tool, Amazon’s included, looks for this first.
Delete any table of contents you typed. Its page numbers are already wrong and a reflowable book has no pages for them to refer to.
Accept or reject your tracked changes. Otherwise some tool, somewhere, will decide for you, and they do not all decide the same way.

The decisions that are actually yours

Where the chapters are

Whatever tool you use, look at the chapter list it produces before you export. This is the single highest-value minute in the process: a novel split into one chapter, or into forty-three because every scene break was read as one, is a book that has to be redone.

What the front matter is

A title page, a copyright page, and, if the book has one, a dedication. In an ebook they are short and they come before the story, which means a reader who opens the sample sees them instead of your first page. Keep them to one screen each, and make sure the file declares a bodymatter landmark so the book opens at chapter one rather than at the ISBN.

Whether the book has a cover inside it

For Kindle specifically, the cover comes from the KDP dashboard and the one inside the file is ignored. For every other retailer, and for the reader’s own library grid, the one inside the file is the only one there is. Put it in.

The metadata

Title, author, language, and a sort name for the author if you want libraries to file the book under the surname. An ISBN if you have one: you do not need one for a Kindle ebook, where Amazon assigns an ASIN, and you do need one for a paperback unless you use the free one Amazon provides.

What to check in the preview

Amazon’s previewer is better than nothing and worse than a device. Four things are worth looking for specifically:

Does the contents menu list every chapter? Not the contents page, but the menu in the reader’s own interface.
Does the book open at chapter one? If it opens on the cover or the copyright page, the landmarks are missing.
Is the first paragraph of each chapter unindented? It should be. So should the first paragraph after every scene break.
Does a scene break survive? A blank line often does not: reading systems collapse white space. A break needs to be marked, not spaced.

And then the paperback

A Kindle ebook and a KDP paperback are different objects. The ebook reflows, with no pages, no margins, the reader’s own type size. The paperback is a PDF of fixed pages with mirrored margins and an inside margin sized to its final page count.

Produce both from the same manuscript rather than converting one into the other. The print-ready PDF page covers what the paperback needs.

Questions

What file format does Kindle Direct Publishing accept?: For ebooks: DOCX, KPF (from Kindle Create), EPUB, HTML, RTF, plain text, and PDF with limited language support. MOBI has not been accepted for fixed-layout books since March 2025. EPUB is the format to send if you have a good one. It is what everything else gets converted into anyway.
Should I use Kindle Create?: If your book is going to be sold only on Amazon and you want to do no work, it is a reasonable choice: it is free, it is Amazon's own, and it produces a KPF that Amazon handles perfectly. What it does not do is produce a file any other retailer can take, or a print interior worth printing, so it is a dead end the moment you want to be on Kobo as well.
Do I need to pay for formatting?: No. Formatting services charge between about $50 and $400 a book, and for a straightforward novel they are doing something a tool can do in a minute. Pay for it when the book is complicated (heavy illustration, tables that matter, footnotes at the foot of the page, an academic apparatus), or when you would rather spend the money than the afternoon.
How do I make a table of contents for Kindle?: Do not type one. A Kindle's contents menu comes from the EPUB's navigation document, which is generated from the chapter structure; typed page numbers mean nothing in a reflowable book. If you also want a contents page inside the book, generate that too, but the menu is the one readers actually use.
Why does my Kindle book start on the copyright page?: Because the file declares no bodymatter landmark, so the reading system opens at the first document in the spine. Landmarks are two lines in the navigation document and they are what makes a book open at chapter one.
Can the same file be used for the paperback?: No, and this is the mistake that costs the most time. An ebook is reflowable: no pages, no margins, no fixed type size. A paperback interior is a PDF of fixed pages with mirrored margins and a gutter sized to its page count. They are different objects produced from the same manuscript.

Try it on your own manuscript

Open a Word file and see the EPUB and the printed pages in a few seconds. Free, no account, and the manuscript never leaves your browser.

Format a book