Kindle Direct Publishing

Self-publishers can convert books into electronic format using Amazon's self-publishing tools and sell them on Amazon Kindle with Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). KDP is a fast, easy selfpublishing system for Amazon Kindle. Upload your content, enter sales copy and pricing information, and publish in minutes. Learn more or sign up.

Kindle Create

Use Kindle Create (PC or Mac) to transform your completed manuscript into a beautiful Kindle eBook. You can make three types of eBooks with Kindle Create:

• If you have a text-heavy book, your DOC(X) file is converted into a "reflowable" eBook. Reflowable eBooks allow the reader to resize text and are available on all Kindle devices and free Kindle reading applications. Reflowable books can be read using a screen reader or refreshable braille display when supported by the device or reading application.
• If you have a comic book or graphic novel, your PDF is converted into a comic eBook. Comic eBooks include Guided View, which animates panel-to-panel movement with each swipe to give a clear indication of how the story progresses across each page. Comic eBooks do not currently provide support for reading with a screen reader.
• If you have a book with lots of images and complex formatting, your PDF is converted into a Print Replica eBook. Print Replica eBooks maintain the look of their print editions and offer many of the advantages of standard Kindle eBooks, but they do not allow the reader to resize text and are only available on certain devices. They are also not accessible to readers using screen readers or refreshable braille displays.

Kindle Create works with DOC and DOCX files exported from any source, including Microsoft Word, Apple Pages, Google Docs, and other applications. It also supports importing PDF files for creating interactive textbooks with embedded audio and video.

Note: We accept PDF files, but they can contain embedded formatting and/or images that don't convert well to eBooks. If you'd like to upload a PDF file for your book, preview it before you publish. If you see any issues or if your book doesn't look the way you want it to, you can use Kindle Create to convert PDFs that contain rich graphics like charts, graphs, and equations.

Kindle Create supports eBooks in Dutch, English, French, German, Gujarati, Hindi, Italian, Malayalam, Marathi, Portuguese, Spanish, and Tamil. Kindle Create is available for PC (Windows 10 or later) and Mac OS (10.15 or later). Download the most recent version of Kindle Create.

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Creating Kindle Books In-House Using Kindle Publisher Tools

Publishers can create Kindle books in-house from HTML, XHTML, and EPUB files by using the Kindle Publisher tools. Amazon officially supports these tools to create books for publishing on Kindle. Files created with third-party software may not work properly on current or future Kindle devices and applications.

Kindle Previewer

Kindle Previewer is a tool that imitates how books display on Kindle devices and applications. Kindle Previewer makes it easy to preview the layout of a book and make sure its content displays properly for different screen sizes, display orientations, and font sizes.

Kindle Previewer 3 supports previewing your book with the latest typographic and layout improvements that come with Enhanced Typesetting, and provides a better reflection of how your book is delivered to customers' devices. You can get a bird's-eye view of your book to quickly validate the overall layout, and selectively preview key aspects such as images, tables, drop caps, links, and lists.

Kindle Previewer is available for Windows and Mac OS X. Download the most recent version of Kindle Previewer.

Note: Use EPUB, DOCX, or KPF files for publishing reflowable content. MOBI is not recommended for reflowable content. MOBI is no longer support for reflowable content. Kindle Previewer is the best way to validate your content before publishing. We no longer recommend sideloading eBooks to devices for testing. Sideloading does not provide an accurate preview of Enhanced Typesetting features.

Kindle Comic Creator

Kindle Comic Creator is a free tool for authors and publishers to turn graphic novels, comics, and manga into Kindle books. Kindle Comic Creator makes it easy to import original artwork, optimize the experience of readers, and preview how a book will look on Kindle devices.

Kindle Comic Creator accepts single or multi-page source files in PDF, JPG/JPEG, TIF/TIFF, PPM, or PNG formats, so authors are free to create artwork using their preferred design tools. More detailed guidance for graphic novels/manga/comics can be found in section 11.

Kindle Comic Creator is available for Windows and Mac OS X. Download the most recent version of Kindle Comic Creator.

Kindle Kids' Book Creator

Kindle Kids' Book Creator is a free tool that authors and publishers can use to turn illustrated kids' books into Kindle books. This tool makes it easy to import original artwork, optimize the experience of readers, and preview how a book will look on Kindle devices and applications.

Kindle Kids' Book Creator accepts source files in JPG/JPEG, TIF/TIFF, PNG, and PPM formats, so authors are free to create artwork using their preferred design tools. More detailed guidance for children's books can be found in section 10.

Kindle Kids' Book is available for Windows and Mac OS X. Download the most recent version of Kindle Kids' Book Creator.

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Cover Creator

You can use our free Cover Creator tool to design a cover for your eBook or paperback. The tool allows you to customize your cover with a variety of layouts and fonts. Cover Creator uses the book details you enter during title setup and adds your book's ISBN to the barcode area of the back cover. Many Cover Creator templates allow you to choose an image from our image gallery or upload your own image. The tool accepts JPG, PNG and TIF/TIFF files. For more information, visit Cover Creator.

Note: Cover Creator isn't supported on kdp.amazon.co.jp.

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Third-Party Conversion Services

Publishers have the option to outsource conversion of titles from a variety of file formats to eBook formats. Conversion houses offer publishers solutions and services that include taking a variety of input formats and creating eBook or print-ready output. The typical input formats are:

• Word (DOC, DOCX), Rich Text Format (RTF), Text (TXT)
• PDF
• Scan of print book
• FrameMaker, InDesign, PageMaker, QuarkXPress
• XML (such as DocBook, etc.)
• HTML, XHTML
• EPUB (also known as IDPF or OEB)

As you explore conversion house options, Amazon recommends that you confirm which source format(s) the conversion house requires to convert files for use on Kindle.

The preferred outputs from conversion houses to be processed by Amazon are:

• Books in EPUB format
• Metadata in ONIX format (XML)

Use Kindle Previewer validate EPUB file and run checks for common errors. Any errors or warnings will prevent the titles from becoming available. These errors must be fixed in the EPUB file before the title is published in the Kindle store. Titles in EPUB format must abide by these publishing guidelines.

Conversion houses can be of service in helping publishers supply eBook retailers with metadata.

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Markdown Authoring Tools

For blind authors, using word processors like Microsoft Word or developer tools to create HTML or EPUB documents can be cumbersome and frustrating. Markdown languages, such as CommonMark, can provide a simpler means of creating and reviewing a manuscript. Markdown languages support all critical structural elements and can be easily converted to DOC(x) formats prior to uploading your manuscript to Kindle. Some markdown authoring tools include:

• PaDOC. A cross-platform command-line tool that converts among numerous document formats including Markdown (MD) and Microsoft Word (DOCX).
• Writage. A GUI version in the form of a plug-in for Microsoft Word on Windows.