Preparing eBooks for KDP using Word and Calibre
I produced the draft, revised/edited, and final versions of my manuscript in MS Word. My early versions of my manuscript were loosely formatted, that is, I focussed my time on writing rather than worrying about consistent styles within the document. Having been through the process now with three books, I can start off with a better template, giving myself a head start with consistency of format.
Word formatting of your final document matters. It matters if you’re taking it into Affinity Publisher for your paperback/hardcover which I did. And it matters if you’re inputting it into Calibre to convert to an eBook. Format consistently and you’ll have a seamless conversion. Ignore the formatting, and you’ll end up in a tangled mess.
I produced one fully-formatted master Word document, which was essentially the source for the paperback and hardcover editions. I edited this to create the input for the Calibre conversion to eBook. Advice is provided by other sites on what’s needed for specific retailers eg for Kindle, Apple, Kobo, B&N ebooks. Some things to particularly focus on for the starting Word manuscript include:
Heading Styles. Set chapter Headings to a consistent style. For elements such as prologue, epilogue, glossary, or character listing, give these a Heading style that best suits them. Calibre will use these Headings to recognise the natural breaks of your book.
Paragraphs. The gold standard of formatting paragraphs is to set the first line to indent. Do NOT use tabs, else you enter a world of pain. Instead use the ‘paragraph format indentation’ setting special - first line. I used 0.5cm.
Font Size. While eBook readers allow adjustment of font size, the reference font size for the ePub is still important to ensure readers can flex up and down within reasonable ranges. KDP recommend a body text format of 11 or 12pt. I used 11pt after verifying (see verification below).
Line Spacing. I used single line spacing for the ePub as this looked good to me after verification + Kindle allows the reader to increase line spacing as they prefer. I’ve seen others recommend 1 to 1.2
Page numbers. You don’t need them, as eBooks use flowable text and the page count can fluctuate depending on the reader’s text size choice.
Table of Contents. I create mine in Word as this provided control over the ToC appearance. Do not include the page number links for the reason already stated. For links to things like Maps and Dedication, one trick here is to make sure the text heading of ‘Maps’ and ‘Dedication’ is on the relevant page – this ensures that these pages appear in the contents listing. But then, once you have converted your file in Calibre, you can use the Calibre Edit tool to delete the text on the Maps and Dedication pages. This way, those two pages are clean with no title, but the contents page still contains the links to those pages.
Page Breaks. I used page breaks at the end of chapters in my Word document, and these caused no issues for me in conversion. If you find some spurious extra page breaks occurring in your ePub file, then take a closer look at what might be causing it – see next point.
Hidden characters. If you find a spurious effect at some part of your generated ePub, go back to your Word document and take a closer look at that section by displaying the hidden characters. On a Mac you navigate to Word Preferences – View – Show Nonprinting Characters and temporarily toggle on All. It is possible you find an additional control character that is not needed/ shouldn’t be there. Adjust that section until the converted file displays correctly.
Images/Maps. Hmm. I’m not sure I fully got to grips with this, and so I’m reluctant to add too much here. One suggestion I have is to make sure the images are fit-for-purpose for your ebook. For KDP publishing, there is a fee per megabyte linked to the size of your ebook. The fee is published on the KDP site. So, there’s no point adding large, print-ready maps to your eBook unless you really want to. Set the image quality sufficient for an e-reader. You can always offer the hi-res version via your website, or other source. Make sure the image handling settings are set appropriately in Word preferences, e.g. make sure the images are not being compressed; any internal Word manipulation can cause problems down the line. Also, import the image into your Word document using the add image tool – don’t just drag and drop. The consensus seems to be to set the placement ‘in line with text’, but I found I had to do some trial and error and some small html editing to get what I wanted. Images/Maps can be a pain!
Cover image. KDP state that the cover image doesn’t contribute to the ebook size and hence doesn’t attract a handling fee. They also state that it’s preferable to leave the cover image out of the epub file – they will add it through the publishing process. I hadn’t read this point for the first two of my books, and included the cover image within the standalone ePub. It didn’t cause a problem when I published, but for the third book I’ve not included it in the uploaded ePub, knowing that KDP will add it. I have wondered whether including the cover image in the ePub to be uploaded to KDP means that it contributes to the chargeable file size handling fee – I haven’t yet chased this down.
Other pointers for Word. Make sure facing pages are OFF. Set author name and book title in the document properties. No header or footer. I set a small fixed margin around all sides. Don’t use section breaks. Be consistent with your formatting!
Now, with regard to Calibre, here’s a link to a fantastic resource that outlines the Word to ePub conversion with wonderful simplicity. How to format your book for KDP with calibre. Follow this, and you’ll quickly get your first view of how your ePub is looking.
But how to best view and verify the results?
You can use the inbuilt Calibre viewer, and this will provide one insight into how things are looking. I use a Mac, so I also imported the ePub into Apple Books and examined the book there. These two viewers allowed me to spot any obvious problems and go back to the Word document to adjust/correct. However, somethings that didn’t appear to display well in the Calibre ePub viewer, proved fine in Kindle. Somethings that appeared fine in Apple Books, did not appear fine in Kindle. If you are publishing via KDP, I strongly recommend you use the ‘Send to Kindle’ app. I found this the single, foolproof way to ensure my eBook was KDP ready. The ‘Send to Kindle’ app is easy to use, and provided you are linked to your correct Kindle account, it takes only a few minutes for your book to transfer and be viewable. It gave me the reassurance I needed that all was fine with the eBook ahead of publishing.
Key two points. Ensure the Word document is formatted cleanly. Use Send to Kindle app to verify all is well with the Calibre generated ePub.
Then all should go smoothly with your KDP eBook publishing!