If it's set up right in Word, it's not a lot of work to turn it into an ebook.
First, take out all the headers and footers.
Second, format your paragraphs. All your indents should be formatted in the paragraph formatting, not by using tabs or spaces. Make sure your paragraphs have 0 extra lines between them.
Third, keep the front matter from the book file to a minimum, so readers can get to the story quickly, because Amazon only allows a small percentage as the sample download. Readers on the forums have said they like to have the cover image and the blurb in the file too, so consider that part of the front matter.
Fourth, set up a clickable table of contents. Basically, you use the bookmark function of Word to set up bookmarks at each chapter title/number/header. Then you create your TOC and list the chapter and link them to the appropriate bookmarks. It's time consuming but makes your book a little more user-friendly.
Last of all, insert any acknowledgements/extras/author bio at the end of the ebook.
I've learned through trial and error and hanging out on Kindle forums, where readers have made suggestions of what they like for formatting. You can find more detailed help in the Kindle authors forums at Amazon.
Oh, and you upload by using their DTP client (
dtp.amazon.com). You'll need to sign up first. Oh, and you'll get this and more, including a lot of support at
kindleboards.com.
