KDP questions...

I’m currently in the process of getting things pulled together to self-publish some short stories (and later full size books and children's books when I get them to the point of publishing) via KDP. And…I am hopelessly confused about file types and formats and such. =\ Hoping someone here can help clarify things for me where it’s easy to understand. I browsed some other threads in this area and read through info that’s already been provided, but I’m even more confused now than when I started (Sorry). Mainly because some people say one thing and others say something completely different. Ugh. I know that my manuscript needs to be in a certain file type/format before I upload it (and Amazon can convert it into what it needs to be). But what file type/format does it need to be in, exactly? A lot of people seem to say HTML, but I’ve heard others say to convert it to ePub and whatever else. So I have no clue what it’s actually supposed to be. Or if it really matters what the file type/format is since Amazon can convert it. Any help on this will be greatly appreciated.

And what about the cover art? What file type does it need to be in? I also need to know what size and dpi the cover needs to be as well.

And, yes, this is my first time using KDP, and I am new to all of this. Not ashamed to say it. I’m learning as I go. It’s been very hard to find info on it all (and info that makes sense and isn't confusing), and I’m at the point of pulling my hair out. Some things I've learned via Amazon's FAQ. I know it’s probably easier than it seems. I just need to get over the ‘beginner’s hump’ and get the hang of it. The part I find the most frustrating is that none of this info seems to be provided in my KDP account (unless I'm just not looking in the right place).

In case anyone needs to know…I use Microsoft Word for all of my writing. And I use Photoshop for my cover artwork and illustrations (if any). I also use a free online converter to convert files to ePub sometimes whenever I put stories and word docs on my personal tablet.

whistlelock said:

Hi, Windchimeghost.
For your cover art: https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A2J0TRG6OPX0VM
JPEG or TIFF. Requirements for the size of your cover art must have an ideal height/width ratio of at least 8:5 (1.6), meaning: A minimum of 625 pixels on the shortest side and 1000 pixels on the longest side. For best quality, your image should be 2500 pixels on the longest side

I HIGHLY recommend finding a good cover artist. there are many that are budget conscious.

And converting the documents to an epub file is perfect. Formatting tips: https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A14LJ3QNDNO64G

Amazon has a converter you can download for free on their site to see how that file will look on different devices. It's the Kindle Previewer. https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000765261


Have you developed a promotional strategy yet?

And congrats on taking the scary step to publish on your own!

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Thank you. =) That helps a lot. And thanks for the links. I’ll be bookmarking and checking those out sometime this week since I’m nearing the last few editing stages and will be sending copies of my story off to beta readers around the end of the week.

I have no need to hire a cover artist. I’m an artist. So I'm doing my own covers (I’ve also done cover and illustration work for regdog). I’m thankful to be talented in both fields, because I’m trying to cut down on costs as much as possible here at first.

I’ve already downloaded the Kindle Previewer. Did that last night.

And, yes, I have been preparing for promotional. Made myself an author website (located in my sig), twitter, Goodreads, and so forth. =) I’m ready as I can be. Nervous, but ready.

Thank you. =)

J. Tanner said:

You see a variety of different suggestions because the KDP system can convert from a variety of different formats. So people are recommending different things based on what they think is best, easiest, or whatever other criteria is important to them. But they'll all basically work.

For cover, don't worry about DPI. That's a print term, not an ebook term. Again, you'll see a variety of pixel sizes as KDP is flexible in this regard and people have different preferences for their own reasons. Many premades come at the size of 1600 wide by 2560 tall in JPEG format. If you just an "answer" that's one you can use but it's important to understand you can be flexible here for creative reasons. It's more important that your cover look good than have it meet some exact size specification as long as it meets the minimums.

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Okay, that's nice to know. So it really doesn't matter what format it's in, then? Just whatever is easiest for me? I can convert it to ePub and it'll upload just fine?

And thank you. I guess I was more or less thinking about graininess than anything else. Because, being an artist, I know some sizes and file types can look horrible on different computers and such. I use the PNG format for a majority of my artwork, because it looks clearer and better than the graininess of JPEG. But I know that not everything supports PNG. Some things require JPEG. Whistlestock said JPEG or TIFF is required for KDP. So thanks to both of you for this info. Helps a lot. Now I feel like I know where I'm going.

J. Tanner said:

Yes. epub is reportedly (I don't use it myself) pretty good. Your resulting KDP book should look nearly identical to what you test in epub.

In general, the trouble spot tends to be conversions straight from Word. The closer you get to the end result (and epub is quite close) the better off you tend to be.

Full PNG support would be nice. And TIFF is so 1990 it's amazing it's still an option. So JPEG is just what's left. It can be a bit troublesome if you compress it over and over (which as an artist you're probably already hypersensitive to avoid), or have something with very subtle gradients between large single-color areas but that's pretty uncommon on a typical book cover. Just go with a decently high setting in Photoshop (10 or so) and you'll be fine with readers even if you can pick out some subtle JPEG artifacting yourself on close examination. So the problems tend to be rookie mistake stuff I wouldn't expect to impact an artist at all.

Remember too that (ironically) the most important version of your cover is actually the tiny thumbnail ~100px version. That's the one that needs to be most effective because it's the one that drives also-bought traffic to your page. Then it should look nice at the "regular" size on the sales page. And then least seen is the embiggenated one that a user must click on to see... and few users do, and even fewer likely consider at all in their purchase decision.

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All right. I downloaded their guide book. So I'll read through it and then from there decide which is the easiest and best for me to go with.

Yeah, I rarely ever see anything using the TIFF format. Kinda surprised that KDP would have that as an image format choice. Most things I’m used to dealing with accept PNG, JPEG, and GIF formats. That seems to be the standard three. Every once in awhile you’ll have an oddity thrown into the choices. There ARE ways of preserving image quality and resolution when resizing/compressing images. Your dpi has a lot to do with that. It’s not just a print term. It's a term I've come to know through being an artist and illustrator. If you’re resizing images for online use, dpi plays an important role in that as well. Watching and adjusting your dpi can greatly cut down on graininess and poor image quality and resolution resulting from resizing. And KDP does require a dpi, by the way. It says so in their cover guidelines. The required dpi is 72.

Ahhh, okay. I'll be sure to keep that in mind.

WriterBN said:

I upload ePubs to KDP and haven't had an issue yet. Make sure you validate them first, though (I use ePubCheck).

I've heard that uploading TIFF files, especially large ones, can choke the KDP converter, so I always upload JPEGs for covers.

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I downloaded the Kindle Previewer. So I'll be sure to validate anything through it.

That's nice to know. Although I can already say that I won't be using TIFF. It's not a format I use, so I'll just go with JPEG.