Most new authors have no problem uploading their books to Amazon's KDP. But even with a basic book, some people may be a little confused at what to do. This is why when people hire me to format a book for KDP for them, I include free uploading support. I go through it with them while they are doing it. On occasion, I have even done the upload for them--but I require they change their password to a different one for me to use, so I do not have their normal password and warn them this is risky for them. I especially don't want them to think because they can trust me that they could trust anyone else. All your tax and bank information is in your Amazon account--so please do not share your password or account information, even a temporary one, with anyone even briefly. It's like letting your kids talk to strangers--most are probably fine but there is always that one bad guy who will run off with them.
The best format for paperbacks and hardcovers are PDFs. I recommend using a 5.5" x 8.5" format if you plan to do both paperback and hardcover because it will save you time. You also need to make sure your fonts are embedded in the .pdf. Using the styles feature is not always necessary, but it saves time and a headache in some cases.
However, when you start to get into books that use a lot of different formatting and that have graphics, you really need to follow the recommendations and upload a .pdf instead of a .doc or other form. This will ensure your images and formatting stay put during the conversion.
For an e-book, you need to use either an .epub file or a .zip file. In addition to getting rid of Vella, Amazon is also getting rid of the .mobi file format and will no longer be accepting those files. Kindle Comic Creator (my go-to for intensive image books) will no longer work. Now, you need to use Kindle Create.
Someone posted a project on Guru for formatting her book for Amazon. In the post she stated she would edit it and add graphics afterword. This is impossible. I mean, a .pdf or .epub could be edited if you have access to those tools, but I am not sure if an edited version would upload correctly--especially if the edits are as extensive as adding graphics. Further, you would now have to edit two documents instead of one. Once you have a .zip file, again, editing becomes a risky process and requires skill.
Chances are good, if the poster of this project needs help figuring out how to format their book, they won't have the technical know-how on how to edit it afterward--regardless of whether or not those edits could survive the upload process.
Formatting is always the last step before you publish your book. Proofreading is both the last stage of editing and should fix the formatting, but a proofreader will not necessarily give you back the proper file formats.
When I upload my ebook, there is nothing more depressing than finding out there are editing errors I missed (especially since I foolishly do this after I have done my paperback--a leftover from the days when you had to do the paperback first to save time and effort). This means, I have to go fix the document, recreate the .zip and .pdf files, and then I have to reupload everything. If I have already uploaded the paperback once, I also will have to wait the 72 hours to fix it.
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