The confusing thing about publishing on Amazon is not any individual step. It is that "format my book for KDP" describes two entirely different jobs, and most advice you find is about one of them without saying which.
Two books, not two versions
An ebook and a paperback are not the same file at different sizes. They are different objects built from the same manuscript, and almost nothing carries over.
An ebook is reflowable. It has no pages. The reader picks the typeface, the size and the margins on their own device, and the text re-wraps to fit. There is no page 47, because page 47 depends on someone's font settings.
A paperback is fixed. The page is an exact physical size, the margins are measured in inches, and the inside margin has to allow for the binding. Every decision an ebook leaves to the reader, print requires you to make.
This is why "how do I get my page numbers into the Kindle version" has no answer. Understanding that saves more time than any individual tip.
The ebook
What KDP accepts. EPUB or Word. It will convert either into Amazon's own format. Handing it an EPUB means the structure was decided by you rather than inferred by Amazon, which is the main argument for doing it.
What actually matters:
- Real navigation. The Kindle Go To menu is built from the ebook's own navigation document, not from a contents page you typed. A hand-typed contents page with page numbers does nothing at all, since there are no pages.
- Chapters as chapters. A line that is bold, centred and 16pt is not a chapter to a machine; it is styled text. Something has to make that distinction, and if nothing does, your book has no navigation.
- Nothing pinned. Fixed font sizes and forced page breaks mid-chapter fight the reflow and look broken on a device you did not test on.
- The cover is separate. KDP asks for it during publishing. It is not part of the interior file.
What to ignore. Page numbers, headers, footers, and the typeface you chose. None of them survive, and none of them should.
The paperback
What KDP accepts. A print-ready PDF at your exact trim size.
What actually matters:
- Trim size. 6″×9″ is the default for most novels. Pick it before you lay anything out, because changing it changes your page count and therefore your margins.
- Mirrored margins. The inside margin sits against the spine, so it must swap sides on every page. A single fixed left margin puts the extra width on the wrong side of every other page.
- A gutter sized to the page count. Amazon requires a wider inside margin as the book gets thicker, from 0.375″ up to 0.875″. It is checked at upload.
- Embedded fonts, so the printer renders what you saw.
There is a circularity here worth knowing about in advance: the margin depends on the page count, and the page count depends on the margin. See book margins and gutters for how to get out of it.
The order to do things in
- Finish writing. Formatting a manuscript you are still editing means doing it twice.
- Write the front matter. Title page, copyright page, dedication. The copyright page is the one nobody knows how to write, and it goes at the front of the book where everyone sees it. Our front matter generator produces one free.
- Format the ebook. It is the faster of the two and the errors are cheaper — you can fix and re-upload in minutes.
- Format the print interior. Choose the trim size, let the page count settle, check the margins.
- Order a proof. A few dollars, and the only way to see how the type sits on paper.
- Publish both, linked as editions of the same title in KDP.
Doing it without doing it by hand
Everything above is achievable in Word with enough patience and a working knowledge of styles, section breaks and mirrored margins. It is genuinely tedious rather than genuinely difficult.
If you would rather not: our KDP and Kindle formatter takes a .docx and produces a validated, reflowable EPUB with working chapter navigation, plus a Word file if you would rather use Kindle Create. The print book formatter produces the interior PDF with the mirrored margins and the correct gutter, working out the page count for itself. Both are free to try, and you can read the whole result before deciding anything.
One thing worth deciding separately
KDP Select asks for ebook exclusivity in exchange for Kindle Unlimited inclusion. Going "wide" instead means also selling on Apple Books, Kobo and Google Play — all of which read the same EPUB, so it costs you no extra formatting work. It is a real trade-off with no universal answer, but it is worth making deliberately rather than by default. If you do go wide, see EPUB for Apple Books, Kobo and Google Play.