Chapters:
History of KDP Formats: 01:17
Tutorial Begins: 04:13

For authors who plan to self-publish their eBooks with Amazon KDP – Kindle Direct Publishing – you can upload your Microsoft Word doc or Docx files. (For a while back when I was starting self-publishing A DECADE AGO, it had to be .doc, but you can do .docx now.) Or you can upload two other file types:

ePub
KPF

This is a change. Effective March 2025 KDP is NOT accepting Mobi files anymore.

For those of you brand new to self-publishing, this shouldn’t matter, BUT there are a lot of articles, videos, and guidebooks out there that still talk about Mobi, so we’re gonna do a quick history lesson.

Mobi is short for Mobipocket. When setting your ISBN details in Bowker, this still shows as an option for your eBook. I would hope most eBook formatting services know to not offer this anymore because it is obsolete. But you may still see it out there.

Mobi or Mobipocket was an eBook reflowable format that Amazon created for Kindle. It was a one-for-one Mobi that only worked on Kindle devices or apps, maybe one or two others, and everyone else had ePub files. Also reflowable. Just a different file type.

Last year in 2024, maybe even back in 2023, honestly the years blur, KDP stopped accepting Mobi files. They said no more uploads with this file type. If it’s already uploaded, fine, but only Doc files, ePub, or KPF from here on out. Well, as of this March 202,5 KDP is saying any old uploads with Mobi files have to be replaced with an ePub, KPF, or .DOC

So, now that you know all about Mobi – forget everything about it.
So the Doc file, you’re probably like – okay. I know what MS Word is. I know what those files are. I get that if I upload it, it will convert in KDP’s system,m and it may not be perfect. If your book is ALL text, it should be fine, but if you have any tables or images – NAH

At that point, you really want an ePub or a KPF.

So you’re probably thinking, – MK, what the eff is a KPF.
KPF is one of two output options for Kindle Create. So you as an author, can download Kindle Create, upload your .doc fil,e and get a KPF file or an ePub file. You can upload a PDF and get that output as well.

The only time I’ve used this before was with a book that was primarily text and illustrations. So it got a little funky. If you are an author on a tight budget and you have only text in your book, it’s a novel, a short story, or a non-fiction book without graphs, or charts, or tables – I think Kindle Create is a great option. If you have anything other than text, I recommend working with a formatter to get your eBook looking sharp.

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