How to format an eBook for Amazon KDP using Calibre

Blog February 2026

A step-by-step guide to formatting your eBook for KDP using Calibre

February 1st sees the release of ‘Shaggy Dog Stories, Spoonerisms and Silliness’ as an eBook. Available from Amazon and on Kindle Unlimited, this is your chance to chase away the January blues and continue the year with a smile.
For those of you who haven’t read it yet, the book is a collection of my Dad’s short stories and anecdotes that I compiled. Distanced in lockdown, he wrote stories by email, sending us parts almost daily, so he could reassure my sisters and I that he was ok. We loved the stories so much that we shared them with friends, who enjoyed them as much as we did.
For those of you who have read my previous blogs, you will know that there are limits to my tech abilities. Therefore, I of course have Cody to thank for turning ‘Shaggy Dog Stories, Spoonerisms and Silliness’ into an eBook.
However he has talked me through the process that he used, of going from a Word document (my preferred choice for writing my books) to Calibre (eBook formatting software).
I would like to share this process with you. Whether you are just wondering what to do next with your completed manuscript, or you have published before, Cody’s method will guide and help you simplify the process.

Starting with Word…
Assuming that your story is already composed on a Word document…
Under Home there is this symbol called a pilcrow (it looks like this ¶). When you click on it you can see all the formatting on your document, from page breaks to changes in formatting.
Click on (Mac) Styles Pane or (Windows) the little tiny arrow in the bottom right corner of the Styles section.

Then, on Mac press New Style, and on Windows click the A+ at the bottom.
Once you can see one of these boxes, you can then create your own style that will allow Word to apply it to anything you have highlighted.
There are plenty of options. If you make a copy of your original Word document you can try the different options out, and then apply them to the original document when you are happy.
The other main factor for your Word document is page breaks. Firstly, click where you’d like the page break to be. In the case of Shaggy Dog Stories, Spoonerisms and Silliness for example, there are page breaks for each new story.
Under Layout at the top of your document, click Breaks and then Page. If you have the Pilcrow active, you will see the page break. This guarantees that no matter the eReader font size, your next page will start on a new eBook page.

Need help? - Ask Susan

For any specific formatting questions for your Word document, just email me through the ‘Ask Susan’ page, and with Cody’s help, we will happily provide you with specific answers.

Continuing with Calibre…
You will need to install and open Calibre, which can be found easily online. Once you get to the Home screen (below), click on Add books, and this will open up your files and you can select your Word Document.

To convert your Word document to an EPUB document (a common file format for eBooks), just click the Convert books button. This screen will appear…

The next step…
In the top right hand corner the Output format: will say MOBI, click on this and change it to EPUB. You can then fill in the boxes on the right hand side. If any of these boxes are irrelevant to your book, it is okay to leave them blank.
Don’t forget to Change Cover Image, if you click on this you can select your cover image from your files. From here, click OK. Be patient, your computer will notify you once your document has been converted. Now, with your document selected, click Edit book.
This will open up a screen showing the HTML version of your book with a preview of your book on the right hand side. Using the preview on the side, just check carefully that you are happy with everything. If you are, there is no need to make changes. If not, you can make changes to the HTML version here, so you can see them in the preview. For each added page break, there will be a new index.html on the left side of your screen. This gives you quick access to those sections.

To note: The Table of Contents in your eBook will be different to your paperback version (if you have accidently uploaded your paperback Table of Contents onto Calibre, you can delete the relevant index.html).
To create a suitable Table of Contents for an eBook, go to the top left of your screen and click on Tools, Table of Contents and then Edit Table of Contents. You do not need to write the words ‘Table of Contents’ because it will do this for you in the finished eBook. In the Create a new entry box, specify which page you want this entry to point to, and then give that entry a name on the right hand side. Click OK and your entry should appear.
Repeat this step as needed. In an eBook, these shortcuts will direct the reader straight to that page.

To save, click File on the top left and then click Save a copy (Note: Regular saving doesn’t seem to work as expected). You can then go back to the Calibre main screen and select your saved copy of your EPUB document. This new EPUB copy is the one that you will need.

Testing on your eReader…
To test your EPUB document on your eReader, you can upload a copy to see if there are any changes you’d like to make. To do this, have a cable that can carry data, not a charging cable (e.g. cables that can be used with microphones or webcams are suitable).
Plug your cable from your computer to your eBook, a Connected to computer screen will appear on your eReader. If the connection has worked, the Calibre main screen will now have 2 new buttons at the top. Device and Send to device. Firstly, select your EPUB document, then click the little arrow to the right of Send to device. Click on Send specific format to.
The next button to click on is Main memory, when clicked it will send your eBook to your eReader device. If you click on Device you can check that the upload has been successful as your book should appear in the list.

*Importantly, navigate back to the little arrow next to Send to device and click Eject device. You can now safely disconnect your cable.
From here, you can read your book on your eReader to see if there are any changes you need to make. Test it out with different font sizes to see any unnecessary gaps, etc. If any changes need to be made, plug your eReader back in, go to Device and right click on your eBook in the list, then select Remove book. You can then make your changes to your EPUB document and go through the steps above again to re-upload it.
Once you are completely happy, you can add your book to your KDP account (see January’26 Blog for how to do this).
Cody and I hope this helps in some way towards your self-publishing journey. You can always ask us a question through the ‘Ask Susan’ page if you get stuck.

Next Blog: March 2026

Released this February, Susan Smith’s latest paperback! ‘A bit more pink?’ is a beautiful story. Co-written by children for children, I’ll tell you all about it.