In all of the years that I have published books with Amazon’s KDP (formerly Create Space), I have learned many things through trial and error. When it comes to uploading a copy of your manuscript, two of your best choices for formats are PDF or a Word Document. However, I’ve learned this depends on if you’re publishing an ebook or a printed book. So, here’s my advice.

Use a PDF for Printed Books

As long as you have made all of your page breaks, it seems the best format to upload  a printed book, is a PDF. There’s a much better chance your book will retain all of its margins if you use a PDF. There’s nothing more annoying than looking at your print preview and seeing one heading on one page begin three or four lines lower than you intended, or seeing the beginning of a chapter start on the end of a page instead of the beginning. Also, when it comes to page numbers, you may want to have them start from a bottom  margin of at least 1.3. You can try 1.2, but that’s pushing it.

Use a Word Doc for Ebooks

It’s been my experience the good old fashioned Word Doc works just fine for ebooks. I’ve tried using PDF’s in the past, and even Amazon’s KDP advises against them. When it comes to ebooks and PDF’s, it seems the two just can’t get along. Your best bet is to upload your manuscript as a Word Doc. Even if you’re using Google Docs, download your manuscript as a Word Doc, then upload it.