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Kindle is Amazon’s proprietary e-reader that shows Kindle-formatted e-books.
3 Ways to Create & Save e-Books in Kindle Format
The ideal approach for you depends on your intended purpose. There are three basic methods to generate or store e-books in Kindle book format. Authors who write e-books have different Kindle formatting requirements than users who wish to read non-Amazon e-books on their Kindle devices.
Whatever your motivation for generating a Kindle e-book, here are three options for getting the job done:
- Authors who create a manuscript from fresh and want to save it in Kindle format to publish their e-book on Amazon should use e-Book creation software.
- Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) tools are ideal for writers who write in a word processor such as Microsoft Word and wish to sell e-books on Amazon.
- Kindle Book Format File Converters: These are the best options for Kindle users who wish to read documents or e-books from Amazon on their devices.
Here’s a deeper look at each of these alternatives, as well as some tools for creating, saving, and converting your papers or e-books to Kindle format.
1. For Authors, Use e-Book Creation Software
Word processing systems developed to assist authors in writing are known as e-Book production software. You may use them to swiftly organize, compose, and save manuscripts in Kindle book format, as well as other e-book and print-ready formats. End-to-end solutions, such as e-Book production tools, expedite the whole process while doing difficult chores like adding graphics and monitoring changes and revisions simple.
Although various e-book production programs are available, three stand out as popular among e-book writers. They are as follows:
Reedsy is an online e-book maker.
- Free
- Cloud-based and mobile-friendly online platform
Reedsy’s user-friendly interface allows you to write and format your text on the screen or instantly copy and paste it from any word processing application.
Reedsy is a free e-book authoring tool that integrates word editing, book design, and e-book file export into a single cloud-based, mobile-friendly solution. You may input your book material straight into Reedsy’s user-friendly interface, or you can copy and paste it from Google Docs or other word editing tools. You may also divide your text into sections and chapters and include photographs and a cover. Reedsy produces an.ePub file when you’re ready to publish, which Amazon transforms to Kindle format for you when you submit your e-book to KDP.
Scrivener
- Cost: $45 for PC software + $20 for a mobile app (optional).
- Platforms: Mac, PC, iPhone, iPad, and mobile app
Scrivener has a variety of features to assist professional writers in creating a variety of works, ranging from business marketing e-books to novels and textbooks.
Scrivener is a writing and manuscript creation program with a lot of functionality for a modest price. It’s not free, but it’s jam-packed with organizing features like chapter and part management, picture management, narrative outlines, storyboarding, a research area, and built-in e-book formatting tools. Scrivener, like Reedsy, outputs documents in.ePub format, which Amazon transforms to Kindle format for you when you submit your book to Amazon KDP for sale.
Vellum
- The e-book edition costs $199.
- Mac, iPhone, and iPad are the available platforms.
Vellum, like anything Mac-based, provides writers with a fantastic user interface and a plethora of design, page formatting, and file export options for creating Kindle e-books.
Mac users may utilize the famous Vellum book-making program, which has a large following because of its formatting and export capabilities. Vellum, like Scrivener, is a one-stop-shop for word processing, book layout, chapter and part organization, research documentation, and Export. It’s a little pricy at $199, but it provides significant e-book production facilities for Mac users. Unlike Reedsy and Scrivener, Vellum produces files in the.mobi Kindle book format can be directly uploaded to Amazon’s KDP store.
2. Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) — for Authors
Authors may use Amazon KDP to get several free Kindle e-book resources. These may be found easily on your KDP author dashboard:
Your Amazon KDP author dashboard tools convert files and documents to Kindle book format.
The most popular is Amazon’s proprietary e-book formatting and converting tool, Kindle Create. Kindle Create is a free download for PC or Mac, rather than a cloud-based service like Reedsy. Kindle Create allows you to import a word processing file from your manuscript and convert it to Kindle format. Unlike the other e-book production tools discussed above, Kindle Create does not allow you to start writing from scratch. For image-heavy works, you begin with an e-book already prepared as a word processing file, such as a.doc,.docx, or.pdf.
KDP Kindle Create is a free program that transforms your prepared book manuscripts into Kindle format. It is not cloud-based, so you’ll need a PC or Mac to use it.
Kindle Create is downloaded software that does not operate with Chromebooks, or mobile devices is one of its two significant limitations. It also doesn’t export. It’s designed exclusively for Kindle format e-books to be sold on Amazon’s KDP platform. Files in the ePub format will need to sell books on sites like Smashwords or Draft2Digital.
3. Use an e-Book File Conversion Tool — for Readers & Authors
Kindle devices can only read e-books in Amazon’s proprietary file format. That doesn’t mean you have to sell or buy Kindle-format e-books only via Amazon. Using file conversion software, you may convert different document and e-book files into Kindle book format. This is beneficial in two ways:
- Readers who wish to convert existing e-book files that aren’t in Kindle format into.mobi files that can be read on Kindle devices.
- Writers and companies that desire to convert a variety of word processing documents into Kindle format for distribution on Amazon, their websites, or free e-book and library sites
Here are two conversion programs to try if you want to convert files to Kindle book format for more extensive dissemination or personal reading:
Convert.io
- Free
- Cloud-based online platforms
Convertio transforms document files and existing e-book files to a variety of e-book formats, including the Kindle format.
Convertio is a free online file converter that transforms various document and e-book formats into Kindle format. It’s simple to use and quick. You may then save your Kindle book format files to your computer, post them to your website, distribute them via marketing channels, or transfer them to your Kindle through a USB connection or email.
Calibre
- Free
Calibre has been around for a long time and is capable of a lot, but it comes with a high learning curve.
Calibre is a free open source program used by e-book writers to convert manuscripts to Kindle book format and users to save e-book files to Kindle and other structures. Calibre is a popular and free application for converting Kindle book format files. Still, it has a steep learning curve and an outdated UI compared to contemporary e-book conversion choices. On the other hand, Calibre has a sizable following among writers and hungry readers due to its many specialized conversion tools.
To Recap
You may store an e-book in Kindle format using a variety of options. Convertio is the most straightforward free alternative we’ve discovered for basic file conversions for reading or dissemination.
We’ve identified the easiest and most cost-effective method to generate and store an e-book in Kindle format, saving you time and effort. Most importantly, our solution uses free web resources that can be accessed from any computer or mobile device.
The Easiest Ways to Create & Save an e-Book in Kindle Format
Did we mention that each of the tools listed below is completely free? Here are five failsafe — and entirely free — methods for anybody to generate and preserve Kindle-compatible e-books and documents. Whether you’re beginning from zero or have a completed manuscript, the method provided here will help you quickly create a finished e-book in Kindle format.
Use Reedsy or Google Docs to create your e-book.
You are free to compose your e-book in whichever writing program you are most familiar with. If you don’t have a preference, Google Docs and Reedsy are both free, cloud-based, mobile-friendly, and very easy to use. If you’ve already finished your manuscript, go on to the next section to learn how to transform it into an e-book that’s ready to publish.
When Should You Use Reedsy to Make an e-Book?
If you’re authoring a manuscript expressly for use as an e-book, you may enter it directly into Reedsy. It has a simple, clean, and distraction-free interface that takes just five minutes to learn. If you have any questions, Reedsy offers a help sidebar as well as a chat function. It also provides writing and editing modes, so you can safeguard your work if you employ an editor to polish it, such as the Fiverr editing freelancers that operate on a budget.
Reedsy offers a basic design, understandable displays, and writing and editing modes for you and your editor to monitor changes.
When Should You Write an e-Book Using Google Docs?
If you’ll be repurposing your material, such as an e-book, blog post, or pdf white paper, authoring it in Google Docs provides you with a lot of formatting, commenting, and team collaboration possibilities.
Google Docs makes the copy, header, and picture formatting straightforward, and it includes a comment option for making notes and reminders while writing.
Google Docs is a free cloud-based word processing program from Google that works well for individual authors and content teams. Google Docs is easy to use, saves automatically, provides outlines, keeps track of versions, and allows you to share a document with editors or colleagues effortlessly. You can also utilize the built-in headers to arrange your document and rapidly build an e-book table of contents.
The built-in header structure in Google Docs is ideal for producing headers and subheads for your e-table books of contents.
Reedsy can help you format your e-book.
This stage is already completed if you used Reedsy to create your e-book since Reedsy formats your e-book as you type. Suppose you authored your manuscript in Google Docs or another word processing application like Microsoft Word. In that case, you may copy and paste it into Reedsy to format your e-book chapter by chapter.
In just five minutes, we copied and pasted a 7,000-word Google Doc novel into Reedsy while maintaining excellent formatting.
Reedsy is a perfect option for writers searching for a quick method to create, prepare, and publish an e-book in Kindle format. We copied and pasted a 7,000-word, eight-chapter manuscript from Google Docs into Reedsy in under five minutes with excellent results, as illustrated above. Our headers, graphics, bullets, links, and line formatting were preserved.
Reedsy currently lacks an import tool, but they claim one is on the way. Copy-and-paste is presently the only option to import an external document into Reedsy. We found it to be fast, simple, and correct formatting.
Reedsy allows you to export your e-Book.
After you’ve finished your e-book, updated it, uploaded the cover art, and inserted your front and back matter, you’re ready to export your e-book file.
In Reedsy, you choose your file type and a few other parameters, then tap Export to save and share your e-book.
Exporting your e-book file, like everything else in Reedsy, is a breeze. From the export screen, choose Export. One thing to keep in mind is that Reedsy outputs an .ePub file. It does not immediately export a .mobi file in the Kindle format. This is because when you publish your book to Amazon for sale, Amazon KDP accepts .ePub files and transforms them to Kindle format automatically:
KDP translates a variety of formats to Kindle format automatically, but an .ePub file prepared with a program like Reedsy enables a consistent and flawless conversion.
Because Amazon automatically transforms e-book files to Kindle format, Reedsy, Scrivener, and most other e-book authoring programs export the .ePub file and leave the conversion to Amazon. As you can see in the Kindle preview of the Reedsy-created .ePub file that we published to Amazon, the results are perfect:
The Kindle previewer shows you how your e-book will look on different Kindle devices when you publish it.
Not Interested in Selling Your e-Book on Amazon?
Utilize the above-mentioned Convertio file converter. Of course, you may use the procedures above to generate an e-book and store it in Kindle format without sending it to Amazon. To do so, go to Reedsy and download your completed .ePub file to your computer:
You may download the file and share, sell, or distribute it as you choose once your e-book has been exported in Reedsy.
Then send it to Convertio to save it as a .mobi file in Kindle format. You may then submit your Kindle format e-book to your company or author website or distribute it through email and social media marketing for customers or readers to download and read on their Kindle devices.
If you wish to share your .ePub files to Kindle customers outside of Amazon, utilize Convertio to convert them to Kindle format.
Final Thoughts
Kindle format e-book files are used for a variety of purposes. Authors use it to sell e-books on Amazon’s KDP platform or to distribute Kindle-friendly e-books outside of Amazon’s Kindle distribution system. Businesses may use Kindle to disseminate e-books and presentations as marketing tools. Non-Amazon e-book files and other documents may be converted to Kindle format and viewed on a Kindle reader.
For all of these reasons, there are various methods to store an e-book in Kindle format, although some are more accessible and straightforward to use than others. Reedsy is the most user-friendly end-to-end tool for e-book writers; it’s an accessible, cloud-based, mobile-friendly interface that includes everything an e-book creator needs. The Amazon KDP Kindle Creator, on the other hand, makes it simple for writers to convert most word processing documents to Kindle format.
