Free Kindle Publishing Book Template

kindle template

I was writing another kindle book the other day and came across an interesting thing. I have heard about kindle formatting being a pain but I have to say that I haven’t experienced it – probably due to the excellent job Geoff does in his Kindling Course (this course is no longer available but here’s an alternative Kindle Publishing Course).

Anyway yesterday I added some bullet points in my book. When I had finished and uploaded it to Kindle Publishing I went to preview my book and it looked awful with funny looking objects that should have been bullet points!

Bullet points don’t work with the old Kindle. So I had to go back and change it. I then got into sorting things out and making it look better etc.

Basically my day turned into a ‘create a template for kindle’ day!

So I have made them available to you if you want them.

I have created a word template and an open office template.

The only thing you need to note is that if you are using open office to write your kindle books then you need to save them as .html or you will not be able to upload them to kindle publishing.

Download Open Office Kindle Book Template

Download Word Kindle Book Template

Here is a video showing you the templates and how to use them. I start with the Word template and then go onto the open office template (starts at 8.07).

130 Comments on “Free Kindle Publishing Book Template”

  1. Hello Kay. I hope you are fine.
    Thank you so much for your useful information. I have one question.
    I used your template and pasted my books contents to the template but when I pasted, there is
    a slight distance between the dedication and the introduction, while they should be on separate pages. This is one problem, another problem is numbering. I can’t see any number when i am using template on Kindle previewer. i am waiting for your guidance
    best regards

    1. Have you inserted a page break between the dedication and intro? (Use Ctrl ENTER for page break)

      You mention numbering. Do you mean page numbers? It is best not to use page numbers for kindle books unless you specifically add page breaks throughout the document. This is because readers devices and text size vary greatly and so the amout of text on a page is dependant on the device. Hope this helps

      Kay

  2. Hi Kay, Thanks for the Word template! It has saved me from all the hard-to-follow tutorials out there on how to format everything from scratch. I learn better this way – by seeing the result and hearing/following video explanations on why each thing is the way it is.

    I’m helping my wife with her first ebook and I have one question (may have more before this first ebook is over):
    Page Breaks…. In Word, with my screen resolution and settings, I’m seeing 3 panels (pages, I guess?) next to each other horizontally and as I scroll I see more rows of 3 panels. (In your video you had 4 panels to a row, which I’m sure doesn’t matter). And in the template you have the chapters set up with one chapter on each panel with a Page Break after the content of the chapter.

    Do we just type until we’re done with the chapter, letting the chapter text flow to the next “PANEL”, and let Kindle show it how it’s going to show it on any given reader/tablet? Or do I need to insert a Page Break at the end of each “PANEL” I’m seeing in my Word document?

    I just wanted to get an understanding of this before we put in too much work and then realized we’ve mangled something. I know we can try things and then preview it by uploading it to KDP to see if we’ve messed something up. But when she wrote her paperback book we spent so much time doing that as a way to “reverse engineer” how it should be formatted. And we ended up with many mangled copies of the book and much wasted time. So any suggestions on this Page Break question would be super helpful. Thanks!

    1. You can just type and forget about page breaks. Kindle will just adjust it according to the device people are using. When you want to start a new chapter or specifically a new page then you will need to insert a page break or kindle won’t know. Each panel you see in word is just a new page based on the settings in word but when that becomes a kindle book the readers device decides how much writing is on each page. I hope that makes sense.

      Kay

  3. Kay, a huge thank you my writing friend, I have just copied the Kindle Template into my Word 2016, and I am formatting it with a lot more ease than a Word template.

    Take care

    If you have yet to read my email in your website, I am the Dyslexic artist sculptor.

    Howard Weston 2023…

  4. Kay I am writing a huge thank, after working over two years on my manuscript, I found your vidio on preparing my Word 2016 manuscript, to be copied into a Kindle for Word template easy to follow. As an artist and sculptor, I find my Dyslexic issues are extremely useful Kay, however! when it comes to creating an eBook in Word 2016, Dyslexia can confuse the simplest of instructions. Kay, can I copy my Word 2016 manuscript then past it into the Kindle template, or do I have to format my manuscript first in Word, then past it into the Kindle Template. Can you please advise me best way forward. One thing KDP does not teach is? Do you copy your manuscript from your Word 2016 template, then past it into the Kindle template!
    I am grateful for vidio and clear instruction. PS! Is having a website an advantage, especialy if I don’t have the time to answer to much email traffic. Regards Kenneth

    1. Yes you should be able to just paste it into the kindle template. By default word keeps the destination format. If you are having difficulty and it doesn’t look right sne dme an email and I’ll check it for you.

      Kay

    1. If you want to preview your book then upload it to KDP and launch the preview. You don’t have to publish your book when you upload it so its fine to use KDP for this purpose

      Kay

      1. I’ve been working on uploading my first 50 pages of my book The Dirt Diaries to KDP. After a few tweeks it looks really nice. But then I checked it on the Kindle e-reader and all my photos are black and white! Not having a Kindle (just an iPad), I didn’t know. Not much good for a book about plants, flowers and gardens. I see Kindle Fire has color capability, but do enough people own Kindle Fires to make it worthwhile to continue with this project? Dang. Very discouraged. Thanks anyway for the template, Kay. Maybe I’ll have to write a novel!

        1. The kindle e-readers are only black and white. I doubt someone would buy a book with photos if they have one of these. I think its still worthwhile to continue – plenty of people use all sorts of devices to read kindle books.

  5. Hi Kay,

    I want to design my book in photoshop, with text, pictures etc. saving as PDF, as opposed to typing in a word document.
    Can you advise on page size, margins and type size.

    Best regards,
    Dylan

    1. Hi Dylan

      If you’re creating a kindle book then the size will be determined by the size of device the reader uses once they purchase it. I don’t think it matters but when you preview it via KDP have a look at the preview with various device options to check it looks ok. Do just a few pages first and then preview it so you can adjust anything before creating the whole book.

      Kay

  6. Kay,

    Many thanks for your generosity in providing these templates. I plan to write a technical book (based on my many years of teaching experience) but not as a big volume (which I avoided all these years!) but as a number of shorter ebooks. I plan to use Open office and I am so glad to find your blog. Two queries:

    (1) Openoffice permits saving the document as a .doc or .docx. Can i use .docx rather than .html format? Is there any advantage in using html over docx?

    (2) The book will have many equations with mathematical symbols and diagrams which I may have to create either manually or (if I can manage) using Openoffice draw as separate files. It seems that I have to copy and insert these items at the proper location of the text. Any further advice you may offer will be most welcome.

    Just to add I have published many technical papers in international journals but have not been able to find time to write text books. I am now retired. I am hoping I may find time to write short ebooks (text books) which I can make available to students at no expense or for a very modest price.

    Thanks again.
    Amiya

    1. Hi Amiya, thanks for your comment.
      (1) My experience has been that saving the file as a .doc or .docx is not a good option. When uploading the file to KDP something happens and the format is wrong so I would suggest keeping it as html for the upload. You could try it and see.

      (2) Mathematical symbols are probably OK if you can insert them using the symbol option. If they are complicated and part of equations then I would definitely create them separately and upload as an image in order to keep them looking correct.

      I wish you well as you begin this adventure! If you want me to look over any files then please don’t hesitate to ask – just use the contact form.

      Kay

      1. Thank you Kay for your encouraging words and offer of help. It is now time for me to start putting together the first volume I have in mind.

        Cheers.

      2. Hi I have a book cover READY for KDP…but none of their templates match mine ! I would pay you to fix this as KDP are not helping.
        Many Thanks
        Shirley Kent

  7. Kay Franklin,

    Thank you so much. Your template is a wonderful gift, and you are a blessing. I appreciate, both, your kindness and generosity, while you have simplified my life, and process. Now, I can use my time to get on with my writing. God bless you.

  8. Thanks so much for this Kay, spent hours (literally) reading on which format is right and this has saved me so much time. Thanks again Donna

  9. Hi Kay,

    I’ve downloaded your template which is great – thanks, however, when you change a chapter heading in the document to say bold and a different font and size, it pulls the bold element through to the TOC which I don’t want. I know it will be something to do with TOC styles but try as I might I can’t seem to figure out how to solve it. Can you help?

    1. Hi Chris
      I’ve tried to recreate what you’ve done but I can’t! Did you modify the H1 style itself? If you’d like to email me direct (use the contact form) then I’ll try to find out what has happened.
      Kay

  10. Awesome , I have download and working well.

    Can you please realign and adjust using heading and formatting?

    Thanks.

  11. Help
    open office, I just did “test” paste into your template and there was a mixture of fonts that appeared. Then found out that you can’t change anything in the template. You also mention that you need to chose “paste merger” when importing. there is no such choice in my copy of open office for Mac.
    what do I need to do prior to importing?

    1. Perhaps you have the document in read only mode – if this is the case then you won’t be able to modify it. The paste merge icon is used in word not open office.

  12. Thank you for sharing I’ve been trying to find a template for like a month now,just been going crazy with trying to format myself.

    Kay the question I have for you can I just copy and paste my chapters in here or should I remove all formating first?

    1. Hi Jaques
      The template has been formatted to enable you to just paste in your headings and chapters. When you paste make sure that you use the ‘merge formatting’ setting.
      Merge formatting

  13. Hi Kay, I can’t thank you enough for providing us with this wonderfully simple template. I had no idea where to start and now I’m off and running, thanks to you!! I wanted to ask you if there’s a simple way to customize your table of contents, as I wanted my table of contents to be split into three parts. For Example…….

    PART 1: RESEARCH

    Chapter 1
    Chapter 2
    Chapter 3 etc.

    PART 2 : DESIGN

    Chapter 1
    Chapter 2
    Chapter 3 etc

    PART 3: BUILD

    Chapter 1
    Chapter 2
    Chapter 3 etc

    Thanks!

    1. The easiest way to do this is to add PART 1: RESEARCH into your actual written document (not the TOC) just before Chapter 1. So add a new page before Chapter 1, and don’t write anything on the page except PART 1: RESEARCH. Then make sure you highlight it and give it the heading 1 format. Then update your TOC and you should see it appear. If you would like me to check it over or do anything to help just email me.

      Kay

      1. Thanks Kay, that was easy! I came across this one tutorial where I was supposed to create a bookmark and apply a switch, etc. etc…..man oh man, talk about complicated.

        One more question, if you don’t mind. Do I need an index with kindle? I imagine the reader can just do a digital word search of the entire book, no?

        1. You’re right. You don’t really need an index because readers can search for specific words while reading your kindle book. You don’t need to do anything to enable this feature – it’s already there.

  14. Thanks so much, Kay. Having spent so much time formatting our book for Createspace, I was dreading having to start again for Kindle – but you made it a lot easier!

  15. Hello and thank you Kay…I’m so glad to find this template. Now, I have a question. Some books have small icons at the beginning of chapters. I would like to add this style to my books, have you tried it and know if there are anything I need to look out for? Sue

    1. Hi Sue

      I’ve not tried this. If I were going to do this then I would be using an image that was sized maybe 100px x 100px depending on how big I wanted it to be. With an ebook it is the pixel size that matters. You will also need to decide if you want text wrapped around it. Try a few different sizes and uploaded to KDP and see the preview and you’ll find the one that works best. Make sure you test it with various device sizes (ipad, kindle, iphone, etc.)

      Good luck. If you want any further help please don’t hesitate to email me.

      Kay

  16. Hello Kay,

    I hope this finds you well. I’ve just come across this today after searching and reading and pulling my wrinkles out. Now, I’m an oldie so I don’t have the same dexterity and finesse on WORD or a laptop for that matter. I’ve had to learn things as I’ve gone along, and happy to say I’ve finished my first Novel, but as I’m a little daft in this game. May I ask you if the office template means I can copy/paste my 88,000-word Novel into the kindle template provided? And then on to Amazon Kindle? Is there any advice, updated information you can help me with at the email provided Kay?
    I would really appreciate it,

    Respectfully Shasa

  17. Thank you Thank you Thank you! You are THE best!

    I bought a giant self publishing with Amazon book to figure out how to publish on kindle. I don’t think I need it now. Hahahahaha!

  18. Kay,
    I have been searching for a word template that you have posted for a very long time. God bless you for sharing!

  19. Kay… I must be honest. I’m too much of a chicken to venture out into your “Ultimate Ebook Creator Template.” You taught me with the same one I’ve used a few times and I’m stickin’ with it until my feathers fall off!

    1. Hi there,

      For a kindle book make sure the pixel size of your images are a 625 pixels on the shortest side and 1000 pixels on the longest side – this is what amazon recommends for the cover image and so it works well for all images. I generally go with about 600 pixel wide and it’s fine. Your images will change anyway when converted and depending on the device people use to read it anyway.

      To add your images to your word or open office document and click on ‘Insert’ then ‘Picture’ and then locate your image on your computer and click on it. Make sure you put your cursor in the correct place within your document that you want the image to go before adding it and then it will go straight there. I suggest you center the image too.

      Remember that if you are using an open office document then you will need to save your document as an HTML file and then zip that file and upload that to KDP. For word you don’t need to do that.

      1. Thank you so much for your answer Kay, very helpful indeed. Just another question: I am publishing books in Arabic ( learning Arabic for French speakers). Will the template work wit Arabic characters?

        Tank you once again.

  20. Kay,

    Do you have any suggestions for those of us who might like to change the template font? (Preferred fonts, etc.)

    1. Hi Howard

      Yes, you can change the font although don’t forget that people reading a kindle book can change the font themselves on their device if they particularly prefer one over the other – they can also change the font size too.

      Here is a good blog post about the best fonts to use for digital books that you might like to read: http://blog.bookbaby.com/2012/07/what-font-and-font-size-should-i-use-for-my-ebook/

      It’s best to stick with plain and simple!! 🙂

      Kay

  21. Hi Kay, I follow your blog by some time, and make you my compliments, especially for your life saving templates on this page! I’ve a question for you: I’m going to publish a new ebook showing how to write Kindle books from zero, and I would like to know if it’s possible to give my readers your url for checking out your template. I think it’s always better to ask before!

    Thanks so much and see you soon,
    Alessandro

  22. Kay.. I too want to say ‘thank you’ for both the simplicity and quality of the template and your obvious kindness in helping many of us who are just getting started.

    I have one question: In the Table of Contents, all of the Chapters Titles are not working, that is they are not forwarding. The Introduction, Prologue (you have Legal), About the Author, etc.. are forwarding.

    With Chapter Titles, I’m getting the following error message: HTTP Status 404 – /XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX & Type: Status report & message: /XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX & description: The requested resource is not available & finally:Apache Tomcat/6.0.39.

    Any clue to what I’ve done to mess up the functionality of the Table of Contents? Is there a fix or should I pull a new one and just try again? Terry 🙂

    1. Hi Terry

      It sounds like you might have edited the names of the chapter titles within the Table of Contents (TOC) itself.

      The way to update the TOC is to move your mouse somewhere in the TOC and right click and then click update. If you manually edit it, things go wrong.

      Try to update the TOC as I’ve described and see if things sort themselves out.

      Kay

      1. Okay… so cool! It’s all a learning curve. You are awesome! That was my last big hurtle, so I can now complete transferring the remaining chapters. Blessings!

  23. Great work you did!
    Your template and video helped me publish my internet traffic ebook on Amazon, that is,
    ” Advanced Internet Traffic Formula: Your Master Key To Internet Riches Part 1, An Internet Traffic Generation & Conversions Course”

    More grease to your elbow!

  24. Dear Kay,

    Thank you so much for the templates & the excellent video. I shall attempt to use them quickly, as I have a couple of books on Amazon presently but not in the proper up loadable template style.

    Thank you,

    Giovanni Maria Tommaso

  25. Kay — I’m ashamed of myself! As much as I refer to your fantastic template and wealth of information, all the time, everyday, sometimes every night, and definitely on weekends — I cannot believe that I missed this particular page to applaud you more!

    You have gone waayyy over-the-top helping me to get my very first ebook on Amazon!

    The link for my new book is:
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00YNKMLPA?*Version*=1&*entries*=0

    I wish I could make it free for everyone but Amazon had other plans!

    Mary Ann 🙂

    1. It’s so exciting to see your book is now on Amazon as well! I have heard that it can take some time for Amazon to price match (change the price to zero). Let’s hope they will eventually.

      Kay

  26. Hello Kay, First let me thank you SO VERY MUCH for this. This template is AWESOME! And has just made my life 1000%easier.
    I would like to know if you can add footnotes to this template. If so would you please kindly advise?

    Thanks again a million! Kind Regards, Dawn

    1. Hi Dawn

      Yes in Word just put your cursor where you want to reference and go to ‘Reference‘ and then ‘Add footnote‘. A little number will appear and you add the text in the place at the bottom of the page where indicated.

      In Open Office put your cursor where you want to reference and go to ‘insert‘ then ‘footnote/endnote‘. Then add the text where indicated at the bottom of the page.

      Kay

  27. Hey thanks for the template. One quick question: How did you get the template to display multiple pages at 100% zoom? i hope you know what i mean.

  28. Thank you so much I had to go through a ton of instructions I couldn’t understand before stumbling on your site.You really saved me.

  29. Hi Kay,
    Thank you so much for posting this Kindle template, it’s so helpful! There’s one problem I am having with it, and hope you can tell me how to fix it: In your TOC you have some text following the chapter number “Chapter 2 XX” “Chapter 3 XX” but when I type in a title for the rest of the chapters in the TOC the title becomes a blue hyperlink. That’s fine, but not when it only looks like that for chapters 4-10. How can I get them all to be consistent in the formatting? Either have them all show up as blue hyperlinks or have all look like normal text, but work like hyperlinks?

    Thanks so much for your generous help 🙂
    Eva

  30. Hi Kay,

    I’m bashing away at my first book thanks to your easy to use template, but I have a general question about content. For Ebooks is it OK to add quite a few pictures? I’m writing a non – fiction instructional book so would really like to include a number of illustrations/photos. Just wondering what your thoughts are on this one – good to bad to include them from a readability point of view?

    1. Hi Al

      I have written a few instructional kindle books and I certainly include images as I believe that really helps. It adds value because it helps your reader understand what do to more clearly. I suggest you make them no more than 600 px wide as then they shouldn’t be scaled down during the conversion process (they will on smaller devices but not larger ones).

      I would also suggest you include something like “in the image below” or better still “in the following image” so that readers know you are referring to an image that they might not yet see – it might be over the next page. Sometimes you can add an image and believe it is on the same page as your text but when it gets converted it ends up and another page!

      Kay

      1. Kay,

        Thank you so much, for the free template.

        You make life so much simpler.

        Do you have a templete for SMASHWORDS? by any chance?

        Thank You!

        Joel Medina

  31. Kay,
    Thank you so much for the free template!! I may be missing something, but I can’t seem to add more than ten chapters. Any advice?

    1. Trish,

      Here’s what you need to do,
      1. Add chapter heading text
      2. Highlight it and then assign the heading 1 format to it
      3. Make sure you update your table of contents

      Kay

  32. Kay,

    Thank you so much for the free template. Its very generous. Anything I can help with? No strings attached. I’m an expert in natural health.

    -Molly

    1. You’re welcome Molly.

      There is something you could really help me with… Do you have any advice for a natural anti inflammatory? I suffer with back pain but am allergic to all the anti inflammatory medicines!

      Kay

      1. Hi Kay,
        Thanks for the template, I am about to write my first book!

        This may sound crazy but for your back try taking raw honey each day and by that I mean honey from a local beekeeper that has not had all the goodness removed by the mass honey producers!

          1. Hi Kay,
            It depends on your type of back pain. I damaged my back as a child and needed several years in hospital, back supports and an operation. If there is damage there look up Low Dose Nalrexone, for me it has given my life back. I take it nightly (the liquid is more effective than the tablets).
            Also, go and relax in a hot spa tub but not for more than 20-30 minutes, otherwise it could aggravate. Lastly look up McTimoney Chiropractor, very gentle (my back won’t take any added pain or stress), very effective. Between that and LDN, I’m now back to where I was 15 years ago, out and about and doing things not down in a stupor with drugs. Also look up JointAce, with aroma oils, that’s good for when I over do things.
            Hope it helps
            PS Hoping to write a book on pain management – all personally experienced in 35 years of dealing with pain!! So thanks very much for the template and I hope the above helps.

          2. Hi Hazel,

            Thank you so much for your tips on back pain. I’ll look them up. I am seeing an osteopath regularly now and my back is better than it was but when it feels better I am prone to then over doing things!! Like playing tennis in the garden with my daughter – well it is Wimbledon week after all! 🙂

            Please let me know when you finish your book on pain management, I will be interested in purchasing it. If you get stuck at any point just email me.

            Kay

          3. Just a quick add on to my info below. If you exert yourself and in pain, get some Epsom Salts (available from chemist but cheaper from garden centre which use it for roses, but get purely Epsom salts). Add a large handful of the salts and dissolve in a hot bath, soak for 20 minutes and go straight to bed. Do not go downstairs for anything or do anything. Your body will begin to relax and get warm. It works!

  33. Hello, i think that i saw you visited my blog so i came to
    “return the favor”.I am attempting to find things to improve my site!I suppose its ok to use
    a few of your ideas!!

  34. Dear Kay,

    How refreshing to hear your accent, rather than the one’s I normally hear (I’m sure you’ll work out what I mean)

    Thank you very much for the template. I will be using the Open Office one and I would like to know how I can install pictures. You mention that they do not work in Open Office. I’ve got a children’s book to publish, with a lot of cartoon graphics.

    Looking forward to hearing from you,
    Ian

    1. Hi Ian,

      So you like my West Country accent! 🙂

      You can now add images using open office. All you need to do is insert your image (you can just paste it in if you want to – with Open Office) but make sure that you create an .html file of your book (save as .html) and then zip of the files up and upload the zipped file to KDP. Then your images will work fine.

      Kay

  35. I just wanted to thank you for the template. I was terrified of posting my short story to Amazon, until you shared this. Any chance you have another template for longer novels? A variety of sorts?
    A.

      1. Hi Ms. Franklin!

        I have a novel I’m working on and it contains a dedication/Information page, Legal Notice, TOC and the ending pages that you’ve provided. My issue is that the book has thirty four chapters and I don’t know how to add extra chapters. I’ve tried and messed things up royally.

        Do you have a longer chapters template? Or is there a simpler way to added the extra chapters in? I am at a loss!

        Thank you!
        Alyssa

        1. Hi Alyssa

          It is easy to add extra chapters:

          1. Add your chapter heading text
          2. Highlight it and then assign the heading 1 format to it
          3. Then make sure you update your table of contents

          If you’re still confused I’ve uploaded a video to you tube showing you how: http://youtu.be/nfizdImluHo

          Kay

  36. Hi Kay.

    I’ve downloaded your template, but I can’t seem to get it
    to work in WORD.

    Help!

    Thanks,

    Jim

      1. Thanks Kay,

        yes, I down loaded the WORD version, but was’nt
        sure what folder to put it in.

        I selected the usa language, but all I get is
        garbage.

        simple instructions please!

        Thanks so much for your help!

        Jim

        1. Sorry Kay, the template works fine!
          must have gotten damaged while windows was
          doing its update thing.

          Thanks again for the help.

          I’ll let you know when my book is finally
          published on amazon.

          Best,

          Jim

          1. Oh good. Yes windows can mess things up when it is busy doing updates! I have noticed quite a few lately.

            Glad it is all sorted out now.

            I’ll look forward to hearing about your Kindle book Jim!

            Kay

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