What formatting really is

An ebook is not a page; it reflows to whatever device holds it. Formatting means semantic structure — headings that are headings, a working table of contents, styles instead of manual spacing — not visual arrangement.

Most rejected or ugly ebooks fail for the same reasons: tab-indented paragraphs, hard page breaks, images sized for print, and a table of contents built by hand.

When free is enough

Novels, memoirs and most non-fiction without illustrations format cleanly in free purpose-built tools in an afternoon.

You will need a correct front matter block either way: title page, copyright, edition notice and identifiers.

When to pay

Illustrated books, cookbooks, workbooks, poetry with fixed line breaks, academic work with footnotes and anything with tables. Fixed-layout and reflowable editions are two different builds.

Also pay if your time is worth more than the fee. That is a legitimate reason and needs no other justification.

Asked and answered

What file format do storefronts want?

EPUB is the universal answer. Amazon accepts EPUB and converts it internally.

Does formatting affect the audio edition?

Only in that clean chapter structure makes the audio build faster to navigate and split into files.

Can I just upload a Word document?

You can, and the conversion will inherit every stray tab and manual break in it. Clean the document first or convert it deliberately.