Why Using Kindle Create Can Turn Into a Self-Publishing Nightmare

If you’ve ever dipped your toes into self-publishing, you’ve probably heard of Kindle Create — Amazon’s official tool for formatting books for Kindle. On paper, it sounds perfect: a free, easy-to-use program that turns your manuscript into a ready-to-publish Kindle Package Format (.kpf) file.

Unfortunately, in practice, Kindle Create can become a one-way street — and for authors, that’s a serious problem.

The Trap of the KPF Format

Kindle Create’s .kpf files are not editable outside the program, and Amazon provides no official way to convert them to industry-standard formats like EPUB or back to Word (.docx). That means if you lose your original manuscript or want to publish somewhere else, you’re stuck.

Export Errors and Frustrations

Worse still, Kindle Create is prone to bugs and export errors. Reinstalling sometimes helps, but when it doesn’t, you can be left without access to your own fully formatted book.

No Way Back

Imagine spending hours perfecting chapter headings, page breaks, and images — only to find that you can’t get your work out in a usable format without manually copying and pasting every page. It’s the digital equivalent of locking your book in a vault and throwing away the key.

What Amazon Should Do

Amazon could solve this easily:

• Add an “Export to EPUB/DOCX” option.

• Or allow Kindle Previewer to save .kpf as EPUB.

This small change would empower authors, not trap them. Until then, Kindle Create is less of a creative tool and more of a closed box.