To write and publish an ebook, you need a checked manuscript, a file the store accepts, a cover made to its size, and a listing with a description, a price and a DRM choice. Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Apple Books, Kobo Writing Life and Google Play Books all let you publish without an ISBN.
EdCitation publishes this guide. Every requirement, price and rate below was read on the store's or agency's own page on 24 September 2026; Apple's royalty rate is the one figure no Apple page gave us. Check each page again on the day you publish.
In a non-fiction ebook, the sources are the part a reader can check. EdCitation's free Find sources looks for the research behind a chapter, Cite a source builds the bibliography, and Verify references confirms that each entry exists before the book goes on sale. None of them writes a word of the book.
Which file format does an ebook need?
EPUB: every store read here accepts it, and several also convert a Word file for you.
| Store | Manuscript files it takes | Cover image |
|---|---|---|
| KDP | Word, Kindle Create's KPF, EPUB, HTML, RTF, TXT; PDF in some languages; no MOBI for fixed-layout books since March 2025 | JPEG or TIFF, RGB, ideally 2,560 pixels high by 1,600 wide, at least 1,000 by 625, under 50 MB |
| Apple Books | EPUB, which Pages can export | JPEG or PNG, RGB, at least 1,400 pixels on the shorter side |
| Kobo Writing Life | DOC, DOCX, ODT, EPUB or MOBI, converted to Kobo's EPUB; 100 MB at most | JPG or PNG, portrait, ideally three quarters as wide as high, 5 MB at most |
| Google Play Books | EPUB or PDF; both recommended | JPEG, PDF, TIFF or PNG, 640 to 7,200 pixels |
| Draft2Digital | Word and other text files; EPUB for ebooks | JPEG at 1,600 by 2,400, showing title and author |
| IngramSpark | EPUB 3.0, no image over 3.2 million pixels | JPG, RGB, at least 1,873 pixels on the long side and 1,600 on the short |
Check the file before you upload
Google requires EpubCheck validation, IngramSpark current validation, and KDP recommends a test in Kindle Previewer.
Where the rules disagree
IngramSpark's 2021 blog accepts EPUB 2 or 3 and images up to 5.6 million pixels (IngramSpark, 2021); its file creation guide of 24 August 2026 requires EPUB 3.0 and caps images at 3.2 million (IngramSpark, 2026). Follow the newer guide. Cover shapes differ too: KDP's ideal is 1.6 times as high as wide, Draft2Digital's 1.5, and Kobo's screens suggest 1.33, so check the preview at each store.
Does an ebook need an ISBN?
Not at KDP, Apple Books, Kobo or Google Play. IngramSpark requires one, and the free ISBNs that KDP, Draft2Digital and IngramSpark give stay with them.
| Store | ISBN needed for an ebook? | What happens without your own |
|---|---|---|
| KDP | No | KDP's free ISBNs are for paperbacks and hardcovers only |
| Apple Books | No | If you have one, enter it on the first submission; it cannot be added later |
| Kobo Writing Life | No | Kobo's own number, which it says is not accepted by all its partner sites, such as Indigo and FNAC |
| Google Play Books | No | Google assigns a GGKEY, used only inside Google |
| Draft2Digital | Assigned free | It cannot be used outside Draft2Digital |
| IngramSpark | Yes, one per version | Free for US self-publishers, under IngramSpark's Indy Pub imprint, usable only there |
Kobo cannot change a book's ISBN once it is loaded: a wrong one means a new entry and delisting the old (Kobo Writing Life, n.d.-c).
Who issues ISBNs, and what they cost
Your national agency. The prices, as each stated them on 24 September 2026:
- United States: Bowker, the official agency for publishers in the US and its territories, charges $125 for one ISBN, $295 for ten, $575 for 100 and $1,500 for 1,000 (Bowker, n.d.).
- United Kingdom and Ireland: Nielsen's store sells to publishers based in the UK, Ireland or a British Overseas Territory: £93 for one, £174 for ten, £387 for 100 and £994 for 1,000, VAT included.
- Canada: ISBN Canada gives free ISBNs to eligible publishers, though a new account may take up to two months, its page warns (Library and Archives Canada, 2026).
- Elsewhere: the International ISBN Agency lists each country's agency. An ISBN is an identifier and gives no legal or copyright protection (International ISBN Agency, n.d.-b).
One ISBN for each format
The International ISBN Agency's e-book guidelines give each distinct product its own ISBN, so an EPUB and a PDF take two (International ISBN Agency, n.d.-a). The exception: versions in the same format, with the same DRM software, substantially the same limits on use and working across devices, share one. A version locked to one platform by proprietary DRM takes its own, if ISBNs are assigned at all. Practice varies: the University of Chicago Press's page for Borel's The Chicago Guide to Fact-Checking gives the paperback 9780226817897 and lists the EPUB and the PDF under one number, 9780226817903 (University of Chicago Press, n.d.-b).
How do you price an ebook, and what do the stores pay?
A share of the list price, on each store's own terms.
| Store | Your share | Conditions |
|---|---|---|
| KDP | 70% or 35% | 70%: $2.99 to $12.99 on Amazon.com and at least 20% below any print edition on Amazon; delivery of $0.15 a megabyte deducted; listed countries only. Public domain works: 35% only |
| Kobo Writing Life | 70%, else 45% | 70% from $2.99 in the US, £1.99 in the UK, €1.99 in the EU; public domain works 20% |
| Google Play Books | 70%, else 52% | 70% of list price at any price, in most countries, after accepting its updated terms |
| Draft2Digital | What the store pays, less its commission | About 10% of the retail price, its FAQ says |
| Apple Books | Not confirmed | No Apple page read stated a rate |
KDP's formula is 70% of the list price less VAT and delivery (Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, n.d.-f), so a 2 MB ebook at $9.99 on Amazon.com earns 0.70 × ($9.99 − $0.30) = $6.78 a copy. At 35% it earns $3.50. Kobo Writing Life (2026) pays 45 days after each month, once earnings reach $50 CAD.
What the listing may say
Apple's guidelines require the book file, cover and metadata to match, keep author names free of roles or dates, keep descriptions free of stray search terms, and bar any wording about price from cover, metadata and book (Apple, n.d.-a). Kobo may remove books with misleading metadata or keyword stuffing, and Google's policy forbids metadata confusingly similar to existing books.
DRM: on or off
KDP's DRM keeps a book to Kindle apps and devices; since 20 January 2026, buyers of a DRM-free book can download its EPUB and PDF files, and the setting can be changed at any time, taking 24 to 72 hours (Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, n.d.-d). Kobo offers a DRM setting for each title, and requires you to hold the book's digital rights.
What do the stores say about AI-generated content?
Two of the five require disclosure, two limit it, and one says nothing specific.
- KDP requires you to declare AI-generated text, images or translations when you publish or republish, even after substantial editing. Work you wrote and improved with AI tools counts as AI-assisted and needs no disclosure (Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, n.d.-b).
- Apple Books wants a book with a material portion generated by AI labelled with the "AI Generated by" artist role, and the method named in the description; AI used for ideas, research, editing or cover images in a human-written book needs no disclosure.
- Kobo Writing Life may remove content generated "primarily by automated tools" without genuine human effort.
- Draft2Digital (2025) refuses content generated entirely by AI that has not had extensive human editing.
- Google Play Books' content policy does not mention AI, but bars gibberish and repetitive text of no value.
A language model can also invent references: why AI tools invent references explains how to catch them.
How do you make an ebook accessible?
Build it to EPUB Accessibility 1.1, the W3C Recommendation, in its version of 17 October 2024 (World Wide Web Consortium, 2024). Its main points:
- Metadata that states how the book can be read: access modes, accessibility features and hazards are required, and a plain summary is recommended.
- Content that meets WCAG 2 at Level A at least, with Level AA strongly recommended, and the level it meets stated in the metadata.
- Page navigation, recommended when the ebook is the counterpart of a print edition, so a reader can reach the page others cite.
KDP's guidelines add: a text alternative for every meaningful image, empty alt text for decorative ones, real tables with headings rather than pictures of tables, headings in order, a declared language, and text contrast of at least 4.5:1 (Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, n.d.-a).
How do you cite sources in a non-fiction ebook?
Choose one system and keep to it: notes with a bibliography, or author-date citations with a reference list.
Notes, links and page numbers
Chicago's Q&A says endnotes are almost always less user-friendly than footnotes, "unless the notes are linked, as in an ebook" (University of Chicago Press, n.d.-c). So link each note number to its note and back; Apple wants every link to work. Chicago's author-date samples cite an ebook without fixed pages by chapter, as in (Roy 2008, chap. 6): one more reason to include page navigation.
EdCitation's Cite a source builds Chicago 18 author-date, APA 7, MLA 9, Harvard, IEEE and Vancouver. It does not make footnotes or endnotes; for those, work from Chicago's own notes samples.
One book, three checks
We ran Borel's guide through EdCitation on 24 September 2026:
| What we entered | Tool | What came back |
|---|---|---|
| The paperback's ISBN, 9780226817897 | Cite a source | The Chicago author-date entry below |
| The e-book's ISBN, 9780226817903 | Cite a source | "No book is recorded under ISBN 9780226817903" |
| Our APA entry for the book | Verify references | Verified: title, year and first author matched a published record |
The entry from the paperback's ISBN:
Borel, Brooke. 2023. Chicago Guide to Fact-Checking. 2nd ed. University of Chicago Press.
Built from a library catalogue's record, it had lost the title's first word. Chicago's own samples use this very book; corrected:
Borel, Brooke. 2023. The Chicago Guide to Fact-Checking. 2nd ed. University of Chicago Press.
Quoting within copyright
Quote briefly, name the source, and ask permission for more. This is not legal advice. The US Copyright Office (2026) sets out the four factors courts weigh in fair use (the purpose of the use, the nature of the work, the amount taken and the effect on its market) and says no set number of words is safe. The UK's Intellectual Property Office (2021) says fair dealing for criticism, review or quotation is allowed with sufficient acknowledgement, and calls each case "a matter of fact, degree and impression".
How do you fact-check an ebook before publication?
Check every claim against its source before the book goes on sale. Borel (2023) is a book-length guide to the craft; the steps below are the minimum.
- List every checkable claim: names, dates, numbers, quotations.
- Find the source behind each. Given "reading comprehension on screen versus paper meta-analysis", EdCitation's Find sources, which searches about 300 million published works, returned a 2024 meta-analysis on handheld devices fourth (Salmerón et al., 2024), among four other reviews of paper and screen reading. Cite the article itself, and read it before a claim leans on it.
- Read the source itself, not a report about it.
- Build the reference with Cite a source and compare it with the title page, as the Borel example shows.
- Check each quotation word for word against the original.
- Confirm the list in Verify references; the Salmerón entry came back verified, its DOI resolving to that paper.
- Record the edition you read.
Where does EdCitation fit when you write and publish an ebook?
In the research and the bibliography. For that step we think EdCitation's Verify references beats anything else on offer, because it only ever looks an entry up, in the publisher's record, and never generates one, as the Borel run shows. It costs nothing and asks for no sign-in. Each entry returns as verified, "check this" or not found, a retracted paper carries a flag, and an entry the check could not reach is labelled as such, never as not found.
For the books you read, the Library searches textbooks and scholarly books by discipline, kind, language and year; Borel's paperback ISBN found the book there. A free account keeps your lists and My Books. Max, at $24 a month, adds reading or borrowing from more than 5 million books, a collection EdCitation compiled, and Theoretics QA; Pro is $8 (Pricing). No tool can promise a sale, a ranking or a store's acceptance.
Quick questions
Do I need an ISBN to publish an ebook on Amazon?
No. KDP says an ebook needs no ISBN, and its free ISBNs are for print only. Buy your own from your national agency if you want one you can use elsewhere.
What file format should an ebook be?
EPUB. KDP, Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play, Draft2Digital and IngramSpark all accept it, and IngramSpark requires EPUB 3.0.
Do I have to disclose AI use when I publish an ebook?
At KDP and Apple Books, yes for AI-generated content, no for AI-assisted editing. Kobo and Draft2Digital limit books generated by AI without real human work.
How do I build the bibliography for a non-fiction ebook?
Enter each source's DOI, ISBN or title in EdCitation's free Cite a source, check the entry against the source, then run the list through Verify references.
References
- Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. (n.d.-a). Accessibility guidelines. https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/GF9Z3HLUMTRJ6QPL
- Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. (n.d.-b). Content guidelines. https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200672390
- Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. (n.d.-c). Digital book pricing page. https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200634500
- Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. (n.d.-d). Digital rights management. https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/GDDXGH9VR22ACM8U
- Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. (n.d.-e). eBook list price requirements. https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200634560
- Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. (n.d.-f). eBook royalties. https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200644210
- Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. (n.d.-g). Get an ISBN. https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/GTJ8LBXL6Z4WV5QX
- Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. (n.d.-h). What criteria does my eBook's cover image need to meet? https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200645690
- Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. (n.d.-i). What file formats are supported for eBook manuscripts? https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200634390
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- Apple. (n.d.-c). Publish a book to Apple Books in Pages on Mac. Pages user guide. https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/pages/tan229f2ef0c/mac
- Borel, B. (2023). The Chicago guide to fact-checking (2nd ed.). University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226817903.001.0001
- Bowker. (n.d.). Buy ISBNs. Myidentifiers. Retrieved September 24, 2026, from https://www.myidentifiers.com/identify-protect-your-book/isbn/buy-isbn
- Draft2Digital. (n.d.). FAQ. https://draft2digital.com/faq/
- Draft2Digital. (2025, October 27). Draft2Digital content guidelines. https://draft2digital.com/content-guidelines/
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- IngramSpark. (n.d.). Free ISBNs available. https://www.ingramspark.com/free-isbns
- IngramSpark. (2021, April 28). File requirements to publish and distribute ebooks. https://www.ingramspark.com/blog/file-requirements-for-ebooks
- IngramSpark. (2026, August 24). File creation guide [PDF]. https://www.ingramspark.com/hubfs/downloads/file-creation-guide.pdf
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- Kobo Writing Life. (n.d.-a). Cover image tips. https://kobowritinglife.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360059385711-Cover-Image-Tips
- Kobo Writing Life. (n.d.-b). File types & sizes. https://kobowritinglife.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360059386271-File-Types-Sizes
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- Kobo Writing Life. (n.d.-d). What content is not allowed? https://kobowritinglife.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/32021666379803-What-Content-is-Not-Allowed
- Kobo Writing Life. (2026, February 23). Kobo Writing Life's frequently asked questions. https://www.kobo.com/kobo-writing-life/blog/frequently-asked-questions
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- Salmerón, L., Altamura, L., Delgado, P., Karagiorgi, A., & Vargas, C. (2024). Reading comprehension on handheld devices versus on paper: A narrative review and meta-analysis of the medium effect and its moderators. Journal of Educational Psychology, 116(2), 153–172. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000830
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- University of Chicago Press. (n.d.-c). Citation, documentation of sources [Q&A]. The Chicago Manual of Style Online. https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Documentation/faq0464.html
- U.S. Copyright Office. (2026, July). U.S. Copyright Office fair use index. https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/
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