Printable View
I've published on KDP, and that works well for me.
I use the KDP 6x9 MS Word template, move my chapters in, format it with the TOC etc, then upload it.
I'd like to use a different scene (not chapter) separator. Currently I use asterisks, and that's fine, but I've read other self published books and seen more interesting separators. How do I find and upload a unique separator that KDP will be happy with?
Since ebooks are based on HTML formatting, I would think that the typical HTML symbols would work. There are usually some interesting combinations from standard fonts such as TIMES NEW ROMAN that you can access by clicking "insert symbol" and looking at "entire font" - just be sure that you are using a standard font. If you add a symbol from an unusual font, then when your ebook is rendered, if that font isn't available (either via embedding or on someone's device) then it will be displayed in a standard "serif" or "sans serif" font which may not have the symbol you used. Times New Roman is pretty safe though. Some books use actual "images" for the scene breaks but I have seen this done with white background and I use dark background on my device so it stands out as weird white boxes, so I don't like that approach personally.
Here is a chart of various special symbols and their HTML & Unicode info:
https://www.toptal.com/designers/htmlarrows/symbols/
Some cool times new roman scene break combos I've seen that are safe:
~ ~ ~
~~~
-+-
___
~/~
<>
^^^
All of this said, you may only care about printed books and there the sky is the limit!! You can use any image / gif / jpg, or webdings / wingdings from free fonts. Just be sure to save your PDF with embedded fonts.
If it's for print, you can use any small element you like. Flourishes, or whatever... I think they're called printer's elements? Something like that.
For ebooks, it's best to just use the asterisk. If you try to use something from a font, like webdings or whatever, Amazon won't convert it and it will look ugly in the file. Otherwise, you have to make an image of it, and images add to the download costs.