Help needed to produce a Kindle Book...

[LondonMX]

Hello I am attempting to write a Kindle Book and hoping some people on here have already done this and can explain to me how to do it easily. There is a lot of conflicting advice on the web. I am using the following –

Libreoffice Writer (Save as ODT)
Calibre (Converting in MOBI format)
Kindle Previewer

1. How do I create a Table of Contents? (in very simple steps, pref. in Libreoffice writer)

2. Do I need/how do I create an NCX file? How hard is this? Do people expect this feature?

3. What is the default text size for each device? (out of about 6 levels)

4. The book will be poetry (each verse four lines) I have put a page break for each chapter heading (there are 8 chapters) that’s fine. My question is should I ‘page break’ 4 verses per page (so that for example there is empty blank at the bottom of the page (the advantage of this is that it keeps it in bunches of 4 lines, and doesn’t mean that sometimes there is e.g. the first verse line at the bottom of the page then 3 verse lines at the top of the next page? It seems either risking lots of blankage at bottom of the page or 4-line verses getting cut up over two pages? Which option is preferable/should I use?….

5. I intend to have the chapter heading and then a large image filling the page below it (what is the ideal image size in pixels for this?)

6. What is the ideal image size for the front and back cover (for the device) and the front cover used in the website (or is the same front cover used for the website description and the device front cover?)

7. Do I have to worry about the font style or size I use (or does Calibre or the KDP converter at upload automatically change these (or does each device have its own default font style size?… What are the best settings to use for margins/paragraph spacing/etc when Editing the text in Libreoffice? Does anyone know of a free template that is designed for Libreoffice Writer that is explicitly designed for creating a Kindle file (perfect margins/page size etc.) that can then be converted in Calibre or Kindle KDP converter online?

8. Although I will create images in the correct pixel dimensions as advised above, will Calibre or the Kindle KDP converter automatically convert the dimensions and file size to kindle format (and also will it place the image on the page correctly (centered?)

9. Say I have a heading and a large image on one page (or four verses per page) if its not enough info to fill the whole of the screen, how do I ensure there is an equal border of nothing on the page top and bottom (and left and right) to make it all fully-centred?

10. What files do I need to have present to upload on the kindle website? Can I just upload the single MOBI file that calibre creates? (or do I have to upload images put into the book separately (e.g. jpegs) and TOC and MCX and contents files separately or in a ZIP or what?

11. Im guessing that the final book file size should be as small as possible?

12. Will the Kindle KDP converter when uploaded be intelligent enough to make the end file professionally formatted?

13. When the book is made available online will it always be correctly formatted etc or could a change in Kindles file format or newer devices cause it to display incorrectly (im asking is the uploaded book file ‘future proof…’)

14. I don’t see how one file can be made to display correctly on so many platforms - Fire/Kindle/touch/Ipad/Iphone. I don’t get how that is possible to be honest. How do I optimise it to look at its best on each platform?.

Many thanks for all your help…