• In my WP program I made sure the manuscript was a single, multi-chapter file. I made sure I used the styles available, so Chapter Headings were 'Heading 1', text was 'text', other things had their own labels
• I adjusted the layout so that it was correctly indented (for my taste) and correctly spaced and font sized.
• I proofread the manuscript for the 92nd time to try to get all the typos out.
• I set up my account at Kindle Direct Publishing. This was a breeze, because it uses my existing login. And I made sure I had the latest download of Kindle Create, the Beta version, because that allows a linked paperback to be created easily
• In Kindle Create I discovered it does not take Open Office files, so I saved as a M$ Word document from OO, and then inhaled the .doc file to create the Kindle book first.
• I waited for a while!
• Kindle Create has three recommended styles, 'Themes'. I chose the easiest to spot errors in first, and started to edit the story file. KC is a bit awkward, but a little practice let me master it. I was able to correct remaining errors on the fly. At this point my .doc file was no longer relevant. I'd gone way past it. KC reminds you to save at intervals you set. There is no auto save.
• Once satisfied, I chose the theme I wanted, saved the file, then 'published' it. This exports a publishable file. It does not, of itself, publish it.
• Back at KDP I set the Kindle book up. There are some simple fields to fill in
• I followed the process there to select a cover design and to choose a cover picture, and edit the colours to my liking.
• Happy with the cover I continued to importing the KC output file.
• I previewed it, and found I could not correct any errors there. I went back to my KC 'project' and made changes there, re-publishing and reimporting. There were several iterations. I was doing this for five or six hours with breaks
• Happy at last I set the pricing and chose low. No point in a high price. I chose worldwide distribution, made sure the book blurb was in place, and pressed publish. Amazon creates the ASIN. Mine is B07N7SVVL7
• I them moved directly on to the paperback. I was surprised that I had to import the file again, and that I had to design the cover again, but this is the Beta version of stuff. Amazon created the ISBN. I could have written it down, but it will tell me when it's ready.
• The rest of the process was simpler because the errors were all corrected. Pricing is based on the cost of printing, which is where Amazon makes its money, pus the royalty level chosen. My price is not high in any market.
• I pressed publish

When we checked your files, we found issues that you'll need to fix before you can publish. We've listed them below, along with links to Help pages that explain how to make updates. To finish preparing your book before publishing, you will need to fix these issues and resubmit the files. We're sorry we can't publish your book yet.You can review the KDP Print Publishing Guidelines for more information on publishing requirements.Interior

• The page numbers in your manuscript file aren't in order. Learn how to fix this.

We thank you for taking the time to fix these errors, and we look forward to publishing your work.The Kindle Direct Publishing team

• The 'Front Matter', the stuff before the first chapter, so the TOC, the Intro, the Foreword, etc have no numbers. KC seems to have no facility to give them even Roman numerals. So those are unnumbered
• A number of new chapters start on the left hand page, an even numbered page. So I am asking them for help
  I do have a problem. I have made some minor text edits within KC, so, if I have to go back to OO I will have to read both files side by side.  I've asked them how to solve that, too.  Bugger.

When I send a work for publication on this site, I write it in Pages and convert it to a .doc format in LibreOffice; as far as I know, it has not been a problem.

Well, Tim, I've bought your Kindle book. I seem to prefer bying obscure British authors on Kindle whom are otherwise unavailable over on this side of the Atlantic (the last Kindle I bought was Stuart Maconie's book on the Jarrow march, and he asks a full $10 for his works!). I figure that for a measley $2.99, it's worth a look. Your editing really shows, although after the first chapter, I found a couple small errors; one an incorrect tense error, and another where a possesive of a name ending in "s" (although I'm not certain if the American English standard of just leaving it as an "s" followed by an apostrophe and nothing else is correct in British Standard...). My mother was a magazine editor in her younger days, so I'm quite competent as an editor, even though I'm not terribly good as a writer...

I'm not terribly impressed with the entire genre of books written as diaries. It kind of reminds me of Portnoy's Complaint, a book which so many people commend as being great literature, but which I really despised. It also seems to be a British thing, adding more bits of minutae into the story than most Americans do. I guess I'm just a minimalist at heart, so that's more a personal preference. Also, since it is more or less autobiographical, it proabably was a bit dull at times, I guess. But, then, boys at that age tend to worry al lot about things. I'm only 1/3^rd of the way through, anyway.

Two things I should suggest you consider about self-publishing, though. Firstly, I believe that Open Office is free only so long as you don't use it professionally. Admitting to doing otherwise might result in a licensing bill. And secondly, there have been issues of online paid authors running afoul of very restrictive local obscenity laws in other locales. One author was in the news a few years back having run afoul of Alabama's laws, even though he lived in California, and was actually extradited to stand trial. Treading into young gay male sexuality is fraught with peril, as I'm sure you know.

Is OpenOffice really free for any user? 

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• Different page headers, odd and even. Author name goes on the left hand page, book name goes on the right. Consider whether or not to put chapter names, numbers, in the header. I have not.
• Different footers on odd and even pages.
• Different style page numbering after the contents page: Front Matter gets no numbers. Some folk consider forewords, intros as front matter, but it is useful to give them Roman numerals. This then gets included in the Contents page, because it is after it
• Decide if a Contents Page is useful, if not then lose it. If useful it must be on a right hand page
• New chapters start on a right hand page. Learn about insertion of page breaks. A blank left hand page does not matter at all
• The meat of the book has ordinary numbers. Even pages left aligned, odd pages right aligned
• End Matter has alpha 'numbers'. It should be short