[eschwartz]

1. The optimal way to convert an epub is to have no cover.xhtml but to have a cover.jpg which is marked as type=cover. But the cover you upload separately is not the same as the book's cover image, especially noticeable as certain publishers (I'm looking at you, Penguin!) actually put no cover in other than a stupid picture of a penguin.
   
   The separately uploaded cover will be the one on the product page, as well as the Kindle thumbnail, and the cover.jpg will be the one at the beginning of the book.
   
2. Page Maps are exactly as important as Real Page Numbers, since that is what they do. If there is a pbook to go with the ebook, you may wish to look into creating a page map so people can compare locations between the two formats, but for an ebook-only book, page map can be forgotten.
   
3. If you upload a .epub to KDP, they will run kindlegen on it for you. Or you can do it yourself, and use Previewer to confirm how it looks before uploading it.
   
   Same difference, really.