I don't want to sound like I'm complaining or anything, but I would like to be able to use italics or use bold to enhance my writing (I use it mainly for thoughts or internal dialogue). Does anyone know how I can do this?
Is there any way to italicize or embolden my writing on the site?
This feature is only available for premium/contracted(?) authors, from what I understood.
Yup you have to be contracted, you can also unicode the formating in if you dont mind your book being bkacklisted for special character use 
No. But as per above.