Fixes, rules and costs for publishing a book on KDP: editing, formatting, covers, Amazon listings, launch plans and author websites.
If a file is already stuck, start with our KDP rejected file fix, or see the paperback interior service if you are choosing who sets your pages.
Launch plan and graphics
A KDP pre-order lists a Kindle ebook up to 18 months ahead. Upload the final file 72 hours before release or KDP cancels every order. Paperbacks cannot take them.
KDP upload and listing prep
The free KDP ISBN costs nothing but works only on KDP and shows "Independently published". Your own ISBN costs money and can go to other printers too.
Amazon listing optimization
KDP lets you choose 3 categories per book. Pick ones that describe the book, check them on Amazon's own lists, and use your 7 keywords for the shelves the 3 miss.
Cover wrap and spine
KDP allows spine text only on paperbacks of at least 79 pages, and Cover Creator asks for 80. Keep text 0.0625 inch from each spine edge.
Cover wrap and spine
Get your final page count, download the template from KDP's cover calculator, set a canvas with 0.125 inch bleed, and put your front cover on the right panel.
Cover wrap and spine
KDP cover bleed is 0.125 inch on the top, bottom and outside edges of the full wrap. Backgrounds must run into it, and text stays 0.125 inch inside the trim.
Cover wrap and spine
The simplest route is to leave the barcode off, and KDP adds one free. If you add your own, KDP suggests 2 x 1.2 inches in black on white, clear of the spine.
Hardcover from paperback
A hardcover template is not a bigger paperback one. Art runs 0.51 inch past the front edge, text sits 0.635 inch in, and a 0.4 inch hinge by the spine stays empty.
Hardcover from paperback
On Amazon.com, black ink at a regular trim is a flat $6.80 from 75 to 108 pages. A 300-page 6 x 9 hardcover costs $9.25 to print, $4.65 more than the paperback.
Written by the production team behind Clean Page Press.
Prefer to have it done? See what book formatting costs for every service, ebook formatting included.
Up to 1,300 words of your manuscript, set at your trim size, back in 2 business days. No card.
