Guides
Preparing a book for print on KDP, and an ebook for the stores.
From manuscript to paperback
How to turn a Kindle ebook into a paperback
Adding a paperback to a Kindle ebook: the Word file, a trim size, a paperback ISBN, a cover built from the ebook's front, and linking the two on Amazon.
From Google Docs to a KDP paperback
How to take a book written in Google Docs to a KDP paperback: heading styles, downloading it as Word, what page setup cannot do, and setting it for print.
KDP paperback templates, and what they leave to you
What KDP's Word templates for paperbacks give you, what you still have to do yourself, and the one thing a template cannot know: your final page count.
What goes at the front of a book
The order of half title, title, copyright, dedication and contents: which fall on a right-hand page, why they are numbered in roman, what a blind folio is.
How many pages will my book be?
How many pages 40,000 to 100,000 words make in a paperback at 5 × 8, 5.5 × 8.5 and 6 × 9, measured on a typeset novel, and what changes the count.
KDP's print requirements
A 6 × 9 paperback on KDP
Every number for a 6×9 KDP paperback: page size with and without bleed, margins by page count, page limits, spine and cover size, and pages for a word count.
A 5 × 8 paperback on KDP
Every number for a 5×8 KDP paperback: page size with and without bleed, margins, page limits, spine and cover size, pages for a word count, and 5×8 or 6×9.
How KDP gutter margins work
The inside margin KDP requires depends on your page count, and the page count depends on the margins. The table, the loop, and how to settle it.
KDP minimum page count, and when a spine can carry text
KDP prints paperbacks from 24 pages and allows spine text from 79. Why a 7-point spine line needs 112 pages on white paper, and the limits for each paper.
Cream, white or groundwood paper on KDP
The three papers KDP prints black-ink paperbacks on: weight, spine width, page limits and print cost, what KDP says about each, and what changes if you switch.
KDP bleed or no bleed: which to choose
When a KDP paperback interior needs bleed, what changes in the page size and margins, why only a PDF can carry it, and why every cover has bleed.
KDP image resolution: 300 DPI and how to check it
What KDP asks of images in a paperback: 300 DPI at the printed size, no enlarging after insertion, the 650MB limit, color and black ink, and how to work it out.
The KDP barcode: size, placement and what to keep clear
Where KDP prints the ISBN barcode on a paperback, what to keep clear of it, and every rule a barcode of your own has to meet: size, distance, color and ISBN.
A KDP paperback cover in Canva
Setting up a KDP paperback cover in Canva: the full size from KDP's formula, Canva's print bleed, crop marks, flattening, and why the preview can look cropped.
Can you use your KDP files on IngramSpark or Lulu?
What carries over from a KDP paperback to IngramSpark and Lulu: the interior page size, margins, PDF/X, the spine, the cover template and the ISBN.
Checking the finished book
Why KDP rejected your interior
Nine mechanical causes of a rejected KDP interior that a PDF reader does not show, from the wrong page size to a font not embedded, and how to spot each one.
KDP says text is outside the margins
Why KDP's Print Previewer flags text outside the margins when the text looks fine: spaces, empty text boxes, italics, and how to find them in Word.
Ordering a KDP proof copy, and what to check on it
How to order a KDP paperback proof, what it costs and how long the order stays open, how it differs from an author copy, and what to check on paper.
Widows, orphans and rivers
The typesetting faults readers notice — widows, orphans, rivers, loose lines, stacked hyphens, short last lines — and what fixes each one.
Ebooks
EPUBCheck errors, decoded
EPUBCheck's error codes with their exact messages, recorded by breaking a valid EPUB on purpose, one fault at a time — and the one failure EPUBCheck cannot catch.
From Word to EPUB
Turning a Word manuscript into an EPUB for KDP, Apple Books, Kobo and Google Play: headings and contents, alt text, accessibility metadata and EPUBCheck.
What the EU now asks your ebook to say about itself
The five accessibility properties the European Accessibility Act asks of an EPUB: what each means, which every book needs, why a false claim is worse than none.
Terms
Comparisons
What formatting a book costs
What it costs, in money and time, to go from a finished manuscript to uploadable files — including proof copies, re-uploads and the second book.
A Kindle Create alternative
Kindle Create makes a KPF, which only KDP accepts. Torcul makes a standard print PDF, an EPUB that passes EPUBCheck and a cover, each checked before upload.
Vellum alternatives that run on Windows
Vellum has been macOS only for over a decade. The alternatives, what each one costs and what you give up.
Atticus compared
Many Windows authors consider Atticus once Vellum turns out to be Mac only. What it does well, what its users dislike, how Torcul differs.
A Lacuna alternative
Lacuna is a desktop app, licensed per computer, that does not make covers. Torcul runs in a browser, is licensed per book and makes the cover too.
A Draft2Digital alternative
A template lays a book out and hands the files back. Torcul also reads its print PDF and EPUB back: margins at the real page count, layout faults, EPUBCheck.