Many books are written in Google Docs. KDP does not take a Google Doc as it is. For a paperback it takes files such as a Word document or a PDF, and the steps in between decide how the printed book looks.
1. Mark chapters with heading styles
Select a chapter title, choose Format → Paragraph styles → Heading 1, and click Apply. Use Heading 2 for sections inside a chapter. Headings set this way appear in the document outline, and they go into the Word file as headings.
A title that is only bold and centered looks like a heading but is not marked as one. Torcul reads such a line from how it looks, and shows the reason for each heading so it can be corrected.
2. Download it as Word
Choose File → Download → Microsoft Word (.docx). If Download is missing, the owner of the document may have turned off downloading, printing and copying for people who can only view or comment. Then ask the owner for the file.
Before you download, accept or reject open suggestions and resolve the comments, so that the file holds only the final text.
3. What Google Docs page setup cannot do
Google Docs sets the paper size and margins under File → Page setup, in the Pages format only. Its help page for page setup names no mirrored margins and no gutter.
In a printed book the inside margin is on the left of a right-hand page and on the right of a left-hand page. With the same left and right margins on every page, both have to be at least KDP's inside minimum for the page count. How KDP gutter margins work explains why that minimum moves with the page count.
KDP accepts a Word file for a paperback without bleed. A PDF is a fixed layout, so the file you check is the file that is printed.
If you set the pages in Word yourself instead, turn on formatting marks before exporting the PDF. Spaces used for layout and empty text boxes count as text, and KDP can flag them as outside the margins. KDP says text is outside the margins shows how to find them.
4. Set it for print
Upload the .docx to Torcul. It shows how each heading was read and lets you correct it. It then lays the book out at the trim size you choose, with the inside margin fitted to the final page count. You download a print PDF, an EPUB and, if you want one, a cover.
Building the book and seeing every page are free. The files are $29 per book, paid once.
Sources
- Add a title, heading, or table of contents in a document
- Download a file
- Change page settings on Google Docs
KDP
None of this guarantees that KDP will accept a file. Google and KDP change their help pages, so check the date on this one and on any report a tool gives you.