You've finished the manuscript. To sell it as a paperback and an ebook on Amazon KDP, you need three files. The first is a print PDF of the inside pages, which KDP calls the interior. The second is a PDF of the cover, and the third is an ebook file: an EPUB, which KDP and the other ebook stores all take.
This guide takes you through the steps in the order they depend on each other. Several of your choices change the page count, and the page count changes the margins and the spine. Done out of order, some steps have to be done twice.
The short answer
Finish the text first. Mark its structure with Word's heading styles, then choose the trim size, the paper, the margins and the type, and lay out the pages. Make the print PDF and the ebook from the finished layout. Make the cover last, because its spine depends on the final page count. Check every file before you upload it, and order a printed proof before you publish.
1. Finish the text before you lay anything out
Every change after layout moves lines, and moving lines can change the page count. The page count decides the inside margin and the width of the spine, so a late edit can mean redoing both. Before you start, accept or reject every tracked change, delete the comments and settle the chapter titles.
In Word, both are on the Review tab: Accept → Accept All Changes, and Delete → Delete All Comments in Document.
2. Mark the structure with styles
A layout program can't tell that a line is a chapter title because it's bold and centered. It reads styles. Put each chapter title in Word's Heading 1 style (Home → Styles) and the book's title in the Title style. If the book has parts, put the part titles in Heading 1 and the chapter titles in Heading 2.
Mark each scene break with a symbol such as * * * on a line of
its own. A blank line disappears when it falls at the bottom of a page, and
then the reader can't see that the scene has changed.
How to format a book in Word gives every step with Word's menus, and From Google Docs to a KDP paperback does the same in Google Docs.
3. Choose the trim size
The trim size is the size of the finished book: its width and height after the pages are cut. KDP calls 6 × 9 inches the most common trim size for books in the US, and offers several others. If you aren't sure, measure a book like yours from your own shelf.
Choose the size first, because the page count follows from it. A smaller page holds fewer words, so the same text needs more pages. We measured one 80,000-word novel at 292 pages at 6 × 9 and 352 at 5 × 8. How many pages will my book be? gives the figures for other sizes and word counts.
4. Choose the paper
KDP prints black-and-white books on white, cream or groundwood paper, and color books on white only. The paper sets how thick the book is, so it changes the width of the spine as well. Cream, white or groundwood paper on KDP compares the three.
5. Set the margins
Margins keep your text clear of the edge where the pages are cut and of the spine. Without bleed, KDP asks for at least 0.25″ at the top, bottom and outside edge of every page. The inside margin, on the spine side (it's also called the gutter), has to be wider. It grows with the page count, from 0.375″ up to 150 pages to 0.875″ above 700, because the thicker the book, the more of each page curves into the binding.
These are KDP's minimums: the least it will print, not what looks best. Our free margin calculator gives both the minimums and the margins we recommend for your trim size and page count. In Word, set them under Layout → Margins → Custom Margins, and choose Mirror margins under Multiple pages, so the wider margin always sits on the spine side.
There's a catch: the margins change the page count, and the page count changes the inside margin. Set the margins for the page count you expect, lay out the book, then compare the real page count with KDP's table. If it crossed into another range, widen the inside margin and check again. How KDP gutter margins work explains why this settles after one or two rounds.
You need bleed only if something prints right to the edge of the page, such as a photo or a colored background. KDP bleed or no bleed explains the page size it takes.
6. Choose the type
KDP's smallest type size is 7 points, but that's a limit, not a suggestion. The size you choose changes how many pages the book has and how comfortable each line is to read. We measured one 80,000-word novel at 6 × 9: 222 pages at 10 points and 302 pages at 12.5. What font size should a book be? compares six sizes at three trim sizes.
7. Put the front matter in order
The front matter is the pages before chapter one. Readers expect them in this order: half title, title page, copyright page, dedication, epigraph and contents. You don't need every one, but those you keep go in that order. The title page sits on a right-hand page, with the copyright page on its back. What goes at the front of a book explains what goes on each page.
8. Lay out the pages
Start each chapter on a new page. KDP asks for odd page numbers on the right-hand pages and even numbers on the left. Then look for single lines of a paragraph stranded at the top or bottom of a page, called widows and orphans. They make a page look unfinished, and a careful layout leaves none.
In Word, Widow/Orphan control prevents the worst of them. You'll find it in the Paragraph settings, on the Line and Page Breaks tab. Widows, orphans and rivers explains how to fix the rest.
9. Check the pictures
KDP asks for pictures of at least 300 DPI (dots per inch) at the size they print, so they don't look soft or blocky on paper. Insert each picture at its final size and don't stretch it afterwards. Enlarging a picture spreads the same dots over more paper, which lowers its DPI. KDP image resolution shows how to work it out for your pictures.
10. Make the print PDF
KDP can convert a Word file for a book without bleed, but then you only see the result in KDP's previewer. A PDF you make yourself is exactly what gets printed. Each page in it should be a single page at your trim size, not two pages side by side. Every font should be embedded, which means stored inside the PDF, so the printer can't swap in another.
In Word, choose File → Save a Copy, then PDF, and check that the PDF's page size is your trim size, not Letter or A4. Why KDP rejected your interior lists nine faults that look fine on screen but get a file turned down.
11. Make the ebook
An ebook has no fixed pages. The reader picks the type size, and the text reflows to fit the screen, so the page layout from step 8 doesn't carry over. What matters is clean structure: the heading styles from step 2 turn into the ebook's table of contents. KDP takes a Word file or an EPUB, and the other ebook stores take an EPUB.
Run the EPUB through EPUBCheck, the checker the ebook stores use, before you upload it. For readers in the EU, it should also describe its own accessibility: what it contains and how it can be read. From Word to EPUB, EPUBCheck errors, decoded and What the EU now asks your ebook to say about itself take you through all three.
12. Make the cover last
A paperback cover is one PDF that wraps around the book: back, spine and front, with 0.125″ of bleed on the outside edges. The spine width comes from the page count and the paper. Make the cover once the interior is final, because if the page count changes, the spine changes with it.
Our free spine calculator gives the full cover size for your book. A KDP paperback cover in Canva shows how to build one, and The KDP barcode explains the space KDP keeps for its barcode on the back.
13. Check everything before you upload
Before you press Publish, check that:
- the PDF's page size matches the trim size you chose on KDP, plus bleed if you use it;
- nothing but a background or picture with bleed comes closer to the edge than KDP's margins;
- every font is embedded, and every picture is at least 300 DPI;
- the EPUB passes EPUBCheck;
- the cover's spine width matches your final page count;
- every page looks right in KDP's previewer.
Our free PDF checker, EPUB checker and cover checker work on files from any program. Then order a printed proof before you publish, because some faults only show on paper. Ordering a KDP proof copy lists what to look for.
Mistakes that mean doing it twice
- Making the cover before the page count is final. The spine comes out the wrong width, and the cover has to be made again.
- Setting the margins once and never checking them. If the final page count crosses into another range of KDP's table, the inside margin is too narrow.
- Blank lines as scene breaks. At the bottom of a page they vanish, and two scenes run together.
- Pictures enlarged after they were inserted. They print below 300 DPI, even if the original file was sharp.
If you'd rather not do it by hand
Upload your Word or Markdown file to Torcul and we take over from step 2. We read the structure and show you how we read each heading, so you can correct anything we got wrong. You choose the trim size, the paper and one of three designs. We set the front matter, fit the inside margin to the final page count, and make the print PDF, the EPUB and, if you want one, the cover. Each file is checked before you download it: the PDF against KDP's published requirements, the EPUB with EPUBCheck.
Sources
- KDP: Set Trim Size, Bleed, and Margins: the trim sizes, the margin table by page count and the size of the bleed.
- KDP: Print Options: the papers and inks, and which go together.
- KDP: Paperback Submission Guidelines: what KDP checks in an interior, page numbers and fonts included.
- KDP: Format Images in Your Book: the 300 DPI rule.
- KDP: Create a Paperback Cover: how the cover wraps around the book, and its bleed.
- KDP: What file formats are supported for eBook manuscripts?: the files KDP takes for an ebook.
None of this guarantees that KDP will accept a file. KDP changes its help pages, so check the date at the top of this one.