Self-Publishing
KDP Publishing Checklist: Three Files, One Countdown, and the Mistakes Amazon Won't Catch for You
Romance novelist writing cozy, small-town love stories from a bookshop café in Asheville.
The proof copy arrives in a padded envelope. You've waited two years to hold it. You open it to chapter one, and the first word of every line has vanished into the spine.
Nothing was wrong with the writing. The gutter margin was set for a 150-page book, and yours runs 340. KDP's previewer flagged it in a small yellow box you clicked past at midnight. It's a ten-minute fix, but it costs you another proof, another week, and the launch date you'd announced to your newsletter.
Most KDP problems look like this. None of them are hard. They're small, specific and easy to miss when you're tired and excited at once. This checklist is built to catch them in the right order, so nothing important gets left for the night before launch.
A note before we start: Amazon changes KDP's rules and screens regularly. Everything below was accurate when we wrote it, but check the KDP Help pages for the current numbers before you rely on any of them. If you have never uploaded a book before, our step-by-step guide to self-publishing on Amazon KDP walks through the account setup first.
Amazon reads your book three times
When you publish on KDP, three separate things get checked, and each is checked by a different reader.
| File | Who reads it | What they're looking for |
|---|---|---|
| The manuscript | KDP's converter and print previewer | Headings it can turn into a table of contents, margins it can print, fonts it can embed |
| The cover | Shoppers, scrolling at thumbnail size | A title they can read at the size of a postage stamp, and a genre they recognise at a glance |
| The metadata | Amazon's search and recommendation systems | Categories, keywords and a description that place the book in front of the right readers |
Most first-time authors spend 95% of their effort on the first file and an afternoon on the other two. But the metadata decides whether anyone ever finds the book, and the cover decides whether they click. Plan your time across all three.
The countdown
Work backwards from the date you want the book live. The countdown assumes you're doing both an ebook and a paperback, which most self-publishers do.
Eight weeks out: decide the things that are hard to change
Some choices on KDP are close to permanent. Make them first, deliberately, so they don't get made by accident on upload day.
- Your pen name, or your own. It appears on the cover, the listing and your author page. Changing it later means a new listing.
- Trim size. 6 × 9 inches is common for non-fiction, and 5 × 8 or 5.5 × 8.5 for fiction. Once a paperback is published, KDP won't let you change its trim size; you'd have to publish a new edition.
- ISBN. KDP offers a free ISBN for print, but it lists KDP as the imprint and works only on Amazon. If you want your own imprint name or plan to sell print elsewhere, buy your own ISBN before you start. You can't swap it on a published paperback.
- Ink and paper. Black ink on cream paper is standard for fiction, and white paper for non-fiction. Colour interiors cost a lot more per copy.
- KDP Select, or wide distribution. Select puts your ebook in Kindle Unlimited, but you must sell the ebook only on Amazon for each 90-day term. Decide before launch, not after.
Six weeks out: finish the book, then check it
It sounds obvious. It's also the step authors skip most, because they're keen to move on to the cover.
- Finish the final edit (our self-editing checklist has 60 checks in seven passes), then do one more read for continuity: names, ages, eye colours, the timeline.
- Get outside readers on the opening chapters if you haven't already.
- Lock the word count. Your page count depends on it, and your spine width, cover price and printing cost all depend on the page count.
Five weeks out: brief the cover
Your designer needs the final page count before they can lay out a paperback cover, because the spine width comes from it. You can start the front cover now and finish the full wrap later.
- Ebook cover: KDP recommends 2,560 × 1,600 pixels (a 1.6:1 ratio), as a JPG or TIFF.
- Paperback cover: a single PDF of back, spine and front together, with 0.125 inches of bleed on every outside edge. KDP's cover calculator gives you the exact size for your trim and page count.
- Spine text: only possible once the book is long enough. KDP needs roughly 80 pages or more for spine text to sit safely.
- The thumbnail test: shrink the front cover to the size of a fingernail. If you can't read the title, neither can a shopper.
Four weeks out: format the interior
You'll need two interior files: one that reflows for Kindle, and one that sits fixed on a printed page.
For the ebook, KDP accepts DOCX, EPUB and KPF (the format Kindle Create makes). The single most important thing is that every chapter title uses a real heading style rather than text you've made bold and large. That's what KDP uses to build the table of contents and the "go to chapter" navigation.
For the paperback, upload a print-ready PDF at your exact trim size with fonts embedded. This is where the gutter problem from the opening lives. The inside margin has to grow with the page count, because a thicker book curves more into the spine:
| Page count | Inside (gutter) margin | Outside margins (no bleed) |
|---|---|---|
| 24–150 | 0.375 in | at least 0.25 in |
| 151–300 | 0.5 in | at least 0.25 in |
| 301–500 | 0.625 in | at least 0.25 in |
| 501–700 | 0.75 in | at least 0.25 in |
| 701–828 | 0.875 in | at least 0.25 in |
Those are KDP's minimums, and a book set at the minimum can look cramped. Most designers add a bit to each.
Also check:
- Chapters start on a new page, and ideally on a right-hand (odd) page for print.
- No headers or page numbers on blank pages or chapter openers.
- Front matter in order: title page, copyright page, dedication (optional), contents (optional for fiction in print).
- Back matter that works for you: a short "About the author", your other books, a link to your newsletter.
Three weeks out: write the metadata
This is the file nobody sees and everybody depends on.
- Title and subtitle. They must match the cover exactly. The subtitle isn't a keyword list; Amazon removes listings that stuff it.
- Book description. Up to 4,000 characters. It's your back-cover blurb, adapted for a screen: the first two lines show before "Read more", so they have to do the work.
- Keywords. Seven boxes. Use phrases readers would actually type ("enemies to lovers fantasy", "small business bookkeeping for beginners"), not words already in your title or category. Don't use other authors' names or trademarks.
- Categories. You choose up to three. Narrow, accurate categories beat broad, crowded ones.
- Audience. Age range and whether the book contains sexually explicit content. Get this right; it affects where the book can appear.
- Series information, if this is book one of several. Set it up now so later books link correctly.
Two weeks out: upload, preview and order a proof
- Upload the ebook and check it in the Kindle Previewer on phone, tablet and e-reader views. Tap every entry in the table of contents.
- Upload the paperback and read every warning in the print previewer. Don't approve with an unread flag.
- Order a printed proof. It takes days to arrive, and it's the only way to see the margins, the paper colour and the spine the way a reader will.
- Answer the AI content question honestly. KDP asks whether any text, images or translations in the book were generated by AI. If AI only helped you edit, check or brainstorm work you created yourself, Amazon calls that AI-assisted and doesn't ask you to declare it. If an AI tool produced text or images that appear in the book, including a cover image, Amazon asks you to say so. Read Amazon's current wording before you answer. We break the policy down in Amazon KDP's AI disclosure policy.
One week out: price and set the date
- Ebook price. KDP pays a 70% royalty on ebooks priced between $2.99 and $9.99 in most markets, and 35% outside that range. A delivery fee based on file size comes out of the 70% option.
- Paperback price. The royalty is 60% of the list price minus the printing cost, so check the printing cost KDP shows for your page count before you settle on a price. For what those numbers add up to in practice, see how much money self-publishing on Amazon KDP really makes.
- Territories. Worldwide rights, unless you've sold some elsewhere.
- Pre-order or straight to live. A pre-order lets you collect sales before launch day. If you use one, upload the final file well before the deadline KDP gives you; missing it can cost you pre-order privileges for a year.
Launch day
- Press Publish in the morning, not at midnight. Review can take up to 72 hours, and you want a working day to fix anything it turns up.
- When it goes live, search for the book in a private browser window. Check the title, price, description formatting, "Look inside" and both formats linked on one page. If the ebook and paperback appear separately, ask KDP support to link them.
- Claim the book on Author Central and add your photo and bio.
The week after
- Read the live description on a phone. Fix any formatting that didn't carry over.
- Tell your readers. Your newsletter will sell more copies in the first week than any keyword.
- Write down what you'd do differently, while you still remember. The second book is always faster.
Why KDP turns books back
When KDP rejects or holds a book, the reason is usually one of a short list. Most of them are avoidable before you upload.
| What KDP flags | What's usually behind it | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Text outside the margins | Gutter set for a shorter book | Recalculate from the final page count |
| Cover size doesn't match | Page count changed after the cover was made | Re-run the cover calculator and resize the spine |
| Title doesn't match | Subtitle on the cover differs from the listing | Make them identical, word for word |
| Low-resolution images | Interior images under 300 DPI | Replace them at print resolution |
| Missing or broken contents | Chapter titles typed as bold text, not headings | Apply a heading style to every chapter title |
| Content freely available online | You posted the book on a blog or serial site | Show you hold the rights, or take the free version down |
| Misleading metadata | Keywords naming other authors or brands | Use descriptive reader phrases instead |
The decisions you can't undo
Pin this somewhere. Once the paperback is live, these stay as they are unless you publish a new edition:
- Trim size
- ISBN
- Ink and paper type
And this one costs you time rather than a new edition: KDP Select. You're committed for each 90-day term, and you can't sell the ebook elsewhere until the term ends.
Everything else — price, description, keywords, categories, even the interior and cover files — you can change after publishing. That's worth knowing at midnight on launch eve. A typo in the description isn't a disaster. You can fix it on Tuesday.
How StoryWith AI helps before the upload
We make StoryWith AI, so read this section with that in mind. We'll be precise about what it does and what it doesn't, because a KDP checklist is no place for a vague promise.
First, what StoryWith isn't: it isn't a formatting tool. It doesn't make EPUB or KPF files, and its PDF export is a US Letter reading copy, not a print-ready interior at your trim size. For the files KDP needs, use Kindle Create, Atticus, Vellum or a designer.
What StoryWith does is the six-weeks-out work: making sure the book itself is ready before anyone spends money on formatting it. That's the stage that's hardest to redo once a proof is printed.
Getting the manuscript ready
| Checklist step | What StoryWith does |
|---|---|
| "Finish the book, then check it" | The readiness check runs six structural checks (length, premise, scene completeness, open critical and high-priority issues, continuity) and marks anything that blocks a full draft. It spends no AI credits. More on the manuscript readiness score. |
| Continuity read | The continuity checker finds the eye colour that changes in chapter 19, the timeline that doesn't add up, and the character who leaves a room twice. See the continuity checker. |
| Line-level polish | The Quality panel flags passive voice, hedge words, very long sentences and runs of sentences that start the same way. It runs locally and costs nothing. |
| Outside readers on the opening | AI reader personas react to a chapter as a genre fan, a skeptical new reader or a line editor would. Feedback sessions send a private link to 3–20 real beta readers and show where they stopped reading. |
| Does the story hold together? | Arc analysis names the shape of your story, and points out flat stretches and sudden jumps. |
Getting the metadata ready
The Pitch Kit page drafts the words your listing needs, from your manuscript rather than from a prompt:
- Book description: a one-line logline, a short hook of about 50 words, and a 120–180 word back-cover blurb in the voice of your genre. Adapt the blurb for your Amazon description, and make sure the first two lines can stand on their own.
- Title and subtitle: four title options in different styles (literal, lyrical, mysterious, bold), drawn from your premise, genre and tone.
- Comparable titles: three to five books your novel sits beside. They're useful for choosing categories and for checking which keywords readers of those books use.
- Author bio: a draft for your Author Central page and back matter, built from the name you enter, with no invented credentials.
- Submission checklist: ten steps you tick off as you go, including "Genre, audience, keywords selected". StoryWith reminds you to choose keywords; it doesn't pick them for you.
For everything else that belongs in that folder, see our pitch kit for authors.
Getting a clean file out
Export the finished manuscript as Word. The book title uses the Title style, every chapter uses Heading 1 and scene titles use Heading 2. That means Kindle Create, Atticus or Vellum can find your chapters straight away and build the table of contents. One tip: if you don't want scene titles in the printed book, delete the Heading 2 lines before you format.
A word on the AI question
Most of StoryWith reads and analyses prose you wrote; it doesn't write the book. Using it to check, diagnose or get feedback on your own writing is the kind of help Amazon describes as AI-assisted. Two exceptions are worth knowing about. The editor has optional inline writing help, and Pitch Kit can generate a cover image. If generated text or a generated cover image ends up in the published book, answer KDP's AI question with that in mind. Amazon's current guidelines are the final word.
Questions from the upload screen
Do I need an ISBN for my Kindle ebook? No. Amazon gives Kindle ebooks their own identifier (an ASIN). You need an ISBN for the paperback, either KDP's free one or your own.
Can I use the same file for the ebook and the paperback? Usually not. The ebook needs a reflowable file (DOCX, EPUB or KPF). The paperback needs a fixed-layout PDF at your exact trim size. Formatting tools make both from one source manuscript, which is the easiest way to keep them identical.
How long does KDP take to approve a book? Up to 72 hours, often less. Leave a working day before any announced launch.
What if I find a typo after the book is live? Fix the file and upload it again. The book stays on sale while KDP reviews the new version. For a paperback, order another proof if the change affects page breaks.
Should I enrol in KDP Select? If most of your readers are on Kindle Unlimited, especially in romance, thrillers and fantasy, it often pays. If you want the ebook on Apple Books, Kobo and in libraries, skip it. You can decide again at the end of each 90-day term.
The last check
Before you press Publish, hold the proof open at chapter one. Read the first word of each line. If they're all there, and the title on the spine matches the title on the screen, you're ready. Everything else can be fixed on Tuesday.
