Pick the house: Amazon KDP
The house comes first. With Amazon KDP & Audible and Print and ebook on, every later step follows Amazon's rules for sizes, margins and the ISBN.
Amazon KDP & Audible · Print and ebook
Open this stepWalk the dream to reality · Print book
From manuscript to paperback
A real sample, walked tab by tab: an Amazon KDP paperback at 6 × 9 inches.
- Book
- The Dragon Who Kept the List
- By
- I. Vale
- House
- Amazon KDP & Audible
- Format
- Paperback and ebook · 6 × 9 in
Follow the dotted road
8 stops on the WriterDesk
01 · House 02 · Intent Name the book once
Title, subtitle and reader are typed here and nowhere else. They flow to the front cover, the spine, the title page and the listing.
The Dragon Who Kept the List
Open this step03 · Matter A dedication, already a page
Switch on the pages a book grows around its chapters. Here the dedication sits on its own page: four pages at the front, two at the back.
4 front · 2 back
Open this step04 · Chapters Chapter 1, set as a page
Write or bring the text in. Each chapter opens on its own page under its part name, and the word count feeds the spine estimate.
The Court · The mark on the gate
Open this step05 · Cover The whole wrap, laid flat
Back, spine and front draw themselves from what you already typed: the headline, the blurb, the praise, the author, the spine title The List, and the press.
Spine: The List · I. Vale · East Road Press
Open this step06 · Facts An ISBN becomes a barcode
Enter 978-0-00-000000-2 on Facts and an EAN-13 barcode appears on the back cover. A mistyped digit is flagged before a printer ever sees it.
978-0-00-000000-2 · check digit matches
Open this step07 · Check The house's own checklist
Every line Amazon will ask about, marked Ready, Look or Needed. Length shows Needed on purpose: the sample is a short tale, and a paperback wants 24 pages.
12 Ready · 1 Needed
Open this step08 · Files Take the manuscript, EPUB and handoff
Watermarked copies download free at any time. A clean set, with the preview page removed, comes with the paid WriterCaddy plan.
Manuscript · EPUB · ONIX handoff
Open this stepThe finish
To Amazon KDP
Take the clean manuscript and the wrap plan to KDP. Its own interior and cover templates, for your trim and page count, make the final print files.
Numbers to know
40
trim sizes across five kinds of book
250
words to a page in the estimate
0.002252"
of spine per page, on white paper
24+
pages before a paperback is ready
Read the guide
- KDP vs IngramSpark: Where to Publish Your PaperbackKDP vs IngramSpark compared: setup costs, royalties, bookstore reach, ISBNs, trims, returns, Expanded Distribution, and how to use both houses.
- How to Format a Book for KDP: Paperback and EbookHow to format a book for KDP: trim, margins and gutter, bleed, fonts, front matter, page count, spine and ISBN, for a paperback and a Kindle ebook.
- KDP Trim Sizes and Margins: Which Size for Your BookKDP trim sizes and margins explained: sizes from 5 × 8 to 8.5 × 11, which genres use them, gutter rules by page count, bleed, and how to choose.
- Plan a Paperback: Trim, Spine, Cover Wrap and BarcodePlan a print edition on the WriterDesk: choose a trim the house allows, read the spine estimate, and check the cover wrap and barcode.
Walk another path
- EbookFrom chapters to an EPUBThe same sample as a reflowable ebook for Kobo Writing Life.Walk it
- AudiobookFrom pages to an audiobookThe same sample, set up for Amazon KDP & Audible as an audiobook.Walk it
- Picture bookFrom pictures to a read-aloudThe sample as a picture book: three pictures, a calm voice, one file that plays.Walk it