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Filing KindleDP's Paperback Rights & Pricing

When uploading your book and cover at Kindle Direct Publishing, the last screen you'll come to is for Paperback Rights and Price. On this page, you’ll establish in which countries you want Amazon to sell your books and the book's price.

Territories
The first section “Territories,” gives you top options – select every country in the world or go through them and select specific countries. This is an important question if a publishing company owns the distribution rights of your book in a specific country but you have those rights internationally. For example, if you were a German author who published with a company in Germany, you might want to self-publish your book in the United Kingdom or the United States. You then would make sure you click the U.K. and the U.S. but not Germany.

Most self-published authors, however, own the distribution rights for every country in the world. They should click the “All territories” bubble.

Primary Marketplace
Next is the primary marketplace. For most authors, this is the country where you reside and is the one where you’ll make most of your sales. American writers, for example, would select “Amazon.com” while those in the United Kingdom would go with “Amazon.uk.”

Pricing
This is where you list the price of your book. Among the big decisions you’ll make when self-publishing is what price to charge. If priced too high, you’ll decrease your sales to zero. If priced too low, you’ll miss out on revenue.

Before examining what factors to consider in determining your paperback’s price, recognize that readers expect to pay less for an ebook than they do for a paperback. After all, the paperback requires trees, ink, printing presses, and labor to produce and send it; an ebook doesn’t (Well, the labor largely is limited to a few computer and software techs.). Paperbacks that I charge $10 for go for $3 as an ebook. As of this writing, most ebook prices average about $2.99. So if you charge $5 for your ebook, you should charge up to $15 for your paperback.

Once you know the minimum price you can charge – it is given in light gray below the “List Price” box – determine your costs by considering these factors:
• Competition’s prices – Identify the prices of a dozen books very similar to yours in topic and page length that are available for sale at Amazon.com. Making a chart listing the title/page length/price is useful. Now fit your book into that chart for page length and undercut the competition’s listed price. That is, if your book is 275 pages and the other books at or above that file length sell for $15.99, set the price at $15.89.
• Set your goals – Is your goal to establish yourself as an author or have you already done so? If the former, then keep your price low, even though that means your royalty payments will be less in the short run. That’s because low prices help generate sales that pushes your paperback higher into Amazon.com’s rankings, which in turn will generate more sales. If you’re already established, you can go for a higher price and hence higher percentage of royalties knowing that a built-in audience is willing to pay for your books.
• Ensure a profit and respectability – Don’t reduce your price to the point where you earn mere pennies for your paperback. You must keep your book somewhat above the minimum price that KindleDP requires. Hence, if the minimum price of your book is $5.99, don’t set the price at $6. You’d have to sell a hundred books to make a mere dollar. And those 100 sales will be tough as many readers will wonder if your book is of questionable quality as it is priced so low.

Once you’ve determined your book’s price, enter it in the “List Price” box for your marketplace. Amazon automatically will calculate the list price in other countries and the royalties you’ll receive in your marketplace and those in other countries.

For books sold from Amazon’s website, you’ll make 60% of the the list price minus the print cost. So, if the list price is $9.95, you would multiply it by 60% and get $5.97. From that, you subtract the print cost; if that print cost were $2.30, my royalty would be $5.97 - $2.30, which equals $3.67 per book sold.

You also can sign up for “Expanded Distribution,” which gives you around 40% royalty. With this option, Amazon will allow distributors to also market your book to booksellers and libraries. You get a lower royalty because the distributor takes a cut.

Terms & Conditions
After entering your price, the next section advises you that by agreeing to let Amazon print and distribute your book, you’re agreeing to KindleDP’s terms and conditions. A link takes you to the legalese. If you disagree with the terms and conditions, then KindleDP simply will not print your book; there’s no negotiation here.

Request a Book Proof
The last section asks if you’d like to receive a paper copy of your before asking KindleDP to publish it. If you’re new to self-publishing, requesting a proof isn’t a bad idea. It does delay the entire uploading process, however, and you can’t make any changes to what you’ve entered at KindleDP until the proof arrives.

You probably can skip requesting a proof for two reasons. First, you can see what your book looks like in the Previewer on the Kindle Paperback Content page of the upload. That should be sufficient to identify any formatting issues. Secondly, you always can change the book after it has been published. Sure, “bad” copies of the book will go out, but usually it’s just a typo or two that somehow escaped you.

To request a proof, simply click the “Request a Proof” button. You’ll only pay for the wholesale cost (the printing cost and Amazon’s cut) as well as shipping. You also can choose how many proof copies you’d like in case you want others to also look over the book.

Publish Your Paperback Book
The last step is to click the yellow oval that says “Publish Your Paperback Book.” Once you do, you’ve submitted your book to KindleDP for vetting. During that time, KindleDP’s bots will scour your manuscript to ensure that you’ve entered information, a manuscript, and a cover that doesn’t cause printing or distribution delays. This process can take up to 72 hours but usually is finished within a day or so.

If KindleDP rejects your manuscript, your book goes into “Draft” mode on your Bookshelf. KindleDP will email you to explain the problem. Often their explanations are vague and will require you to do some googling to figure it out. Simply copy and paste the key phrase explaining their rejection into a search engine. You’ll be surprised by how many other people have faced the same problem! Don’t be surprised as well by the lack of answers and even the wrong answers being given on the various chat rooms where the question is asked. You may have to try a couple of different solutions before you land on the correct one.

However, if you’ve followed all of this series’ instructions for formatting your manuscript and designing your cover, the odds are very good that KindleDP will approve your manuscript. When they do, it automatically goes up for sale at Amazon.com, and you’ll receive an email from KindleDP with a link to that landing page.

The Amazon page may not look perfect, missing your cover or the Read sample feature, during the first few hours that your book is up for sale. Be patient; up to a couple of days might pass before Amazon fully populates your site with all of the information you entered when uploading your book.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an era where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

How to use KindleDP's Book Preview section

Once the formatted manuscript and book cover are uploaded at Kindle Direct Publishing, you’ll need to preview them. To do so, on the Paperback Content screen, simply click the yellow oval that says “Launch Previewer.”

A new screen will come up that shows the front and back cover of your book. You can click an arrow on the side of the cover to advance to your title page and each subsequent pair of pages in the book.

Go through the entire book on the previewer. This is your opportunity to see how it will look when printed and to notice some formatting errors, like a paragraph split in half or a missing indent at the beginning of a line or a chapter title in the wrong font size.

In addition, KindleDP’s bots will give you an early heads up if there are problems, especially with the cover. If you receive such a message for the cover, fix it and reupload. KindleDP will reject it otherwise, and you’ll just be wasting time.

Ditto on the manuscript you uploaded. Margin errors found here mean a rejected manuscript later. One issue, though, that you do not need to worry about is embedded fonts. KindleDP will embed them for you.

If the cover and manuscript look good to go, click “Approve.” You’ll then return to the Paperback Content screen.

With that, you’ve completed all of the tasks on the Paperback Content screen. One last section given is the Summary. This lists some of the specs of your book and gives an estimated cost of printing the book. There’s nothing to fill out here, however, so click the yellow oval that says “Save and Continue.” This brings you to the Paperback Rights & Pricing screen and the next section of this book.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an era where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

How to upload your paperback cover to KindleDP

After uploading your manuscript to Kindle Direct Publishing, the next section involves uploading your book cover. This occurs on the Paperback Content screen.

Save your cover as a .pdf. The cover should be no more than 40 MB in size. Kindle actually will take covers up to 650 MB in size, but the loading takes forever, and you’ll suffer frequent crashes. In any case, there’s no reason for your cover to be more than 40 MB, as it will look great at even smaller sizes than that. 

Where you upload your cover at Kindle, you have the option to create a cover or to upload your own. Since you’ve already created the cover, check the second option.

Once you’re done, a yellow oval that says “Upload Your Cover” pops up on the screen. Before clicking it, look at the question below it that asks, “Does your cover include a barcode?” You probably will leave leave this unchecked; if you do, Amazon will place a barcode on the back cover for you. If you’ve already bought a barcode and placed it on your back cover, check the box.

Next, click the yellow oval that says “Upload Your Cover” and find your cover.

The uploading will take several minutes. The more color pictures that are in the book, the longer it’ll take.

After KindleDP uploads the cover to its site, “processing” occurs. This also can take a few minutes.

Bots at KindleDP quickly check your cover for the basics. If it’s too large in size or the dimensions don’t fit KindleDP’s requirements, it’ll probably be rejected. Unfortunately, KindleDP isn’t very good at telling you why it didn’t like the cover. If you’ve followed all of the guidelines in this book, though, it shouldn’t be rejected. If it is, you’ll need to figure out why and then fix it. 

Some common reasons KindleDP rejects paperback covers include:

• Wrong dimensions – You’ll need to build a new cover unless you’re off by fractions of a fraction of an inch. Then you might be able to fudge it by stretching the cover to fit the space, though doing so is problematic, as you’re risking distortion of the artwork and lettering.
• A bleed area wasn’t included – The actual size of the book cover won’t work. You have to include a bleed area. If you’ve used a lone color as the background of your photo, you can make a new document that is in that color and is the correct size of the cover with a bleed area. Then use guides to mark off the bleed area and place your original cover in that new created box. If photos go to the edge of the cover, however, you’ll need to start all over.
• A bleed area was a frame around the actual cover – Sometimes authors “fix” their rejected covers by placing a frame for the bleed area around the actual cover. That won’t work. The photos used on the actual cover also have to fill the bleed area or end well before the margins.
• Text is too close to the cover’s edge – The title, byline and tag line all need to be at least 0.375 inches from the margin. KindleDP can be very picky, so if you’re 0.374 inches away, you might get rejected. I always recommend keeping your text a half-inch away from the bleed area.
• Title and byline doesn’t match what you’ve already entered when uploading – Check the title and byline entered on the Paperback Details page. It should match what’s on your cover. If you bought an ISBN from Bowker, check it to make sure that your title and byline match your cover. If any of these don’t match, whichever one was in error needs to be corrected.
• Pixilated artwork – The artwork is too small. Any artwork placed on the cover should be at least the same size as the space it will fill and be 300 dots per inch (dpi).
• Printers marks placed on cover (includes color bars) – Some cover designers place lines, what look like targets, and small colored squares on the edges of their covers. They’re used to ensure your image lines up with the paper it is printed on. KindleDP doesn’t need these printers marks to line up your cover, though.
• Copyright issues with artwork – Sometimes artwork contains metadata that establishes it’s copyrighted. If KindleDP notices this, it won’t allow you to print photos or illustrations that you don’t own.

There are other arcane reasons why the cover might be rejected. Usually KindleDP will send you an email explaining why it did not accept it, though the reason given often sounds like gobbledygook. You may need to do some online research to figure out exactly what KindleDP means.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an era where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

How to upload your manuscript at KindleDP

While uploading your paperback at Kindle Direct Publishing, you'll eventually reach the Manuscript section on the Paperback Content screen. 

You’ll upload your formatted manuscript in the section. Presumably, you’ve already formatted your book. If not, you'll need to do that first.

A variety of document types can be used to upload your book to KindleDP. Your best option is a pdf. As a pdf is a series of “pictures” of your document, this prevents the text from being reflowed when KindleDP processes your file. That’s not a guarantee when uploading a Microsoft Word document.

To get started, click the yellow oval that says “Upload paperback manuscript.” This opens a browser where you’ll find then click onto the pdf of your manuscript.

KindleDP will need some time to upload the manuscript. After that, it’ll need to process the uploaded document. Once it’s done processing, it’ll leave you a message saying so, and you then can move on to the next step.

Sometimes, of course, KindleDP rejects the manuscript right away or later during the vetting process. Some possible reasons that this might occur include:

• Title/author’s name/ISBN don’t match what you previously entered at KindleDP – If they don’t, you’ll either need to change it on your manuscript or start the uploading process all over and enter the correct title/author’s name on the Paperback Content page.
• The formatted manuscript’s trim size doesn’t match the trim size you’ve entered – On KindleDP’s Paperback Content screen, you’ll be asked to enter the book’s trim size (its height by width). If you put in 5.5 x 8.5, but the book has been formatted to be 6 x 9, you’ll need to change the trim size that you previously entered in the Print Options section.
• Page numbers are on the wrong side – Even numbers should appear on the book’s left pages and odd numbers on the book’s right pages. Usually the issue is that a blank page was placed before the title page and wasn’t deleted. Sometimes, if you used a section break for the page numbering, when creating a PDF an extra page is inserted in the PDF. You’ll then want to delete that extra page in Adobe Acrobat.
• Text is in the margins – When formatting, you may have placed the margins too close to the edge of the page. KindleDP generally wants the text at least 0.375 inches from the edge. Go with a half-inch margin to be safe.
• An image is in the margins – When placing photographs or other artwork on the page, you may have placed them over the edge of the margin. You’ll need to replace the image and do a little reformatting so that it fits within the margins. Ditto if you get a textbox is in the margin error message.
• Images are pixelated – If the photograph or image you used is less than 200 KB and 300 dots per inch (dpi) in size, it may appear pixelated. You’ll need to use an image that is the correct size and replace it in the text.
• Colors images are used in a black and white book – In the Print Options section, you’ll tell KindleDP if your book is entirely black and white or if there are color images in it. If you said you had black and white images but then upload a manuscript with color photos, artwork or text, you’ll need to change your answer in the Print Options section.
• Fonts aren’t embedded – Unless you’re using rare, specialized fonts – say letters in the shape of lightning bolts – usually this isn’t cause for rejection. KindleDP will automatically embed the fonts for you.

There are myriad other reasons why KindleDP might reject your manuscript, but the above eight are the most common that my author clients have experienced. Should you receive a rejection that isn’t listed above, you’ll need to google a solution. Usually KindleDP explains what is wrong in an email or in its Book Preview, which appears at the bottom of the Paperback Content page.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an era where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

Filling out KindleDP's Paperback Content screen

When uploading your paperback to Kindle Direct Publishing, the first screen - Paperback Details - provided Amazon with information it can use to build a page for selling your book as well as telling them how you’d like them to promote your book. Now you need to upload an actual product to sell. That’s done on the Paperback Content screen.

Print ISBN
The first section is for the ISBN or International Standard Book Number. Every book that is printed for sale needs an ISBN. This is a 13-digit number given to each book; no two books have the same ISBN. You usually can find it near the barcode on the book’s back cover and also on the title page.

If you’ve already purchased an ISBN, enter the actual number and the imprint name for who owns the ISBN. You also have the option of receiving a free ISBN from KindleDP, but doing so sticks the label “independently published” on your book’s Amazon page. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but among some readers there still is a stigma about self-published works, though it continues to decrease with each passing year.

You should get your own ISBN rather than one from KindleDP. To do so, you’ll need to buy one online from Bowker, the official ISBN Agency for the United States and its territories. Bowker sells them for $125 each, but you can buy 10 for $250, at least as of this blog’s publication. You’ll need to spend some time completing an online form at Bowker.

Beware of buying the ISBN elsewhere. While the cost may be less expensive than Bowker, most self-publishing companies won’t accept these ISBNs, and so you end up buying from Bowker anyway. In fact, most of those low-cost ISBN sales are scams or are run by less than honest people who then become the “publisher” of your book.

As for the second box to fill out, an imprint is another word for “publisher.” Every book has a publisher, which is someone (or a company) who prepares the text for sale. Typically, the imprint or publisher owns the book’s ISBN.

So who is the imprint – or publisher – of your book?

To answer that question, first ask who owns the ISBN that is going on the book’s title page. If you personally purchased the ISBN, you are the publisher. If your company purchased it, the company is.

When filling out these boxes on KindleDP, make sure the ISBN and the Imprint name exactly match what is listed at Bowker. If it doesn’t, KindleDP won’t let you move on with the uploading process.

Also, if you just purchased the ISBN, there may be a lag time until KindleDP recognizes the ISBN. That’s because KindleDP’s computers need to check with Bowker’s computers to ensure there’s a match. A number of my clients have reported that buying an ISBN on a Saturday often means waiting until Monday before KindleDP recognizes the number as legit.

Another potential side issue is that the information at Bowker was entered incorrectly. The title, subtitle and author’s name at Bowker must match what you’ve entered on Kindle’s Paperback Details screen, what’s on your book cover, and what’s on your title pages. If they don’t, you may have no choice but to purchase a new ISBN and correctly enter the information at Bowker.

Publication Date
This is the date your book was first published. Unless you’re republishing a book – say you published with a small company in the early 2000s, they went belly up, and now you’re republishing the book after winning back the rights to the book – you’re probably publishing it for the first time. In that case, leave it blank. Amazon automatically will list the date that it goes up for sale on its website as the publication date.

Print Options
The Print Options section can cause a lot of confusion among authors. It’s where you tell KindleDP what kind and size of paper you want it to print your book on. You want to take your time in this section, because messing it up can cause KindleDP to reject your book. Even if they don’t reject it, should you select a kind of paper that you don’t like, you’re stuck with it once you publish your book. There’s no going back and changing it online when the book is ready to be rolled off the press.

The first question to answer is what paper you’d like. You have a couple of options depending if your book is entirely black and white or if there is color. If black and white, click “Black & white interior with white paper.” The cream paper might be used in chap books or other kinda-like-a-book projects but has no place in a professional looking book. If your book has color text or artwork, click “Standard color interior with white paper.” The premium color option does look a little better than the standard but the ability to earn a profit is greatly reduced by the printing cost. You can safely skimp a bit on the color and not hurt your sales or royalties.

Next is the Trim Size. You determined that back when you formatted your book. Be sure to select the right one – if you don’t, KindleDP may not approve your manuscript or your book may end up on a trim size that is much larger than you intended, leaving a lot of white space in the margins.

After that is the Bleed Settings. If you’ve followed the instruction from earlier in this book or in Format your Paperback, your manuscript should be a pdf, so click “No Bleed.”

The last question in this section is an oddity, as it is your cover. You can choose what kind of paper your cover will appear on – matte or glossy. A glossy cover will shine more than a matte cover as it reflects light better so the colors on it pop, even on detailed artwork. Most authors go for glossy (I do). There is an argument for matte, however – it gives a more natural look to the cover art. Matte covers also can absorb more small scratches and scuffs without looking beat up. And with all of those glossy covers competing for attention, ironically a matte cover will stand out well against them on a bookstore shelf.

The next step is to upload your manuscript. We'll explore that in an upcoming entry.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an era where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

Filling out KindleDP's Book Description section

When uploading your paperback to Kindle Direct Publishing, the book description section often trips up authors. It appears on the Paperback Details screen.

The description is the text that summarizes your book in the Amazon.com page. Getting it to read well is vital. In addition to your book cover and title, most potential buyers of your book will make a decision based on the description.

Fortunately, you’ve already written a description – it’s just the blurb on the back cover of your blurb. Hopefully you’ve saved of it in a format so you can easily copy and paste it into the box on your screen. If you haven’t, you’ll need to retype.

As the text will appear online, you should follow the general rules for website when entering the text. First, don’t indent the start of each paragraph. Instead place a blank line between paragraphs. To get one, simply place your cursor at the end of a paragraph and hit enter. If you hit “Source” on the box where you enter the description, you’ll see some coding – if you’ve done it right, <br> will appear at the end of each paragraph and on the blank line. If there are two <br> with no text next to it, then you’ve got an extra blank line. Just delete the <br> until you’ve only got one of them between paragraphs.

You can play a little with the text, changing some of it to boldface or italics, as well as centering or aligning it. If you used a headline above you blurb on your paperback, you might do the same here by centering or boldfacing it.

After the description, you’ll probably want to add an author’s bio, just like on your back cover or inside your book. You don’t have to. Once you publish your book, you can set up an Author’s Page, and Amazon will pull the bio from that to place lower on its page that sells your book. If you write nonfiction, your professional experience and background is a key element in selling the book, though, so you probably want your bio up near the top of the page below the description. In addition, if you write different kinds of books, you may want different versions of your bio for each book. For example, I write both hiking guidebooks and children’s books, and what is important to a backpacker isn’t what’s important to a parent selecting a book for their preschooler, so I use different bios based on which genre I’m writing in.

Another element you might place in the description are short, one-line excerpts of reviews of your book, especially if they come from well-known, reputable people in the profession or from the media. For example, if I’m writing about the future of space exploration, an endorsement of my book from astronaut Buzz Aldrin and a positive review from the Journal of Aerospace Science will go a long way in convincing others to buy the book.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an era where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

How to fill out KindleDP's Paperback Details page

When self-publishing a paperback at Kindle Direct Publishing, the first screen where you'll fill out information is the Paperback Details Page. To access it, go to your Bookshelf screen. Presuming you have not already uploaded an ebook version of the book, look on the top right for a big yellow box that says "Create." Click it. This takes you to a new screen that asks you what kind of book you'd like to publish. Click "Create Paperback." This takes you to the Paperback Details screen.

This is where we enter the basic information that forms the content on the Amazon.com page where your book will be sold. As Amazon wants all of its website pages to look the same (this increases sales because users can easily find the information and buy now button on every page), there is a limited amount of what you can do with it.

Language
The first question asks what language your book is written in. For most authors, that will be English.

Book Title
Next, you need to write your book title. Be very careful here. The title you type must be exactly as it appears on the cover of your book. If it isn’t, Kindle DP won’t accept your cover later in the process because it doesn’t match what you typed here. You’ll then have to start the whole process all over again by creating a new paperback on your Bookshelf. So spend an extra 10 seconds making sure it all matches – it’ll save you a lot of time later on.

Don’t type the subtitle on the book title line. There’s a new line for that in the Book Title section. As with your title, make sure what you type as the subtitle matches exactly what is on your cover, or KindleDP will reject it.

Series/Edition Number
The next section is the Series. For example, if you wrote an epic fantasy trilogy, you’d have three books in your series. You’d want all three books to be advertised together on a spot on each of their Amazon pages. If this is your first book you’ve ever uploaded to KindleDP, you probably don’t have a Series. So we’ll leave this blank for now. In the future, when you publish your second book in the series, you can enter the information then. The Amazon page for the current book you’re uploading will update at that time to reflect that it’s part of the series.

Next up is the Edition Number section. If you’ve previously published a book and then significantly updated it – maybe rewrote a section or added or deleted a chapter – you would put “2” here. If it’s the second major change you’ve made, it would be the third edition, so you’d type 3 here. Presuming this is the first time you’ve uploaded a book, it can be left blank.

Author/Contributors
Below that is the Author field. You’ll enter your name here. It should appear exactly as it does on the book cover or the cover will be rejected when you upload it. You can use a pen name instead of your real name. You only have to fill out the boxes that you want – there’s no need to include a courtesy title, if you’re a Jr. or a Sr. or your middle name. If there are two or more authors for the book, you’ll have to decide who is the primary author. Unfortunately, for indexing purposes, there can only be one primary author even though a book may have been equally co-authored. The co-author’s name will go in the next section, which is the Contributors box.

Before moving on to the Contributors section, make sure you look over everything you’ve entered to this point. Once the book is published, none of what you’ve entered so far (other than the Series information) can be changed.

In the Contributors section, you can include the names of as few or as many of those who helped you with the book as you like. If uploading a children’s book, you’ll want to include the illustrator’s name here. If uploading a book in which someone else did the photography, include their name. You also might include the name of your cover designer and editor if you hired them, though you don’t have to. Whichever names you enter, make sure the names are spelled correctly and match what’s in your book; you probably mentioned their names and roles in putting out the book on your title/copyright page or in the acknowledgments.

The next section is about the book description, which we'll look at in a future entry.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an era where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

How to upload your paperback cover at KindleDP

One you’ve created the paperback cover for your self-published book, the next step is to upload it. Before doing so, save the cover as a .pdf. The cover should be no more than 40 MB in size. Kindle Direct Publishing actually will take covers up to 650 MB in size, but the loading takes forever, and you’ll suffer frequent crashes. In any case, there’s no reason for your cover to be more than 40 MB, as it will look great at even smaller sizes than that. 

Next, go to your Kindle Direct Publishing account. We’ll presume you’ve already started uploading your manuscript to KindleDP. 

The cover uploading occurs on the “Paperback Content” page. About midway down the page, you have the option to create a cover or to upload your own. Since we’ve already created the cover, we’ll check the second option.

Once you’re done, a yellow oval that says “Upload Your Cover” pops up on the screen. Before clicking it, look at the question below it that asks “Does your cover include a barcode?” You probably will leave leave this unchecked; if you do, Amazon will place a barcode on the back cover for you. If you’ve already bought a barcode and placed it on your back cover, check the box.

Next, click the yellow oval that says “Upload Your Cover” and find your cover.

The uploading can require take several minutes. The more color pictures that are in the book, the longer it’ll take.

After KindleDP uploads the cover to its site, “processing” occurs. This also can take a few minutes.

Bots at KindleDP quickly check your cover for the basics. If it’s too large in size or the dimensions don’t fit KindleDP’s requirements, it’ll probably be rejected. Unfortunately, KindleDP isn’t very good at telling you why it didn’t like the cover. If you’ve followed all of the guidelines in this book, though, it shouldn’t be rejected. If it is, you’ll need to figure out why and then fix it. 

Some common reasons KindleDP turns down paperback covers include:

• Wrong dimensions – You’ll need to build a new cover unless you’re off by fractions of a fraction of an inch. Then you might be able to fudge it by stretching the cover to fit the space, though doing so is iffy as you’re risking distortion of the artwork and lettering.
• A bleed area wasn’t included – The actual size of the book cover won’t work. You have to include a bleed area. If you’ve used a lone color as the background of your photo, in your photo editing program you can make a new document that is in that color and is the correct size of the cover with the bleed area. Then use guides to mark off the bleed area and place your original cover in that new created box. If photos go to the edge of the cover, however, you’ll need to start all over.
• A bleed area was a frame around the actual cover – Sometimes authors “fix” their rejected covers by placing a frame for the bleed area around the actual cover. That probably won’t work. The photos used on the actual cover also have to fill the bleed area.
• Text is too close to the cover’s edge – The title, byline and tag line all need to be at least 0.375 inches from the margin. KindleDP can be very picky, so if you’re 0.374 inches away, you might get rejected. I always recommend keeping your text a half-inch away from the bleed area.
• Title and byline doesn’t match what you’ve already entered when uploading – Check the title and byline entered on the Paperback Details page. It should match what’s on your cover. If you bought an ISBN from Bowker, check it to make sure that your title and byline are the same as on your cover. If any of these don’t match, whichever one was in error needs to be corrected.
• Pixilated artwork – The artwork is too small. Any artwork placed on the cover should be at least the same size as the space it will fill and be 300 dpi.
• Printers marks placed on cover (includes color bars) – Some cover designers place lines, what look like targets, and small colored squares on the edges of their covers. They’re used to ensure your image lines up with the paper it is printed on. KindleDP doesn’t need these printers marks to line up your cover, though.
• Copyright issues with artwork – Sometimes artwork contains metadata that establishes it’s copyrighted. If KindleDP notices this, it won’t allow you to print photos or illustrations that you don’t own.

There are other arcane reasons why the cover might be rejected. Usually KindleDP will send you an email explaining why it did not accept the cover, though the reason given often sounds like gobbledygook. You may need to do some online research to figure out exactly what KindleDP means.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an era where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

Understanding KindleDP's Bookshelf Page

When self-publishing at Kindle Direct Publishing , one of the key screens that you'll start from and return to is the Bookshelf.

The Bookshelf essentially is a digital listing of all of the books you’ve uploaded to KindleDP and are selling on Amazon. You’ll be able to choose if you want to look at your ebook, paperback or hardcover and then access pages where you can make specific changes to them.

First, though, you need to upload a book. To do that, click the big yellow oval (Okay, it’s more a rectangle with rounded edges.) that says “Create.”

A new screen pops up, asking you which kind of book you’d like to create. Hit the one for “Paperback.”

This takes you to the first of three screens, specifically the “Paperback Details” page. Later in the process, should you need to come back to this page, you can access it via your Bookshelf.

For a moment, let’s do that, just so you’re familiar with the Bookshelf and how it operates. Go back to your Bookshelf by clicking that word on your screen’s top just left of center.

You’ll notice that your bookshelf now has a white box on it. As you complete the various parts of the upload, the box will fill in with the book’s title, a picture of the front cover, the book’s price, and so on.

On the right side of the box is a section called “PAPEPRBACK ACTIONS.” The three dots to the right of it will pull up a menu that allows you to do a number of things with your book. The first three in the menu are used in the uploading. The others allow you to order copies, to run promotions and advertisements, and to affect how your book appears on Amazon.com, such as linking or unlinking your paperback and ebook.

To upload your book, click “Edit Print Book Details.”

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an era where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

Guidelines for Placing Artwork on Your Cover

Once you’ve selected your artwork for your paperback cover, you next have to prep and place it on the document that you'll use to build the total cover.

This can be the most time-consuming part of the cover creation process, but not rushing through it is vital. Get the artwork wrong, and you’ll lose sales, if only because potential readers will think the writing probably is as unprofessional as the cover.

Follow these guideline when prepping and placing your artwork:

• Use a sharp, quality picture of a single, recognizable object – That means ensuring the photo is at least 300 dpi and slightly larger than the size that must be uploaded when you self-publish. If you go with a lower dpi or a smaller size, the photo will appear pixelated or blurry. In addition, since the cover potential buyers will see is literally the size of your thumb, the illustration or photograph on the cover should not be complex or detailed. All of that simply will get lost in the small size and look like colors splattered on the screen.
• Properly crop and touch-up the picture – The picture needs to be shaped so that it is proportionately the same as the thumbnail. If the thumbnail is two inches tall by an inch wide, then the photo itself needs to be twice as tall as it is wide; a photo that is three times as tall as it is wide won’t work and will need to be cropped. Further, don’t distort (or change the aspect ratio) of the picture to force it to fit the thumbnail’s dimensions. Finally, if you’ve taken the photo yourself, ensure its coloration is good and that red-eye is removed.
• Leave space on the photograph for the text – Decide in advance where the title, subtitle and byline (the author’s name) will go on the cover. The object in the picture should not be covered (or at least mostly not be covered) by the text. For example, if the cover photo is of a sunflower, leave a sufficient amount of blue sky above the blossom where the title can go and some mostly mono-colored grass below the blossom where the byline can be placed.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an era where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.