Formatting for KDP
Selling E-books on Amazon (KDP)
Course 1 · Chapter 5 · Formatting for KDP
Formatting is where a genuinely good book can look embarrassingly unprofessional in the finished product. It's a separate skill from writing or design, and KDP treats e-book and paperback formatting as two distinct sets of requirements.
E-book vs. Paperback Formatting
Kindle E-book
- Reflowable text — no fixed page numbers, since text reflows to the reader's own screen and font size
- Avoid manual tabs/line breaks for paragraph spacing — they break inconsistently across devices
- Standard front matter order: title page, copyright page, table of contents, dedication, then chapters
- Built with a tool that outputs a proper e-book file format, not a plain Word document
Paperback (Print)
- Fixed page layout — a specific trim size (6×9" is common for most books; 8.5×11" for planners/workbooks)
- Margins that scale with page count — a thicker book needs a wider inner ("gutter") margin so the spine curve doesn't eat into the text
- Bleed settings required for any image or color that extends to the page edge
- Front matter can differ slightly from the e-book version (e.g. no live table-of-contents links)
Formatting Tools
| Tool | Best For | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Kindle Create | Narrative e-books | Free, Amazon's own tool, straightforward for standard manuscripts |
| Vellum | Narrative e-books and paperbacks | Paid, Mac-only, widely used by independent authors for polished output |
| Atticus | Narrative e-books and paperbacks | Paid, cross-platform alternative to Vellum |
| Canva / Affinity Publisher | Low-content interiors | Better suited to page-by-page layout design than manuscript-flow tools |
The Most Common Formatting Mistakes
- Margins too narrow for the final page count, causing text to disappear into the spine curve
- Inconsistent fonts, sizes, or spacing between chapters, especially when content was assembled from several AI-drafted sections
- Missing or incomplete front matter (no copyright page, no working table of contents)
- Low-resolution images that looked fine on screen but print blurry
- Finalizing print margins before the manuscript's actual page count is locked
Print formatting depends on a locked manuscript
Because paperback gutter margins scale with total page count, you generally can't finalize print formatting
until the content itself is essentially done — formatting for print is one of the last steps, not
something to set up early and forget about.
Exact requirements change
Specific margin measurements, trim size options, and file format requirements are set by KDP directly and do
get updated. Check KDP's current formatting requirements before finalizing a manuscript rather than relying on
previously-known specifics.
Coming up next
Chapter 6 covers cover design — the single element most responsible for whether a browsing shopper even
clicks on your book.