KDP book builder: create your Amazon KDP book, page by page

KDP’s print rules, applied for you

You pick the trim size, paperback or hardcover, and the ink and paper, among the options KDP prints for your kind of book. KDP’s numbers follow from those choices and from the page count, and the builder applies them to every page and to the cover:

6 in

9 in

CHAPTER THREE The Night Lanterns

37

BLEED
+0.125 in, 3 sides

TRIM LINE

GUTTER ≥ 0.5 in
151–300 pages

SAFE AREA
≥ 0.375 in

The gutter is KDP’s: 0.375 in up to 150 pages, 0.5 in for 151–300 pages, 0.625 in for 301–500 pages, 0.75 in for 501–700 pages and 0.875 in for 701–828 pages. Top, bottom and outside margins, bleed and the cover size follow the same way (KDP Help, Paperback Submission Guidelines and Create a Paperback Cover, checked September 28, 2026). Add a chapter or change the paper, and the margins, the spine and the full-wrap cover are worked out again. To check a number yourself, the free margins and bleed calculator and cover size calculator need no account.

A KDP check before you export

The KDP check runs while you edit, for the edition on screen (paperback, hardcover or Kindle eBook), and shows a green check, a count of warnings or a count of errors. It looks at:

• the page count, within KDP’s limits for your binding, ink and paper;
• text inside the margins, not cut off, and at least KDP’s minimum size;
• pictures at print resolution (KDP recommends 300 DPI), and bleed set up when art reaches the edge of the page;
• the cover: a title and an author that match the listing, and spine text only when the book is thick enough;
• the listing: title, description, 7 keywords, categories and the AI disclosure.

Each problem says what is wrong and, on a page, which page, with a one-click fix when there is one. If KDP sends feedback after you upload, paste its message into the Book assistant: it lists each point, fixes what it can in the book as one step you can undo, and tells you when the fix is a setting to change in KDP instead. The free KDP rejection decoder explains the same messages without an account.

Start from your manuscript, or from an idea

From your manuscript. Upload a Word (.docx or .doc), PDF, Markdown (.md) or plain text (.txt) file, or paste the text. Your words are used as written: kdpbook.io finds the chapters from your headings and lays the text out, without rewriting, dropping or adding a word. AI reads it to plan the book, drafts the back-cover text and the listing, which you can rewrite, and paints the cover art. More on that in KDP formatting for your manuscript.

From an idea. Describe the book in a sentence, or set every detail yourself in the steps, and the AI writes it, illustrates it in one of 40 styles when the book has pictures, and designs the cover. There are 36 book types, from picture books and coloring books to novels, journals and puzzle books.

Both paths end in the same editor, where every page stays yours to change.

Every page stays editable

The editor shows the book as it will print, page by page, with a live preview, undo and redo. The screenshots on this page show it on a sample picture book.

• Pages. Edit text in place and change the font, size and alignment of a paragraph or of the whole book. On fixed-layout pages (picture book and comic pages, activity and coloring pages, the title page), drag and resize text boxes and pictures with snapping.
• Pictures. Replace a picture with your own (PNG, JPEG or WebP), or repaint it: “Fix details” keeps the picture and changes only what you describe, “New picture” paints the moment again in another framing.
• Cover. Drag the title, subtitle, author and back-cover text, nudge them with the arrow keys or type their position in inches. They snap to the cover and to each other, stay inside KDP’s safe area and clear of the barcode area, and each side takes up to 6 extra texts, such as a tagline or a series name. The AI book cover creator for KDP explains how the wrap is sized.
• Fonts. 108 book fonts with a search and a badge on fonts that lack your book’s letters, or your own: upload TTF, OTF, WOFF or WOFF2 files once you confirm your license allows embedding them.
• Book assistant. Ask for a change in plain words and it edits the book; what it changed is one step you can undo.

Editing text, fonts and layout by hand costs no credits. AI rewrites, repaints and Book assistant messages use credits, and the editor shows their price.

What you get, and what you do on KDP

• The print interior PDF, inside KDP’s margins, with its fonts in the file.
• The full-wrap cover PDF: back, spine and front, with the spine sized from the final page count.
• A Kindle EPUB (reflowable for text books, fixed layout for picture books and comics) with its 1,600 × 2,560 px cover. Coloring, puzzle, activity, journal and notebook books are print only.
• The KDP listing sheet: title, description, 7 keywords, categories and the AI-disclosure answers.

kdpbook.io doesn’t upload anything to KDP or publish for you. You create the title in your own KDP account, upload the files, copy the listing, and KDP reviews the book. kdpbook.io is independent and not affiliated with Amazon. It isn’t KDP Builder (kdpbuilder.com) either, a separate tool: kdpbook.io vs KDP Builder sets out how the two differ.

What a book costs

Every book gets a credit estimate before launch, and only what is produced is charged. Two books at the default settings:

Exports and the KDP listing sheet are included. New accounts get 2,000 free credits once, with no card required. Free-plan books carry a kdpbook.io preview watermark and are shared in the community; a paid plan, from $25/month, exports clean files with a commercial license to sell them. A book made on the free credits can be exported again, clean, after upgrading. See plans and credit packs.