Can You Upload a Jpeg Cover to Kdp

Since the 2012 Kindle aureate rush, many authors ignored print books entirely, focusing only on digital eBook sales. People thought that print books were unimportant and that their sales would eventually wither and die.

That didn't happen, though—and it probably won't. Although digital sales have surged, print books are still incredibly popular. And so authors who ignore impress are ignoring a lot of potential sales.

Why Print Books Matter

Publishers Weekly, a mag for the traditional publishing industry, reported in 2016 that ebook sales were starting to meet a decline, blaming "digital fatigue." Fifty-fifty today, a mere 34% of book-buying households actually own a dedicated due east-reader device. The Publishers Weekly article concluded that:

"Since consumers almost ever have the option to read books in physical formats, they are indicating a preference to return to print."

That'southward not strictly correct, every bit many consumers don't e'er take the pick to read the books they want in concrete formats…due to the fact that independent or self-published authors often don't choose to put their books out in impress format!

Thousands of readers notwithstanding love and prefer impress books. Authors who ignore impress are ignoring potential readers and potential sales. The choice of ownership the print version of a book makes the book more appealing to readers, who appreciate the choice.

So if you've avoided the print route so far, now may be a good fourth dimension explore your options.

Being in KDP Select doesn't limit you lot here; that exclusivity contract simply applies to digital ebooks.

Yous can sell your print books wherever you lot similar while using KDP Print on Need (POD) publishing.

KDP Print Formatting Guide

In the past, self-publishing a impress book was expensive and risky. Plenty of authors (and publishers) were left with towering piles of unsold books that they had invested considerable sums of money in.

Only today, with POD (print-on-demand) applied science, books are printed as they are ordered (and paid for) past readers. The just cost to the author/publisher is for the embrace design and the formatting. Print-on-demand is an incredible breakthrough for authors because information technology allows you to tap into the massive marketplace for impress books at minimal cost and maximum profit.

You now have a number of options for self-publishing print books, from IngramSpark to Amazon'due south ain KDP Impress on Demand platform. The easiest for indie authors to use is KDP Impress, Amazon'due south long-standing impress-on-need arm (it used to be chosen CreateSpace, but Amazon shut down CreateSpace in 2018 and moved all their press services over to KDP).

Using KDP to Impress Books

KDP allows yous to upload a formatted manuscript to create a impress volume. Information technology will even check your files to brand sure they volition print properly. It lists print books alongside their Kindle versions on Amazon itself and makes the whole process painless.

All you demand to do is sign upward with KDP (using an Amazon business relationship) at kdp.amazon.com, so upload your formatted manuscript and volume cover design.

Need assist making a book cover? Check out our free guide on how to find a book embrace designer.

Formatting a Print Volume for KDP

Formatting a print book for KDP tin can be learned quite quickly, and you can do everything in Microsoft Word, or InDesign if yous want to make it extra professional. Information technology does involve jumping a few hurdles, though, and those hurdles are the reason that so many self-published authors don't take impress versions of their books.

Yet even these requirements aren't peculiarly hard. You can learn to design your ain print files yourself, or hire someone to do it for you for $100 or less.

You'll have multiple advantages when you publish your impress book with KDP:

• Another source of income: KDP pays y'all royalties for every print book sold every month.
• A physical copy of your book to send to reviewers, book bloggers, and others who tin aid promote your volume.
• The ability to set up a book giveaway on Goodreads (a skillful way to get in front of a lot of potential new readers).
• Increased brownie. The being of a impress volume gives you and your brand more authority.

Cover Designs for Print Books

No thing which formats y'all make up one's mind to publish your book in, you tin can't get effectually the fact that y'all need a great cover—it's your volume'due south store window. Bank check out our commodity on hiring a adept comprehend designer here.

Dissimilar a Kindle book cover, you demand a full "jacket"—a forepart, spine, and back—in order to publish a impress volume. All experienced comprehend designers are familiar with this process.

Earlier you lot order your cover, though, you'll need to format your volume. That's because the size of the encompass is adamant past the size of the finished book.

And then let's become on with agreement how to format your book for print.

How to Format a KDP Print Book File

Far too many authors have tried to get their volume into the format required by KDP just to give upward in despair.

Hang in there!

Information technology'south true that there are a few formatting quirks, but once you get your caput around them, you'll exist formatting your books in nether an 60 minutes!

KDP helpfully provides free Discussion templates for authors to use, which tin exist a practiced place to kickoff.

Y'all can download the KDP formatting templates here.

It'due south a good idea to look at them, merely you lot don't have to utilize them. You can apply the principles they contain to your existing manuscript.

Often, it's quicker, easier, and less confusing to do it that style! Yous know your ain manuscript and can alter information technology easily, while applying your text to someone else'southward template can go confusing if you're not a Discussion primary.

If you open up several of the templates, you'll see that they have some interesting things in common. That's because there are things nosotros need to do in a impress book that we don't in a digital book.

This involves a bit of jargon, but don't worry—y'all'll go the hang of the vocabulary shortly.

Trim Size

The trim size is the book's physical size.

When'due south the last time you saw a print book that was 8.5 x 11 inches? Not often, right?

Print books are commonly much smaller than printer newspaper. So the Word document of a print book template should look smaller than it usually does if you create a new Word document.

We don't accept to concern ourselves with this for Kindle, so it can come every bit a bit of a daze to authors to realize that they accept to think about the size they want their volume to exist for paperback. KDP has a limited range of trim sizes, known equally "industry standard sizes" because they're the ones used throughout the publishing manufacture.

The most pop is 6" x 9". That means the book is vi" wide and ix" tall (depth isn't measured at this phase). It'due south a fairly chunky size, not exactly suitable for slipping into a purse.

v" ten eight" and 5.5" x 8.v" are the side by side about popular sizes and are sometimes chosen "trade paperback" size. They are a adept size for carrying effectually and are favored by novelists for that reason.

The other pop size is 8" x x", often used for manuals and other nonfiction.

One matter to bear in mind when deciding on your book's trim size is that the price of your volume to the reader will depend largely on its number of pages. It is worth because going for a 6" x 9" over a five" x 8" in order to reduce the number of pages.

Book Margins

Again, margins aren't something we need to worry about when formatting for Kindle, but they're crucial for print. Margins are the space around the border of the page where there are no words.

Most Discussion docs have even margins on the left and right and also at the top and lesser. But a print manuscript is different any other Word document—its margins are dissimilar on dissimilar sides; they're non-symmetrical.

Pick up a print book and leafage through it. You should notice that it is laid out in what is known every bit "mirror image" format. The pages aren't the same on the correct and left. The pages on the left are generally fifty-fifty-numbered, while the pages on the correct are odd-numbered.

Left-hand pages tend to have a narrow left-manus margin and a wide correct-mitt margin. Right-hand pages take the opposite: a wide left-hand margin and narrow right-hand margin.

These unequal mirror margins are what make the magic happens in print formatting, because they leave space for the volume's binding.

Styles

Styles are part of Give-and-take's built-in formatting tools. They're incredibly useful, and worth taking the time to learn to use right!

For formatting, they make life much simpler. KDP print templates use one particular manner for all chapter headings. This gives consistency throughout the book and enables us to add an automatic table of contents at the kickoff, complete with page numbers.

Styles also hateful that we can brand tweaks to the entire book's formatting if nosotros need to—say, to reduce the number of pages.

Manuscript Sections

In a professional print volume, chapters start on a new page, and in that location are other times when you'll desire to start a new function of the book on a clean folio, and so to speak.

Not using department breaks is where many authors go badly incorrect with their print formatting. Amongst other things, sections allow us to control folio numbers and headers/footers, giving a professional await.

Give-and-take has built-in tools to make this clean and straightforward; these may be new to you, just they're easy to get the hang of.

And that's it! If you tin get to grips with these few things, yous can get to grips with formatting for KDP print.

Source: Microsoft Part

KDP Formatting Step-By-Step in Give-and-take

In that location are some industry-standard things that nosotros need to do to create a quality print layout. Fortunately, we tin can set up a lot of them in the aforementioned place within Discussion!

The safest style to practice this without wrecking your manuscript is to make a copy of your current work-in-progress. And so, you tin do your formatting work on the copy.

All you have to do is follow this step-by-stride KDP Impress formatting guide and your manuscript volition exist ready to print. If you'd similar, you can download our gratis MS Word nonfiction impress book template.

Folio Setup

Open that copy and bring up the PAGE LAYOUT > PAGE SETUP menu. It's on the ribbon after "Insert." In the Page Setup box are iii tabs across the acme:

• Margins
• Paper
• Layout

Nosotros'll be making changes to all of these.

Set the margins as 0.76" on the top, lesser, and inside and 0.v" on the exterior.

And so set the gutter as 0.13".

In the "Pages" area, set information technology to MIRROR MARGINS.

And make sure these settings apply to WHOLE Certificate at the lesser by selecting that in the dropdown.

That gives us our magic mirror margins; they'll be at the correct width for most books up to around 300 pages. (For larger books, play with the gutter and inside margin and run information technology through KDP Print to bank check it.)

Next, click the Newspaper tab at the top of the box. Nosotros need to set it to the book's trim size.

In the "Paper Size" box, scroll down to the lesser of the list of available sizes and click CUSTOM SIZE. Then type in vi and 9 in the Width and Height boxes. That's all we need to do in this tab.

Click LAYOUT next.

Page Layout

Here, we tin can adapt where the headers, footers, and page numbers will sit.

In the "Department" area at the top, you can choose whether or not you want all chapters to begin on right-hand pages.

There are no hard and fast rules hither, but nonfiction books volition ofttimes choose this. It enables readers to find capacity more easily and presents clear definition between subjects. Many Big 5 fiction books also choose this, but information technology's non required, as readers aren't commonly jumping between chapters.

For our purpose, let's assume nosotros're formatting a novel and choose EVEN PAGE. (If we chose ODD Folio, it would force chapters to always start on odd pages, throwing in an essential blank folio between chapters where necessary.)

Click the checkboxes Different ODD AND EVEN and Different Showtime Folio. This will give united states complete control over page numbers and headers/footers.

For example, it enables us to have the book'southward title in the header on even pages and the chapter name on odd pages. Chapter title pages don't have whatsoever headers—only if the page numbers are in the footer, they can have a footer.

Type in 0.3 in the Header and Footer boxes. This gives plenty space at the top and bottom of the folio to let for a header and footer with a footling space between information technology and the text.

Click OK.

Believe it or not, that's the most technical part done with! Your manuscript is now set up as a proper book. All it needs now is a flake of tweaking.

Side by side, nosotros'll add section breaks, folio numbers, headers/footers, and a few stylistic tweaks.

Adding Styles and Sections

If yous don't work with Styles already, get through your manuscript to see if nigh of it is in the NORMAL style.

If it isn't, the all-time matter would be to click CTRL + A to select all the text. Then click NORMAL in the Styles box.

This runs the adventure of losing some formatting you may have already added (like italics), and so be sure y'all're working on a copy of your manuscript so you don't lose anything important.

In one case everything is one mode, go through and make chapter headings the HEADING 1 style. If you take sub-headings, you can brand those Heading 2, Heading three, etc.

At the start of each chapter, you demand to add a Section Intermission. Turn on Prove/HIDE on the ribbon so you tin see the formatting marks.

You may take page breaks between chapters at the moment. Become through and delete those and supplant them with section breaks.

Put your cursor at the height of the page and click Page LAYOUT > BREAKS > NEW PAGE. This ways that chapters will start on the next page after the previous chapter, whether that'south an odd or an even-numbered page.

Annotation: If you're formatting a nonfiction book, you may want to choose ODD PAGE instead, which will force Discussion to begin each chapter on an odd, right-hand page, even if the previous chapter likewise ends on an odd-numbered folio. It will put an invisible blank page in between, which will only show upward when you convert the certificate into PDF format.

We're going to put these department breaks to good apply when nosotros add folio numbers.

Adding Page Numbers

As we're imagining that nosotros're formatting a novel, let'south add the folio numbers to the center of the footer. (If this was a nonfiction book, we might still do them this mode, only nosotros could cull to put them at the outer edges of the header instead.)

Double-click in the footer—that's the blank area at the bottom of the folio. This should bring upward the Blueprint toolbar on the ribbon.

Click on PAGE NUMBER, then hover over BOTTOM OF PAGE and select PAGE NUMBER 2, the one in the center. This volition add a simple number with no formatting. Delete the line space that Discussion automatically (annoyingly!) adds after it, so it won't sit besides far from the border of the folio.

As we are using different Odd/Even pages in our page setup, you'll demand to practice this 3 times: for a chapter championship page, the following even page, and the odd page. But, after that, the rest of the document will follow the pattern without needing help!

Adding Headers

Most novels have the writer name on left-paw, even-numbered pages, and the book title on right-manus, odd-numbered pages.

Double-click in the header on any fifty-fifty-numbered page that isn't a chapter title page. Type in your name. In novels, this is often centered, sometimes in capitals, sometimes in a unlike font. I similar to use a smaller font size than the rest of the novel—generally size ten if the novel uses size 11 or 12.

Notice that Give-and-take will accept added this header to every even-numbered page…but not the odd-numbered pages. Double-click in the header of an odd-numbered page and type in the book title. This should exist replicated throughout the certificate.

Extra Stylistic Touches

To requite your book a special little something, you tin can add some additional elements that give it a truly custom look.

Title Folio

A quick look at some print books should reveal something you may never take noticed before: a book often has two championship pages. In that location is an onetime publishing tradition of having a "one-half championship" page before the main title folio.

Authors who desire to expect very professional and traditional keep to this tradition, though it's not strictly necessary.

But you do need a good title folio of some sort. Try to emulate your book's cover in the layout and font choices, the way traditional publishers do.

Contents

Print novels, different digital books, don't have to have a table of contents. You tin add one if you want to, though. For instance, the Harry Potter books have them.

Chapter Championship Pages

You don't take to use the word "Chapter" in your affiliate titles. Lots of novels only use the number of the chapter. Do utilise a Heading way though, so they all stay consistent.

Many traditionally published books prepare the chapter titles nigh a 3rd of the style down the page. You can suit this by right-clicking on the fashion on the ribbon and choosing MODIFY, then PARAGRAPH.

Click a few times in the SPACING > BEFORE box to move the text down the page. Modifying the style will ensure that all chapter titles sit at the same identify on the page.

Some books use a dropped capital ("drop cap") at the beginning of capacity—that's that big, fancy first letter you sometimes run into. Yous can add this by putting your cursor anywhere in the initial paragraph and clicking INSERT > Drib CAP on the ribbon.

Note: A two-line drop cap can be easier to manage than a three-line if you tend to employ short paragraphs!

If you don't like drop caps, consider irresolute the outset three to five words in each affiliate to employ ALL-CAPS.

Fonts and Glyphs

Glyphs are a visual or pictoral font used beneath a chapter name. They tin can wait quite fashionable, particularly if not over-used!

Microsoft Office comes with pre-loaded fonts, some of which tin exist utilized for this. Webdings and the Wingdings family are excellent.

For example, this sample uses "ab" on the keyboard in the Wingdings 2 font:

You can also download other fonts from places such as Google Fonts and FontSquirrel.com. But check that they are immune for use in print books. Y'all may accept to give credit on the copyright page of your book.

While on the subject of fonts, this is where some authors can betray their lack of design preparation. Many authors detect it irresistibly tempting to become old-school PowerPoint and include multiple fonts, sizes, borders, and varieties of clipart.

Don't!

Professional book designers recommend using a maximum of two fonts—especially on any ane page. So that would exist i font for trunk text and another for chapter titles and subtitles.

You might desire to choose a unlike font for your title page, to friction match your volume cover, but that's the limit!

Uploading to KDP Print

When y'all're happy with the formatting, upload your manuscript to KDP and run it through their Interior Reviewer. This is an invaluable aid in letting y'all know that your book will look proficient in print.

If you pass the Interior Reviewer, all you need to do is upload your volume jacket. For that, give your designer the book's trim size and the full number of pages and he or she will be able to brand the jacket the correct size.

When you receive your cover, upload it to KDP and allow them to do concluding checks. You will receive an e-mail to let y'all know if it has been approved, usually inside i–2 days.

KDP Print gives you an option to proof your book online, merely if you can, it's better to social club a physical proof copy. There'southward a cost to do so, but if you're in or nigh the US, information technology's not too expensive.

It's surprising how many typos jump out when you're looking through a impress book every bit opposed to checking it online!

Where People Sometimes Go Wrong

Here are the most common stumbling points that people report when trying to get their book on KDP:

• Non using Styles—this causes a lack of consistency throughout the volume.
• Using page breaks instead of section breaks—this tin throw the headers and footers out of whack.
• Not formatting the volume's interior to KDP's impress standards.
• Not using expert software to convert from Word to PDF. Word is better at converting to a PDF than it used to be—but information technology'southward notwithstanding not crawly, and it's especially bad if your book contains images.Discussion automatically compresses images when converting to PDF then, if you have a nonfiction book with images and complicated formatting, consider using a 3rd-party service or plugin to convert your manuscript to loftier-quality PDF format. I similar http://www.freepdfconvert.com—it's costless if you merely use it occasionally.

• Non embedding fonts in the Word document. Go into WORD OPTIONS > Save from the Office button and click on the checkbox for EMBED FONTS IN THE FILE. Deselect the DO NOT EMBED COMMON SYSTEM FONTS box.This volition ensure that your fonts carry over to the PDF when you lot create it.
• Non using images with loftier enough resolutions. If your book uses images, y'all may find it failing the Interior Reviewer. The but way around information technology is to reoptimize your images (which can cause them to reduce in size) or to obtain higher quality images.
• Allowing Word to handle images. When adding images, never paste them into Word; always insert them via the Insert toolbar on the ribbon (INSERT > Flick).Never allow Give-and-take to compress images and don't adjust them in Word itself. For the all-time results, use other software to modify the size—Photoshop or the GIMP is the all-time here.

• Not formatting the embrace to KDP's paperback cover requirements.
• Non ordering a physical proof copy. This tin exist a item trouble if yous use images in your book. KDP will give you a warning if any images are less than 300dpi, though you lot can get abroad with 200dpi in most cases. If you lot don't social club a physical proof, though, you won't exist certain everything worked out right until you lot start getting reviews that mutter well-nigh blurry images in your volume.

Tips for Print Volume Publishing

A number of elements contribute to making a truly professional-quality print volume.

Font Choices

It comes down to a choice of a serif or a sans serif font. That means a font with or without the footling $.25 that stick out from the edges of messages. You can see them in particular at the edges of the 'T' in a serif font.

Microsoft's default font for Role used to exist Times New Roman. This was back when many Word documents concluded upward being printed, so they used a serif font, which is easier on the centre than a sans serif when printed.

Today, fewer documents are read in printed format, as many people take switched to doing virtually things online and on handheld devices. And so Microsoft's default font is now Calibri, which is a sans serif font.

Sans serif literally ways "without serifs." Sans serif fonts are more rounded and are clearer to read online and on tablets and smartphones.

For paperbacks, serif fonts are the ones to cull. You lot can still apply Times New Roman if you lot like; it'south yet in Word, it'southward simply not the default anymore.

If yous want something a footling different, there are both free and paid fonts available online. Merely exist careful to read the license agreements to exist certain y'all are allowed to use any of the fonts you choose in print publications.

Avoid gimmicky, fancy, or handwriting-style fonts in books. Readability is reduced with fancy fonts. So information technology's best to reserve them but for accents in small-scale doses.

Remember of the "For Dummies" books. They are modernistic, humorous, and quirky. They use a fancy font for their main headings, merely easy-to-read standard fonts for the master body of their books.

So if you do want to cull a font with a deviation, take your lead from successful publishers and limit it to curt chief headings only.

Exclusivity

If you use KDPs complimentary ISBN option or their cover design software (including any of their stock images), then yous won't be able to sell your print book anywhere other than CreateSpace/Amazon.

If you use your own ISBN and volume jacket, you tin sell your book elsewhere and/or brand it available through other POD services such every bit Ingram Source.

Double-Checking

Check, cheque, and triple bank check your formatted manuscript! Become as many pairs of eyes on it as possible.

Books in traditional publishing houses tend to go through vii rounds of checking, washed past editors, proofreaders, etc.—and notwithstanding they nevertheless expect there to exist a typo every one to two pages in the finished book. People make mistakes!

As indies, we don't tend to have as many people checking our books, so more typos can slip through. These can be more noticeable in print books than in ebooks—for some reason, we're merely mentally conditioned to observe glitches more in print.

So practice order a concrete proof copy if you can and go through it line by line looking for errors and omissions—there almost certainly will be some!

If you notice any, right them in the manuscript and upload information technology again to KDP. It's quick and easy.

You can join Michelle'southward professional print formatting class at a 40% disbelieve here: https://www.udemy.com/how-to-become-your-book-on-createspace/?couponCode=TCKPUB

Check out these articles on creating a professional book:

• How to Notice an Editor for Your Book with Step-by-Step Instructions
• How to Become an ISBN for Your Book Without Getting Ripped Off
• How Self Published Authors Become Paid for Paperback Sales

Michelle Campbell-Scott is the author of the bestselling books Goodreads for Authors, Make Your Book Work Harder, and The 10-Day Peel Brushing Detox. She is a former teacher and trainer, chicken keeper, and field archer. She started her career in public relations. And so, while her children were growing, she did any piece of work she could get that immune her to be at domicile with them. That included writing, course creation, editing, book indexing, volume formatting, document and presentation production, and more. Afterwards becoming a teacher and then an Information technology trainer, she however freelanced, writing and creating courses for others earlier eventually taking the plunge to create her ain books and courses.

moralesseneiver.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.tckpublishing.com/kdp-print-book-formatting/