For indie authors: New KDP template for self-publishing print covers

Now that Amazon’s started offering the option to print hardback covers to authors, they’ve made some updates to the KDP template generator. Here’s a quick summary of what you need to know when it’s time to publish that paperback or hardback book.

What’s new with the KDP template generator?

• You (obviously) now choose between paperback and hardcover.
• You have to select the page-turn direction. For the vast majority of books written in English, you’ll want to choose LEFT to RIGHT.
• There’s currently a bug in the .png you get that doubles the resolution (600dpi rather than 300). I’m sure this will be corrected eventually, but until then, just be aware of it.
• Page count must be exact to the page number rather than rounded up.

This last one’s a biggie. I know designers who’ve had to redo paperbacks because the author was off by 2 pages. I’m hoping this change may help fix some of the spine issues KDP has had, but the paperback or hardback cover will not work if you don’t have the exact page count now. Many designers will charge a small fee to correct a template if it’s off because the page count was wrong, so be careful.

Authors can find the new KDP template generator here: https://kdp.amazon.com/cover-calculator

And pay extra close attention to those final page counts, everyone. ?

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