Cover rejected by Amazon KDP

[ali_4619]

Hi I am hoping you can help. I thought I had set up the cover and spine I designed for my first Amazon book as per the KDP cover calculator. But KDP has rejected it saying it is the wrong size.

My book is 152.4 x 228.6 mm (6x9 inches) with 142 pages. The calculator says the front cover is 152.4 x 228.6 mm, with 3.17 mm margins and 3.17 mm bleed all round. I assumed the back cover would be the same. So I created a three-page spread with facing pages unticked. In document setup, I put 152.4 x 228.6 mm, and bleed and margins of 3.17mm all round. Once the document was created, I unticked allow pages to shuffle and docked the three pages together. Then I changed the spine to 8.24 x 228.6 as per the calculator.

Amazon rejected this when I uploaded it, saying it was only 6x9 inches. I uploaded it as one PDF with front and back cover and spine. Please can you tell me how I fix this in document setup after selecting adjust layout. I looked again at the KDP calculator and it says the full cover is 319.39 mm x 234.95. Which by my calculation is how I have set it up including bleed.

Below is the Amazon calculator in both mm and inches, depending on how you think. Below that is how Amazon is showing the problem. I don’t understand why they are showing it as a one page cover when they require you to upload the front and back cover and spine as one PDF which I did. And below that is my document setup then how my cover design looks. Many thanks in advance.

KDP cover calculator -  in mm

KDP cover calculator -  in inches

Below is my document setup and below that my design.

Here is how my cover looks. 

[Eugene Tyson]

Hello again

I don't do KDP so it's new to me.
Can you use a template from the KDP calculator download itself? Do they offer PDF and PNG guides you can place as a layer underneath for alignment.

You're definitely on the right track and clearly doing your homework with the KDP cover calculator. The confusion here seems to be in how the document is set up versus what Amazon expects when it says “upload a one-piece PDF including back cover, spine and front cover.”

Rather than building it as three separate pages docked together, which looks correct inside InDesign, try to set up a single-page document (not 3 pages).

[ali_4619]

Thanks Eugene, I'll try that. The templates KDP have are inside the KDP creator and I've been told they're basic looking (no offence KDP)! All the experts recommend designing your own and of course InDesign is the best (when you know what you're doing, ha ha). I watched at least five Indesign YouTube videos including ones specific to creating KDP covers and followed step by step so I'm flummoxed.

[Eugene Tyson]

You can still download the template and overlay it on yours to see differences in size/position etc. 

[ali_4619]

Ah right. Good thinking. I'll do that. I've just chatted to KDP but they couldn't solve it and told me to talk to InDesign.

Just another question if you don't mind, does it matter if a thin white line suddenly appears to the right of the spine? I googled it but can't find out what it means. 

[Eugene Tyson]

When you zoom in on the PDF does it get bigger?