KDP Book

[Dorottya334674487s9r]

I am working on a little book with my friend. I used Adobe Illustrator to make the cover and in the pricess of working with InDesign to make the book. I am new to KDP book formatting, but have used these programs before - there is so much murky information out there its a bit overwhelming. 

I was hoping to receive some help to make sure that I am starting out with the right dimensions/template for the print version interior pages of the book. 

Interior pages: Black and White only with no bleed. (Small black and white images at each chapter.) 

Paperback trim size: 5 x 7.5 inches (custom size)

Page Count: 24-150 pages

Inside margins: 0.5 inches

Outside margins: 0.5 inches 

Also posting here the document size etc. 

Also any free resources to learn about this process (design with Acrobat programs to publish with Amazon for both print and ebook) would be awesome - it has been a steep learning curve for sure. 

Thanks so much! 

[Dorottya334674487s9r]

Sorry for the late response - thanks so much for your advice! I am chugging on with this process, it has for sure been a huge learning curve. Thanks agagin! 

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

It is a huge learning curve, and one without good guidelines or documentation. Nearly everything in the help, tutorial and troubleshooting material assumes very basic, fault-free content and sort of assumes that (1) pushing all the buttons in the right order will work and (2) that any faults are because you didn't push the buttons in the right order. It's all much more complex than that and depends much on the content, user setup, design choices, etc. As you're finding out. 🙂

[Dorottya334674487s9r]

Hello James, 

I am in the final strech here. I have an e-pub file ready and verified to uplod to Ingram Sparks and KDP. 

I am a little confused about the "Internal Content Cover Image" requirment.

Right now, I have two files ready to upload:

1. JPEG file of the cover per their e-book cover specifications

2. A verified e-pub file of the interior book 

Should I (in InDesign) add a page to the front of the internal text formatted for e-pub, and insert the cover image to serve as my "Internal Content Cover Image", or can I just use the export menu to e-pub with the option of adding a cover to the file (image attached). 

Ingram Sparks has a similar requirment: "Include an internal cover image. This should be formatted in the same size and as part of your interior. (For use within the book content.)"

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

This is a slightly confusing element, especially when dealing with two different destinations.

The short answer is you want an internal cover image, so use the InDesign export option to embed one. There are varying guidelines and options, but for most situations you want to embed your front cover image, at about 300ppi, in JPEG form. For a 6x9 book, that would be about 1800x2700 pixels. Create that from your cover layout and embed it in the export EPUB.

You will then want to upload pretty much the same file to both services, when they ask for it.

Technically, you can go a lot smaller with the image size to save net EPUB file size — 150ppi, or about 900x1350 pixels, is more than large enough for even tablet EPUB and Kindle readers. But the savings in file size is rarely worth it and KDP in particular has fiddly "quality" standards, so use the higher definition image.

The separate upload is what will be used for the book listing on both services, so you can go larger (I believe really huge images, up to 5MB overall and more, will be accepted — but this is for screen display at small sizes, not print). For EPUB vendors, the file will use the embedded image and the uploaded cover will be used for the listing and catalog etc.

For KIndle, it's a little more involved in that their conversion will replace any internal image with the separately uploaded one, even if there was no image in the EPUB and even if the images are identical. So in theory your KDP upload can skip the embedded file, but for many reasons, especially if you're reasonable about the embedded image size, there's no reason not to embed it in all EPUB exports regardless of destination.

[Dorottya334674487s9r]

Wonderful,  thank you so much! I was hoping that the export option to embed was the way to go. 

I appreciate your quick and helpful response! 

Dorka 

[Dorottya334674487s9r]

Its me again, I hoping for the last time. I have these two dots at the end of one single chapter, and I have spent hours trying to figure out how to get rid of it... any chance this looks familiar and there is an easy fix? 

I think I was able to attach a screenshot here of the dots! 

Thank You!

Dorka 

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Are these dots/periods at the very end of the export? Or somewhere in the middle?

They are not any artifact of ID or export, I don't think. I'd bet they are leftover paragraphs or text frames, somewhere outside the main text flow and possibly somewhere off the page boards. One quick way to find them would be to zoom out, with all guidelines and frames visible, and page through the document looking for stray text frames off the pages.

Another would be to search for <paragraph return><dot>, which might hunt them down anywhere they're hiding. (A search for dot-return would turn up every sentence, which would be tedious but might be necessary; I can't think of a tidy GREP string that would narrow down the search.)

But I think those dot/periods are in the doc somewhere and just need to be found and deleted. If they are at the end of an export section or the document, they could be anywhere, not necessarily where they are showing up in the exported text.

Hope that helps.

[Dorottya334674487s9r]

Thanks James. I ended up narrowing down the pages where the "dots" originated from  - and had to just re-create those pages. I tried searching for hidden text box, find/change any unsual hidden characters - but couldn't find it. 

I found the creation of the e-pub hard! It seems like there is not a whole lot of consistency and with not being able to preview the changes live unless I do an export, feels like a whole lot of extra work. I focused mainly on having a decent document I was happy with on amazon kindle preview and ibook reader. I used adobe digital editions too as the 3rd preview. 

Thank you for all your help throughout the process, I really appreciate it. 

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Good! Sometimes you don't find the actual fault, but throwing out the faulty context and replacing it gets the job done.

As I may have said in this thread and have said in many others, EPUB is deceptive for new users. I think most approach it as if it's printing or export to PDF — just point, click, export and there you go. That it's a process that requires careful planning and document construction and 'management' to get a successful result comes as a shock. (I've seen comments by many who tried it once or twice and walked away with opinions varying from "it doesn't work" to "InDesign is crappy at it.") I sort of wish there was a pop-up on the export menu that warned newcomers, "This is harder than it looks. Be patient" — but they probably woudn't read it, anyway. 🙂

And, if I haven't said, ADE is lousy, lousy tool, especially for EPUB. Use Calibre Reader for plain EPUB viewing and proofing, and keep an eye on Thorium Reader, which is in theory superior but is just now addressing some longstanding faults.