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Posted on Oct 27, 2021

How to Self-Publish Hardcover Books with KDP

In the past, the only way to sell a self-published hardback on Amazon was to publish it via IngramSpark. Naturally, using a middleman would all but decimate an author’s royalties on any Amazon sales. But in late 2021, Kindle Direct Publishing finally launched its hardcover print-on-demand service (first via a private beta). 

With hardcover sales rising year on year, you might be keen to dip your toe into this undeniably cool book format. If that’s the case, here’s everything you need to know about preparing your book for a hardcover edition on  KDP:

1. Adjust your book file’s trim size

Sadly, you can’t just click a button and instantly convert your paperback into to a beautiful hardcover. To meet Amazon’s specifications, you’ll need to make some changes to your book’s interior and cover. Luckily, the interior part is pretty simple to prepare!

Know your trim sizes

While Amazon offers 16 trim size options for paperback books, they currently only have five available for hardcover:

  • 5.5 x 8.5”
  • 6 x 9”
  • 6.15 x 9.21”
  • 7 x 10”
  • 8.25 x 11” 

Conventionally, hardcover editions are larger than their paperback counterparts, so you’ll likely need to return to your word processor, formatting software, or book designer, and resize your book file accordingly.

Self-Publishing Hardcover Books with Kindle Direct Publishing - An image showing the difference in size between a standard paperback and hardcover
Two Murakami short story collections: one in paperback, one in hardcover

Create your print-ready file for free with the Reedsy Book Editor

If you do need to change the trim size to qualify, don’t worry! The Reedsy Book Editor can do that for free. You can export your book in a range of sizes (including the Amazon compatible 5.5 x 8.5”, and industry-standard 6 x 9”) with the click of a button. 

Reedsy’s tool will automatically fix common formatting hiccups such as widows and orphans (those awkward lone words that overhang a paragraph). Basically, it’ll take care of almost all your formatting needs! To learn more about its features, check out our post on the Reedsy Book Editor

Need an easy way to re-format your book files?

Sign up for free to start using the Reedsy Book Editor within seconds.

Learn how Reedsy can help you craft a beautiful book.

2. Check your page count, margins, and images

Another difference between Amazon’s paperback and hardcover specifications is the page count. While your paperback can be anywhere from 24 to 828 pages, your hardcover must be between 55 and 550 pages. Luckily, a larger trim size will usually bring down the page count, but if you’ve written a 1,000-page doorstop of a novel, you may be out of luck for now.

While you’re checking your page count, you may want to make some other formatting tweaks. Many authors prefer wider margins for their hardcover edition, as it gives a more premium feel. However, make sure your wider margin doesn’t push your book above the 550-page limit. Also check that any images look good when resized, and aren’t awkwardly aligned on your newly expanded page. 

Doublecheck your book files after you export them

KDP does have a tool for catching formatting errors, which we’ll mention later, but it’s better to be safe than sorry, so give your manuscript a thorough review at this stage. It’s best to review the file after exporting to make sure nothing changes during the export process and everything looks perfect.

Once your interior is good to go, the next step is to prepare that all-important cover. 

3. Tweak your cover design for case laminate

Unfortunately, creating a cover for your hardcover edition is not as simple as scaling up your paperback design by 20%. For one, you may lose quality by simply scaling up the design! Here’s what you need to know about modifying your cover design for a flawless KDP hardcover.

Know the rules of creating a case laminate cover

Hardcovers come with their own unique requirements for cover designs and on KDP, these requirements are very particular. This is largely down to the only style of hardcover they offer: case laminate. 

Case laminate covers are made of chipboard, and wrapped with laminated paper. Amazon has yet to introduce the clothbound or dust jacket option you may be familiar with. As a result, certain parts of your cover design will wrap around the edges of your cover. Therefore, your design will need to extend beyond the actual cover dimensions (this is referred to in the industry as “bleeding”).

Self-Publishing Hardcover Books with Kindle Direct Publishing - An image showing the bleeding around the edges of a case laminate book
The design on a case laminate hardcover wraps around the edge of the cover, as you can see here.

You’ll also need to consider some other factors. Your spine will probably be thicker than it would be for a paperback, so you’ll need to keep a space clear of important elements alongside the spine (the “spine hinge”) to prevent text or barcode distortion.

Raúl Gil, the cover designer for Ricardo Fayet’s How To Market A Book, explained how he adapted the design from paperback to hardcover. In the image below, the hardcover version required wider “bleeding” at the edges (1), wider inner margins (2), a wider spine (3), and some design elements to be repositioned (4).

Self-Publishing Hardcover Books with Kindle Direct Publishing - An image showing the differences between hardcover and paperback cover designs
Design by Raúl Gil

The basic requirements for Amazon hardcover cover designs are:

  • Your background should extend 0.51” past the edge of the front cover;
  • All text and images should be 0.635” from the edge of the book; and
  • No text or barcodes should be within 0.4” of the spine.

Sound like a lot to remember? Don’t worry, there’s an app for that...

Use a calculator to get your dimensions just right

Amazon has a handy inbuilt calculator, which takes information about your manuscript and uses it to generate a template with the perfect dimensions for your cover design. You can then compare your design with this template to check your cover qualifies.

Self-Publishing Hardcover Books with Kindle Direct Publishing - screenshot of the Amazon KDP Hardcover dimension calculator
Amazon’s KDP Cover calculator provides the exact dimensions your book cover will require.

Note: To use this calculator, you need to know your exact page count. So make sure you finalize your interior formatting and export your book file beforehand.

Seek help from the professionals for the perfect hardcover

To ensure your cover looks as good as possible, you can always consult a book cover designer, and make the most of their professional expertise. A cover designer can help find the balance between following Amazon’s rules and maintaining your ideal aesthetic, as they’ll have an eye for composition and can skillfully make the most of the fresh “canvas” a hardcover offers.

A professional is used to working to the kind of specifications we mentioned above  — just give them your template and let them have at it!

Where can you find the best book cover designers?

They’re right here on Reedsy! Sign up today and work with them on your next book.

Learn how Reedsy can help you craft a beautiful book.

4. Add your new metadata to KDP

Once you’ve got your interior and cover files ready to go, it’s time to head to the KDP dashboard! You can either create an entirely new title, or add a hardcover option to a book you already have available in paperback or ebook format.

The processes for the two are similar. If you’re adding a hardcover option to an existing book, certain information fields will be automatically transferred over from your paperback or ebook editions. Don’t worry if you want to switch things up a little — you can still edit these fields if you want to set up your hardcover differently.

First time setting up a book on KDP? We highly recommend checking out our complete guide to KDP. It covers the entire set up process on KDP for a paperback or ebook, and you’ll probably want to cover those before moving on to hardcover.

Fill out the Book Details page

The next stage is very similar to the process for setting up a paperback — you’ll just need to fill in some basic information about your book:

  • Language
  • Book title and subtitle
  • Series name
  • Edition number
  • Author, plus any contributors
  • Description
  • Publishing rights
  • Keywords and categories

As mentioned, these may be auto-filled if you’re adding a hardcover option to a pre-existing book, but you can still edit these if anything is different. 

Self-Publishing Hardcover Books with Kindle Direct Publishing - screenshot of the Hardcover details page

Upload your shiny new hardcover files

Next, you’ll want to head to the Hardcover Content page, where you’ll upload your new book cover and interior files. Once you’ve uploaded your print-ready file, you’ll want to hit “Launch Previewer”, and look over your final manuscript.

Self-Publishing Hardcover Books with Kindle Direct Publishing - screenshot of the cover upload screen

The previewer automatically catches any formatting errors which could lead to printing issues so that you can correct them before finalizing your hardcover.

Self-Publishing Hardcover Books with Kindle Direct Publishing - screenshot of the KDP Quality check tool
KDP’s Quality Check tool, which flags formatting issues.

5. Assign an ISBN to your hardcover

The Hardcover Content page is also where you’ll create an ISBN for your book or apply an ISBN you’ve purchased elsewhere. You need a separate ISBN for every edition of your book, so you can’t reuse the numbers attached to your ebook or paperback versions if they already exist. Amazon will provide you with a free ISBN, but if you’ve bought your own ISBN from a vendor like Bowker, you can also add that here. 

Should you use Amazon's free ISBN?

It’s important to note that Amazon’s free ISBN’s can’t be used outside Amazon’s marketplace. As Amazon doesn’t offer wide distribution for hardcovers so far (meaning you can only sell KDP produced hardbacks on their own website), this isn’t an issue yet. If the option is made available in the future, you may want to purchase a separate ISBN to sell your KDP hardcover elsewhere. You can learn more about Amazon ISBN's here, under "A note on ASINS".

6. Choose your print options

Next, you’ll get to choose between options for paper, select some fine-tuned settings for printing, and finalize your trim sizes and page counts so Amazon knows exactly what they’re working with.

To gloss or not?

As we mentioned earlier, the only option currently available on KDP for hardcover is a case laminate. You’ll get the option at this stage to choose between two finishes, glossy and matte.

Word on the street is that the gloss option is very, well, glossy. A lot of authors are favoring the matte option, citing that it looks more professional. So if you want to avoid too much glare on your cover, we suggest going matte too.

Picking your color settings and paper

You have fewer interior print options than you do with paperback. At this time, hardcover authors on KDP are limited to: 

  • black and white on cream; 
  • black and white on white; or 
  • premium color on white.

There’s no “standard” color option like there is with paperback, so you’re left only with the pricier premium option if you do wish to have color interiors.

Self-Publishing Hardcover Books with Kindle Direct Publishing - screenshot of the print options screen

7. Price your hardcover and set it live!

You’re on the home stretch! Next, you’ll find yourself on the Pricing & Rights page, where you can select the territories you’re selling in. You’ll also need to choose your marketplace. Still, this part is pretty straightforward: as we mentioned earlier, there’s no expanded distribution for hardcover yet, so you’ll just be selling through regional versions of Amazon.

This is also the time to set your price. As with paperback, Amazon will suggest a minimum price that will still allow you to make a profit.

Self-Publishing Hardcover Books with Kindle Direct Publishing - screenshot of the pricing options

Hit publish!

Once you’ve uploaded your content and set a price, you should be ready to go. There’ll be a brief delay while Amazon makes sure that all the information you’ve inputted meets their requirements. But, if you’ve done everything right, you can take some hard-earned time off to celebrate — your hardcover should be available within 72 hours!


Of course, setting your book live is only the latest step in your publishing journey  — next, you’ll need to market it. For all the tricks of the trade, download a free digital copy of Ricardo Fayet's How to Market a Book.

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