KDP requirements and rejection reasons
Every rule here is the one the tools in this app enforce — the figures are read from the same constants, so a guide cannot quote a number the checker disagrees with.
Rejection reasons
- Fonts are not embeddedKDP rejects any interior that references a font instead of carrying it. This is the single most common rejection.
- Text runs into the margins or the bindingContent must stay 0.25" from the trim edge on a page without bleed, 0.375" on one with it, and clear of the inside margin, which grows with page count.
- Artwork sits under the barcodeKDP prints a barcode in a 2" x 1.2" area at the bottom right of the back cover. Anything there will be covered.
- Page count is out of rangePaperbacks need at least 24 pages, hardcovers 75, and nothing may exceed 800.
- Pages are not all the same sizeEvery page of an interior must share one trim size. Mixed sizes are rejected outright.
- The PDF is password-protectedKDP cannot open an encrypted interior. It is rejected without the rest of the file being read.
- Transparency and layersLive transparency can print unpredictably. Flatten artwork before export.
Interior
Cover
- Cover text sits too close to the trimLive content on a cover must stay 0.375" inside the trim edge — a different, larger figure than an interior's outside margin.
- Artwork is too low resolutionCover artwork should be 300 DPI at the size it prints, not at the size it was designed.
- Text on the spineKDP will not print text on a spine below 79 pages, and what you do print has to fit between the two folds.
- Rights to your cover artworkA stock licence lets you publish the cover. It does not make the artwork yours, and that difference decides whether you can build a series brand on it.