Bookcut guides
Guides for KDP paperback formatting
Each guide answers one question completely, including how to do it yourself for free. Bookcut comes up at the end, if you'd rather it did the typesetting.
- How to format a Word manuscript for a KDP paperback
Page size, mirror margins, styles, section breaks, page numbers and a PDF with fonts embedded, in order.
- KDP gutter and margins by page count
The inside margin for every page band, outside margins with and without bleed, and what Word's Gutter field adds.
- Word count to page count by trim size
Measured page counts for 40,000 to 100,000 words at 5 x 8, 5.5 x 8.5 and 6 x 9 inches.
- Fixing KDP's paperback formatting errors
Text outside margins, fonts not embedded, wrong page size, blank pages, and page numbers on the wrong side.
- Vellum alternatives for Windows
Word, Kindle Create, Atticus, Reedsy Studio and Bookcut, with prices and limits.
Or let Bookcut do the setup
Bookcut reads the .docx you wrote the book in, finds the chapters and front matter, and typesets every page at your trim size with KDP's margin table for your page count already applied. You can look at every page free, and download your first chapter as a PDF to print at home (it has a light "Preview" watermark). When it looks right, the clean print PDF and an EPUB are $12, once for that book. It runs in your browser; the manuscript isn't uploaded.
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