Guides › KDP rejections
When KDP rejects your paperback
By Lukas ·
KDP checks a paperback twice. The Print Previewer checks the files when you upload them, and you can’t submit the book until its errors are gone. After you submit, a person reviews the interior and the cover; if they find a problem, KDP sends an email with links to the pages in the previewer. Either way the fix is the same: change the original file, export a new PDF and upload it again. Below are the problems KDP lists most, what causes each one and how to fix it. The figures are KDP’s own, checked on 30 October 2026.
1. The page size doesn’t match the trim size
Every page of the PDF must have the trim size you chose in KDP’s setup, plus the bleed if you chose “Bleed”. Bleed adds 0.125 in (3.2 mm) to the width and 0.25 in (6.4 mm) to the height, so a 6 × 9 in book with bleed has pages of 6.125 × 9.25 in. A manuscript written on Letter or A4 paper fails this check until you change the paper size; in Word that is Layout › Size › More Paper Sizes.
A new page size moves every line, so the page count changes too. Check the margins again afterwards (problem 2), and make the cover only once the count is final.
2. Text or images outside the margins
This is the one most people meet. The previewer marks anything that reaches into the margin, and it counts more than the visible text: spaces at the end of a line, an empty text box, the overhang of an italic letter, a running head or a page number set too close to the edge. Look on the marked page for something you can’t see at first, and switch on Word’s formatting marks to find stray spaces.
If the text itself is too close, the margins are too small. KDP wants at least 0.25 in (6.4 mm) at the top, bottom and outside, or 0.375 in (9.6 mm) with bleed, and an inside margin that grows with the page count: 0.375 in up to 150 pages, 0.5 in up to 300, 0.625 in up to 500, 0.75 in up to 700 and 0.875 in above. A book that grew past one of those counts during the edit needs the next gutter. The margin calculator gives the values for your trim size and page count. In Word, set them under Layout › Margins › Custom Margins, with “Mirror margins” for the whole document.
A page with a background colour or an image that runs to the edge gets a margin error when the book is set up without bleed. That page needs bleed (problem 3).
3. Images that should bleed don’t
An image or colour that is meant to run off the page has to reach 0.125 in (3.2 mm) past the trim line, so the cut can’t leave a white sliver. Choose “Bleed” in KDP’s setup, make the PDF pages larger by the bleed (problem 1) and extend the images to the edge of the larger page. If one page has bleed, the whole interior is set up with it.
4. Fonts not embedded
The previewer names fonts that the PDF doesn’t contain. Embed every font in full, not only the characters you used. In Word, go to File › Options › Save, tick “Embed fonts in the file”, untick “Embed only the characters used in the document” and “Do not embed common system fonts”, and save as PDF again. If the error stays, the font’s licence may not allow embedding; then replace the font. KDP also wants all text, in the book and in its images, at 7 points or more.
5. Images with low resolution
KDP wants at least 300 dpi at the size the image is printed. Divide the image’s pixels by the inches it fills on the page: 1,200 × 1,800 pixels printed at 4 × 6 in is 300 dpi, the same image at 8 × 12 in only 150. Enlarging an image in the document lowers its resolution, and Word compresses images unless you tick “Do not compress images in file” under File › Options › Advanced. Insert images at their real size from the originals. For manga and comics KDP asks for at least 600 dpi.
6. Too many blank pages
No more than four blank pages in a row at the start or in the middle of the book, and no more than ten at the end. A longer run is often a page break and a section break doing the same job; delete the extra pages.
7. Leftovers in the file
A reviewer rejects what doesn’t belong in a book: placeholder text from a template, crop marks and printer’s marks, comments and annotations, hidden objects such as empty text boxes, and transparency or layers that weren’t flattened when you exported. The page numbering must also be right: odd numbers on the right-hand pages and even numbers on the left. Search the manuscript for the template’s sample text, turn off the marks in the PDF export and flatten the file.
8. The book details don’t match
The title, the author name, the ISBN and the language in the files must match what you entered in KDP, on the cover and inside alike: the title page, the copyright page and the running heads. KDP counts small differences, so “A. B. Miller” on the cover and “Anna Miller” in the setup don’t match. Correct whichever side is wrong, the book details or the files.
9. Cover size and spine text
The cover is one PDF page holding the back, the spine and the front, with 0.125 in (3.2 mm) bleed all round, no white border and no crop marks. A cover in several pages, or sized for a different page count, is rejected. Its width comes from the spine, and the spine from the final page count, so after any change to the interior the cover has to be resized. The calculator gives you the flat cover size, and the guide to KDP paperbacks shows the sum.
A book under 79 pages can’t have text on the spine. If it has, the previewer reports that the book has fewer than 79 pages and can’t have text on the spine. Remove the text and leave the spine plain. On thicker books, keep spine text at least 0.0625 in (1.6 mm) from both edges of the spine.
If you use Cover Creator, open it only after the interior has finished processing. It sizes the spine from the interior, and opened too early it shifts the text boxes.
10. The barcode
Unless your cover has a barcode of its own, KDP prints one on the back, in a white box of 2 × 1.2 in at the bottom right. Text or images in that corner get the cover rejected. If you add your own barcode and KDP can’t scan it, it fails the check; the simplest fix is to take it off the cover and let KDP print its own.
11. After the fix
Export a new PDF from the original file, upload it and go through the previewer again, page by page: a fix on one page can push text onto the next, and a change in page count changes the spine. If the rejection came by email after the review, submit the book again once the previewer is clean. The checklist in the KDP paperback guide covers everything above in one list, for the next book.
I’m building Kernsetzer so most of these don’t happen: you pick the trim size and the page count, and it sets the page size, the margins, the gutter and the bleed and exports the print-ready PDF. Sign up for the beta.
Sources: Amazon KDP’s help pages Fix paperback and hardcover formatting issues, Create a paperback cover and Barcodes, read on 30 October 2026; the margin figures are from trim size, bleed and margins, read on 28 October 2026. KDP changes its rules from time to time. Check the current ones before you upload; this guide can’t promise that KDP accepts your file.