Cover editor

Before you start

• Finish the interior first. The spine width is worked out from your page count, so adding or removing pages later means exporting the cover again. Turn single-sided printing on or off before you design the cover, too — it doubles the page count.
• A book with no pages shows “This book doesn’t have any pages yet”. Click Go to the editor and add some first.
• Generating front art uses 2 pages from your balance each time. Everything else here, including exporting, is free.

Open the cover editor

In the editor, click Cover in the top bar (or the Cover tile at the start of the page strip). You can also click Cover on a book’s card on Home, or Covers in the left-hand menu and then the book.

The left panel walks you through four steps — Basics, Front art, Back cover and Export. Click any step at the top of the panel to jump to it, or the Next button at the bottom to move on. Your work saves automatically a moment after each change; there is also a Save button in the top bar.

Step 1 — Basics

1. 1

   Pick a starting look (optional)

   Under Start from a look, click one of the 6 looks (Playful Primary, Soft Pastel, Bold Contrast, Storybook Warm, Minimal Ink, Vintage Cream). It sets the layout, fonts and colors, and you can change any of them afterwards.

2. 2

   Check Designed for

   This box shows the trim size, Page count, Spine width and Paper. None of it is editable here. The cover assumes a black-and-white interior on white paper, so choose Black & white interior with white paper when you upload to KDP, or the spine won’t match.

3. 3

   Fill in the words

   Theme (what the cover art should show — “cozy woodland creatures” beats “animals”), Title (filled in from your book’s name), Subtitle (optional) and Author. Theme, Title and Author are required.

   Style starts on Match book so the cover matches your pages; pick another to try a different look for the cover only. Extra art notes (optional) adds things like palette, mood or setting. Storybooks also offer Feature my characters.

Step 2 — Front art

1. 1

   Choose how the title is made

   Under Title style:

   • Text over art (recommended) — crisp type placed on top of the picture, spelled exactly as you typed it, and editable later without paying for new art. You can set Title position (Top, Center or Bottom), Title size and the Title text color.
   • AI-lettered — the AI draws the title into the picture. It can look more hand-made, but it can misspell, and changing the words means generating new art.
2. 2

   Click Generate front cover

   The green box shows the price: Each new cover uses 2 pages. Click Generate front cover; the button shows Generating…, then the art appears in the preview with “New front cover generated”.

   

3. 3

   Try again, or go back to an earlier one

   The button now reads Generate new cover. Every click makes a brand-new picture and uses 2 pages, even with the same words. Your covers are kept under Past renders (up to 12); click one to make it the cover again for free. The one in use is marked Current.

   

Edit the title, subtitle and author on the cover

With Text over art, click the title, subtitle or author in the preview. A formatting bar appears above the cover with font, size, Bold, Italic, text color, alignment, wrapping, autofit and an outline. Drag the box to move it, drag its handles to resize it, and double-click to change the words. Reset layout puts all three back where they started; press Esc when you’re done.

Step 3 — Back cover

1. 1

   Choose a starting arrangement

   Starting arrangement offers 2x2 grid, Single hero, Three across, Text only. The picture layouts show samples of your interior pages — a great way to show buyers what’s inside.

2. 2

   Write the blurb

   Type your back-cover text in Blurb (optional). A blank line starts a new paragraph, lines starting with - or * become bullets, and you can select words and click B, I or U for bold, italic or underline.

3. 3

   Pick the pages to show

   Under Back-cover pages, click Auto-pick to fill every picture from your book, or click a picture slot and then the page you want in it. Clear empties the slots.

4. 4

   Add extras (optional)

   Add text (up to 5 extra boxes) and Add picture (up to 4 pictures in all). Click anything on the back in the preview to move, resize or style it. Start over returns the back to its arrangement.

5. 5

   Keep space for the barcode

   Leave Leave space for the barcode switched on. KDP prints its barcode in the lower-right of the back, and this keeps your design clear of it.

Colors, fonts and the spine

Click an empty part of the cover preview to show the cover bar above it:

• Cover font — one font for the spine, the back and any front text you haven’t given its own font.
• From art — color schemes picked from your front art (available once you’ve generated it).
• Color swatches for the Back, Back text, Spine and Spine text.
• Spine… — the spine title (filled in from your book’s name), spine author and text size (Auto fits it for you).

Above the preview you can focus on the Full wrap, Front, Spine or Back, zoom, and show or hide the guides (Bleed, Safe area, Spine fold, Barcode, Print safe area). Guides are only on screen — they never print. Keep important text inside the safe area.

Step 4 — Export

1. 1

   Read the checks

   The Export step lists anything to look at under Before you export, each with a fix. Problems that would stop the export also show at the bottom of the panel on every step. Common ones:

   • The spine will print without text — for information only: KDP prints spine text from 80 pages, so a shorter book gets a plain spine.
   • Spine text is hard to read — darken the spine or lighten its text.
   • Front art is about N DPI — for information only; KDP accepts it.
   • A picture on the back has no page — pick one, or click Auto-pick, in Back cover.
2. 2

   Click Export PDF

   In the top bar, click Export PDF. Your design saves, then the full wrap downloads as <title>-cover.pdf (for example Woodland Animals-cover.pdf) with “Wrap PDF ready”. Exporting is free. Your first exported cover also earns a bonus: “First cover exported unlocked — +5 pages added to your balance.”

   Each export is listed under Export history in the Export step.

3. 3

   Upload it to KDP

   On KDP’s Paperback Content page, under Book Cover, choose Upload a cover you already have and upload the PDF. Use the same trim size, paper and page count as the interior you uploaded — the editor’s ? checklist lists them. The whole process, screen by screen, is in Upload your book to KDP.