---
title: "How to Format a Paperback for KDP (Margins, Gutter, and Bleed)"
description: "A plain-language walkthrough of the print-interior settings Amazon KDP checks (trim size, margins, gutter, bleed, and page count) so your paperback passes on the first upload."
source: https://usegalley.com/blog/format-a-paperback-for-kdp
---
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# How to Format a Paperback for KDP (Margins, Gutter, and Bleed)

June 6, 2026 [Publishing](https://usegalley.com/blog/tag/publishing)

![A paperback interior page annotated with margin, gutter, and bleed](https://usegalley.com/images/blog/format-a-paperback-for-kdp.png) TL;DR KDP rejects paperbacks for a short list of predictable reasons: margins too tight for the page count, no gutter allowance, wrong trim, or bleed set incorrectly on images. Set a mirrored inside margin that grows with page count, keep body text off the edges, and only use bleed if art runs to the trim. Get these four right and preflight passes.

Almost every KDP paperback rejection comes down to four settings. Get these
right and your upload passes the first time. Get one wrong and you get the
rejection email, fix it, re-upload, and wait again. Here’s each, in plain terms.

## Trim size

Pick a supported trim before anything else, because it changes every other number
on this page. If you haven’t chosen yet, read
[choosing a trim size](https://usegalley.com/blog/choosing-a-trim-size) first. Don’t format and then
switch trim, you’ll redo all of it.

## Margins and the gutter

The gutter is the extra inside margin that disappears into the spine. The key
thing people miss: it has to grow with page count. A 200-page book needs less
inside margin than a 600-page one, because a thick book curves more at the spine
and swallows more of the page.

KDP publishes a [page-count-to-margin table](https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201857950),
and it’s worth following exactly.
Set too little inside margin on a long book and your text literally curves into
the binding where nobody can read it. Keep outside margins generous too, so body
text isn’t kissing the trimmed edge.

## Bleed

Bleed only matters if an image, ornament, or background colour runs all the way
to the edge of the page. If it does, you extend the art past the trim by KDP’s
[0.125” bleed allowance](https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/GVBQ3CMEQW3W2VL6)
so there’s no white sliver after trimming.

For a normal text novel, you don’t need bleed at all, and turning it on when you
don’t need it just confuses your margins. Most fiction interiors are text on
white, so leave bleed off unless you’re deliberately printing to the edge.

## Page count and spine

KDP has minimum and maximum page counts per trim, and paperbacks generally need
an even page count, which is why a blank page sometimes gets added at the end.
Your [spine width](https://usegalley.com/glossary#spine-width), needed for the cover, comes straight from the final page count,
so finalise the interior before you build the cover.

## Preflight before you upload

The whole game is catching these on your desk instead of in Amazon’s rejection
email. Galley includes a [KDP preflight](https://usegalley.com/docs/publishing) that checks trim,
margins, metadata, and page count against KDP’s rules before you export, so the
four things above are already correct when you hit upload. It comes out of the
[same book as your EPUB](https://usegalley.com/blog/epub-vs-print-pdf), so the two never drift apart.

Two free tools cover the numbers this post keeps leaning on. The
[spine width calculator](https://usegalley.com/resources/book-spine-width-calculator) turns a final
page count into a cover, and the
[KDP royalty calculator](https://usegalley.com/resources/kdp-royalty-calculator) turns it into a print
cost and the lowest price Amazon will let you charge.

## More on publishing

- [Standard Manuscript Format, and What Agents Actually Check](https://usegalley.com/blog/standard-manuscript-format)The Shunn manuscript format specification in plain terms: font, spacing, margins, indents, scene breaks, the running header, and the word count that should be rounded.
- [Writing Software for Novelists Who Don't Write in English](https://usegalley.com/blog/write-a-novel-in-your-language)How to write and typeset a book in Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Hebrew, Hindi, Bengali, Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Russian, Greek or Vietnamese, which typeface each script gets, and what still needs building.
- [Accessible Ebooks and the European Accessibility Act](https://usegalley.com/blog/accessible-ebooks-and-the-eaa)What the EAA means for a self-published novel sold in the EU: accessibility metadata, what makes an EPUB accessible, the microenterprise exemption, and the large-print edition nobody makes.

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