It’s sad, I hear stories like this all the time. Blocking a book with no explanation is ridiculous. They still won’t get a member of their staff to have a one to one with me on a zoom chat to explain what’s happening with KDP. I’m sorry I can’t help at this time 😪

My pleasure 🤙

Hi, hard cover and premium colour is good, though the price is high. If your images are full page or very large, then premium is a good idea, providing your books are affordable for your target audience. If your images only take up a small part of each page, then you might find standard colour is enough. It sounds like you’re putting a lot into this book, so I would be inclined to go through the uploading process and order as proof copy of standard, then make the necessary changes in upload settings and order a proof copy of premium colour, then decide based on that.

@@StevePeel Thank you very much Steve for your time, you have helped me.

🤙 You obviously love what you do. It’s admirable.

🤙

Hi. Unfortunately, thicker paper is only available when ordering in colour. Regarding the inks, if you're using black in your design, the printing press will print it in the shade you've selected. Searching for a darker black won't make a difference if it appears black on your screen and you've chosen black. I completely understand your concern. The only way to minimise the appearance of light black/grey lines is to use thinner lines so the shade is less noticeable.

So glad I could help 🤙

You’re welcome 🤙

I'm not sure what you mean. I had to go into my KDP to check that the option was still available. Why don't you have it? Send me a screenshot of that page so I can take a better look at [email protected]. Get the full-page screenshot. Steve.

They are not helping at all, and it's quite sad, considering we have supported them as much as they supported us, but now it feels we're being neglected, and still they won't speak with me in a video so that I can ask the questions subscribers want to know the answers to.

@@StevePeel You are great

You're very welcome 🤙

Keep stretching! But seriously, not being able to see your layout makes it a little difficult. Make sure you place the image/cover into the centre of the canvas before dragging two opposite corners to the corner. If your cover image and canvas are the same ratios, although maybe different sizes, the cover image should drag to each corner perfectly. If not, resize the cover image.

@@StevePeel that makes sense. How do I resize the cover image if I need to?

There are many apps free online if you don't own any. A quick search will locate them.

Hi, don't worry about your images being of higher resolution, they will still only publish at whatever the industrial printers are set to, and I obviously presume you've chosen Premium colour. With regard to the images in Word and your high resolution requirements, use CMYK images in the document and when converting to PDF, make sure and compressions are turned off, as Word has a habit of compressing documents. Word settings will show if compression is on or not. Steve

You are welcome 🤙

Not good. Black and white it is then, unless there are other publishers, though Amazon is key to sales.

Hi, while premium colour isn't available in all countries, standard colour is widely accessible. If that's an option for you, I’d recommend choosing standard colour to keep the costs down. Yes, the paper might be slightly thinner, but the book is likely to sell more copies. Full colour is great for glossy pages, but KDP don't have that option. When deciding on pricing, it’s important to base it on your desired earnings. For example, if you aim to earn around $3 (or your local currency), set that margin for both colour and black-and-white editions. Naturally, the black-and-white version will be much cheaper and may appeal to a broader audience, but I personally prefer standard colour. I ensure I get the most value by including plenty of colourful images and elements. Also, only publish one version, either colour or black and white, not both, as you might just have Amazon deciding to block one or both due to the content being the same. Steve.

First thing to do is go back to view your manuscript in Print Preview and check each and every page to see if any text is anywhere near to guidelines. Remember that the text boxes should not cross or even touch those lines. If even one text box crosses on just one page, you will be asked to adjust margins on all pages. If everything looks good, change the file name of the manuscript and upkaid it again. If not, then adjust the margins or set the bleed as suggested.

Cheers. When KDP printing companies print in black and white, they are simply printing in black, on whatever colour paper you're using. That said, if you're image is made up of a lot of subtle shades, as with greyscale, the printers will try to replicate those shades, all the while using black, especially if the printed are the same used for colour printing. As you know, colour is used for greyscale, but you may still get the look you are after.

Hi, Jack. No, theyre still messing about with it and seem reluctant to speak with us over other issues. We helped built them up, only for then to let us down. Let me know how you get on 🤙

The first thing I'd say is don't get carried away with the idea of CMYK, as for years I only uses RGB and had no problem with KDP print quality. If KDP pronted glossy full page full colour photo pages, Id go CMYK, but for anything else I find RGB colour is great. You should be able to complete your projects using free Canva and RGB. Go for it, create it in RGB colour, publish in Premium colour, purchase an author copy, and see what you thing. Using premium colour gets you thicker paper 🤙

Thank you, I’ll look into it on Monday. It might be due to their latest updates🤙

@@StevePeel very welcome :D

Cream paper is great for fiction-like novels, whereas I'd recommend white paper if the book has colour images or is non-fiction. Regarding page count, if you know the count, enter it as close to that as you possibly can because calculations will be made regarding the cover, including the spine and gutter margins. A gutter margin on a page count 24 will be much narrower than a gutter margin on a page count 500.

@@StevePeel Hi Steve! Great help! I wrote a trilogy and want to do "Rapid Release" but getting a page count it seems a domino effect to get it determining trim size, margins, loading my manuscript into the template and then I guess knowing my page count then taking the template to Canva to do the rest then back to KDP to load it in finally I guess and barely holding my head up being up all night and better go to bed and liked and subscribed. Thanks for your help and will see what I can do!

@mwj5368 😀Welcome to self-publishing, it’s hard work, but it can save you a fortune.

@@StevePeel You're so good I've been slowly going over your video and almost verbatim typing your instructions my learning curve is so flat ha! You enter 300 pages so the spine area is nice and wide but I wonder if one does that once it gets down to manufacturing or the POD you'd end up if you have a lot less than 300 like me, my regular manuscript is 186 for my Book One, the spine cover would be far to wide so really you need to do the trim and margins etc first or you'd be in trouble, right? Really I like your tutorial because you know how to teach. There are so many with tutorials and they streamline things or go far too fast. If you're working like with MidJourney their images are only 96dpi and WEBP files and when you convert to the required JPG or TIFF the dpi drops to only 75dpi. You got to make sure you get the "--ar2:3" aspect ratio in your MJ description and even then I wonder if it's really at 2560 x 1600 and 300dpi for a 6 x 9 cover like KDP requires or your POD covers end up being very grainy etc. It's a job and a half like you say and I've really been going through the school of hard knocks and first had to extend my launch from 9-1 to 10-1 and now thinking I might have to change to 10-15. Now some saying don't use MD for book covers and spent $60 there for 2 months so far plus they don't say add another $10 a month because you can't use MD without Discord... wow! I haven't even started an author website and being low budget I must make it my musician website too it seems. The covers are so critical and they say you got 5 seconds to hook a shopper with the thumbnail. Any other advice appreciated. Thanks as I am grateful to you!

Hi, each image separately. I appreciate that PDF may seem simply to be a vessel for storing high quality images, but there’s much more to it that can effect multiple images.

@@StevePeel thank you I appreciate it 🙏and for clarification I got two questions please if it’s possible thank you 1- After I do each image separately do I just add them back to the premade L&R pages template file and save the file with PDF CMYK again? 2- For the PG number and chapter do I add them after changing the image dpi that will be used in the page or before changing the image dpi thank you 🙏

@ma8mad801 1 - Yes 2- Your page numbers should have nothing to do with the image and it won’t matter wether text is RGB or CMYK. So however you like 🤙

@@StevePeel I sincerely appreciate your cooperation in answering all these questions that will save me time from doing the process wrongly over & over without getting no where thank you 🙏

The bad news it that you might not be able to, as my fourth request is still stuck in limbo. I’ll update if things change.

🤙

Thank you.

Thank you, you’re very welcome 😀

Black and white 🤙 And thank you.

Unless you specifically choose Colour.

@@StevePeel thank you for your quick response 🙌🏻. Is there a way to know if I have gotten off the grayscale as I'm doing my designs in Canva? I assume it's considered on the grayscale if I start at black or white and only move the marker straight up/down?

Sounds like a great idea Craig

Brilliant, thank you very much and all the best! Steve

@@selfpublishingempire Yes, KZbin can choose to push your videos or not, and cheers 🤙

No never. I’ve heard similar about ChatGPT. I think any such thing would be slim to O. I’m more concerned with self publishing crooks duplicating my work on Amazon, given Amazon cares little these days.

A little more than a few months, but thank you 🤙

So glad it helped Anne, all the best. Steve.

Great 🤙

So sorry to hear this, and this is happening more and more, and more often when using book bolt and Canva. Amazon refuse to have a representative speak with me so that I can publish the call on the channel, but I’ll keep trying.

@@StevePeel I emailed amazon and tell them about what is my content about and how I make my content. They said they will reply in 5 days. So should I stop publishing book by using bookbolt or I continues my work using book bolt??

@@StevePeel And are you publishing book on kdp using bookbolt and they are getting live??

Wait for their response. Also, are you using a VPN, as that can effect things.

Kindly tell me should I stop publishing or not??

Thank you, glad it helped 🤙

Hi, and thank you so much for your kind words. Wishing you the very best 🤙

@@StevePeel Ok I've just uploaded my first TikTok promo, hoping for all good things. Now if Amazon would stop Dilly Dallying, I'm sure things will start looking up. I look forward to updating the promo to be available Now on Amazon instead of coming soon. Thank you, Stephen, I'll let you know how it goes.

@manopaslaptis3691 🤙

Do each image separately. 🤙

Thank you 🤙

Yes of course. When creating your inside margins, presuming you are working with single pages and not double-page spreads where you won't require inside margins, consider your margins when allowing children to open the book flat.

@@StevePeel thanks man ❤️

Definitely fishy! I have a feeling they now hate us! Okay,hate might be a bit strong, but might feel they can now get by without our service.

8.5” x 11 🤙

Sounds strange, but at least it wasn’t blocked. Now you need to take a good look at the content to see where you might have gone wrong and what they are referring to.

Yes, that should be the case, and widening the margins slightly to cater for more pages is easy.

Go to your account, the part where you upload your books. At the top of the screen you will see Your Account. Click on that and complete the Getting Paid option.

@@StevePeel Thanks! :) From a novice :)

@@StevePeel Also is it best to have them pay into your account via Paypal or direct deposit?

@@StevePeel .....and, where it says Preparing Manuscript....how long does that process usually take? Thankyou for your vids!

@@georgiacassimatis6069 Direct into your account is the done thing. Hopefully you’ve set up a completely new account for this business. Do not use your personal account you use for everything else, as it will hard to sort in the future.