Amazon KDP, or Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, is an increasingly popular platform for writers who want to publish their work. However, a lot of authors on Amazon KDP aren’t sure how to update their books. 

There are many reasons why Amazon KDP authors might want to amend their work. The book details could be outdated or incorrect, or there might be typos or inconsistencies in the text itself. You may even want to change the cover of your book once you’ve published it. 

If you’re an author who is published on Amazon KDP (see also ‘9 Best Online Self Publishing Alternatives To Amazon KDP‘) and you need to make some changes to your work, you’ve come to the right place. We’re going to be explaining how to update your book details and edit your manuscript quickly and easily. 

How To Change Your Book Details On Amazon KDP 

There are many different details you may want to change once you’ve published your work on Amazon KDP (see also ‘How Do I Set Up Amazon KDP Account? Step By Step Guide‘). However, bear in mind that not all details can be changed once you’ve pressed ‘publish’. 

You cannot change the title or subtitle of your book once you’ve published it on Amazon KDP (see also ‘How To See How Many Books Sold On Amazon KDP?‘). You also can’t amend the primary author, the edition number, or the language in which you have published your work. Digital rights management is also locked for Kindle ebooks (see also ‘How To Create A Table Of Contents For Your Kindle Book’). 

While you can change the age and grade range of your book if you publish in ebook format, you can’t amend this if your book is published in a physical format. Similarly, you can change the royalty rate for an ebook, but not for a paperback or hardback. 

Bearing all of this in mind, if you have book details that you want to change and it’s possible to do so for the format in which you have published your work, updating your book details is quite simple: 

  1. Find your ‘Bookshelf’ page 
  2. Select the ellipsis on the book you want to amend 
  3. Click on ‘Edit Details’ 
  4. Make your desired edits 
  5. Select ‘Save and Continue’ 
  6. Go to the ‘Content’ page and click ‘Save and Continue’ again 
  7. Visit the ‘Pricing’ page and select ‘Publish’ 

How To Amend Your Manuscript On Amazon KDP 

Updating the manuscript itself or changing the formatting within your book can be more complicated than changing a few details. 

That’s because there are a lot of things that could need amending, from font size and placement to margins, and even page numbers, which can be especially confusing. 

However, by following the simple steps below, you can make all the edits you need to make your manuscript legible and correctly formatted in very little time. 

To update the content of your manuscript, you just need to follow these steps: 

  1. One again, go to the ‘Bookshelf’ page 
  2. Then, select the ellipsis for the book you want to edit 
  3. Select ‘Edit Content’ 
  4. Scroll down the page until you find a section called ‘Manuscript’ 
  5. Next, you need to click ‘Upload Manuscript’ and find the file in your documents 
  6. Wait for the upload to be complete and for the file to convert 
  7. Select ‘Launch Previewer’ 
  8. Make your edits 
  9. Choose ‘Save and Continue’ 
  10. Go to the ‘Pricing’ page and scroll down 
  11. Select ‘Publish’ 

If you want to make formatting changes to your manuscript, the process is a little different. 

To edit the sizes of your margins and gutter: 

  1. Open up the file 
  2. If you can, simply reposition the text so that none of it is outside the margins 
  3. Alternatively, go to ‘Page Setup in ‘Layout’ and select ‘Margins’ 
  4. Choose ‘Custom Margins’ 
  5. Once the dialog box comes up, go to the ‘Pages’ section 
  6. Go to the drop down menu labeled ‘Multiple Pages’ and choose ‘Mirror Margins’ 
  7. Enter the ‘Preview’ section, go to the ‘Apply To’ menu and choose ‘Whole Document’
  8. Revise your file and upload it again 

To adjust the bleed and trim size: 

  1. Open your file in Word 
  2. Go to the ‘Layout’ tab and choose ‘Size’ in the ‘Page Setup’ section 
  3. Choose ‘More Paper Sizes’ 
  4. A dialog box will appear where you can choose your page height and width
  5. Add 0.125 inches (width) for bleed and 0.25 inches (height)
  6. Input the trim size and bleed for your book into the correct fields 
  7. Select ‘OK’ 
  8. Save 

If you want to change the font you have used for your book, you can follow these steps: 

  1. Open ‘File’ and choose ‘Options’ 
  2. Go to the tab marked ‘Save’ and make sure ‘Embed fonts in the file’ is checked
  3. Look for the ‘Do not embed common system fonts’ and ‘Embed only the characters used in the document’ boxes are NOT checked 
  4. Choose ‘OK’ 
  5. Return to ‘File’ and click ‘Save As’ 
  6. Choose somewhere to save your document and choose ‘PDF’ for ‘Save as Type’ 
  7. Resubmit 

If you notice that some of the text in your book is illegible, there’s a way to fix this, too:

  1. Open the file 
  2. Make sure your text is at least 7-point 
  3. Ensure there’s no overlap between text and images or text boxes
  4. If the text is blending into the background, change the color 
  5. Save the revised file and re-upload it 

You may notice that the sequence of your page numbers is off. This usually indicates incorrect page order or missing pages. To fix this issue:

  1. Open up the file 
  2. In the ‘Layout’ tab, go to the ‘Page Setup’ section and select ‘Breaks’ 
  3. Choose ‘Section Breaks – Next Page’ 
  4. Navigate to your first chapter page 
  5. Click on either the footer or header depending on where your pages are numbered 
  6. Go to ‘Navigation’ and choose ‘Link to Previous’ 
  7. Go to ‘Header and Footer’ and choose ‘Page Number’. You can then decide where you want your numbers to appear 
  8. Save and resubmit your file 

How To Update Your Book Cover On Amazon KDP

Book covers are a common aspect of a published work that authors often want to amend on Amazon KDP see also ‘How Often Do You Get Paid With KDP?‘). That’s because Amazon KDP books are often uploaded with temporary covers which don’t capture readers’ interest. 

If you want to change the book cover for a work on Amazon KDP, you need to follow these steps: 

  1. Locate the ‘Bookshelf’ page 
  2. Click the ‘…’ for the book you’re editing 
  3. Select ‘Edit Content’ 
  4. Scroll down until you find a section labeled ‘Cover’ 
  5. Click on ‘Launch Cover Creator’
  6. Choose ‘Upload Your Cover File’ 
  7. When you get the ‘Cover Uploaded Successfully’ message, wait for the conversion process 
  8. Select ‘Launch Previewer’ to check that the cover looks like it’s supposed to 
  9. Press ‘Save and Continue’ 
  10. Scroll down the ‘Pricing’ page until you see ‘Publish’ and select to upload

Final Thoughts 

Updating your book on Amazon KDP can be quite a long process depending on how many updates you need to make but as long as you follow the steps outlined in this article, you shouldn’t have any issues. 

Bear in mind that after changes are submitted for a published work on Amazon KDP, Amazon will need to review the book once again to make sure that all content guidelines are met. 

This can take up to 72 hours, so keep checking back to make sure there are no extra publishing delays and that your book is available to view after the expected timeframe. If you have any questions, you should contact Amazon KDP directly through their customer service line.

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