Word Search Book Checklist for KDP

For anyone about to upload a puzzle book to Kindle Direct Publishing and wanting to catch the problems before the previewer does. This is a production checklist, not a marketing pitch, and it assumes you already have the puzzles.

ZillaKit team · Published September 2026

Most rejected or rebuilt puzzle books fail on production details rather than content. The puzzles are fine; the inside margin is too narrow for the page count, or the file was exported as images at a resolution that made it enormous, or the answer keys are laid out in a way that makes the book annoying to use. Work down this checklist before you upload and you will usually clear the previewer on the first attempt.

1. Pick the trim size first

Everything downstream depends on it, so decide before you generate a single grid. Three sizes dominate puzzle books.

Large print editions are a real and underserved category, and they essentially force the 8.5 by 11 size. If that is your angle, say so on the cover and mean it: the grid letters should be large enough to read at arm's length without glasses, which usually means a smaller grid, not just a bigger font crammed into the same box.

2. Decide bleed, then stop thinking about it

Bleed means artwork that runs off the edge of the trimmed page. If any element touches the paper edge, you need a bleed document, and the page dimensions in your file become larger than the trim size so the printer can cut through the artwork.

For a word search interior you almost certainly do not want bleed. Grids, word lists and page numbers all sit comfortably inside the text block with white space around them. Choosing no bleed keeps the maths simple: your PDF page size equals your trim size. Save bleed for the cover, where it is required anyway.

If you do decide on bleed, for example because each puzzle sits on a full page tint, check the current requirement in the Kindle Direct Publishing help pages rather than trusting a number from a blog post. The allowance is added to the top, bottom and outer edge but not the spine edge, and getting that asymmetry wrong is the most common bleed mistake.

3. Get the margins right, especially the inside one

Outside, top and bottom margins are straightforward: give yourself a comfortable amount, and anything at or above about half an inch looks intentional.

The inside margin, the gutter, is the one that varies. The thicker the book, the more the binding swallows near the spine, so the required inside margin grows with page count. A 60 page book needs noticeably less gutter than a 300 page one. Kindle Direct Publishing publishes a table of minimum inside margins by page count, and you should look it up for your actual page count rather than guessing. Then add a few millimetres on top of the minimum, because the minimum is the point at which text is technically not lost, not the point at which the book is pleasant to use. A puzzle grid pushed hard against the spine is hard to write in.

The Paperback Typesetter handles the trim and margin setup so you are not doing page geometry by hand, but you still need to tell it the correct numbers for your page count.

4. Know the page count rules

Paperbacks have a minimum page count, and a puzzle book can fall under it surprisingly easily if you only made thirty puzzles. The minimum is currently 24 pages. There is also a maximum that depends on the paper and ink combination you choose, and a very thick book will be rejected, so check the limit if you are heading past a few hundred pages.

Page count must be even. Printed books are made from sheets, so an odd count gets a blank added, and it is better to control where that blank falls than to let it land somewhere awkward.

Count everything: title page, copyright page, a short how to play page, the puzzles, any section dividers, and the answer key. A 60 puzzle book at one puzzle per page with keys at two per page is 60 plus 30 plus roughly 4 pages of front matter, so 94 pages, which you would round to 94 or 96.

5. Prepare the interior PDF properly

6. Place the answer keys thoughtfully

Keys belong at the back, in the same order as the puzzles, clearly numbered to match. That much is universal. The decisions that are yours to make:

The Word Search Book Maker generates puzzles and matching keys together, which removes the most common error in the whole process, which is a key that no longer matches a regenerated grid.

7. Confirm you may sell what you generated

This is the step people skip. Anything you sell needs to be something you have the right to sell. Three things to check:

8. Order a proof and actually look at it

The online previewer catches geometry problems. It does not tell you whether the grid is comfortable to write in, whether the paper shows through from the reverse side, or whether the letters are large enough for the audience you targeted. A physical proof copy costs the print price plus postage and it is the cheapest quality control available. Solve two or three puzzles in it with a pen before you publish.

Honest limits

A clean production file gets you a book that prints correctly. It does not get you sales. The puzzle book market is crowded, most titles sell very few copies, and the books that do sell usually have either a specific audience the author actually belongs to or a genuine quality difference such as true large print. Treat this checklist as the part you can fully control, and treat the rest with realistic expectations.

Platform requirements also change. Every specific number here should be confirmed against the current help documentation at the point you upload, because a rule that held last year may have moved.

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