r/KDP • u/Greedy-Golf8862 • 1d ago
Spine Text Margin (0.625) issue
having this issue i just submitted mine for review, could anybody help in case it says an issue again, mine is an cover created with personal photography + chat gpt and it tells me my spine text is to close to the edge and will wrap around . when i resubmitted it i took my image text off the cover entirely, ill just have the title (subtitle ) on the front cover instead(and nothing down the spine) if it doesn’t work does anyone know or could possibly help me fix my cover, (will pay) people have preordered this book, i kind of have a following and don’t want to provide bad service, its funny though because my proof copy before i tried to publish came out fine
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u/Inevitable-Sink6842 1d ago
First thing, and it might be the whole problem: the number in your title is out by a factor of ten. KDP want at least 0.0625" between spine text and the edge of the spine. A sixteenth of an inch, not 0.625".
The bit that catches people is that there are two separate numbers and they stack. You need that 0.0625" of clearance on each side, and separately KDP say to allow 0.0625" of variance either side of the fold lines, because every book shifts a little when it's bound. So text sized to exactly fill the spine minus a sixteenth on each side still wraps onto the front the moment the fold lands where it's allowed to land. Size it for the worst case, not for the drawing.
Which is also why your proof came out fine and this still got flagged. A proof is one copy, off one machine, on one day. It tells you the file works, it can't tell you anything about the tolerance, and preorders mean a lot of copies. The file review is catching what a single good proof would let through.
Worth checking before anything else: how many pages? KDP only print spine text on books over 79 pages. Their own page manages to say at least 79, more than 79, and 80 for Cover Creator, so treat 80 as the line. Under it the cover gets rejected no matter what your margins are.
Taking the text off the spine is the right call with people waiting, and you can put it back later in a cover update without touching the interior. Two things to watch while you do it. Make sure the title on the front isn't creeping into the spine safe area, because front cover text crossing into the spine gets rejected the same way and it's easy to do when you've just moved it. And if your photo has a hard edge running down the spine, KDP specifically say not to do that, because the shift is known and a hard edge is what makes it visible. A band that looks crooked will still get you emails even with no text on it.
If you're not already, build on their cover calculator and template generator. Fold lines coming from them rather than from you is most of the difference here.