KDP Toolkit

Everything you need to put a book on Amazon KDP - one free command.

Write your book in a plain text file, and this toolkit builds the two PDFs KDP asks for (interior + full cover wrap with the exact spine width), checks them against KDP's real rules before you upload, helps with keywords and metadata, and shows you what you actually keep per sale.

No account connection, no API keys, no paid services. It runs on your computer and your files never leave it.

Made by the team behind BookFolio, the WordPress theme that turns an author website into a real bookstore. This toolkit gets your book onto Amazon; BookFolio is how you sell it from your own site and keep ~94%.

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Install (2 minutes)

1. Install Python from python.org/downloads (on Windows, tick "Add python.exe to PATH" during install).
2. Open Terminal (Mac) or Command Prompt (Windows) and paste:

pip install git+https://github.com/devanasolver/kdp-toolkit

(On a Mac, use pip3 if pip is not found.)

Your first book in 4 commands

kdp new mybook --title "My Book" --author "Your Name"

This makes a folder with manuscript.md (write your book in it), metadata.json (title, description, keywords), and a README.

Write your book in manuscript.md. Chapters start with # Chapter title. Blank line = new paragraph. *italic*, **bold**, and *** for a scene break. That's the whole format.

kdp interior mybook/manuscript.md --title "My Book" --author "Your Name" -o mybook/interior.pdf

A print-ready interior PDF: real book margins (the gutter grows with your page count, as KDP requires), chapters starting on right-hand pages, page numbers, and an embedded book font.

kdp cover --title "My Book" --author "Your Name" --pages 120 --back-text "A short pitch for the back cover." -o mybook/cover.pdf

The full cover wrap - front, spine, back - at the exact size KDP wants, spine width calculated from your page count and paper type. Add --front-image myart.png for a real cover image. Add --guides to get a checking copy with trim, spine, and barcode lines drawn on it (never upload the guides version):

kdp validate mybook/interior.pdf
kdp validate mybook/cover.pdf --cover --pages 120

Then upload both PDFs at kdp.amazon.com and paste your metadata in. The upload walkthrough with the traps to avoid is in docs/upload-guide.md.

What each command does

Command	What it does
kdp new	Start a book project folder
kdp interior	Manuscript text file → print-ready interior PDF
kdp cover	Exact-size cover wrap PDF (spine math included)
kdp validate	Catches the things KDP rejects files for: wrong page size, wrong page count, fonts not embedded, wrong cover size
kdp keywords "topic"	Keyword ideas from Amazon's own search suggestions, packed into the 7 KDP slots (50 characters each)
kdp metadata	Checks title, description and keywords against KDP's rules
kdp royalty 9.99	What you keep per sale on KDP vs Kobo, Apple, B&N, and your own site
kdp royalty 14.99 --print --pages 300	Paperback math: printing cost, 50%/60% tiers, lowest price KDP allows
kdp ads	Amazon Ads quick-start plan + a ready-to-upload keyword CSV
kdp report royalties.xlsx	Summarizes the royalty report you download from KDP
kdp specs	Prints the verified KDP spec tables

The numbers are checked against KDP's own pages

KDP changes its rules and most blog posts are stale. Every number in this toolkit was verified against the live KDP help pages in October 2026 (sources in src/kdp_toolkit/specs.py):

• Margins: outside at least 0.25" (no bleed) or 0.375" (bleed); gutter 0.375" up to 150 pages, growing to 0.875" at 701-828 pages
• Bleed: 0.125" on the top, bottom, and outside edge
• Spine width: pages x 0.002252" (white), 0.0025" (cream), 0.002347" (premium color); spine text only above 79 pages
• Printing cost: fixed + per-page tables for every Amazon marketplace, black/groundwood/standard-color/premium-color, regular and large trim
• Paperback royalty: 60% tier only above the threshold price ($9.99 in the US) - below it you get 50%, a 2025 change most calculators still miss
• eBook royalty: the 70% band is $2.99-$12.99 since July 2026 (it was $9.99), minus a $0.15/MB delivery fee

The test suite re-checks the math against KDP's own worked examples:

pip install "kdp-toolkit[dev] @ git+https://github.com/devanasolver/kdp-toolkit"
python -m pytest tests/

What it does not do

• It does not upload for you. KDP's upload form changes often and browser automation breaks silently. You upload two PDFs and paste the metadata - the guide walks you through it in about 10 minutes.
• Paperback and ebook only. Hardcover is not covered yet.
• The validator checks the file, not your layout. It proves the page size, page count, fonts, and cover dimensions are right. Whether your text sits nicely inside the margins is yours to eyeball in KDP's online previewer (it checks that too, after upload).
• Selling from your own site is the highest-royalty row in kdp royalty for a reason. If you want that row, that is what BookFolio builds.

The bundled font is Gentium Book Plus, SIL Open Font License (src/kdp_toolkit/fonts/OFL.txt).

License

MIT - see LICENSE.