Amazon KDP page limitations suck!

[Mortrexo]

Finally, I have just finished all that I needed to get my first book onto Amazon KDP but sadly, the most pages allowed is 550 per book. Mine is 677 so I have to now figure out how to split it into two books without diluting the story. That also means getting another book cover made up. I can remove a few pages of content but most of the content is crucial to the story in the future and currently. Any thoughts on how I can get out of having to split the book or remove crucial information? If not, that's fine. Though at the very least, can someone explain why they can't do more pages? I do see how splitting the book can be more profitable but I feel like it takes away from the experience of the story.

https://justpublishingadvice.com/kdp-word-count-file-sizes-and-pages/

Maybe it helps.

 

[TheEldritchGod]

How about you lower the font by 1 point, then reduce the space between lines. I use double spacing, but if I went to single space, I could shave off so much in terms of size.

Also, turn margins to .5 inch both top, bottom, and sides.

If you have a lot of paragraphs, or every change in the speaker of a conversation is a new line, change to two columns with a .25 inch space in-between. That will reduce wasted space.

 

[Vnator]

Whatever you do, I'd recommend against anything that hurts the readability. So a smaller font would only be bad. I split my own story up for Kindle (still editing it), but I used the end of a particularly major event as the cutoff. You could do the same too to get the audience out invested in the next part. Even if it hurts to cut it in a way that doesn't encompass the entire story or arc, it might be for the best to make things more digestible and to cultivate a continued interest in the story. Either way, all the best!

 

[TheEldritchGod]

BTW,. Most books are between 80k to 110k. What's your word count? I mean, I have just finished a 275k monster. It should be three books. And honestly, It's rough draft. I need to go in and do the fluff text, so I expect it to jump up to 300k. There's a reason for that. People don't like stopping midway in a book. If you are thinking of the reader, breaking it up isn't a bad thing.

Also, if you do, bump up the font 2 points, switch to at least 1.5 line spacing, then consider the use of negative space.

Putting this here...













Or putting this here.









Has a dramatic effect on the reader. How much of your book could be punched up with adding a few dramatic single lines with extra blank space around it?

It also is relaxing for the reader, giving them a place to pause and rest their eyes.

Maybe two books would give you what you need to improve the formatting and presentation.

I mean, more that 350 pages is quite a bit to ask. For those who like to finish a book before doing anything else.

 

[theartofwar901]

You could cut the book into a series of novellas maybe. Put to be continued at the end of each one. And publish them all at once. I don't know, what the contents of your story are in your book or if that is feasible, but that's my suggestion.

 

[Representing_Tromba]

BTW,. Most books are between 80k to 110k. What's your word count? I mean, I have just finished a 275k monster. It should be three books. And honestly, It's rough draft. I need to go in and do the fluff text, so I expect it to jump up to 300k. There's a reason for that. People don't like stopping midway in a book. If you are thinking of the reader, breaking it up isn't a bad thing.

Also, if you do, bump up the font 2 points, switch to at least 1.5 line spacing, then consider the use of negative space.

Putting this here...













Or putting this here.









Has a dramatic effect on the reader. How much of your book could be punched up with adding a few dramatic single lines with extra blank space around it?

It also is relaxing for the reader, giving them a place to pause and rest their eyes.

Maybe two books would give you what you need to improve the formatting and presentation.

I mean, more that 350 pages is quite a bit to ask. For those who like to finish a book before doing anything else.

I currently have 230k words in it, and that's just the first book in the series. I have another 7 already finished and awaiting editing. I'll probably just split the first book into two since I don't want to alter the spacing or shrink the font.

 

[Paul__Michaels]

I currently have 230k words in it, and that's just the first book in the series. I have another 7 already finished and awaiting editing. I'll probably just split the first book into two since I don't want to alter the spacing or shrink the font.

I'll probably be picking your brain in the future when I get to the point of uploading my novel up to Amazon.

And thanks for the heads up about the page limit. I would have missed the fine print on that restriction.

Best of luck my friend.

 

[Deleted member 68927]

Best of Luck! I remember reading your story, and I think that it has everything needed to become a bestseller!

 

[VictorDLopez]

Are you willing to change the book size format or font to accommodate the page limit? I chose an oversized format for one of my books to better accommodate some images. The size format affects the number of pages as does the font size or even font style.

 

[Representing_Tromba]

Are you willing to change the book size format or font to accommodate the page limit? I chose an oversized format for one of my books to better accommodate some images. The size format affects the number of pages as does the font size or even font style.

I can't make the font size any smaller without annoying a lot of people. Even if I did, it would only lower the page count by 40 and that is not enough to make it fit. It's 677 pages. I'm just going to split it in half for the hard back and have a single paperback.

 

[bulmabriefs144]

Finally, I have just finished all that I needed to get my first book onto Amazon KDP but sadly, the most pages allowed is 550 per book. Mine is 677 so I have to now figure out how to split it into two books without diluting the story. That also means getting another book cover made up. I can remove a few pages of content but most of the content is crucial to the story in the future and currently. Any thoughts on how I can get out of having to split the book or remove crucial information? If not, that's fine. Though at the very least, can someone explain why they can't do more pages? I do see how splitting the book can be more profitable but I feel like it takes away from the experience of the story.

Here, I know how to fit a much larger book into those contraints. Take a look at Oracle of Tao on Amazon (I'm not just pimping my book, I'm giving advice, see?) You'll notice that I developed a number of tricks to bypass this.

I've got two versions of Oracle of Tao attached. One is "normal font" at about 12 pt with 1.5 spacing and other stuff like that. The other has formatting suited to getting the book accepted in terms of length. I'm attaching these to show you that the paperback was able to have a Table of Contents and kept the Appendix, yet still clocked in at 500 pages less than the full-size easy to read version.

Box

app.box.com

But if you don't feel like reading, this is my settings. I used OpenOffice not Word, so adjust this.
1. 8pt or 10 pt font.
2. Format -> Paragraph -> Indents & Spacing, set all spacing to 0.0 and Single Space
3. Format -> Paragraph -> Tabs, add Tabs for the entire document at no more than 0.20"
4. Format -> Page Style -> Page, and set to 6 x 9 or 7 x 10, with top and bottom margins of 1", and side as 0.75". On some documents, this is backwards, but the point is, you need to give your text room.
5. Left align, not justified. It wastes space when trying to push text into clean lines. Don't do columns.

Another approach is simply turning it into a trilogy. If you want to keep standard size, this is your best approach.