Getting a Book Published on Amazon: Approval & Quality Tips

okay so here’s what actually matters when you’re trying to get approved on KDP

Right so you’re probably overthinking this whole approval thing. I did too when I started back in 2017 and honestly Amazon’s gotten stricter but also… weirdly more automated? Like last week I uploaded three coloring books and two got approved in 4 hours, one took 3 days because their bot flagged something random.

The biggest thing that’ll get you rejected is copyright stuff. Not even kidding, probably 80% of the rejections I see from people I consult with are because they used images or fonts they didn’t have rights to. You gotta make sure everything in your book is either:

• Created by you from scratch
• Purchased with a commercial license (and keep those receipts, I have a folder with like 300+ license files)
• Public domain and you’ve actually verified it’s public domain, not just “found it on Google”
• From legit stock sites with extended licenses if you’re selling the book

Amazon’s bot scans your cover and interior pages. They’re looking for trademarked stuff, copyrighted images, even certain phrases that are protected. I had a client who used “just do it” in a fitness journal and got flagged… yeah Nike owns that obviously but she didn’t think about it.

the actual upload process and what trips people up

So when you’re in the KDP dashboard uploading, the manuscript quality review is where most problems happen. Amazon wants:

• Your PDF to be high quality but not so massive it takes forever to load – I usually aim for 50-150 MB max
• Bleed settings correct if you’re doing bleed (0.125 inches on all sides that bleed)
• Interior margins that actually work – this is huge, people mess this up constantly
• No weird artifacts or compression issues

For margins, use Amazon’s templates. Seriously just download them for your trim size. I wasted probably 20 hours my first year figuring out margins before I realized Amazon literally gives you the exact specs. The gutter (inside margin) needs to be bigger for thicker books – like if you’ve got a 400 page book, you need way more gutter than a 100 page book or the text disappears into the binding.

oh and another thing – your cover dimensions have to be EXACT. Amazon has this cover calculator and you gotta use it every single time because the spine width changes based on page count and paper type. I still see people eyeballing it and then wondering why their cover looks weird or gets rejected.

content quality stuff they actually check

Amazon‘s looking for what they call “disappointing customer experience” which is vague as hell but basically means:

• Books that are just gibberish or nonsense content
• Super low effort stuff that provides no value (like a “notebook” that’s 5 pages)
• Duplicate content – this is big, you can’t just upload the same interior 50 times with different covers
• Books that are mostly blank pages pretending to be something else
• Incorrectly formatted stuff that makes the book unusable

They started cracking down hard on low-content books around 2019-2020. Before that you could upload basically anything. Now if you’re doing journals or notebooks you need to make sure there’s actual variety in the pages, good formatting, something that makes it worth the price.

I learned this the hard way when I had like 30 books rejected in one week back in 2020… had to go back and add more variety to the interiors, make them actually useful instead of just 120 identical lined pages.

the approval timeline and what to do if you get rejected

Most books get approved within 72 hours. If it’s been longer than that something’s probably flagged. Check your email and KDP dashboard because Amazon will tell you why it was rejected – sometimes.

Their rejection messages are not always helpful though. You’ll get something like “content quality issue” and you’re like okay but WHAT specifically. When this happens you gotta really examine your book:

• Run your cover through Google image search to make sure nothing’s matching copyrighted stuff
• Check every single font you used has commercial license
• Look at your interior page by page for any images or elements that might be problematic
• Make sure your book description and keywords aren’t using trademarked terms
• Verify your categories are correct and not misleading

You can resubmit after fixing issues. I’ve had books rejected 3-4 times before figuring out the problem. It’s frustrating but don’t give up, just methodically check everything.

wait I forgot to mention the metadata stuff

Your title, subtitle, description, keywords – all that matters for approval too. Amazon’s checking that you’re not:

• Using misleading titles that promise something your book doesn’t deliver
• Keyword stuffing in obvious ways
• Making claims you can’t back up
• Using other author names or brand names inappropriately

Keep your book description clear and accurate. Don’t say your coloring book has 100 pages if it only has 50. Don’t claim it’s “the best” or make weird guarantees. Just describe what’s actually in the book.

For keywords I usually do a mix of specific and broad terms but nothing misleading. Like if it’s a recipe journal for keto meals, I’m not gonna add “weight loss miracle” or whatever, just actual relevant terms people would search.

quality stuff that’ll help you not just get approved but actually sell

okay so beyond just getting approved, here’s what actually makes a quality book that doesn’t get returned or get bad reviews:

Interiors need to be functional – I test print every new format I create. Like actually order a proof copy. Yeah it costs $5-10 but you’ll catch issues you can’t see on screen. Text too small, margins too tight, pages too thin where stuff shows through, binding problems with thick books.

Covers need to be clear and readable – at thumbnail size can you still read the title? Are the colors gonna print right? Bright reds and blues can look different in print vs on screen. My cat knocked over my coffee on a cover design once and honestly the water-stained version looked better so I went with those muted colors instead.

Paper type matters – white paper vs cream paper, it changes how your interior looks. Cream is better for text-heavy books, easier on the eyes. White is better for coloring books or anything with images where you want brightness.

Page count sweet spot for different types – journals work well at 100-120 pages, notebooks 110-150, coloring books 50-100. Too thin feels cheap, too thick gets expensive and people won’t buy.

this is gonna sound weird but check your book on actual devices

If you’re doing ebooks too (which you should, it’s literally just another format option), preview it on the Kindle previewer tool Amazon provides. Check it on phone size, tablet size, e-reader size. Your formatting might look perfect on your computer but then have weird page breaks or image sizing issues on actual devices.

I spent like 3 hours one night watching random Netflix show (was it Ozark? can’t remember) while clicking through book previews on different device settings because I kept getting complaints about formatting. Turned out I had some embedded fonts that weren’t displaying right on older Kindles.

common mistakes that delay approval

These are the things I see constantly with clients or in Facebook groups:

• Wrong ISBN situation – if you’re using Amazon’s free ISBN you can’t sell that book anywhere else, if you bought your own ISBN make sure you entered it correctly
• Mismatched page counts – your PDF has 105 pages but you wrote 100 in the setup
• Wrong category selection trying to game the system
• Author name issues – using a pen name that’s too similar to a famous author
• Price set wrong – either suspiciously low or impossibly high given the page count

The pricing thing is real, if your book is 300 pages and you price it at $0.99 Amazon might flag it as an error. Or if it’s 30 pages and you want $29.99 they’re gonna question that.

after approval what actually happens

Once approved your book goes live on Amazon usually within 24-48 hours. It’ll show up in search results based on your keywords and category. Don’t expect immediate sales though, that’s a whole different thing about marketing and visibility.

You can update your book after it’s live but it goes through review again. I usually batch my updates – fix multiple things at once rather than uploading new versions constantly. Each update triggers a new review period where your book might temporarily show as unavailable.

oh and keep an eye on your quality dashboard in KDP. Amazon tracks return rates, customer complaints, quality issues. If your book has problems they’ll warn you or potentially remove it. I had one book that had a formatting glitch I didn’t catch and got 5 returns in a week – Amazon sent me a warning email and I had to fix it fast.

The expanded distribution option is cool but has stricter requirements. Your interior needs to be really solid, no bleed content, certain margin requirements. Not all books qualify and honestly for low-content books it doesn’t usually generate much income anyway.

Most of my income comes from just regular Amazon sales, maybe 5% from expanded distribution. But for regular books or ebooks it might be worth it depending on your niche.