A pre-publish checklist you can steal
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R. S. Breed Founder
Things to check before you hit publish, in no particular order. Not exhaustive, so add whatever I've missed.
- Order a printed proof of the paperback and read it with a pen. Screens are bad at showing you margins, gutters and stray short lines.
- Proofread the formatted file, not just the manuscript. Formatting introduces its own errors, and scene breaks are a common casualty.
- Look at the cover at thumbnail size. Can you read the title at the size of a postage stamp?
- Recalculate spine width from the final page count, not the draft.
- One ISBN per format, and the imprint name matches the ISBN record exactly. KDP is fussy about this down to capitals and spaces.
- Update the front and back matter: copyright page, series order, "also by" list, and every link.
- Have someone who hasn't read the book read the blurb aloud. If they stumble, rewrite it.
- Choose categories and keywords on purpose, not in a rush at midnight.
- Check the price against what you actually earn at that price. Since June, KDP's print royalty rate on books under US$9.99 has been 50% instead of 60%, so a paperback sitting at $9.49 may be worth moving.
- Answer the AI question honestly. KDP wants to know about AI-generated text, images or translations, meaning content an AI tool created, even if you edited it heavily afterwards. Using AI to edit or error-check work you wrote yourself counts as AI-assisted, which you don't have to disclose. Read their definitions before you answer, because an AI cover counts even if the words are all yours.
- Read your free sample the way a stranger would. It comes from the front of the book, so if the story doesn't start until after four pages of front matter, move some of it to the back.
- Make sure the newsletter sign-up link in the back works and goes to a page that exists.
- Tax and bank details done, so you actually get paid.
- If it's a preorder, put the final file deadline in your calendar with a buffer.
- Back up the final files somewhere that isn't your laptop.
The printed proof is the one I'd least want to skip. It catches things nothing else does.