Trace Press

How to make a handwriting workbook for Amazon KDP

A letter tracing workbook is two PDFs: the interior (the pages) and the cover (back, spine and front on one sheet). This is what to decide for each, in the order KDP asks for them, with the printing cost and royalty worked out for a 26-page A–Z book: one page per letter, capital and lowercase.

1. Choose the trim size

The trim is the size of the finished page. It's the first choice on KDP's paperback content page, and everything else depends on it: the page margins, the cover size, and the printing cost.

KDP prices a paperback by trim class. A trim more than 6.12" wide or more than 9" tall is large. For black ink on Amazon.com, a book of 24 to 110 pages costs one flat price to print, whatever its page count within that band:

So a large trim costs $0.54 more to print per copy. What you get for it is room. With 1" guide lines (ages 4–5), a Trace Press letter page holds 5 rows at 8.5" × 11" and 4 at 6" × 9". With 0.45" lines it's 12 against 9. Try both in the Trace Press preview and look at the page before you pay the difference.

Figures from KDP's Paperback Printing Cost help page for the Amazon.com marketplace. Other Amazon marketplaces print at different prices.

2. Choose the line size

Handwriting lines are four lines: a solid top line, a dashed midline, a solid baseline and a dotted descender line. The line size is the height from the top line to the baseline. These are the sizes Trace Press offers. The age labels are our own guide, not a standard:

Whatever the size, KDP's paperback submission guidelines set a minimum line weight of 0.75 pt. Trace Press draws every guide line and every dot at or above it.

3. Bleed or no bleed

Bleed is for ink that runs off the edge of the page. A tracing workbook doesn't need it: every line and letter sits inside the margins. Choose No bleed on KDP, and leave bleed off in Trace Press. If you do turn bleed on in one, turn it on in the other too. The PDF's page size has to match what you told KDP, or the upload is rejected.

4. Upload the interior

KDP's previewer checks the interior PDF against the trim and bleed you chose. Three of its checks apply directly to a tracing book:

• Ink in the margin. The inside margin (the gutter) depends on the page count: 0.375" up to 150 pages, more above that. It's on the left of odd pages and the right of even ones. Trace Press lays every page out to these margins.
• Fonts not embedded. The numbers on the start dots are text, and KDP needs the font inside the PDF. Trace Press embeds it.
• Too few pages. KDP's paperback minimum is 24 pages. An A–Z book with one page per letter is 26.

5. Make the cover to the book's size

The cover is one PDF: back, spine and front side by side, with 0.125" of bleed on every outside edge. Its width depends on the page count and paper, because the spine is the thickness of the pages. From KDP's Create a Paperback Cover page, for 26 pages of white paper:

• No spine text. KDP allows text on the spine only from 79 pages. A 26-page spine is left blank.
• Keep words away from the edge. KDP asks for text at least 0.125" inside the trim. Trace Press keeps the front's words 0.375" in.
• Leave room for the barcode. KDP's own cover templates reserve a 2" × 1.2" box in the lower right of the back cover. Keep it clear.

Trace Press makes this cover from your title, subtitle and author name, sized to the book it made. If you change the trim or the paper, make the cover again.

6. Set the price

A KDP paperback royalty is the list price times the royalty rate, minus printing. On Amazon.com the rate is 50% below $9.99 and 60% at $9.99 and above. For a 26-page book, black ink:

KDP won't take a list price that leaves a negative royalty: the lowest for this book is $5.68 at large trim and $4.60 at regular. Expanded Distribution (sales outside Amazon) pays 40% instead, which at $6.99 on a large trim is less than the printing cost. To try other prices and page counts, use the KDP royalty calculator and the spine width calculator on our sister site.

Make the book

Trace Press does steps 1 to 5 in your browser: pick a trim and a line size, page through the preview, and download the interior and a matching cover. It's free to try, with a small footer on the pages and PREVIEW on the cover. $19 once removes both, for every book you make after.

Selling a blank practice notebook instead? The free handwriting paper generator makes the same four-line pages empty, 24 to 300 of them, to the same KDP margins.