How to make a crossword puzzle book for Amazon KDP

In short

clues

Your own, one answer each; KDP turns down copyrighted content copied from the web

AI clues

Clues an AI tool drafted count as AI-generated text on KDP, even after heavy edits, so you tell KDP

low content

No. KDP lists puzzle books as “Not Generally Low-Content”, so KDP’s own ISBN works

pages

24 at least; a large print crossword takes two pages, the clues facing the grid

royalty

60% of the list price from $9.99, 50% at $9.98 and below, minus the print cost

distribution

Amazon only: KDP names crossword books among the content other stores do not take

Kindle

No eBook edition: KDP names puzzle books among books not suited to Kindle

step 1 of 8

Choose the kind of crossword

Two kinds fill puzzle books. In an American newspaper grid the black squares make a symmetric pattern and every white square belongs to two answers, one across and one down. Building one well takes a large word list, and short filler words are hard to avoid. In a themed, free shape crossword the answers come from one theme and cross where they share a letter, with no black squares to fill the gaps; some letters belong to one answer only.

The second kind suits most puzzle book buyers: every answer is a real word from the theme, the theme itself is a hint, and it scales from easy to hard by the length of the answers and the kind of clue. It is the kind this guide follows, and the kind vøiddo makes.

step 2 of 8

Pick the themes and the answers

One theme a puzzle, from birds and gardens to card games, with 12 to 22 answers each. An easy puzzle uses short answers, a hard one longer words. Three rules keep a book fair:

• No answer twice in a book. A buyer who meets the same word twice feels it, so once a word has been an answer, later puzzles leave it out.
• Keep look-alikes apart. Some pairs share a length and a meaning: SEQUOIA and REDWOOD are both seven letters and both giant California trees. In one grid a clue for one fits the other, so such pairs never share a puzzle.
• Mind the sense. Among birds a crane is a bird, not a machine; the clue follows the theme.

KDP’s guidelines point to a list of content that disappoints customers, which includes “Content that is excessively reused, recycled, or repeated within or across books.” Give a second volume new puzzles, not the first one’s grids in a new order.

step 3 of 8

Write the clues

A good clue leads to one answer of its length and nothing else. Read each clue as a solver would and look for another word of the same length that fits as well. Then check it against these rules:

no giveaway

Never the answer in the clue, nor a word that shares its root: “sweet treat” for SWEETS gives it away

no crossings

No clue names another answer of the same grid

length

Two to eight words

facts

Facts that will still be true next year: no prices, no current champions or office holders, and every fact checked

names

Leave out brand names and living people: they date, and the theme’s own words carry the puzzle

spelling

One spelling through the book; American for buyers on Amazon.com

level

Easy clues are plain definitions; hard clues give a use, a setting or a well known phrase, so the solver has to think

Write the clues yourself rather than lift them from newspapers or other books. KDP’s content guidelines:

“We will not accept content under copyright that is freely available on the web unless it’s provided by the owner of the copyright.”

KDP help · Content Guidelines

Have someone else read every clue a second time. Most bad clues are not wrong facts but clues that fit two answers, or that a solver cannot reach without the crossings.

step 4 of 8

Build and check the grids

Place the longest answer first, then cross each next answer through a letter already in the grid. A finished grid must pass four checks:

• Every run is an answer. Read every run of two or more letters across and down: each must be exactly one of the puzzle’s answers. Two answers side by side make stray runs that are not words.
• Letters touch only where answers cross. That is what makes the first check pass.
• One piece. Every answer joins the rest through a crossing, so no part of the grid floats alone.
• Numbers in reading order. Number the squares where answers start, left to right and top to bottom; an across and a down answer that start in the same square share its number.

Do these checks with a program that reads the finished grid back, not by eye: a stray two letter run is easy to miss on a page of 20 answers.

step 5 of 8

Lay out the interior PDF

A crossword needs room for both the grid and its clues. Two layouts work:

regular print

One page a puzzle: the grid above, the clues below in two columns, Across and Down. vøiddo sets the clues at 11 pt.

large print

A spread a puzzle: the clues on the left-hand page and the grid on the facing page, so neither shrinks. vøiddo sets the clues at 18 pt and the square numbers at 16 pt, on 7 × 10 in and larger. In the file these are still two single pages, as KDP asks.

answers

Every grid filled in at the back, in puzzle order, several to a page

KDP’s file rules for any puzzle book: type of 7 pt or more with every font embedded, lines of 0.75 pt or more (the square borders too), single pages rather than spreads in the file, at least 0.25 in at the top, bottom and outside edge, and an inside margin that grows with the page count:

KDP’s help pages set no size for large print type, only the 7 pt minimum; large print puzzle books usually set their text at 16 pt or more. The large print guide has the sizes printers and readers ask for.

step 6 of 8

Make the cover and set the price

The cover is one PDF: back, spine and front side by side with 0.125 in of bleed on every outside edge, the spine as wide as the page count makes it. The cover size pages work it out for every trim and page count.

Black ink on white or cream paper, sold on Amazon.com, costs $2.30 to print up to 110 pages on a regular trim and $2.84 on a large one (more than 6.12 in wide or more than 9 in high); above 110 pages it is $1.00 plus $0.012 a page, or $0.017 on a large trim. Your royalty is 60% of a list price of $9.99 or more, 50% below it, minus that cost. Five crossword books at $9.99, our arithmetic from KDP’s figures:

A large print crossword takes two pages, so a hundred of them leave only about $1.12 a copy at $9.99. Forty to fifty large print puzzles, or a hundred in regular print, keep the royalty near $3.

step 7 of 8

Fill in the book details

low content

Leave the box unticked. KDP sorts puzzle books under “Not Generally Low-Content”, so the book keeps KDP’s own ISBN, Look Inside and series pages.

title

Title and subtitle together under 200 characters, without repeated generic words. Leave out other publishers’ and newspapers’ names: KDP’s metadata rules bar references to other authors.

keywords

Up to seven, phrases of 2 to 3 words, such as the level, the size of print or the themes inside

distribution

Leave Expanded Distribution unticked: KDP’s page on it lists crossword, puzzle books, word search, sudoku and maze among the content other stores do not currently accept. Amazon sales are not affected.

Then KDP asks about AI-generated content, and clues are text. KDP’s definition:

“If you used an AI-based tool to create the actual content (whether text, images, or translations), it is considered ‘AI-generated,’ even if you applied substantial edits afterwards.”

KDP help · Content Guidelines

So clues drafted with an AI writing tool are AI-generated text, however carefully you checked them, and you say so. Clues you wrote yourself and only checked with such a tool are what KDP calls AI-assisted, which it does not ask about. A cover picture made with an image generator counts too.

Skip the Kindle eBook. KDP’s guide to Kindle content names “Puzzle books” among the books not suited to the Kindle format, which “may be rejected upon submission or removed from sale”.

step 8 of 8

Submit, order a proof, wait

“Submission limit: Up to 2 new titles per book format each week, counted the first time you submit a title for publication.”

KDP help · Create a Book

review

up to 3 business days; up to 6 days for a first book on a new account

proof

optional: approve the book in the Print Previewer, then order up to 5 copies at print cost plus shipping. Solve two puzzles from the proof with a pencil before you publish.

if refused

the book goes back to Draft and KDP emails what to fix; the rejection guide lists the usual reasons

Steps 2 to 6 from vøiddo, in under a minute

• The clues, three for each of 4,715 answers on 163 themes (60 of them Christmas and winter), drafted with an AI writing tool, checked by the giveaway, length and spelling rules above, read again by a second, separate AI review, and every clue it changed read once more. listing.txt says so in the words KDP’s AI question needs.
• The grids, each read back by a separate program: every run an answer, one piece, numbered in reading order, no answer twice in a book.
• The interior PDF, regular or large print, the answers at the back, with the inside margin for its page count and no line under 0.75 pt.
• The wrap cover with the spine for that page count, and listing.txt with a title, description, keyword ideas and which boxes to tick on KDP.
• A signed check of both files against KDP’s paperback specs. If KDP still rejects the files within 30 days, the book’s credits come back.

One crossword book is 500 credits, from $3.30 in the big pack, with up to 100 puzzles. The crossword books page shows pages from a sample book.