MyClawn Book Formatting › Paperback formatting
Paperback formatting: a print-ready interior from your manuscript
A paperback interior is the PDF a printer turns into pages. This page shows what goes into a professional one, the three styles and four sizes you can choose, and what the file is checked for before you get it.
What a printed page needs
A manuscript is written to be read on a screen and edited. A printed page follows older rules:
- Margins that differ left and right. The inside margin, toward the spine, is wider than the outside one, and it grows with the thickness of the book.
- Justified, hyphenated text with a first-line indent instead of blank lines between paragraphs. The first paragraph of a chapter has no indent.
- Chapter openings that start on a new page, lower down, without a running head.
- Running heads and page numbers: the author on left pages, the title on right pages, numbers in the same place on every page.
- Front matter in order: title page, copyright page, dedication, contents, then the text starting on a right-hand page as page 1.
- No stranded lines: no single line of a paragraph alone at the top or bottom of a page, no heading at the foot of a page.
Three styles
| Style | Typeface | Chapter opening | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Classic | EB Garamond | Centred, small capitals, title in italics | Novels, literary and historical fiction, memoir |
| Modern | Source Serif with Source Sans headings | Left-aligned, large chapter number | Non-fiction, business, contemporary fiction |
| Elegant | Libertinus Serif with Cormorant Garamond titles | Italic display title, drop capital, ornament at scene breaks | Romance, historical, literary fiction |
All typefaces are under the SIL Open Font License, which allows them to be embedded in books you sell. The preview shows your own first chapter in each style: try it with your manuscript.
Upload your Word file and look at your own first chapter, typeset for print, before you pay anything. One book $39 per book · Three books $99 for three books. Refund within 14 days if it misses.
Show me my bookFour trim sizes and their margins
| Trim size | Usual for | Outside margin | Top / bottom |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 x 8 in | Compact novels, novellas | 0.55 in | 0.75 / 0.8 in |
| 5.25 x 8 in | Trade fiction | 0.55 in | 0.75 / 0.8 in |
| 5.5 x 8.5 in | Fiction, memoir | 0.6 in | 0.75 / 0.8 in |
| 6 x 9 in | Non-fiction, long novels | 0.6 in | 0.75 / 0.8 in |
The inside margin follows the page count: 0.75 in up to 300 pages, 0.875 in from 301 to 500, 1 in from 501 to 700 and 1.125 in above that. Each value is a quarter inch more than the minimum Amazon KDP sets for that page range.
What the file is checked for
- Every page is exactly the trim size.
- Every font is embedded.
- No text closer to an edge than KDP allows, on any page.
- The words of your manuscript appear in the PDF in the same order: nothing lost, nothing doubled. The share found is in your report.
- The number of chapters, and whether any chapter is suspiciously short or long, which is how a missed chapter heading shows up.
You get the results in a short report with the files. Price: $39 per book, with the EPUB and the cover template included. Compare prices.
Questions
My chapters are just typed as 'Chapter 1' in normal text. Is that a problem?
No. Most manuscripts arrive that way. The headings are found by how they look and where they stand, and when you order, each one is checked before the book is typeset.
Do you handle images, footnotes and tables?
Images are placed at the width of the text in black and white. Footnotes sit at the foot of the page. Simple tables are set as they are. Books that are mostly pictures or designed page by page, such as picture books and cookbooks, are not something we do.
Can I get a large-print edition?
Not yet. The four sizes use text of 10.5 to 11.5 points.
What is 'no bleed'?
Bleed is needed only when pictures run to the very edge of the page. A text book has none, and KDP then asks for a file at the exact trim size, which is what you get.
Upload your Word file and look at your own first chapter, typeset for print, before you pay anything. One book $39 per book · Three books $99 for three books. Refund within 14 days if it misses.
Show me my bookMore about Book Formatting
Sources (checked 2026-11-12): kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/GVBQ3CMEQW3W2VL6 · kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201857950