You're KDP-Ready Verified
Authors whose manuscripts score 90 or higher on the publishing.co.uk audit earn this badge — and embed it on their site as proof of pre-flight quality.
How it works
- Run your manuscript through the free KDP Readiness Score audit
- If your score is 90 or higher, you've earned the badge
- Copy the embed code below and paste it into your author website
- The badge displays your verified-90+ status and links back to publishing.co.uk
It's free, takes 30 seconds to embed, and adds a small but real trust signal to readers and the press visiting your site.
Embed code — pick your format
For standard HTML on your author site:
In a WordPress sidebar widget or footer:
- Add a Custom HTML widget (Appearance → Widgets, or in Gutenberg use the "Custom HTML" block).
- Paste the snippet below.
In Squarespace or Wix — add a "Code" block and paste this:
In a Markdown blog (Hugo, Jekyll, Eleventy, Ghost, Medium):
Where to place the badge
Most authors put the badge in one of three places:
- Author website footer — pairs nicely with social-media icons and other "as seen on" badges
- Sidebar of your blog or About page — most visible without being intrusive
- Author bio block on a book's landing page — strongest at-purchase trust signal
The badge is a vector SVG so it scales cleanly from sidebar width (240×80) to thumbnail width (120×40) — no hand-tuning needed.
Use terms
- ✅ The badge is free to use if you scored 90 or higher on the publishing.co.uk KDP Readiness Score
- ✅ Embed it anywhere you'd publicly display author credentials — your site, blog, social profiles
- ✅ The badge must remain linked to
https://publishing.co.uk/audit/kdp-readiness/ - ✅ You can resize the badge to any reasonable size (recommended 120-300px wide)
- ❌ Don't modify the colours, text or graphic elements of the badge
- ❌ Don't claim a 90+ score if you haven't actually earned one
- ❌ Don't transfer the badge to another author or book
We periodically re-audit publicly-embedded badges to confirm the originating manuscript still scores 90+. We'll quietly let you know if your manuscript has dropped below the threshold.
Why we built this
Two reasons.
For you (the author): the badge is a small, real, third-party-verified trust signal that you've done the pre-upload work properly. It helps with reader confidence on your author page, with reviewers researching your book, and with anyone deciding whether to take you seriously as an indie publisher.
For us: each badge embed is a backlink from your site to ours. We're upfront about that — the backlink is part of why we make the badge free. If your site has decent authority, your link helps us. If our service helps your book launch, our link to you helps you. Mutual.
This is the same model the trust-badge industry has used for decades (Trustpilot, Norton Secured, BBB, etc.) — small badge, small reciprocal backlink, real signal.
Earning the badge
You can run the KDP Readiness Score audit as many times as you like — there's no limit. Most first-time uploads land in the 60-80 range; the path to 90+ usually means a clean pass on margins, fonts, and the KDP-specific edge cases.
If you'd rather hand off the formatting work entirely, our paid formatting service ships every book at 95+ on the audit (KDP-pass guarantee included), from £69.
