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Format your self-help book for KDP.

Exercise prompts. Reflection journaling boxes. Step-by-step frameworks. Workbook-style fillable lines that print and Kindle both handle. Self-help is half book, half tool — we format it to do both jobs.

Back to all book types

Free · 60 seconds · No payment

Before you pay anyone — score it free first.

Drop your manuscript and we run the same 30+ checks Amazon does, line by line, in under a minute. You get a clear /100 score, every failure point flagged, and the exact fix for each one. Whether you book us, do it yourself, or hire someone else — running this first means you don't pay for a service you didn't need.

  • Margins & gutter
  • Image DPI
  • Font embedding
  • ToC links
  • Blank pages
  • ISBN match
  • Bleed configuration
  • Page-count rules
  • Spine width
  • EPUB validation
  • 20+ more checks
  • Per-file PDF report
Step 1 · Production

KDP Readiness Score

"Will my self-help book pass KDP review?"

Drop your manuscript
Or click to choose a file

Accepts .docx, .pdf, .epub · up to 200 MB · files never stored, deleted after 24h

Run the KDP Readiness Score →

The recommended trim size

The format choice that matters most. We can deviate if your project needs it — but here's the working benchmark.

Recommended KDP trim

For self-help book — go with 5.5×8.5 in

5.5×8.5 in

Acceptable alternatives: 6×9 in or 7×10 in (workbook-leaning) · all are KDP-approved trim sizes

5.5×8.5 is the working self-help trim (Mel Robbins, James Clear's Atomic Habits, Brené Brown reprints). Gives reflection prompts and pull-quotes room to breathe, supports a 12pt body comfortably, and signals 'pop psychology' rather than 'academic'. Workbook-heavy books move up to 7×10.

Self-help books with workbook elements or frameworks get vector diagrams plus 300 DPI plate pre-flight.

What we get right for self-help book

The six things that make self-help book formatting different from generic novel formatting.

Exercise + reflection prompts

Bordered prompt boxes with a clear visual signal ("Try this", "Reflect"). On print they're styled callouts; on EPUB they're semantic asides that survive reflow.

Fillable journaling lines

Where your book asks the reader to write — we set proper rule-line blocks at the right line-height. Print readers fill them in; EPUB readers get an explanation that the journaling is best done on the paperback.

Pull-quote callouts

Hero quotes lifted from the body, set in larger type with a coloured rule. The book gets the Instagram-pull-quote treatment built in.

Chapter summaries + key takeaways

End-of-chapter "3 things to remember" or "key questions" summary blocks. Set consistently, scannable on a re-read.

Frameworks as diagrams

Your model — the 4 quadrants, the 5 steps, the concentric circles — drawn vector-first, exported at 600 DPI for print and SVG/PNG for EPUB.

Reader-funnel back matter

About-the-author, free resource link, mailing-list CTA, book-two preview. The back matter that turns a self-help reader into a course or coaching buyer.

Standard, on every project

Whatever the book type, this is what every order includes.

Print-ready PDF

KDP-compliant margins, mirrored gutters scaled to your page count, 0.125-inch bleed where needed, embedded fonts, 300 DPI image pre-flight, semantic page-break logic.

Reflowable Kindle EPUB

Optimised for every Kindle device including phone reading. Clean chapter recognition, working drop caps, scene-break ornaments, properly-linked TOC, semantic ordered/unordered lists.

Cover wrap calibration

Spine width auto-calculated from your final page count. Cover supplied to KDP-template spec for paperback, hardback or both. Full-bleed art tested against KDP's print profile.

Two free revision rounds

Side-by-side viewer to comment on specific pages. Most books need none; complex non-fiction sometimes needs both. Additional rounds £19 each.

KDP-approval guarantee

If KDP rejects your file for a formatting reason, we fix it free. We've never had a rejection — but the guarantee is the principle.

UK-based, no Mac required

You send a Word file (or PDF, Google Docs, RTF, ODT, EPUB, plain text). We send back finished files. No software to install, no learning curve.

Ready to format your self-help book?

From £69 for print-ready PDF. £119 for print + Kindle. Picture-book and complete packages from £179.

Order your formatting → ← All book types
Last reviewed May 2026 · Reviewed by the publishing.co.uk team