How to Self-Publish a Comic Book on Amazon KDP

Whether you publish a comic on Amazon as a 24-page issue or a 300-page graphic novel, the order of work is the same:

1. Letter the pages. Kindle Create can’t add text, so dialogue and captions go into the art first.
2. Choose formats and ink. Kindle comic, paperback, hardcover; black ink, standard color or premium color.
3. Build the files: a KPF from Kindle Create, plus an interior PDF and a one-piece PDF cover for print.
4. Set up the book in KDP. Publishing is free; our guide to self-publishing a book on Amazon covers the setup pages.
5. Order a proof. KDP recommends one to check the ink and paper before you publish.

Each format has its own tool and catch:

Amazon’s page for the older Kindle Comic Creator now opens with a note sending you to Kindle Create, and the Kindle Create FAQ says Kindle Create is the only way to build a comic ebook with Guided View. If you land on KDP’s older comics page, which still links Kindle Comic Creator downloads, use Kindle Create instead. KDP also stopped accepting MOBI files for fixed-layout ebooks on March 18, 2025; comics now go in as KPF files from Kindle Create or as EPUBs.

Kindle Create runs on Windows 10 or later and macOS 10.15 or later, and KDP’s help page for comics covers the job:

• Start a Comics project. Pick left-to-right or right-to-left reading, and whether pages show as facing pairs on a sideways screen.
• Import the pages as a PDF or as JPEG or PNG files, which load in the order you select them, so number them (comic-0001.jpg).
• Add Guided View panels. Auto-detect works best when panels don’t touch and their borders stand out from the background; check every page anyway, and match the mask color to the gutter.
• Preview and export. KDP suggests checking the phone preview held horizontally, since phones are the smallest screens people read on. Keep the .kcb project for updates and upload the KPF.

Guided View shows one panel at a time, and KDP says it works on iPhone, iPad, Android, Kindle Fire and the web. KDP’s online previewer doesn’t show it; use the preview in Kindle Create or Kindle Previewer.

The Comics option also builds volume-based manga, right to left, with an optional mode that splits each page into four virtual panels; episodic indie manga isn’t supported. In print, KDP describes its reading direction setting for languages such as Japanese, and standard color right-to-left paperbacks are distributed only on Amazon.co.jp. Readers can’t resize text in a comic ebook, and KDP says comic ebooks don’t yet support screen readers.

KDP also accepts a fixed-layout EPUB built to its guidelines for comics. Its format comparison lists two comic formats, and a Kindle book uses only one:

• Panel View suits simple comics with uniform rectangular panels: a double-tap enlarges a panel, and readers can return to the page at any time.
• Virtual Panels suit complex layouts with irregular panels or art past the borders, such as manga. Without panels of your own, Kindle splits each page into four; add your own on any page and Virtual Panels switch off.

Images must be JPEG, ideally at least 300 ppi and planned for 2× magnification, and capital letters in an enlarged panel must be at least 2 mm high on a 7-inch screen. Compatible comics get Guided View automatically.

In comic and graphic novel self-publishing, the print options decide how the book looks and what each copy costs. Paperbacks come in three inks:

• Black ink on cream, white or groundwood paper; color art prints in black and white.
• Standard color on 50–61 lb white paper from inkjet printers, which KDP aims at books with many pages and fewer images.
• Premium color on heavier 60–71 lb white paper, for image-heavy interiors where sharpness matters.

KDP says standard color differs from premium in sharpness and richness of color, so proof both. The ink type locks at publication, and a black-and-white edition needs its own book.

KDP’s trim size table lists 16 paperback sizes from 5″ × 8″ to A4 (A4 isn’t offered in standard color), and paperbacks also take custom sizes from 4 to 8.5 inches wide and 6 to 11.69 inches tall. Anything wider than 6.12 inches or taller than 9 is a large trim and costs more to print. Premium color starts at 24 pages and standard color at 72, so a 24- or 32-page issue can’t use standard color.

Kindle Create’s print feature is meant for text-heavy books with limited image support, so export the comic interior as a PDF from your art or layout software, following the submission guidelines:

• Bleed. Edge-to-edge art needs 0.125 inches of bleed: pages 0.125 inches wider and 0.25 inches taller than the trim, in a PDF. If one page bleeds, the whole file needs bleed.
• Single pages. KDP takes single-page files, not spreads, so a double-page spread goes in as two pages.
• Margins. With bleed, KDP’s margin rules keep text at least 0.375 inches from the outside edges and, in books up to 150 pages, from the spine.
• Images. 300 DPI or more and flattened; KDP suggests no more than 600 DPI to stay under the 650 MB file limit.

The cover is one PDF; a premium color spine is the page count × 0.002347 inches, and books under 79 pages can’t have spine text. Our KDP cover size calculator sizes the full cover for common KDP trims, in black ink or color.

For bookstore and library sales through Expanded Distribution, check its chart first: premium color qualifies at 6″ × 9″, 7″ × 10″ and 8.5″ × 11″ but not 6.69″ × 9.61″, and no custom sizes are listed. Distributors also decline paperbacks whose pages need a high concentration of ink, which can include dark, fully painted comics.

KDP’s paperback royalty is (royalty rate × list price) − printing cost, and on Amazon.com the rate is 60% from a $9.99 list price and 50% at $9.98 or less. Printing cost is a fixed fee plus a per-page price, and color is where it climbs; bleed and cover finish don’t change it. On Amazon.com, with a regular trim such as 6″ × 9″ and a large one such as 7″ × 10″:

Color also raises the price floor: KDP won’t accept a list price below printing cost divided by the royalty rate, so a 32-page premium color issue can’t go below $7.20 in a regular trim ($8.40 in a large one), where it earns nothing, and the 120-page premium color book on a large trim can’t go below $17.67. Check what comparable graphic novels cost on Amazon before you commit to premium color.

Expanded Distribution pays 40% of the list price minus printing, which at $19.99 doesn’t cover that book’s $10.60 printing cost. KDP’s Printing Cost & Royalty Calculator runs your own print numbers, and our guide to what it costs to self-publish a book covers the rest of the budget.

On the 70% plan, KDP subtracts a delivery cost of $0.15 per MB on Amazon.com; the 35% plan has none. The 70% plan needs a list price from $2.99 to $12.99; the 35% plan’s minimum rises with file size, to $1.99 from 3 MB and $2.99 from 10 MB.

Comic pages are images, so files get large. For a $4.99 comic:

• 5 MB: 70% pays 0.70 × ($4.99 − $0.75) = $2.97; 35% pays $1.75.
• 20 MB: 70% pays 0.70 × ($4.99 − $3.00) = $1.39, less than the $1.75 from 35%.
• 30 MB: 70% pays $0.34.

From those formulas, 70% wins on Amazon.com only while the file stays under about 3.3 MB per dollar of list price: about 16.6 MB at $4.99 and 33.3 MB at $9.99. Use the size KDP shows while you publish, since Kindle Create’s FAQ says the KPF itself isn’t used, and compare both plans in our KDP royalty calculator. Outside KDP’s 70% territories, every sale pays 35%.

KDP Select is the other decision: a free 90-day program that puts the ebook in Kindle+ (formerly Kindle Unlimited) in exchange for Kindle Store exclusivity. Kindle+ pays by pages read, and images count toward KENP; our KENP guide explains the rate.

KDP lets you choose three categories per book, warns that some aren’t available for every format (its own example is ebook vs paperback vs comic), and notes that the lists differ by marketplace. On Amazon.com, comics have their own department, Comics, Manga & Graphic Novels, a good place to see where similar books sit.

Pick shelves that describe the book, since KDP removes misleading ones. A children’s comic needs a reading age from 0–2 to 9–12 for children’s categories, or 13 to 17 for teen and young adult, and answering yes to the sexually explicit images question rules children’s categories out. Where no category fits, KDP points to keywords; for a comic, try the genre, setting and art style.

KDP’s intellectual property FAQ says you must hold the publishing rights to everything you upload, and suggests gathering documents in advance when someone else created the content, in case KDP asks. Keep the signed agreement with your artist, writer or colorist handy.

Credit everyone on the contributor list (illustrators are contributors; a co-writer takes the Author role), up to 10 names. Under the KDP terms, Amazon pays the royalty to the account that publishes the book, so any split between creators is yours to arrange. If any art came from an AI tool, the content guidelines require you to disclose it, interior artwork included.

In the US, copyright belongs at first to whoever creates the work; creators who intend to merge their contributions into one work are joint authors; and a transfer of copyright generally has to be in writing and signed. Pages commissioned from someone who isn’t your employee are a work made for hire only if they fit one of nine categories in the law and both sides sign a written agreement saying so. Other countries have their own rules.

Agree in writing before the first page is drawn: who owns the story and the art; whether the art is transferred, licensed or made for hire; the royalty split and payment dates; who holds the KDP account and sets prices; credits; and what happens with sequels, translations or if one of you leaves. This is general information, not legal advice; a lawyer where you live can turn it into a contract.

The royalty KDP reports already has printing and delivery costs taken out, so the number left to check is ad spend. Break-even ACOS is royalty divided by list price (see what ACOS means): about 48% for the black-ink 120-page book in a regular trim at $19.99, about 7% for the premium color one in a large trim.

SelfPub Go’s royalty analytics reads the KDP report you already download and puts each book’s royalty next to its Amazon Ads spend, book by book.

Rules and prices here come from KDP Help, the KDP terms, Amazon’s Kindle Create pages and the US Copyright Office as of the date at the top, in Amazon.com prices; if anything changes, trust the linked pages.