A cookbook is one of the harder things to self-publish, and not because of the writing. It is because a cookbook is a colour book with full-page photographs, and every technical rule that paperback novels get to ignore applies to it. Here are the nine steps, in the order they actually happen, with the numbers that decide whether the upload goes through.
1 — Collect everything first
Before any layout: get every recipe into one place. Cards, screenshots, a notes app, a document from 2014. The reason to do this first is that the page count comes out of it, and the page count decides the trim size, the spine and the printing cost. Designing before counting means redoing it.
2 — Decide what the book is
Forty recipes with a clear theme sell better than a hundred without one. A theme also decides the chapter structure, and the chapter structure decides how many pages are not recipes — title page, contents, chapter openers, an about page. On a cookbook, that is rarely fewer than ten pages.
3 — Pick a trim size
The trim size is the finished page size. Cookbooks are usually larger than novels because the photographs need room; 7 × 10 inches and 8 × 10 inches are common choices. Amazon publishes the sizes it can print, and not every size is available for every colour option. Pick it now: it cannot be changed later without re-laying every page.
4 — Understand bleed before you lay out anything
If a photograph runs to the edge of a page, the file must be bigger than the finished page, because the printer cuts through the picture. KDP asks for 0.125 inch (3.175 mm) added to the top, bottom and outer edge — not the bound edge, which is never cut. A file built without bleed will either be rejected or come back with thin white lines along the photo edges.
That figure was checked against Amazon’s own help pages on 19 September 2026 and is the same one used on our KDP trim size, bleed & margins page.
5 — Mind the inner margin
The inner margin — the gutter — has to grow with the page count, because a thick book does not open flat and text disappears into the fold. Amazon publishes minimum margins by page count. On a cookbook this matters twice: once for text, and once for photographs that are supposed to look symmetrical on a spread.
6 — Calculate the spine, do not estimate it
The spine width is the page count multiplied by a per-page thickness that depends on the paper and the colour option. Get it wrong and the cover is rejected, or the front image wraps around the edge of the printed book. It is pure arithmetic, so it should never be guessed — use a calculator that takes paper and colour into account.
7 — Know the printing cost before you price the book
KDP charges a fixed amount plus a per-page amount, and the per-page amount differs sharply between black and white, standard colour and premium colour. For a colour cookbook this is the number that decides whether a given list price leaves anything at all. Work it out at your real page count, not at a round number.
Amazon publishes the current rates on its own KDP printing cost help page and changes them from time to time. Look them up there for your own trim size and colour option — which is why no figure is quoted here.
8 — Answer the AI question honestly
When a new book is published, Amazon asks whether text, images or translations were AI-generated. Three separate questions, three separate answers — a book can have AI images and no AI text, and saying so is not a disadvantage. Answer for your book, before you upload, so the form does not surprise you at the end.
9 — Upload, preview, and actually look
The previewer is not a formality. Open it and look at real pages: a chapter opener, two recipe spreads, the contents. Then approve. After that, Amazon reviews the book before it goes on sale — according to KDP’s own help pages, this takes up to 3 business days (retrieved 23 September 2026). Check the current figure there, and add printing and shipping on top before you promise anyone a date.
Where MenuTome fits
Steps 1, 2, 3, 6 and most of 4 and 5 are what the app does: it sorts the recipes, lays out the pages for the trim size you picked, builds the cover sheet with the spine calculated from your page count, paper and colour, and exports both files. Steps 7, 8 and 9 happen in your own KDP account, because the book is yours.
MenuTome does not write your recipes. It structures what you bring and drafts concept and chapter text you can accept, change or throw away — which is also why the answer in step 8 is yours to give, not ours.
Free tier: one finished book of up to 15 pages, watermarked, on your own PC. The Amazon print package — interior, cover and the calculated spine — is part of the paid tier.
See also: KDP trim size, bleed & margins · Spine width calculator · Cookbook maker for Windows · Print your own cookbook · Make a family cookbook
Amazon and Amazon KDP are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. They are named here only to identify the service these steps describe. MenuTome is an independent product and is not affiliated with Amazon.