Block 104 (00:50Z–01:15Z)

Block 104 (00:50Z–01:15Z)

• Built: a "Custom size" option on the PP margin calculator, because "print bleed calculator" ranks /margin-calculator at position 14 and KDP accepts any custom trim from 4" to 8.5" wide by 6" to 11.69" tall (KDP help, "Print Options"). - kdp.js: CUSTOM_TRIM and customTrim(w, h). pageGeometry now takes a TRIMS key or a { w, h }. - margin.js: width and height inputs. Out-of-range sizes blank the figures and show the limits. The "Make this book" box is hidden for a custom size, because the generator only makes the menu sizes, and the foot link says so. The templates download as kdp-interior-template-<w>x<h>-…png. - One lede line names the custom range. - test/customtrim.test.js: the limits; a custom 6×9 has the same geometry as the menu 6×9; bleed adds 0.125" × 0.25".
• Checked: - At 390px, scrollWidth is 390. - 7×10 shows 7" × 10"; with bleed it's 7.125" × 10.25". 9" wide shows the limits note and blank figures. 8.25×11 with bleed downloads a template. - Going back to 6×9 restores the handoff. - Deployed. The live page and bundle carry it. test/margin.mjs live: 120 combinations match the engine.
• Buffer: the trims Short posted 10-16 00:30Z. The TP chart Short is scheduled for 10-26 00:30Z in the freed slot, so Buffer is full again at 10.
  • ytlinks: 19 of 20 linked. The trims Short (7gGwqAd7s38) needs its Related video set to the TP long video.
• Checks at 01:15Z 10-16: - Stripe: PP newest 10-10 16:00Z expired/unpaid; TP none. - who.mjs 2.5h: nobody ran PP. - TP 7-day beacon: 17 loads, 1 from github.com.
• Next: - Thanksgiving Short at the next free slot (10-27). - bing-submit the remaining 14 TP pages after 05:00Z.

Block 105 (01:20Z–03:20Z)

• Built: the same "Custom size" on the PP spine calculator, PP's most-shown search page (61 impressions in 30 days). - coverGeometry now takes a { w, h } trim. - spine.js: the custom width and height boxes, out-of-range blanking, the make box hidden and the foot link explained (as in the margin calculator). The template downloads as kdp-cover-template-<w>x<h>-…png.
• Verified against KDP: I queried KDP's cover calculator at 200 pages of cream (0.5" spine) for 7×10, 5.25×7.75, 8.5×11.69 and 4×6. Its full covers are 14.75×10.25, 11.25×8, 17.75×11.94 and 8.75×6.25, and ours match all four. That's now a test in test/customtrim.test.js.
• Looked: the 5.25×7.75 and 4×6 templates. At 4" wide the notes squeeze to fit inside the safe area.
• Caught by the gate: block 104's deploy went out before its commit, so the live sitemap had /margin-calculator at 10-14. Regenerated it, committed and redeployed. Both calculators now show lastmod 10-15 (git's local date). IndexNow got 116 URLs, HTTP 200.
• Live: the page and bundle carry it. test/spine.mjs live: OK.

Block 106 (05:05Z–05:11Z)

• Bing: the Central day reset at 05:00Z. The plan didn't record which Trace Press pages went in the earlier two batches, so I rebuilt the list from the session transcript. 7 sitemap pages had never been sent: /, /cursive-name-tracing, /cursive-practice-sheets-for-adults, /handwriting-practice-sheets-for-adults, /lowercase-letter-tracing, /uppercase-letter-tracing and /this-book-belongs-to-page. Those 7, plus 13 from the second batch (which may have hit the cap), went to bing-submit; all 20 return 200 and Bing accepted them.
  • Next time, list the submitted URLs here.
• Content: a "Custom trim sizes" section on /spine-calculator. - KDP's custom range, the cover formula, and the four KDP-calculator covers with 300 DPI pixels (pixels computed, not typed). - The large-trim printing rule (> 6.12" wide or > 9" tall, from kdp-cost.js), and how to read the royalty calculator for a custom size: a menu trim in the same class. - At 390px: scrollWidth 390, and the table is in .scroll.
• Live: the section serves on /spine-calculator; IndexNow 200.
• Visitor (checked 05:11Z 10-16, 2.5h window): one person on US home broadband, desktop Mac Chrome, ran both apps. - On Puzzle Press they touched the tool and opened the price (pay beacon). Stripe has no new session, so they didn't press Buy. - On Trace Press they ran the page and changed nothing. - RUM shows no referrer; they landed on /. - A second person (US, Windows Chrome) changed the puzzle type on PP and took no book.

Block 107 (outreach drafts, nothing sent)

The boss decides what goes out. Each draft has one link.

• Dropped: justpublishingadvice.com (Derek Haines). The contact page says: "We do not accept requests to publish content, paid articles, or respond to link-building outreach campaigns."
• Dropped: rigorousthemes.com, "Book Bolt alternatives". It lists 16 tools, no puzzle generator, and the page has no contact link.
• Dropped: vappingo, cambric.pub, bookcoverslab, univers.studio, kdpbuilder. They have their own calculators or generators, so they compete with us.

• Free-tier wording follows the site (index.html): "marked, not shortened". The site dropped "watermarked" on 09-23.

Draft 1: Kindlepreneur, "8 Best Book Bolt Alternatives" (Jason Hamilton, updated 2026-05-22)

• Where: kindlepreneur.com/contact. The form or the support address are both listed for "General feedback or suggestions".
• Why: the article's own text says the Book Bolt Pro plan includes "tools for puzzle creation, crosswords, and sudoku". I grepped the page source to confirm that. None of the 8 alternatives makes puzzles.
• Link: https://puzzlepress.bananafest-destiny.com/
• Subject: Book Bolt alternatives: none of the eight make puzzle books
• Text:

  Hi Jason,

  Your Book Bolt alternatives article says part of what the Pro plan buys is puzzle, crossword and sudoku creation. None of the eight alternatives makes puzzles, so a reader leaving Book Bolt for that reason has nowhere to go from the list.

  Puzzle Press is mine. It runs in the browser and makes word search, sudoku, crossword, maze and criss-cross books as print-ready KDP PDFs, with solutions in the back, in six trim sizes. The free version makes the whole book, marked with one small footer line per page and PREVIEW across the cover. $19 once removes the marks, with no subscription.

  https://puzzlepress.bananafest-destiny.com/

  If it's useful for that gap, great. Either way, thanks for the article.

  Walker

Draft 2: Low Content Profits, "Best KDP Tools for Beginners" (Subha Malik, 2026-04-07)

• Where: the email address on lowcontentprofits.com/contact ("Have a question or suggestions? Just shoot a message to Subha").
• Why: the article is a list of tools for beginners and is mostly paid tools. A free calculator is an easy addition.
• Link: https://puzzlepress.bananafest-destiny.com/spine-calculator
• Subject: A free spine and cover size calculator for your beginners list
• Text:

  Hi Subha,

  I read your KDP tools for beginners post. One thing beginners get stuck on is the cover size, so here's a free calculator in case it's useful to your readers:

  https://puzzlepress.bananafest-destiny.com/spine-calculator

  Pick the trim, paper and page count, and it gives the spine width and the full cover size with bleed, in inches and in pixels at 300 DPI. It also takes custom trim sizes in KDP's 4"–8.5" × 6"–11.69" range. I checked the custom-size figures against KDP's own cover calculator. There's no sign-up.

  Thanks, Walker

Draft 3: AlternativeTo listing, Puzzle Press as an alternative to Book Bolt

• Where: alternativeto.net. Posting needs an account, and a listing is public, so it's the boss's call.
• Link: https://puzzlepress.bananafest-destiny.com/
• Text:

  Puzzle Press makes print-ready puzzle books for Amazon KDP in the browser: word search, sudoku, crossword, maze and criss-cross, with solutions in the back, in six KDP trim sizes. The free version makes the whole book with a small footer mark and PREVIEW on the cover; a one-time $19 payment removes the marks.

Block 108 (09:05Z–09:10Z): more outreach targets, and what search sends

• GitHub lists checked; neither is a target. - brandonhimpfen/awesome-self-publishing: all 9 recent pull requests were closed without merging, and its CONTRIBUTING.md refuses "self-promotion". - ibrahimessam/Awesome-Free-Web-Tools: every link goes to the owner's own blog.
• Roundup searches (puzzle tools, low-content tools, tracing tutorials): the results are vendor-written (univers.studio, kdpbuilder, bookcoverslab) or Fiverr listings. Nothing new to pitch beyond drafts 1–3.
• Product Hunt for Trace Press: no. The Puzzle Press launch (09-15) was never featured (featuredAt null, daily rank 456). Nothing suggests a second launch would go differently.
• KDP Community: no threads surfaced through search. Still waiting on the login question.
• Search Console, Puzzle Press, 30 days: 0 clicks. - /spine-calculator: 158 impressions. It peaked at 47 on 09-26 at position 6.5. Since 10-09 it has had 1–4 impressions a day at position 70–90, for generic queries like "spine size calculator". - The decline began 10-05, before the custom-trim work (10-15/16). Next read ~10-21, already on the list. - /margin-calculator: "print bleed calculator", 4 impressions at position 14.
• Conclusion: the reachable link targets are the three drafts already with the boss. No new pages; wait on their answers.

Block 109 (11:05Z–11:10Z): the rules of the two remaining doors

• KDP Community Guidelines (KDP help): relevant, helpful links are allowed; "Advertisements or solicitations for external web sites… paid service offerings" are not. So the login I asked for is used to answer cover-size, margin and printing-cost threads with the free calculators only. It is never used to post Puzzle Press or Trace Press. In LEARNED.
• /spine-calculator queries: in 10-09…10-16 every query shown is generic ("spine size calculator", "spine width calculator") at positions 85–95, and 7 of the 10 impressions are from the UK. The early position-6 impressions came from queries Google hides. No page change; the read stays ~10-21.
• dev.to: 24 posts, 4 reactions. Not a KDP-seller channel.
• Facebook: r/KDP's sidebar sends promotion to Facebook, and the boss has never been asked about it. I can't search Facebook groups without a login. Asked as a fact: can they join and post in KDP Facebook groups?

Block 110 (13:05Z–13:15Z): the money path on both apps, live

• TP search, 3 weeks: / has 3 impressions, /name-tracing 2. The README already links all 34 TP pages and 9 PP pages, so there's no link left to add there. /handwriting-paper already has unique substance (a lines-per-page table by trim and line size), so I didn't touch it.
• PP test:browser (live): OK. Free book, licensed book, no clipped labels, keywords.
• test:livecheckout (live) was red. Stripe changed the checkout markup: Card is now a row whose click target is an off-screen "Pay with card" button, so the old accordion selector found nothing. The checkout itself was fine ($19.00, Card and Cash App Pay; screenshot checked). The test now fires that button's click.
• livecheckout now takes the Trace Press site as its argument. The dialog opens from [data-unlock], and the page is ready when the preview draws. Both pass: the card form mounts at $19.00, nothing is charged, and each session is tagged selftest-.
• Seven self-test sessions were created this block (Stripe, 13:12Z): 6 on PP (failed runs, a debug load, and the pass) and 1 on TP (the pass). All are tagged selftest- and none is a customer. Stripe checks should read the reference.

Block 111 (15:05Z–15:15Z): what Google sends the margin calculator, and the KDP Community read

• /margin-calculator search, since 09-01: 1–2 impressions a day. The biggest query is "print bleed calculator", 4 impressions at position 14. That's too few to justify a title change, so I didn't touch it.
• The KDP Community forum is publicly readable. I read it with Playwright, since it's a Salesforce site and curl gets an empty shell. Searches for "spine width", "cover size" and "margins" each return 25 threads, mostly old. - A recent rejected-cover thread has 27 answers. - A member's "I built my own tool" thread drew pushback (61 answers). - So a login means answering threads, never announcing anything. In LEARNED.
• Next, if the boss gives a login: find threads from the last 30 days and draft replies for the boss to see before anything posts.

Block 112 — 16:20Z–16:50Z: the VibeCider footer line (boss-relayed ask)

• Added "Built by an AI bot. Want one for your own idea? $50 →" to the footer of every web page on both sites. Only "$50 →" is a link. PDFs untouched, footer styles untouched (13px, the footer's own size). - Puzzle Press: 106 pages, linking ?from=puzzlepress. That's 13 static pages plus 91 word lists, and the type-page and word-list generators so a regeneration keeps it. - Trace Press: 37 pages, linking ?from=tracepress. The 404 has no footer, so the line is its last paragraph.
• 390px: scrollWidth 390 on royalty-calculator, a word list, name-tracing and the 404.
• Both test gates green, both deployed, IndexNow sent (PP 116 URLs, TP 66).
• Checked live with a no-cache fetch at 16:47Z 10-16: /royalty-calculator has ?from=puzzlepress, /name-tracing has ?from=tracepress, a TP 404 has ?from=tracepress.

Block 113 — 17:05Z–17:25Z: the YouTube channel has left Buffer

• Went to queue the Thanksgiving Short and found Buffer's organisation has one channel now: Pinterest bananafestdestiny. The YouTube channel (6aa42e8fcd8b9c702c4e9d92) returns "Actor can not access the specified channels", and none of the 10 YouTube Shorts scheduled 10-17 → 10-26 are listed. Checked 17:07Z 10-16.
• The YouTube channel itself is up (@BananafestDestinyDev, 200). Its newest Short is not ours: "I have an app idea. A bot builds it and markets it 24/7" (4 views). The last of mine to post was the trims Short, 10-16 00:30Z (32 views).
• So unless it's reconnected, nothing posts at 10-17 00:30Z.
• Rebuilt the queue in plan/buffer-youtube-queue.json from this session's own create_post calls, with the two later edits applied (10-19 name, 10-21 adults). It holds title, text, video URL and the original date for all 10, plus Thanksgiving as the 11th. All 11 videos return 200.
  • If the channel comes back I can re-queue the lot from that file in one go.
• Question for the boss: was YouTube disconnected from this Buffer on purpose, or moved to another Buffer organisation?
• Visitors, last 8h to 17:08Z: PP has 0 humans (1 headless Chrome from a hosting network, plus robots). TP has 22 beacon page loads over 7 days, 1 of them referred by vibecider.bananafest-destiny.com.

Block 114 — 17:30Z–17:50Z: back on YouTube, one Short at a time

• The boss gave the Buffer key for the account that now holds Bananafest Destiny (FACTS). Its 10 scheduled slots are full with Sizecurve and VibeCider posts, so I didn't queue anything into them.
• Posted the 10-17 Short (alphabet chart) with share-now at 10-16 17:38Z: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfHmCXUL3tQ. It's public on Bananafest Destiny, confirmed by YouTube's oEmbed.
• New: app/scripts/buffer-share.mjs. A dry run shows the next Short; --post checks the video returns 200, posts it now, waits for YouTube's link, and writes it into the queue file. The Thanksgiving text is now in the file too, so 10 are left.
• Each day: run it once. Next is the numbers Short.

Block 115 — 19:05Z–19:20Z: KDP's weekly title limit, in both guides

• Search, PP, 09-30→10-15: 13 query rows, 0 clicks. Best: margin calculator at 14 for "print bleed calculator" (4 impressions); spine calculator at 87–95 for generic spine queries. No change.
• Read the KDP Community front page (Playwright, public). An announcement pinned there, "Update on KDP Title Creation Limits – October 2026": - Since 2026-09-21, 2 new titles per format per week. - Since 10-05, also 2 new submissions per format per week. - Resets Sunday 00:00 UTC; updates don't count. - Neither site promised volume (grepped), so nothing was wrong. But it's a fresh fact a buyer planning a series needs, so I added one paragraph to the upload step of /how-to-make-a-puzzle-book and /how-to-make-a-handwriting-workbook, linking the announcement.
• 390px clean, both gates green, deployed, live (checked 19:13Z), IndexNow sent, both sitemaps resubmitted to Google.
• A fresh thread, "Minimum Pages - why so high??? I only have 24 pages", already has a correct answer (24 paperback / 72 standard colour / 75 hardcover). Nothing to add.

Block 116 — 21:15Z–23:10Z: KDP Community, two replies to post, and a rule of ours that was wrong

• The boss approved the forum rule ("ok, do it", FACTS): answer the question, link a free calculator only when it answers it, never name either app or the price, no announcement threads. The boss posts under their KDP login. I draft.
• Read the Formatting topic (30 newest threads, Playwright). Most are Kindle Create, proofs and Lucida fonts. Two are ones we can answer with facts; a third is a decision for the boss.
• The spine thread turned up a mistake on both sites. "Spine on my 80 page book" (10-12): KDP refused spine text because it counted the book at 79 pages. KDP's cover help page says "at least 79" in two places and "more than 79" in a third. Cover Creator's help says "The minimum page count required to include text on the spine is 80 pages." Both apps said 79. - SPINE_TEXT_MIN_PAGES is now 80 in both apps, and the copy follows: the spine calculator (with the help-page disagreement spelled out), the PP guide and home page FAQ, and five TP pages. - No cover changes. Puzzle Press only prints spine text from 100 pages (cream) because of the fold margin, and Trace Press books stop at 78 pages. The one visible change is the calculator's message at exactly 79 pages: "Not allowed" now, where it said "Allowed, but there is no room". - Both unit suites, coverink and the live spine.mjs passed. Deployed, and live on a no-cache fetch at 22:55Z. - The Short "KDP spine text at 79 pages" (zicmbaeXMK0) quotes KDP's "at least 79" word for word, so it isn't false, but it's now incomplete. I can't edit a YouTube title through Buffer.

Reply 1: "Spine on my 80 page book"

https://www.kdpcommunity.com/s/question/0D5at00000y90CkCAI

KDP's help pages disagree with each other on this. The paperback cover page says "at least 79 pages" in one place and "more than 79 pages" in another, and the Cover Creator page says 80. Your rejection suggests the real check is 80, and that the file they received has 79 pages.

Two things to check:

1. Open the interior PDF you uploaded and look at the number of pages in the file, not the number on the last page. Those can differ if the front matter isn't numbered. If the file has 79 pages, add one (a notes page at the end, for example) and upload it again.
2. Then get a new cover template for the new page count, since the spine gets wider with every page.

On Spinner's point: at 80 pages a 6 x 9 spine is 0.180" on white paper and 0.200" on cream. Text must stay 0.0625" inside each fold, which leaves a strip 0.055" (white) or 0.075" (cream) across, about 4 to 5.4 points. Cover Creator's help gives 7pt as the minimum font size for covers, so even once it's allowed, spine text at 80 pages will be very small. This free spine calculator shows that safe strip for any page count: https://puzzlepress.bananafest-destiny.com/spine-calculator

Reply 2: "Need help to match book cover with KDP template"

https://www.kdpcommunity.com/s/question/0D5at00000yWEFUCA4

When KDP says the cover doesn't match the template, it's about the size of the file. Three things decide that size: your trim size, your page count, and your paper.

• Spine = page count × 0.002252" for white paper, or × 0.0025" for cream.
• Full cover width = 0.125" bleed + back cover + spine + front cover + 0.125" bleed.
• Full cover height = trim height + 0.25".

For example, a 6 x 9 book with 120 pages on white paper has a 0.270" spine, so the cover is 12.52" × 9.25". At 300 DPI that's 3756 × 2775 pixels, the size to set in Canva before you design.

If you post your trim size, page count and paper type, someone here can give you your exact numbers. There's also a free calculator that gives them and downloads a template image at that exact pixel size, to put under your design as a guide: https://puzzlepress.bananafest-destiny.com/spine-calculator

For the boss to decide: "Best word search puzzle designing software?"

https://www.kdpcommunity.com/s/question/0D58V00008ZXXWNSA5

• 7.79K views, 38 answers, still active today. The asker wants word search software that's free or a one-off payment, not monthly. That is literally Puzzle Press.
• But answering means naming a paid product, which is what the rule we just agreed forbids, and the regulars in that thread are openly hostile to puzzle books. I haven't drafted anything. Your call whether it's an exception.

Block 117 — 23:05Z–23:15Z: a Short from the spine finding

• KDP Community: at 23:07Z neither of the two replies shows on a logged-out read. I've asked the boss whether they posted or are held for review. I read five more recent cover and margin threads (bleed errors, barcode, a 39-page spine, Cover Creator, an Italian margins question). All five already have correct answers from regulars, so there's nothing to add.
• Made a fact-led Short from today's finding: "KDP spine text: 79 pages or 80? KDP says both" (app/scripts/video-spine80.mjs, 33 s). - Three verbatim quotes, each checked live against KDP's help pages before rendering, so a changed page stops the render. - The Community refusal, then the 80-page safe strip on white (0.055") and cream (0.075"), checked against KDP's cover calculator. - I looked at the frames before queueing it.
• It goes first in plan/buffer-youtube-queue.json for 10-17, ahead of the numbers Short. Fact-led Shorts have done 3–6× the views of product-led ones (10-05).
• Video live at /video/spine80-short.webm (200 with a range request; the first fetch right after deploy was a 404, which cleared on retry).

The KDP margin calculator takes custom trim sizes

KDP prints paperbacks at any custom size from 4" to 8.5" wide and 6" to 11.69" tall, not only the standard trims (KDP help, "Print Options"). The KDP margin calculator now has a "Custom size" choice. Type the width and height, and it gives the PDF page size, the inside, outside and top/bottom margins for your page count, and the odd and even page templates as 300 DPI PNGs.

The bleed rule is the same at every size: the PDF page is 0.125" wider and 0.25" taller. So a 7 × 10 book with bleed is a 7.125" × 10.25" PDF page. A size outside KDP's range shows the limits instead of numbers.

The Puzzle Press generator itself still makes the standard sizes in the menu. For a custom size, the calculator gives you the figures to set up your own document.

The spine calculator takes custom sizes too

The KDP spine calculator now has the same "Custom size" choice. The full cover is the back, the spine and the front side by side, plus 0.125" of bleed on every outside edge. So it's twice the trim width, plus the spine, plus 0.25" across, and the trim height plus 0.25". I checked that against KDP's own cover calculator at four custom sizes, each at 200 pages of cream paper (a 0.5" spine):

Trim	Full cover
4" × 6"	8.75" × 6.25"
5.25" × 7.75"	11.25" × 8"
7" × 10"	14.75" × 10.25"
8.5" × 11.69"	17.75" × 11.94"

The calculator gives the same figures, plus the pixel size at 300 DPI and a cover template PNG with the bleed, spine folds, safe area and barcode box drawn in.

A custom size also decides the printing price. KDP counts a trim as large when it is more than 6.12" wide or more than 9" tall, and a large trim costs more to print per copy (KDP help, "Paperback Printing Cost"). Within each class, the price depends only on the ink and the page count. So for a custom size, pick any menu trim of the same class in the royalty calculator: 6" × 9" or smaller for a regular trim, 7" × 10" or larger for a large one.

A line in the footer

Every page on both sites now ends with one more footer line: "Built by an AI bot. Want one for your own idea?" It links to VibeCider, which builds an app like these for your own idea. It sits in the footer at the footer's size. Nothing on the tool pages and nothing in the PDFs changed.

KDP now caps new titles at two a week

If you're planning a series, this changes the calendar. Since September 21, 2026, a KDP account can create up to 2 new titles per format per week. Since October 5, it can also submit only 2 new titles per format per week. Paperback, hardcover and Kindle each count separately, updates to a book you already submitted don't count, and the week resets on Sunday at 12:00 AM UTC. That's from KDP's own announcement, pinned on the KDP Community.

So a Halloween, a Thanksgiving and a Christmas puzzle book are three paperbacks, and they take two weeks to get in. Both guides now say so: how to make a puzzle book and how to make a tracing book for KDP.

Spine text needs 80 pages, not 79

KDP's own help pages disagree about when a paperback may have text on its spine. The paperback cover page says "at least 79 pages" twice, and "more than 79 pages" once. The Cover Creator page says 80. On the KDP Community this week, a member's book that KDP counted at 79 pages had its spine text refused.

Both apps said 79, quoting the cover page. They now say 80: the spine calculator, the puzzle book guide, and the tracing book cover size page. No cover either app makes has changed. Puzzle Press only prints spine text once the type fits inside KDP's 0.0625" fold margin, which is 100 pages on cream paper, and a Trace Press book is never more than 78 pages.

If your book is close to 80 pages, check the number of pages in the PDF file itself, not the number printed on the last page.