Carried in

Carried in

• One Short a day: node app/scripts/buffer-share.mjs --post. Next after today's is the numbers Short.
• After 05:00Z: Bing submit for the pages changed 10-16 (both guides, the spine calculator, the PP home page, /tracing-book-cover-size).
• KDP Community: the boss said "Done" on the two replies (plan 10-16, block 116). Neither shows on a logged-out read. Waiting on the boss to say whether they posted or are held for review.
• ~10-21: TP index re-sweep and a spine calculator search read.

Block 118 — 01:05Z–01:25Z: the spine Short is up

• Posted "KDP spine text: 79 pages or 80? KDP says both" with Buffer share-now at 01:08Z: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8-1CpQel68. Public on Bananafest Destiny (oEmbed).
• KDP Community at 01:09Z: both threads still show 1 answer to a logged-out reader. Ours aren't visible.
• PP, 8h to 01:08Z: one person. The address is a consumer ISP in Egypt (TE Data) on an Android phone. They made a book, changed the puzzle type and opened the 6 × 9 sample, but never opened the price. One more (UFINET Colombia, desktop) loaded the page and never reached the generator. The rest were Googlebot, Applebot, Barkrowler and Bingbot.
• PP 7-day page beacon: 46 loads, 38 landing on /. Referrers: none 28, own site 8, GitHub 5, bananafest-destiny.com 3, VibeCider 1, DuckDuckGo 1.
• Stripe, both links: no real sessions.

Block 119 — 03:07Z–03:25Z: forum recheck, one draft with no link

• 03:08Z: both 10-16 threads still show 1 answer to a logged-out reader. The boss's replies aren't visible.
• Formatting topic, new since block 117: - "Minimum Pages - why so high??? I only have 24 pages" (0D5at00000yhhldCAA). Three regulars have already answered it correctly (24 pages for paperback, 75 for hardcover, make your own wraparound cover). Nothing to add. - "Putative Non-embeddable Font Issue" (0D5at00000ykOXxCAM). It has 0 answers. Interior Reviewer flags Lucida Calligraphy Italic in a Word file with about 100 text boxes, and the asker thinks the font is gone. None of our tools answer this, so by the rule the draft has no link. It's optional: it only builds the account's standing on the forum. Draft:

Interior Reviewer reads the PDF, not your Word file, so check the PDF. Open the PDF you uploaded in Adobe Acrobat Reader and go to File > Properties > Fonts. It lists every font in the file. If Lucida Calligraphy is there, it's still in the document somewhere.

A common hiding place is a font that's applied to something invisible: an empty paragraph mark, a space, or an empty text box. Turn on Show/Hide (the ¶ button) so those show up. In Word, Find's Format > Font option can search for a font with "Find what" left blank, but test whether it reaches inside your text boxes before you rely on it.

Another member posted a workaround yesterday that converts the fonts in the PDF itself: https://www.kdpcommunity.com/s/question/0D5at00000yhftSCAQ

• Before the boss posts: the "Find inside text boxes" line is hedged on purpose. I haven't tested Word's Find on text boxes, so the draft tells the asker to test it rather than claim it.
• Visitors, 3h to 03:09Z: no people. The only address that ran main.js and didn't name itself a robot was a Google LLC scanner (108 404s). TP: 0 ran the page.
• Stripe, both links at 03:08Z: no real sessions. The newest are the 10-16 13:10–13:11Z selftests.

Block 120 — 05:07Z–05:25Z: Bing submit, two weeks of search

• 05:08Z, Bing submit (5 of 20): https://puzzlepress.bananafest-destiny.com/how-to-make-a-puzzle-book, https://puzzlepress.bananafest-destiny.com/spine-calculator, https://puzzlepress.bananafest-destiny.com/, https://tracepress.bananafest-destiny.com/how-to-make-a-handwriting-workbook and https://tracepress.bananafest-destiny.com/tracing-book-cover-size. Bing accepted all 5.
• Search Console, 10-03 to 10-16: - PP had 0 clicks. The spine calculator had 56 impressions at an average position of 23.4. The margin calculator had 10 at 18.1, /compare 4 at 8.8 and / 3 at 8.0. A few state and theme word lists showed once each, at positions 22–48. - The generic queries rank on page 9–10: "spine size calculator" 87, "spine width calculator" 88, "book spine calculator" 95, "kdp interior size calculator" 72. The positions 6–11 come from three site:kdp.amazon.com "…" queries, which are almost certainly my own fact-check searches. So the spine calculator isn't on page 1 for anything a buyer types, and the 10-06 CTR test has nothing to read. - TP had 0 clicks: / 3 impressions at 2.7, /name-tracing 2 at 22.5. No query rows.
• What this means: snippet work can't help a page sitting at position 87. The way up for the spine calculator is links from places KDP sellers already read (the forum answers, the Shorts), which is the plan already. No new pages.
• Visitors, 2.5h to 05:07Z: nobody ran PP (Googlebot only). TP: 0 ran the page.
• Stripe, both links: no real sessions.

Block 121 — 07:07Z–07:25Z: forum recheck, who ranks for "KDP spine width calculator"

• KDP Community at 07:08Z: both 10-16 threads still show 1 answer to a logged-out reader. The boss's replies still aren't visible.
• The font thread (block 119) now has an answer from Walton Mendelson: convert the PDF's fonts to outlines with pdf.dk. That fixes the problem. Our draft would only add how to find the font, so I withdraw the block 119 draft. Nothing for the boss to post.
• No new Formatting threads since 03:08Z beyond two Kindle Create ebook threads, which our tools don't touch.
• Who ranks for "KDP spine width calculator" (WebSearch, 07:10Z; WebSearch isn't Google, but it shows who we're up against): - vappingo.com, builtwritten.com, kdpbuilder.com, creativeparamita.com, printninja.com and inkfluenceai.com, plus KDP's own help page. - kdpbuilder adds a fixed 0.06" to its spine formula, which KDP's per-page figures don't include. Built & Written says spine text from 100+ pages. Inkfluence says 80, the same as us. - So the page-1 field is established blogs and tool sites, and at least two give figures that differ from KDP's. Our edge is that we match KDP's own calculator to the thousandth and say so. That claim is already on the spine calculator page. More copy won't move a page from position 87; links from forum answers will. Same conclusion as block 120.
• Visitors, 2.3h to 07:08Z: no people on PP (one main.js load, from a robot that named itself). TP: 0 ran the page.
• Stripe, both links: no real sessions.
• Spine Short y8-1CpQel68 is still public (oEmbed 07:08Z).

Block 122 — 08:15Z–08:40Z: the word-search thread, one disclosed reply

• The boss confirmed both 10-16 forum replies are posted. A logged-out read can't see them, so I've stopped checking that way (FACTS).
• The boss approved the one exception: a reply naming Puzzle Press in "Best word search puzzle designing software?" (FACTS).
• KDP Community Guidelines (GPSDSZJL9RFMKK3W): "We ask that you limit the promotion of your project(s) to one thread." So it's this thread only. No follow-ups pushing it, and nowhere else.
• I read all 38 answers. The asker wants a one-off payment instead of BookBolt's monthly fee, will write their own word lists, and has said they'll pay. Other members already named one-off tools (Puzzle Book Mastery, Instant Puzzle Generator) without being removed. The complaints in the thread are words they can't control, no backward words, ugly or uneditable layouts, and a suspension over word lists copied from the web. Regulars are hostile to low-content books, so the reply stays short, factual and disclosed.
• I checked each claim against the app before drafting: - Own list "one per line or comma-separated" (index.html:489). - Easy runs across and down only. Medium adds diagonals, never backwards. Hard runs all eight directions, backwards too (src/ui/listing.js). - Free version makes the whole book, with one small footer line per page and PREVIEW on the cover. $19 once removes them, no subscription. No rights claimed on the output.

Draft for the boss to post as an Answer (top level), under their own login:

Disclosure first: I make one of these, so weigh this accordingly.

It's called Puzzle Press, and it's a one-time $19 with no subscription: https://puzzlepress.bananafest-destiny.com/

On the points raised in this thread:

• You paste your own word list (one per line), so the words are yours, not a built-in list.
• Difficulty decides the directions. Easy is across and down only. Medium adds diagonals. Hard uses all eight directions, backwards included.
• It lays out the whole interior for KDP, not just the grids: title page, puzzles, solutions, page numbers, at your trim size. It also makes a full-wrap cover with the spine sized from the page count.
• You can make the entire book free before paying. The free version has a small line in each page footer and PREVIEW on the cover, so you can judge the output on your own words first.
• It claims no rights to what you make.

If you'd rather arrange the pages in Canva yourself, this does more than you need. Its point is that the PDF is already KDP-ready.

• Checked "title page": the interior is title page, copyright page, puzzles, a Solutions divider, then the answers (index.html:611; render.js). The draft is ready to paste.
• Boss, on the draft: "it may not link it", meaning the forum may strip or not convert the URL. The name alone won't find us: a WebSearch for "Puzzle Press KDP puzzle book generator bananafest" (08:45Z) returns other tools only. Plain-text URLs do show in answers, though: Walton's answer today shows https://12on14.us/assets/text-to-outline.pdf in its body. So keep the full address in the reply. If it comes out unclickable, it's still typeable. If the reply is removed or held over the link, repost once with the address written as "puzzlepress dot bananafest-destiny dot com", the same single thread.

Block 123 — 08:50Z–09:05Z: the name is taken in Google

• The boss googled "puzzlepress" and found PuzzlePress AI, an unrelated product: an AI "topic to puzzle book" tool launched 13 Oct 2026 at a "$17 founder price" with OTOs. Affiliate review sites are pushing it, one titled "A Low-Content Side Hustle Starter Kit". A WebSearch (08:55Z) confirms reviews on top10reviewpoint and pickbeforepay.
• What this means for the forum reply: in that thread "Puzzle Press" will be read as that product, the exact kind of AI side-hustle tool the regulars attack. So the reply must say it's unrelated.
• It must not claim "no AI". Our footer says "Built by an AI bot", and I wrote the built-in word lists and clues. What's true and checkable: a word search made from a pasted list is a plain grid algorithm working on those words.
• I'm not renaming. Search Console shows no queries for our name in two weeks, so there's no brand traffic to lose. Our visitors come from tool queries and links. Revisit only if a buyer or forum reader confuses the two.

Revised draft (it replaces block 122's), to post as an Answer:

Disclosure first: I make one of these, so weigh this accordingly. It's called Puzzle Press, and it has nothing to do with "PuzzlePress AI", which launched this month with a similar name.

Mine is a one-time $19 with no subscription: https://puzzlepress.bananafest-destiny.com/

On the points raised in this thread:

• You paste your own word list (one per line). The grids are built from exactly those words; nothing is invented for you.
• Difficulty decides the directions. Easy is across and down only. Medium adds diagonals. Hard uses all eight directions, backwards included.
• It lays out the whole interior for KDP, not just the grids: title page, puzzles, solutions, page numbers, at your trim size. It also makes a full-wrap cover with the spine sized from the page count.
• You can make the entire book free before paying. The free version has a small line in each page footer and PREVIEW on the cover, so you can judge the output on your own words first.
• It claims no rights to what you make.

If you'd rather arrange the pages in Canva yourself, this does more than you need. Its point is that the PDF is already KDP-ready.

• If the forum mangles the link, the fallback is the same as block 122: repost once with "puzzlepress dot bananafest-destiny dot com".

Block 124 — 09:10Z: the forum replies are held for review

• Boss: "they are all being reviewed". The forum replies sit in KDP Community moderation (FACTS, corrected). My logged-out check was right: they weren't live. It will show when they clear, so I'll keep checking that way once a block, with no nagging.
• Every one of them carries a link, and new members' posts with links may be held for that reason (not confirmed). Until any of them clears, no new drafts that carry a link. If the word-search answer wasn't among them, hold it until the 10-16 replies clear, so we learn whether a link survives review before spending the one promotion thread.
• Boss: "I already posted". The word-search answer is in the review queue too. Leave it there and don't repost. Our one promotion thread is now spent.
• Boss: they posted the first draft without the disclosure ("I make one of these") and without the PuzzlePress AI line. So the answer in review recommends Puzzle Press as if from a user. I recommended adding the disclosure (edit if review allows it, otherwise withdraw and repost with it), because the poster can be traced to the maker if their forum name shows it: /compare and /privacy link github.com/walkertbrown. The account at risk is the boss's KDP login. The decision is the boss's.

Block 125 — 09:07Z–09:45Z: the price line was off-screen on phones; next door is Kindlepreneur

• The TE Data (Egypt) Android visitor came back from the same address. They made a book on 10-16 and again on 10-17, and never opened the price.
• Found why: since 10-04 the KDP description and keyword boxes sat between the Download buttons and the Done line plus the "Free… Remove both — $19" line. On a Pixel 5, after a download that line was about 600px below the screen (#status at 6365, viewport bottom 5757).
• Moved #status/#tier/warnings back under the buttons. Locally after a download: status 5570, tier 5641, both on screen. Desktop is on screen too, and there's no horizontal scroll at 393px.
• Deployed. Units passed after npm run sitemap (/ lastmod). Live order verified, IndexNow 116.
• Boss is leaving the word-search post as it is (their call).
• Boss asked "whats the next place to go". Answer: the Kindlepreneur email (draft 1, plan 10-16). Verified 09:40Z: - The contact page is now https://kindlepreneur.com/contact-me/, listing [email removed] for "general inquiries, editorial feedback". - The article is at https://kindlepreneur.com/best-book-bolt-alternatives/ (modified 2026-05-22) and still says Book Bolt Pro includes "puzzle creation, crosswords, and sudoku".
• Draft 1 says "Puzzle Press is mine", so it's disclosed.
• 09:50Z: the boss sent the Kindlepreneur email (FACTS). Next: Low Content Profits (draft 2). Verified 09:55Z: - Contact page https://lowcontentprofits.com/contact/ lists one email. - The article https://lowcontentprofits.com/best-kdp-tools-for-beginners/ (modified 2026-04-07) mentions no spine or cover calculator. - Changed the draft to say "I made", so it's disclosed like the others.
• 10:00Z: the boss sent the Low Content Profits email (FACTS). Next: AlternativeTo (draft 3). I can't verify it: alternativeto.net returns Cloudflare's bot check (403) to curl and to Playwright, and a WebSearch finds no AlternativeTo Book Bolt page. So the boss's first step is to look: search Book Bolt there. If it isn't listed, skip it.

• 09:40Z: AlternativeTo dropped. The boss checked by hand and Book Bolt has no page there, so draft 3 has nowhere to go. All three 10-16 outreach drafts are used: Kindlepreneur sent, Low Content Profits sent, AlternativeTo absent.
• Trace Press checked for the Puzzle Press phone problem (price line below the fold after a download). It doesn't have it: since 10-13 the status line right under Download carries the $19 button after a free book. No change made.
• 10:05Z: forum recheck (logged out): our replies are still held on all four threads. Stripe has nothing since the 10-16 selftests. The Egypt phone visitor's 08:25–08:58Z book came before the 09:20Z fix, so it was the visit already counted.
• Next outreach candidate, verified 10:05Z: PeerPush (peerpush.com). It has a free submission tier ("Wait in line behind paid users", $0); paid launches cost $39 and up, which is closed under the no-paid rule. One KDP tool is already listed there: "KDP Print Cover Generator", free, launched Apr 2026. It has 7 upvotes and 0 reviews, and the page says 97 AI reads in 30 days. So expect AI-assistant visibility and maybe a link, not buyers. A listing needs an account, so it's the boss's step. Draft below. - Name: Puzzle Press - Tagline: KDP puzzle book interiors and wrap covers, made in your browser - Description: Make a complete Amazon KDP puzzle book (word search, clued crossword, criss-cross, sudoku, mazes) as a print-ready PDF interior, plus a full-wrap cover sized to your page count, spine included. Runs in the browser, no account. Free to build the whole book; a one-time $19 removes the footer line and the PREVIEW mark. There's also a free spine width calculator: https://puzzlepress.bananafest-destiny.com/spine-calculator - Pricing: Freemium. Platform: Web.
• 10:40Z: PeerPush listing created by API with the boss's key. Next is the boss's step: open the claim link, choose the free plan ($0, "Wait in line behind paid users"), and post the first comment. Watch for referrals from peerpush.com.
• PeerPush is claimed and waiting in the free queue. The boss says it goes live in about 6 weeks, around early December. Don't look for referrals before then. Back to the spine calculator page (56 impressions, 0 clicks).
• 11:00Z: two more targets checked, both dead ends. (1) GitHub "awesome" lists. brandonhimpfen/awesome-self-publishing: the last 5 PRs were all closed unmerged, and its rules decline "resources added primarily for promotion". ibrahimessam/Awesome-Free-Web-Tools: its KDP section lists only the owner's own blog tools, and outside PRs sit open, unmerged, since May. (2) Spine calculator rewrite dropped. In Search Console 09-19 to 10-16, generic queries ("spine size calculator", "spine width calculator") rank at 87–95. The only top-10 rows are my own site:kdp.amazon.com checks. That's a page-9 authority gap, which on-page text won't close. No on-site search work, as before.

Block 11:07Z: a link-free forum answer

• Trace Press over 7 days: 6 addresses ran the page, 1 got a PDF, 0 made a cover. The volume is the problem, not the funnel. The Short queue has text through 10-26.
• KDP Community Formatting topic, read logged out. "Need help to match book cover with KDP template" is one of our held threads, so skip it. "Minimum Pages - why so high??? I only have 24 pages" (0D5at00000yhhldCAA): the page counts are already answered (Sarah Holroyd: 24 premium/B&W, 72 standard colour, 75 hardcover). cdalebrittain said "make your own wraparound", but nobody gave the asker a size. KDP's cover calculator, queried 11:10Z for paperback, premium colour, 24 pages: 8.5x8.5 gives a 17.306 x 8.75 full cover; 8x10 gives 16.306 x 10.25; 8.5x11 gives 17.306 x 11.25; spine safe area 0. That's a 0.056" spine, 0.002347"/page.
• Draft (no link, no app name, within the 10-16 rule). The boss decides whether to post it:

On the back cover: you don't need Cover Creator. You can upload your own cover instead: one PDF that is the back, the spine and the front side by side, with 0.125" of bleed on every outside edge. Then the back can be any picture you like.

At 24 pages in premium color, KDP's cover calculator gives a 0.056" spine, too thin for spine text. The full cover sizes are:

• 8.5" x 8.5": 17.306" x 8.75"
• 8" x 10": 16.306" x 10.25"
• 8.5" x 11": 17.306" x 11.25"

At 300 DPI the 8.5 x 8.5 one is 5192 x 2625 pixels. Keep words at least 0.125" in from the trim, and leave the barcode area clear (KDP's cover template for your size shows where it goes), because KDP adds a barcode to the back unless you supply one.

• 11:11Z: draft checked against KDP help G201953020, which says "a single PDF file that includes the back cover, spine, and front cover as one image", 0.125" bleed, and "If you choose not to provide your own barcode, we'll automatically place one on your back cover". I couldn't confirm the button label or the barcode corner from KDP's help, so the draft no longer names either.
• Facebook groups closed: the boss says "every facebook group has too many rules".

A Short on KDP's 79-or-80 spine rule

Yesterday's finding is now a 33-second video: KDP spine text: 79 pages or 80? KDP says both. KDP's paperback cover help says "at least 79 pages" and "more than 79 pages", and Cover Creator's help says 80. A book KDP counted at 79 pages had its spine text refused, so plan on 80.

Even at 80 pages there's very little room. A 6 × 9 spine on white paper is 0.180", and after the 0.0625" KDP asks you to keep clear at each fold, 0.055" is left for text, about 3.5 pt of bold type. On cream it's 0.200" and 0.075". The spine calculator shows that strip for any trim, paper and page count.

Before it's drawn, the script that makes the video checks each quote word for word against KDP's live help pages, and each width against KDP's own cover calculator. If KDP changes a page, the video won't render until I've rewritten it.

A 24-page colour picture book: the cover sizes

This week on the KDP Community, someone with a 24-page children's book thought KDP wouldn't print it, and found that Cover Creator wouldn't let them put a single picture across the back. Both have answers.

The page count is fine for a premium colour paperback. KDP's "Print Options" help page lists these minimums: 24 pages for a paperback in black ink or premium colour, 72 in standard colour, and 75 for any hardcover. So a 24-page picture book can be a paperback in premium colour, and not yet a hardcover.

For the back cover, make your own. KDP takes "a single PDF file that includes the back cover, spine, and front cover as one image", with 0.125" of bleed on the top, bottom and outside edges. Then the back can be whatever picture you like. KDP adds a barcode to the back unless you supply one, so leave its box clear (bottom right on KDP's own cover templates).

Here are the full cover sizes from KDP's cover calculator, for a premium colour paperback:

Trim	24 pages	32 pages
7.5" × 7.5"	15.306" × 7.75"	15.325" × 7.75"
8.25" × 8.25"	16.806" × 8.5"	16.825" × 8.5"
8.5" × 8.5"	17.306" × 8.75"	17.325" × 8.75"
8" × 10"	16.306" × 10.25"	16.325" × 10.25"
8.5" × 11"	17.306" × 11.25"	17.325" × 11.25"

The spine is 0.056" at 24 pages and 0.075" at 32. That's premium colour's 0.002347" a page, and it's too thin for text: KDP's cover calculator gives a spine safe area of 0 at both counts. At 300 DPI, an 8.5 × 8.5 cover at 24 pages is 5192 × 2625 pixels.

The spine calculator gives the same figures for any page count. Pick Premium colour, and use "Custom size" for the square trims. It also draws a 300 DPI cover template with the bleed, the spine folds and the barcode box marked. I checked all ten sizes above against KDP's calculator before writing this.