How to Make a Logic Puzzle Book for Amazon KDP

A logic puzzle book is a book of grids that are solved by reasoning, with no word list to know and no luck: Hitori, Binary puzzles, Nonograms, Kakuro and their cousins. This guide explains how to plan one for Amazon KDP with the LogikLand assistants, and which choices to make before you generate it.

What a logic puzzle book is here

LogikLand has eight logic puzzles beyond Sudoku: Binary puzzle, Futoshiki, Calcudoku, Hitori, Kakuro, Nonogram, Sea Battle and Mine Finder. Each has its own assistant in the dashboard and makes a book of one type. These are our own names for the puzzles. Our suggestion, not a KDP rule: use the same names in your title and description, and explain the puzzle in one sentence, because a shopper who has never seen a Hitori will not search for it.

Choose one puzzle type

The type decides the size of the grids, the number of grids per page and how long the how-to-play pages are. These are the level sizes of the generators and the page limits of the assistants:

Pick the type from the reader. Binary puzzles and Hitori are quick to learn, and are the easiest to start with. Kakuro and Nonogram need more patience, and a Nonogram 25x25 is a long solve. Read the rules of the type you choose first: Hitori rules, Nonogram rules or Binary puzzle rules.

Why a logic puzzle must be solvable by deduction

In a logic puzzle, a solver who has to guess is a solver who stops. The generators build each grid and then test it with a solver that only uses deduction, the kind of reasoning a person does. If the solver cannot finish the grid, the grid is thrown away. This also means each grid has exactly one solution. Mine Finder and Sea Battle are checked in the same way, with the reasonings of the level: a Mine Finder grid at the medium level needs a comparison of two numbers, and at the expert level the total number of mines, never a guess.

Three first-level pages

Here are three grids at the easiest level, made by the generators, with their solutions. Each one was solved by the deduction solver before it was kept.

The rules pages

A logic puzzle is not self-explanatory, so the rules pages carry real weight. For these puzzles, the assistant gives a detailed how-to-play guide with an example grid and steps by default: it is two or three pages depending on the puzzle and the page size. You can choose one short page or none. Our suggestion, not a KDP rule: keep the guide. Readers who do not understand the first puzzle will not buy the next book.

Counting the pages

The assistant counts the pages as: one title page, the guide pages, the puzzle pages, one Solutions page, and the solution pages. Take a Hitori book of 40 grids, 2 grids per puzzle page, 4 solutions per page and a 2-page guide:

• 1 title page
• 2 guide pages
• 20 puzzle pages (40 grids at 2 per page)
• 1 Solutions page
• 10 solution pages (40 grids at 4 per page)

That is 34 pages. On the FREE plan the limit is 50 pages, on PRO 100 and on EXPERT 200, and the page counter shows the estimate as you set the book up. With 1 grid per puzzle page, the same book is 54 pages, so you would need PRO.

Small grids on a small page

The limits of the table come from readability. In 6 x 9 inches, a 9x9 Hitori at 4 per page has cells of about 5 mm, which is why the assistant allows 2 at most. A 25x25 Nonogram alone on a 6 x 9 page has cells of about 4 mm. A 12x12 Kakuro has sums of about 6 points in that format, so we advise one grid per page. If your readers are older, choose 8.5 x 11 inches and the smaller levels.

Before you upload to KDP

• The inside margin is 0.375 inch up to 150 pages and 0.5 inch from 151 to 300 pages. (source: KDP Help, Set Trim Size, Bleed, and Margins)
• Lines of a grid must be at least 0.75 point thick, and gray cells in black ink need at least a 10% fill. (source: KDP Help, Paperback Submission Guidelines)
• The title on the cover must match the title in your book details, and it must not contain generic keywords repeated or references to sales rank. (source: KDP Help, Metadata Guidelines for Books)

Hitori and Nonogram shade cells in the solutions, so check a printed proof of the solution pages. For the answer pages in general, see where to put answer keys.

Questions