How to Make a Maze Book for Amazon KDP

A maze book for Amazon KDP is simple in content and demanding in print: every page is a drawing made of thin lines, so line thickness, margins and the page count matter more than they do for a book of words. This article walks through the choices you make in LogikLand's Maze assistant and the KDP checks that go with them, using numbers calculated from the code.

How many pages a maze book needs

The Maze assistant puts one maze on each page and one solution on each page, so a book has 1 title page, the "how to play" guide (2 pages), N mazes and N solutions: 3 + 2N pages. KDP requires at least 24 pages and rounds the count up to an even number if necessary. (source: KDP Help, Paperback Submission Guidelines) That means 11 mazes is the smallest book (25 pages, rounded to 26). With black ink on white paper, a 6 x 9 inch paperback can have 24 to 828 pages and an 8.5 x 11 inch paperback 24 to 590 pages. (source: KDP Help, Set Trim Size, Bleed, and Margins)

Choosing grid sizes

The assistant accepts grids from 5 x 5 to 40 x 40, and up to 500 mazes in one book, within your page limit. In multi-level mode each level has its own size: 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40 from Very easy to Extreme, which is the same table the mixed book uses. Our suggestion, not a KDP rule: if your readers are adults, begin the book at 15 or 20 and end at 30 to 40, so that the first pages teach the idea.

Walls, blocks and the 0.75 point rule

Amazon says lines need a minimum thickness of 0.75 point. (source: KDP Help, Paperback Submission Guidelines) The assistant draws a maze in one of two styles. In the Walls style every wall is a 2-point line, well above the minimum at any size. In the Blocks style each wall is a filled bar whose thickness is 10 percent of the width of a cell, so it shrinks as the grid grows. If the maze fills the width between half-inch margins, the bars measure:

Everything stays above 0.75 point, but a 40 x 40 maze in the Blocks style on a 6 x 9 inch page comes within 0.15 point of the limit. If you change the margins to larger values, the bars get thinner. For the biggest grids, prefer the Walls style or the larger page.

Shapes and circular mazes

Two features set a maze book apart from a plain grid. The first is outlines: the assistant can draw the maze inside a circle, a star, a heart and ten other shapes, alone or mixed, and a shaped maze is always square on the page. Each shape has a minimum size, from 9 for the circle up to 17 for the star and the dog. The second is the separate Circular Mazes assistant, where the maze is made of rings: 8 rings at Easy, 12 at Medium, 16 at Hard and 20 at Expert.

Each circular maze usually takes a page, and at the Easy and Medium levels you can fit two on an 8.5 x 11 page. The PDFs are heavier because of the curves, so check the file size before you upload. See how to solve a circular maze for the method.

Solutions and ink

The solution pages come at the end of the book, with the path drawn in the colour you choose. The default path is red. If you print the interior in black ink, a coloured line turns into a grey one. Our suggestion, not a KDP rule: pick a dark path colour and look at the solution page converted to greyscale before you upload.

KDP checks before you upload

• The top, bottom and outside margins must be at least 0.25 inch without bleed, and the inside margin grows with the page count. (source: KDP Help, Set Trim Size, Bleed, and Margins) The default margin of the maze assistant is half an inch.
• Fonts must be embedded and images should be at least 300 DPI. (source: KDP Help, Paperback Submission Guidelines) The characters of the kids maze are drawn as small images, so check them in the preview.
• Spine text needs at least 79 pages. (source: KDP Help, Create a Paperback Cover)
• Amazon says puzzle books are generally not low-content, with exceptions. (source: KDP Help, Low-Content Books) A regular paperback needs an ISBN. (source: KDP Help, Get an ISBN)

Rights and where to start

The maze sample generator on the maze page is free and its files are for personal use. To sell a book you need the PRO or EXPERT plan, which include commercial rights. Create a free account to open the assistant, or try the maze book generator page first. For children's books, read mazes for kids by age. This article makes no promise about sales.

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