Shoppers judge your book in three seconds at thumbnail size — and Amazon rejects covers that fail its measurements. In this tutorial we design a complete KDP paperback cover in Canva: front, spine and back on one wraparound canvas with the exact spine maths Amazon uses, the barcode zone you must leave clear, and the export that passes the Launch Previewer first try. Plus the matching Kindle ebook cover in five extra minutes.

THE MATHS (save this):

• Cover width = 0.125 + trim + spine + trim + 0.125 (inches)

• Spine: white paper = pages × 0.002252″ · cream = pages × 0.0025″

• 6×9, 120 white pages → 12.52″ × 9.25″ (spine 0.27″)

• Spine text only at 79+ pages, with 0.0625″ clearance each side

• Barcode zone: ~2″ × 1.2″, bottom-right of the back cover

• Ebook cover: 2560 × 1600 px, JPEG

📕 KDP COVER TEMPLATE PACK (editable Canva wrap + ebook cover + guide):

https://geniusjunkie.net/kdp-cover-pack/ — £4.99

🎓 Or FREE with the Template Club (every pack + all future releases):

https://geniusjunkie.net/template-club/

📓 Build the INSIDE of the book (interior tutorial):

https://youtu.be/b8_ZU8ktwYs

CHAPTERS

0:00 What we're building

0:34 The 3-second rule

1:19 The spine maths Amazon uses

2:09 Canvas setup + the three zones

2:50 Build the front cover