# Write and format a nonfiction book for KDP as an indie author Indie nonfiction authors use Chapbook either to draft a book against an outline they approve or to typeset a manuscript they already wrote, free to import. It exports an EPUB, a KDP-sized paperback interior with a wrap cover, and a Word file for an editor. It also records how much you wrote by hand, to help you answer KDP's AI question. You upload to KDP yourself, and KDP decides. Last reviewed 30 October 2026. Web page: https://chapbook.ink/for/nonfiction-authors/ ## What nonfiction authors make with Chapbook - Nonfiction book: A short practical book drafted chapter by chapter against your outline, or your own manuscript typeset word for word, as an EPUB and a KDP-sized paperback. - Workbook: A companion workbook with exercises from the book, as a paperback of its own or a free PDF for readers who sign up on your page. - Lead magnet: A free chapter or short guide, given away from a page or linked from your book, so that readers can reach you directly as well as through a store. ## Made with Chapbook: Slow Money Slow Money: What a family bakery taught me about pricing, patience and staying small, by Rosa Almeida. Nonfiction book, 9,273 words, 37 pages. A sample generated from one brief and exported unedited; it is not a customer's book. Read every page: https://chapbook.ink/examples/bakery/ The brief: > Twenty years of running a two-shop family bakery: the decisions about price, growth and hours that kept it small and solvent. Promise: A clear-eyed account of how a small business stays small on purpose, with the numbers and rules of thumb that made it work. Reader: A small-business owner weighing a second location, a price rise, or a loan. Voice: First person, narrative chapters that each end with what the author would tell a friend; a fictional family, bakery and town; no invented statistics beyond the bakery's own illustrative numbers. The outline the planner proposed: 1. Prologue: The Second Oven (585 words) 2. The First Price Rise (1,250 words) 3. The Loan We Did Not Take (1,101 words) 4. The Second Shop, and Why Not a Third (1,186 words) 5. Hours, and the Cost of Being Open (1,085 words) 6. The Wholesale Account We Let Go (1,142 words) 7. Hiring Family and Paying Them Properly (1,216 words) 8. What the Numbers Said Each January (1,179 words) 9. Epilogue: Small on Purpose (478 words) ## “Amazon and AI.” This is the first thing to settle, so here are KDP’s terms, not ours. KDP’s [Content Guidelines](https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200672390) ask you to declare AI-generated text, images and translations, even if you edited them heavily afterwards. They don’t ask you to disclose AI-assisted content that you created yourself and improved with a tool. The free [disclosure helper](/tools/kdp-ai-disclosure-helper/) walks through those definitions, last checked on 29 October 2026. It isn’t legal advice. Inside the app, the KDP listing shows what your book’s history records: about how much of the final text you wrote or rewrote by hand, with the count behind it. Pasted and imported text is counted apart, because Chapbook can’t tell who wrote it. The figure doesn’t answer the question for you, and it doesn’t try to. It gives you something more honest to go on than memory. There’s also a limit on how fast you can publish. Since 21 September 2026, KDP allows 2 new titles per format per week, as [this guide](/guides/kdp-weekly-title-limit/) explains. For one careful book, that limit won’t be what holds you back. ## “I want to write it myself.” Good. Then you can use Chapbook only for what comes after. **I have a draft** takes your Word, Markdown or text files, splits them into chapters at the main headings and keeps your words, footnotes and a Word file’s pictures. The history then shows the text as imported, not as written by the assistant or by you in the editor. You can also choose **I’ll write it myself** at the outline, or draft one chapter and write the rest. Nobody has to use the AI part, and nothing will rewrite a line unless you ask. Any change you ask for arrives as a suggestion to accept or reject. If you do let it draft, your voice has to come from somewhere. Up to 5 pieces of your own writing make up a voice profile, and your real stories and costs go in as sources, because a book like the one in the brief is only as good as those. A draft can state a wrong fact with confidence, so check every claim. The [read-through](/manual/write-and-edit/) points to exact places, but it doesn’t replace your own check. ## From manuscript to KDP files Once the text is right, Chapbook makes the files: - **Ebook:** an EPUB 3 and a cover at 1,600 × 2,560 pixels. - **Paperback:** an interior at a KDP trim with mirrored margins and chapters on right-hand pages, and a wrap cover whose spine follows the page count and paper. Each gets a preflight report naming any problem by page. The spine only carries text above 79 pages, and the free [spine calculator](/tools/kdp-spine-calculator/) works out the same sizes. - **Editor:** a Word document with the book’s fonts and page size, for someone who wants tracked changes. - **Listing:** a description, keywords and categories laid out in the order of KDP’s form, with a [royalty calculation](/tools/kdp-royalty-calculator/) you can check yourself. It tells you what each sale would earn at a price you set, not how many you will sell. All of it is KDP-sized, not KDP-approved. KDP reviews every book, so open the files in its previewer and order a printed proof. ## The sample on this page Slow Money is first-person narrative nonfiction: twenty years of a fictional family bakery’s decisions about price, debt and hours, with its illustrative numbers and a closing word to a friend in each chapter. It was generated from one brief and exported without editing, so read it as a first draft rather than as a finished book. At 5,000 to 40,000 words, the kind is built for short books: this one is near the low end, and the default is 25,000. ## What it does not do Chapbook has no hardcover, no fiction and no store accounts of its own. It doesn’t upload to KDP, assign an ISBN or promise acceptance, rank or sales, and it doesn’t proofread as a person would. It writes in English, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese (Brazil), Italian and Dutch, in left-to-right Latin script only. ## A brief for nonfiction authors > A practical book, led by my own story, about restoring an old house on a modest budget over ten years: which jobs to do first, which to learn and which to hire out, how to read a quote, and how to live in a house while it's being fixed. Promise: the reader can make a ten-year plan for their own house with their own numbers. Reader: a first-time owner of an older house who has just found out what the roof will cost. Voice: first person, dry and honest; each chapter is one decision and ends with what I'd tell a friend. I will add my real stories and costs as sources. No invented statistics, and mark any invented example as fictional. Open it in Chapbook: https://chapbook.ink/start/?type=nonfiction&topic=A+practical+book%2C+led+by+my+own+story%2C+about+restoring+an+old+house+on+a+modest+budget+over+ten+years%3A+which+jobs+to+do+first%2C+which+to+learn+and+which+to+hire+out%2C+how+to+read+a+quote%2C+and+how+to+live+in+a+house+while+it%27s+being+fixed.+Promise%3A+the+reader+can+make+a+ten-year+plan+for+their+own+house+with+their+own+numbers.+Reader%3A+a+first-time+owner+of+an+older+house+who+has+just+found+out+what+the+roof+will+cost.+Voice%3A+first+person%2C+dry+and+honest%3B+each+chapter+is+one+decision+and+ends+with+what+I%27d+tell+a+friend.+I+will+add+my+real+stories+and+costs+as+sources.+No+invented+statistics%2C+and+mark+any+invented+example+as+fictional.&ref=for-nonfiction-authors ## Questions ### Does Amazon KDP allow books written with AI? KDP asks you to declare AI-generated text, images and translations when you publish, and its reviewers decide what goes on sale. Its Content Guidelines do not require disclosing AI-assisted content, as checked on 29 October 2026. Chapbook can't promise acceptance. ### Is a Chapbook paperback file ready to upload to KDP? It is KDP-sized, not KDP-approved. You get an interior and a wrap cover at a KDP trim, each with a preflight report. Open them in KDP's previewer and order a printed proof before you publish. ### How does Chapbook help with KDP's AI question? Your book's history records how much of the final text you wrote or rewrote by hand and shows that beside KDP's own definitions. Text pasted or imported is counted apart. The answer you give KDP is your decision. ### Can I use Chapbook to format a book I wrote myself? Yes. Choose “I have a draft” and add your Word, Markdown or text files. Your words go in exactly as written, importing costs no credits, and the AI features stay optional. Files without the watermark need a paid plan. ### Does Chapbook publish my book to Amazon? No. Chapbook prepares the files, the KDP listing text and a checklist, and you upload them to your own KDP account. Store accounts, the ISBN if you use one, and the decision to publish stay with you. ## Sources - [Amazon KDP, “Content Guidelines”, section “Artificial intelligence (AI) content” (checked 29 October 2026)](https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200672390) - [Amazon KDP, “Update on KDP Title Creation Limits” (checked 29 October 2026)](https://www.kdpcommunity.com/s/article/KDP-Title-Creation-Limits-Update) - [Amazon KDP, “Paperback Submission Guidelines” (checked 30 October 2026)](https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201857950)