The usual suspects
When a cover is flagged, it's rarely about taste — it's about technical specs. Work through these in order; one of them is almost certainly the culprit.
1. Wrong dimensions for your trim + page count
A full wrap cover must equal: back cover + spine + front cover + bleed, sized to your exact trim and page count. If any of those are off, the cover won't line up. Recalculate with the cover size calculator and rebuild at the correct size.
2. Low resolution
Design at 300 DPI. A cover that's fine on screen can print soft or pixelated. Multiply your full cover inches by 300 to get the target pixel size, and make sure every image you place is high-resolution to begin with.
Upscaling won't save a small image
Stretching a small photo to fit doesn't add real detail — it just looks blurry at print size. Start with high-resolution source art.3. Spine text on a spine that's too thin
Spine text is only safe once the spine is wide enough — generally around 80+ pages. Below that, text can drift onto the front or back. Check your spine width with the spine width calculator and remove spine text if the book is too thin.
4. Missing or incorrect bleed
If your art is meant to reach the edge, it must extend into the bleed; otherwise you get thin white slivers after trimming. If it's not set up for bleed at all, edge art can be flagged. See the bleed & margins guide.
5. Content in the barcode area
Important text or detailed art in the lower-right back cover can clash with the printed barcode. Keep that corner clear — details in the barcode placement guide.
6. Text too close to the trim
Titles and author names placed too near the edge can be clipped. Keep them inside the safe zone. You can also sanity-check legibility with our cover self-assessment.
Always preview before publishing
Check your files in Amazon's previewer and against an official template from the KDP cover template generator before you submit.How KDPBuilder helps
KDPBuilder helps you prepare a full wrap cover sized to your exact trim, page count and spine, at print resolution, with text kept inside the safe zone and the barcode corner left clear. It can't promise Amazon's decision — no tool can — but it helps you submit files that meet the common requirements the first time.