How to Write a KDP Cover Brief Before You Generate a Concept

A cover brief is a production document, not a mood. It is the page you can hand to yourself next Tuesday, to a cover concept tool as a reminder of what to type, or to a designer who has never seen the draft. If the page is missing, every new image starts from zero and the series drifts. Write it before you spend a credit, a prompt, or a designer’s hour.

This guide is about the brief itself. It is not a promise that a generated image will rank, sell, or pass a retailer’s review. Amazon KDP’s current paperback cover requirements and content guidelines stay the authority for files and for what you may claim on a listing. ImprintaAI’s book cover tool takes a title, an optional subtitle, a genre, and a style, then returns a concept image you review. It does not ingest a structured brief, calculate a spine, or build a wraparound cover.

Write the reader in one sentence

Start with a sentence a stranger could use to reject the wrong book. “Adults who want a quiet large-print word search” is usable. “Everyone who loves puzzles” is not, because it does not decide type size, contrast, or how playful the art may be. Name the age band if the book is for children. Name the reading context if it matters: a bedside journal, a classroom activity book, a commuter thriller. Leave out your hopes for the catalog. The reader sentence is about the person holding the book, not about your publishing plan.

Add one constraint the reader imposes on the cover. Large print implies a title that stays readable when the thumbnail is small and when the physical book is an arm’s length away. A children’s picture book implies art that a parent can parse in a second, without a subtitle essay. A narrow nonfiction book implies a title that states the job of the book. If you cannot name the constraint, you are not ready to judge an image.

Name the promise the cover has to keep

The promise is the job the book claims to do. A puzzle book promises puzzles of a stated kind and, if you say so, answers. A journal promises pages a person can write on. A nonfiction book promises a subject and a level: introduction, field guide, workbook. Write the promise in the words you are willing to put in the subtitle and the description. If the cover would have to promise a medical result, a payout, or a sales rank to feel exciting, strike those words. They are not a design direction. Health and money topics still need ordinary, accurate labeling. The cover may name the subject. It should not invent an outcome.

Put the promise next to the reader sentence and check them against each other. A calm puzzle imprint and a promise of “extreme brain hacking” are already in conflict. Fix the conflict on the brief. Do not wait for an image to paper over it.

List the genre signals you will allow

Genre signals are the visual habits a shopper uses before they read a word: a dark field and a short title for many thrillers, a face or an object for some romance, a clear instructional title for many how-to books, open space and a large letter for many large-print interiors. You do not have to copy the most common cover in the category. You do have to know which signals you are willing to use so the book can be recognized as belonging on that shelf.

Write three allowed signals and three refused ones. Allowed might be “one object, cream background, title in two lines.” Refused might be “no blood, no stock-photo couple, no more than two typefaces.” The refused list is as useful as the allowed list, because concept images wander. When you later pick a genre and a style in the cover tool — Professional, Minimalist, Bold and Colorful, Dark and Moody, Elegant, Vintage, Modern, or Illustrated — you are choosing a starting point, not obeying the brief automatically. The brief is how you decide which result to keep.

Set the type order before any image exists

Decide the reading order and write it as a stack:

1. Title, and the maximum number of lines.
2. Subtitle, or an explicit note that this book has none.
3. Author or pen name, and whether it is large or quiet.
4. Series name and volume, or an explicit note that this is a standalone.

If the title is longer than about six words, mark which words may sit on their own line and which words may be shortened on the cover only. The listing title and the cover title can differ in line breaks. They should not differ in meaning. A subtitle that restates the title wastes the second line. A series mark that is larger than the title makes the book look like a logo sheet.

Also note what the cover will not try to spell: a blurb, a review quote you do not have, a barcode, a spine, or a publisher address. Those belong to later production steps, not to the concept.

Write the reject list

The reject list is the part people skip and then regret. Include at least these checks, in your own words for this book:

• The title is wrong, misspelled, or invented extra words.
• The image depicts a real person, a living author, or a copyrighted character you do not have rights to use.
• Hands, faces, or objects are distorted in a way that makes the book look unfinished.
• The genre signal contradicts the promise.
• At a small size, the title disappears into the art.

Add book-specific rejects. A cookbook concept that shows a raw ingredient you never use is a reject. A children’s cover with a frightening face is a reject even if the composition is striking. Rejection is a decision you can repeat. Taste without a list becomes “generate again” with no end.

Use the brief when you generate, then again when you stop

When you open ImprintaAI’s cover tool, copy the title carefully, add the subtitle only if it helps the image understand the book’s focus, and pick the genre and style that match the brief. The tool’s own note says covers are generated at 1600 by 2560 pixels, a 6 by 9 ratio. Treat that file as a front-cover study. It is not the wrap you upload for paperback. Spine width, bleed, and the back-cover barcode zone come later. The on-site cover calculator can estimate a wrap from trim, page count, and paper. Confirm the current template in KDP before you build the final file. The companion piece Why a Cover Concept Is Not a Print Wrap walks through that difference.

Stop generating when you have one concept that survives the reject list, not when you are tired. Write one sentence on the brief: “Kept this image because the title reads at small size and the object matches the promise.” That sentence is what you will need when book two starts and someone, often you, wants a fresh look that quietly breaks the imprint.

If the concept is only a reference and a person will draw the final cover, move to How to Hand a Cover Brief to a Designer. Bring this page with you. A designer can disagree with a brief. A designer cannot follow a brief that was never written.