Comparing My Latest Amazon KDP Books: Matte vs. Glossy Covers, Color Printing, and What I Learned

I recently ordered proof copies of several new books I created for Amazon KDP, which meant it was time for one of my favorite—and occasionally humbling—parts of making low-content books: seeing what they actually look like in print.

Everything can look wonderful on a computer screen. The colors are bright, the lines are neat, and the margins appear perfectly obedient. Then the printed copy arrives and reveals a mysterious white border, lines thick enough to stop traffic, or some other little surprise.

So, I sat down with my newest KDP books, compared them with a few older ones, and took notes on what worked, what needed to be fixed, and what I learned from the entire process.

Matte Covers vs. Glossy Covers

The first difference I noticed was the finish on the covers.

My older KDP books were printed with glossy covers, while these newer books have matte covers. Both finishes have advantages and disadvantages.

The glossy books reflect more light, which can make them harder to film. The matte covers are much easier to show on camera because there is less glare bouncing off the surface.

Glossy covers can make colors look brighter and more saturated, while matte covers tend to have a softer, more understated appearance. For books with a creepy, gothic, or artistic design, I think the matte finish can look especially nice.

For anyone creating books to show in videos, however, matte has a definite advantage. The camera can actually see the cover instead of recording a tiny artificial sun.

Does Amazon KDP Premium Color Look Better?

One book I ordered was printed using Amazon KDP’s premium color option.

When uploading a color book to KDP, you can generally choose between standard color and premium color. Premium color costs more to print, which means the retail price usually needs to be higher as well.

Naturally, I wanted to know whether the difference was noticeable enough to justify the additional cost.

After comparing the premium-color book with another book printed using standard color, I honestly didn’t see a dramatic difference.

The colors in both books looked very similar.

Premium color might be worthwhile for photography books, art books, or projects where accurate color reproduction is especially important. For planners, children’s activity books, journals, and other books that use decorative illustrations or limited areas of color, standard color may be perfectly adequate.

Based on these copies, I would probably choose standard color for most of my low-content books. There is little reason to make the book more expensive unless the premium option adds a visible benefit.

A Printing Problem With the White Border

The premium-color book also arrived with an unexpected white border along parts of the pages.

It did not appear consistently throughout the entire book. On some pages, the border appeared along the side. On others, it shifted toward the bottom, and eventually it disappeared.

That made it difficult to determine whether the problem came from my uploaded file or from the printing process.

The original PDF was created at the book’s exact trim size of 7.5 by 9.5 inches. Although KDP approved the file, I later adjusted it to include the proper bleed dimensions.

Hopefully, that will prevent the border from appearing in future copies.

This is exactly why ordering a proof or author copy is so important. A file can pass KDP’s automated review and still contain something that does not print the way you expected.

Approval does not always mean perfection. Sometimes it only means the computer has decided your book is technically capable of existing.

My 101 Haunted Travels Bucket List

One of the new books was my 101 Haunted Travels Bucket List.

This book includes color throughout the interior and is designed for people who enjoy visiting haunted locations, spooky attractions, historic sites, and other unusual destinations.

It is also a book I plan to use personally.

That is one benefit of creating books based on your own interests. I am not only making a product for other people—I am creating something that fits the way I travel and document haunted locations.

As I visit more places, I can fill out the book, record my experiences, and see how well the layout works in real life.

Testing your own books is one of the best ways to discover whether a page needs more writing space, whether a section is useful, or whether the design looked better on the screen than it does with actual handwriting all over it.

My Evil Planner for World Domination

I also ordered another copy of My Evil Planner for World Domination.

This planner is undated and customizable, which means it can be started during any month of the year. The user fills in the month and writes the dates into the calendar.

I liked the idea because someone purchasing the planner in June would not have to waste half of a dated book or wait until January to use it.

The planner includes monthly calendars, weekly planning pages, grocery lists, notes, dot-grid pages, productivity sections, and a darkly humorous “murder list” for tasks that need to be eliminated.

I made the planner because I wanted something practical that also matched my personality. Apparently, ordinary beige productivity was not sufficiently menacing.

The copy I ordered was fairly large, so I began considering whether I should make a smaller edition. A 6-by-9-inch version, or something between 6 by 9 and 7.5 by 9.5 inches, might fit into a purse more easily.

That is another useful lesson from ordering your own books. Dimensions that sound reasonable during the setup process can feel completely different when you are holding the finished book.

Are Undated Planners Harder to Sell?

I originally thought the customizable nature of the planner would be one of its strongest features.

However, the dated version—with the months and calendar dates already printed—was selling better than the undated versions.

That made me wonder whether customers like the flexibility of an undated planner in theory but prefer the convenience of opening a book that is already prepared for the year.

Filling in every date does require a little extra work.

This does not necessarily mean the undated planner is a bad idea. It may simply appeal to a different audience, or the listing may need better keywords, a clearer product description, or stronger images showing how the planner is used.

One challenge of KDP is that a good book does not automatically sell simply because it exists. People still have to find it, understand it, and decide that it solves a problem they have.

Amazon has not yet developed a system in which a dramatic bolt of lightning points customers directly toward my books. Very inconsiderate.

A Draw-and-Write Storybook for Children

Another book I created was a simple draw-and-write storybook for children.

Children can create their own stories while also drawing pictures to accompany them. It is meant for young writers, creative children, homeschool activities, classroom use, or anyone who likes combining storytelling with art.

This was one of the easier books to create, but the finished copy looked good.

That was a useful reminder that a book does not need to be extremely complicated to be useful. A clear idea, a functional layout, and an identifiable audience can be more important than filling the book with dozens of different sections.

Simple does not necessarily mean lazy. Sometimes simple means the book knows what it is supposed to do.

A Recipe Book With a Secret Purpose

I also created a recipe book inspired partly by my mother-in-law.

I chose colors and a style that reminded me of something she might enjoy using. The book contains space for recording around twenty recipes, along with note pages and blank areas that can be used however the owner chooses.

Once I saw the printed copy, I noticed that some of the dividing lines were too thick.

They had looked acceptable during the design process, but on paper they felt heavier than I wanted. I revised the file and made those lines thinner.

Hidden toward the back of the recipe book is another feature: a place to record website names and passwords.

The recipe book effectively provides a discreet location for storing login information. Someone casually looking through it would assume it contained only recipes and notes.

Naturally, anyone using a physical password book should still keep it somewhere secure. The disguise may fool a casual visitor, but it will not stop a determined criminal mastermind—or a family member searching for the brownie recipe.

Creating a Coloring Book With Canva Assets

Another new project was a coloring book created using Canva elements.

This differed greatly from my earlier hand-drawn coloring book.

The hand-drawn book took roughly two years to complete, including a long period when I became burned out and stopped working on it. Every drawing had to be created, refined, scanned or digitized, arranged, and prepared for printing.

The Canva-based coloring book took about a day to assemble.

That is an enormous difference in production time.

The faster process does not mean there are no rules. Canva elements cannot simply be copied and resold unchanged. The creator needs to combine, arrange, and modify the assets into a new design rather than republishing an individual element or unchanged template.

The pages in my coloring book were assembled from multiple assets and arranged into original compositions.

Other Canva users may have access to the same individual graphics, but the finished pages should be transformed into something distinct.

Before publishing any commercial project, creators should always review Canva’s current licensing terms for the specific assets and account type they are using. Licensing rules can change, and “the internet said it was probably fine” is not a strong legal strategy.

Hand-Drawn Books vs. Canva-Created Books

There is a major difference between creating a book from original drawings and creating one with licensed design assets.

A hand-drawn coloring book can offer a more personal and distinctive style. It may also be easier to build a recognizable artistic brand around work that no one else can reproduce exactly.

The disadvantage is the amount of time involved.

A Canva-based book can be completed much faster, allowing the creator to test more ideas and publish more frequently. The tradeoff is that other designers may be working with similar resources.

I do not think every book needs to be created using the same method.

Some projects may deserve months of original artwork. Others may be better suited to carefully arranged licensed assets. The important thing is to understand the rules, create a useful finished product, and be honest about the process.

My KDP Earnings Doubled

At the time I made the video, my KDP income had increased from around ten dollars per month to approximately twenty dollars per month.

Technically, that means I doubled my sales.

Am I retiring to a haunted castle yet? No.

But progress is still progress.

KDP often requires creating multiple books, improving listings, studying what customers respond to, and continuing to experiment until one or more products begin selling consistently.

The goal is to find a book that connects with the right audience and can continue selling without needing constant promotion.

Not every book will become that product. Some books are experiments. Some help you learn the platform. Some reveal problems that you can avoid in the next project.

And sometimes a very specific book suddenly finds its people.

What I Learned From These KDP Proof Copies

Looking through these books taught me several useful lessons.

Matte covers are easier to film than glossy covers. Standard color may be sufficient for many planners and activity books. Bleed settings matter even when KDP approves the file. Printed line thickness can look different from the digital version. Book dimensions should be judged by holding the actual product, not merely reading the measurements.

Most importantly, every finished copy provides information for the next book.

Creating low-content books is an ongoing process of designing, testing, revising, and occasionally staring suspiciously at a white border that should not be there.

Should You Order Copies of Your Own KDP Books?

Absolutely.

Ordering a proof or author copy allows you to check:

• Cover finish and color quality
• Interior margins and bleed
• Line thickness
• Image resolution
• Page order
• Writing space
• Book size and portability
• Overall usability
• Printing mistakes that were invisible on the screen

It also gives you a physical copy to photograph, film, demonstrate, and use in promotional content.

Customers cannot examine a KDP book in person before ordering it, so showing the actual printed product can make your listing, video, or blog post much more helpful.

Continuing My Low-Content Book Experiment

I plan to continue creating planners, coloring books, journals, activity books, and other KDP projects.

I would also like to make another coloring book using my own original drawings. Those projects take considerably longer, especially while I am balancing writing, videos, artwork, travel, and all the other creative schemes demanding attention.

For now, I am continuing to experiment.

Some books may need revision. Some may never sell many copies. Others may slowly find an audience over time.

The important thing is that each project teaches me something new.

And somewhere among all these planners, coloring books, recipe books, and haunted travel journals may be the book that finally funds my evil headquarters.

Preferably one with excellent lighting and plenty of room for cats.