Panic Attack! KDP not letting me set price to 99¢

I've had the issue before with my children's books and it was because the file size was too big, so I was forced to do a minimum price above $0.99

Look at your file size.  If it contains images, try reducing the file sizes of those images. 

My PDF file size is a little under 9 Mb (amazon shows the published size at slightly under 5 Mb) and I've run 99¢ specials on it before. I DID update the file, but it's actually slightly smaller than the last time I ran a 99¢ special.

I'm searching for the file size requirements, but haven't located them. Does anyone have a link?

It looks like the file size requirements are that 10mb and over files must be priced at $2.99 and up. Not sure why you're having an issue.

I vaguely remember another thread with a similar problem. Try searching for it. Sadly, I don't remember if there was a solution.

I'd send a query to KDP right away (maybe you already have), since time is of the essence. They do respond, but it generally takes a day.

Thanks, everyone. I've sent a note to KDP, but also discovered that the file had, indeed, grown when I added a clickable TOC and used MS Word for that task (I had used Open Office prior to that step).

I've managed to tweak the file, and it looks like I've got it small enough to qualify for the 99¢ price. Hopefully, it'll be updated at that price before tomorrow's promo emails & FB posts are out. If not, I'm not sure what else I can do...

Wingpeople said:

Thanks, everyone. I've sent a note to KDP, but also discovered that the file had, indeed, grown when I added a clickable TOC and used MS Word for that task (I had used Open Office prior to that step).

I've managed to tweak the file, and it looks like I've got it small enough to qualify for the 99¢ price. Hopefully, it'll be updated at that price before tomorrow's promo emails & FB posts are out. If not, I'm not sure what else I can do...

Click to expand...

FWIW, I was told once that Word tends to make files containing images larger and larger as you resave. Dunno if that's actually true.

Wingpeople said:

Thanks, everyone. I've sent a note to KDP, but also discovered that the file had, indeed, grown when I added a clickable TOC and used MS Word for that task (I had used Open Office prior to that step).

I've managed to tweak the file, and it looks like I've got it small enough to qualify for the 99¢ price. Hopefully, it'll be updated at that price before tomorrow's promo emails & FB posts are out. If not, I'm not sure what else I can do...

Click to expand...

Glad we could help. Most of my fiction titles are well under 1MB, so I have no issues, but my illustrated children's books are much bigger. I haven't had any luck with the $0.99 price point though so I gave up. LOL

Becca Mills said:

FWIW, I was told once that Word tends to make files containing images larger and larger as you resave. Dunno if that's actually true.

Click to expand...

File size will also balloon if you save versions (not sure if this would have any impact on the .prc file, though).

Also, as a former software developer, I am all too aware that Word is absolutely horrible with HTML -- it adds an enormous overhead of formatting information. I couldn't figure out how to get Open Office to generate the clickable TOC in a way that KDP recognized, so I created the TOC in Word, which bloated the HTML horribly when I did the final Save.

Fortunately, with the support of the wonderful community on KB, the problem is solved (although not in an elegant manner, but I don't care about that at the moment!).

Wingpeople said:

Also, as a former software developer, I am all too aware that Word is absolutely horrible with HTML -- it adds an enormous overhead of formatting information. I couldn't figure out how to get Open Office to generate the clickable TOC in a way that KDP recognized, so I created the TOC in Word, which bloated the HTML horribly when I did the final Save.

Fortunately, with the support of the wonderful community on KB, the problem is solved (although not in an elegant manner, but I don't care about that at the moment!).

Click to expand...

Some days "works" seriously beats out "elegant".

I just checked Two Shadows and it is .99 cts . Yay, in time!

I have a 99c promo coming up, but I just downloaded the preview file and it's 1.1 mb, so that should be fine, right? The only images are the cover and a map.

Never heard of that rule before. :/

Gennita Low said:

I just checked Two Shadows and it is .99 cts . Yay, in time!

Click to expand...

I burned a bit of midnight oil to get it to happen in time! Thanks for checking.

I have a 99c promo coming up, but I just downloaded the preview file and it's 1.1 mb, so that should be fine, right?

Click to expand...

I'd suggest going into the screen for changing your price & giving it a try BEFORE the last minute (do as I say, not as I do). You can just cancel the change or simply look at the pricing "hint" that is displayed without making any change at all.

BTW, I got the most bang for my buck on reducing the file size by resizing all my photos and changing them to 72 dpi. Since we had created the paperback first, everything was set up to be 300 dpi and fairly large. I hadn't thought about the photo sizes when we created the HTML files for Kindle!