KDP review error (paperback)

I submitted both eBook (Kindle) and paperback yesterday and the eBook went live within a few hours, without any errors being picked up by KDP.
On the other hand, my paperback version hasn't been published due to the following error:

Metadata

• The language (e.g., Spanish) in your cover file doesn't match the language you chose during title setup.

I'm not sure what this means exactly. "In your cover file..."?? The book is written in English as is everything else in the KDP setup.
The Kindle version of the cover is a simple JPG, but the paperback version is PDF and the content for both is identical, with the only Spanish word being Argentina. No other Spanish words are used.
I know you can insert metadata into many files such as PDF and DOCX, by hitting 'properties' and then going to the metadata tab. At least you can in Inkscape, anyway, but there isn't any metadata embedded as far as I can see.
Does anyone have any experience of this type of error?

 

I had lots of issues with my last paperback on KDP, Pulled it down quickly, couldn't find any errors though and it was fine when I put it back on.
I suppose one has to give them a bit of slack, it's a complicated business I guess.
Certainly don't want negative reviews because of errors in the system though, one of the issues was no page numbers!
'Live and learn.

 

In the end I had to guess what had happened and the error turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
The metadata they were probably referring to was what I had added to the properties of the print-ready PDF cover I had uploaded, which may have contained some Spanish words such as Buenos Aires.
Anyway, this pause allowed me to re-upload the cover as a new document, without any metadata in its properties, but with a tiny correction in a tagline on the front cover - a full stop was missing and would have been noticed by everyone - a potentially very embarrassing mistake.
This fixed the issue and the paperback was published this morning, Sunday.
I have to say that the whole experience with KDP has been faultless so far and not nearly as daunting as I had expected it to be.
Problem solved and many thanks for your replies.

 

Did you by chance opt for expanded distro? I have to get our books into Ingram to be available for sale at an upcoming conference, and KDP as a matter of policy will not disclose who their "retail partners" whereas CS specifically identified B&N and Ingram as theirs.

 

Also did you use Word as the source for paperback interior? That worked well in C&S with templates etc. Are the old CS templates compatible with KDP?

 

No Lew, I didn't go for Expanded Distribution because of the limiting factors on my rights to sell the book through other channels and yes, I did use Word (2013) but never used Create Space as I'm new to all this.
In the end, I couldn't be more pleased with how things turned out. No pain felt whatsoever

 

That has been my experience. I just updated the interior of my books, corrections to the copyright page, and it was as smooth as CS used to be. I also updated the cheesey home-brew cover on my "canary in the coalmine" Come, Follow Me, to something a shade less cheesey with cover designer. Not a lot of Flexibility in that, and found some WYSIWYG issues. Text that fit on the cover background did not fit on the previewer. I wound up putting the text on the background, and blanking out their automated text. All my other covers were professionally done, and I recommend that. CFM is just place holder to a hopefully to be written anthology of similar short stories, so not interested in putting money into it.

Not sure what you meant by rights to sell through other channels. You can have paperbacks on multiple channels, though you might need different ISBNs. The only restriction I am aware of is Kindle Select... you have to be exclusively KDP for 90 days to use that service. As about 1/3 of my sales are Kindle Unlimited downloads (which also pay more) I think it's worth it.

 

@Lew
I decided not to go with KDP Select and have published with Draft2Digital in addition to KDP. Also, I misunderstood your mention of Expanded Distribution for KDP Select, oops! I haven't signed up for either just yet, but may do in the future.
I'm getting some reviews for the book and now have to capitalise on that. At the moment, that is the big challenge.

 

I wish I could say the same. I have been going the rounds with KDP after adding a single thing to my cover design: a price.

I used the same program that created the original cover (PagePlus), keeping all the artwork and proportions the same as the original, which went through the CreateSpace process with no issues.

The newer version kept getting bumped for not having the bleed properties right. Again and again.

Here's what the PagePlus design looked like. (Note the rulers on the top and side, and the area clearly intended to be the 1/8" bleed.)

http://dragonwing.biz/kdp/page%20plus%20cover%20screen%20shot.JPG

Here's the PDF I submitted for their approval:

http://dragonwing.biz/kdp/kdp%20full%20cover%20cropped.pdf

And here's what showed up on their "review" screen after I submitted it:

http://dragonwing.biz/kdp/cover%20screen%20shot.JPG

It's apparent to me that the bot wasn't registering the image properly. Note the lack of bleed on the top of the image and the excess bleed on the bottom. I might add that when I ordered the latest proof copy, it came with a white bar on the top of the spine and the front and back covers, showing that this mis-registration has extended to the printing process itself.

Somebody in the KDP community has told me that CreateSpace had people that would make the necessary tweaks to get their software agreeing with the customer's submissions, but KDP doesn't do this.

I've sent three emails about this, and nothing I've gotten back convinces me that they were read by an actual human. If I don't have a resolution to this by tomorrow, I'll use their "phone" option and see if I can get it sorted out that way.

 

Perhaps I was just lucky.
I downloaded the KDP template for a 9"x 6", put it into Inkscape and pulled all the guidelines to it, making sure that the cover image and text had plenty of safe space.
To be honest, I was a little surprised that I didn't run into any bleed or similar problems.
I'm curious as to why you put the price on the back cover?

 

Because book resellers wanted it there. At least, they did on my first book, and I simply followed suit for the second.

 

Interacting with a human is a luxury these days.