Crossword book generator for Amazon KDP

What kind of crossword this makes

Not the dense newspaper kind, where every square is checked and the setter needs a dictionary of obscurities to make it close. These are themed crosswords — 8 to 22 answers on one subject, laid out in an open, interlocking shape, with a plain-language clue for each. A solver who knows the theme can finish one; a solver who does not learns the theme.

Every one of the 2,346 built-in clues was written for this tool, definition-style — "Reef-building sea creature", "Tradesman who cuts keys" — and no clue contains its own answer or a whole-word piece of it. The test suite checks that on every build, and checks that every built-in word has a clue. Paste your own list as word — clue lines and your clues are used instead; a pasted word without a clue is reported by name and left out rather than given an invented one.

Grades

Grids are numbered the conventional way — one number where an answer starts, across or down — and the clue lists carry the answer length in brackets. Each puzzle draws its own answers from the theme, so a fifty-puzzle book is fifty different grids. Solutions are the filled grids, 6 to a page at the back.

Measured on 7,200 crosswords

On 22 October 2026 we made a 20-puzzle book from each of the 90 built-in themes at every grade and checked every puzzle. Every answer in the grid had its clue, and the Across and Down lists matched the grid.

What the crossed share means for the solver. In a dense crossword, where every square belongs to two answers, a missing word can be pieced together from the words that cross it. Here the middle puzzle crosses about one letter in seven. Most letters are got from the clue alone, so the clues carry the puzzle, and that is why every one of them is written in plain language.

Puzzles that came out easier. When a theme's answers will not interlock at the grade you chose, that puzzle is built one grade down instead of being left out. The worst were short state lists: every Medium West Virginia and New Hampshire puzzle came out Easy. Each such puzzle is labelled with its real level, and the tool says how many there are before you download. Until 22 October that happened without a word. A longer list of word — clue lines keeps a book at the grade you chose. Puzzles took a few milliseconds each to make, 74 at the slowest.

What a book costs to print, and earns

Page count is title, copyright, one puzzle per page, a divider, solutions 6 to a page, and four notes pages, rounded to an even number. Printing is KDP's flat rate up to 110 pages, then $1.00 plus 1.2¢ a page. Royalty calculator for other prices and trims.

The rules every KDP interior has to meet

Page size equal to the trim, margins that grow with the page count, fonts embedded, 24 to 828 pages and an even count, a cover whose spine width is page count × paper thickness with nothing added. The tool lays every book out to these; if you would rather know them yourself, they are all in the guide, with the numbers.