KDP Coloring Book Metadata Checker
Check your listing against KDP's metadata rules before you submit — each finding shows the exact matched phrase, the policy quote and the official source.
Title + subtitle: 0 / 199 characters
Enter your listing fields to check them. Findings are split into three levels: policy match (a published prohibited pattern), likely risk (matches a prohibited category), and manual review (rights questions no pattern can decide).
Rules: kdp-metadata-rules-2026-08, verified against the official policy pages on : KDP: Metadata Guidelines for Books · KDP: Make Your Book More Discoverable with Keywords
Everything runs in your browser — your metadata is never uploaded, stored or sent to analytics. KDP policies change; an unflagged listing is not a guarantee of compliance.
How the kdp metadata checker works
Every rule is stored in a versioned file where each entry carries the verbatim policy quote and the official source URL — the same text you see under each finding. Deterministic rules match published examples ("free", "bestselling", HTML tags, placeholder titles, quotation marks in keywords). Likely-risk rules match a prohibited category by inference (subjective quality claims, time-sensitive wording in titles). Rights questions — other authors, brands, trademarks — are never pattern-matched; they go to the manual-review checklist.
Worked example
Title "Bestselling Free Dinosaur Book — New for 2026" trips three findings: "Bestselling" (sales rank), "Free" (promotion), and "New" (time-sensitive). "New York Coloring Book" trips none — the checker knows place names aren't time-sensitive claims. A keyword like "coloring book" alone is flagged as category-common, while "dinosaur coloring pages for toddlers" passes.
Common mistakes
- Keyword-stuffing the title. Repeating "book", "gift" or "notebook" across title and subtitle is an explicit violation, not an SEO tactic.
- Spending keywords on words already in the title. They add zero discoverability and are listed as something to avoid.
- Borrowing famous names or brands. "For fans of [author]" style references are unauthorized references unless you have permission.
- Putting your website in the description. URLs, emails and phone numbers are prohibited there.
Frequently asked questions
- Why did KDP flag my metadata?
- The most common triggers are promotional or sales-rank words ("free", "bestselling"), time-sensitive terms, repeated generic keywords like "notebook" or "books", references to other authors or brands, and HTML in fields. KDP applies a zero-tolerance policy to metadata meant to advertise, promote or mislead.
- Which words are risky in a book title?
- Anything claiming rank or promotion (bestselling, #1, free), placeholder text, punctuation-only strings, repeated generic nouns, and unauthorized references to other titles, authors or trademarks. The combined title + subtitle must also stay under 200 characters.
- Can this tool check trademarks?
- No. Trademark and rights questions can't be decided by pattern matching — they appear in the manual-review checklist instead. If you reference any brand, character or author name you don't own, resolve the rights question before publishing.
- Does a clean report guarantee acceptance?
- No. This lints against the published metadata guidelines with versioned rules, but KDP review is broader and policies change. A clean report means no known pattern matched — not that the listing is compliant or safe.