Amazon, not you, decides how much of your interior Look Inside shows, and the amount varies from book to book. In practice a shopper sees the front of the book: the title page, the contents, a how-it-works page and the first few puzzles. They do not see the solutions you put at the back, and you should not count on that staying true forever.
That gives the front of the book two jobs. It has to prove that a real answer key exists, and it has to do that without handing over the answers in the sample. Where you place the key decides how well it can do both.
This guide walks through the four places an answer key can go and what a shopper may see in the preview for each. It then shows how to signal the key from the front matter, and gives the exact Puzzle Maker Pro settings that build the layout. It ends with page-count math for a 120-puzzle book on 8.5×11 paper, because the number of solutions per page changes the length of the book more than most publishers expect.
The four places an answer key can go
Every puzzle book makes this choice, whether the publisher thinks about it or not.
| Placement | What a shopper may see in Look Inside | Effect on trust | Where it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| After each puzzle | Filled grids right behind the first puzzles | The buyer cannot test the puzzle, and the book can look already used | Children’s workbooks, classroom packs, learn-as-you-go books |
| End of each section | The first section’s answers, if that section is short | Fine when sections are long, a spoiler when they are short | Long books that move through levels |
| End of the book | Unsolved puzzles and a contents line that points to the key | Strongest: the buyer can test the puzzle and sees a promise | Most adult puzzle books |
| Separate booklet | No answers at all | Weakest: there is nothing in the book to point at | Series, bundles, very long books |
After each puzzle. This is the placement that hurts a sample most. If the first puzzle is followed by its solution, Look Inside shows a book that has already been solved. One public review of a jumbo word search book says the answers printed on the back of each page made it look as if someone had already been doing the puzzles. This placement also doubles the page count when you print one puzzle per page. Use it when instant feedback is the point, as it often is in a workbook for children.
End of each section. A key at the end of every level keeps answers close to the puzzles without putting them next to each one. It only protects the sample if the first section is long enough that its answers fall outside the preview. Puzzle Maker Pro’s placement setting has two choices, solutions with the puzzles or all puzzles first and then all solutions, and no per-section choice. Treat a per-section key as a manual layout job.
End of the book. This is the convention buyers know. Every puzzle comes first, every solution comes after the last puzzle in the same order, and the contents page lists the solutions. The preview shows unsolved puzzles and a written promise of the key, which is exactly what a cautious shopper wants to see.
A separate booklet. The buyer of the main book holds no answers, so the listing and the first pages have to say exactly where the key is. For a print book this is the highest-friction option. It can make sense for a series where one answer book covers several volumes. Check Amazon’s current content guidelines for how a book may refer to material outside the book before you plan around it.
What the front of the book should say
If the key lives at the back, three things in the front matter vouch for it.
- A contents line for the solutions. The shopper sees “Solutions … 125” next to the puzzle sections. In Puzzle Maker Pro the contents page lists solution sections when List solution sections is ticked. A book with one puzzle type gets a line named after the set, such as “Hitori – Solutions”. When several puzzle types share one solution section, the line collapses to a plain “Solutions”.
- A how-it-works sentence. One short page can say: “Solutions for all 120 puzzles start on page 125. Try each puzzle first.” That sentence is typed by hand, so check it again whenever the puzzle count, the solutions per page or the front matter changes.
- A cross-reference under each puzzle. With Show page cross-references on, every puzzle page prints a line such as “Solution 12 on page 126”. The sample can show that line without showing the filled grid. It also prints “Puzzle 12 on page 16” under each solution, so a reader can find the way back.
Keep the first puzzle pages unsolved and at print size. A promise that the key exists is easier to believe when the shopper has just seen a real, empty puzzle they could start solving. None of this is about search ranking. It is about what a person sees in the few seconds before they decide.
A contents line that points at nothing is worse than no line. The line, the sentence and the footer must all describe the bound book the buyer will receive, so preview the assembled book from page one before every upload. Stop where a shopper would stop. If you can already read answers, the placement is wrong. If you cannot find a contents line or a start page, the promise is missing.
Solution density: 4, 6 or 9 solutions per page
Solutions do not need solving room, so they can be smaller than the puzzles. The question is how much smaller. Here is the arithmetic for a book with 120 puzzles on 8.5×11 pages, one puzzle per page, with the usual four front-matter pages: a title page, a copyright page, a how-it-works page and a contents page.
| Solutions per page | Solution grid | Solution pages | Total pages | Solutions start on page |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| With each puzzle | Same as puzzles, 1 up | 120 | 244 | Interleaved from page 6 |
| 4 | 2 rows x 2 columns | 30 | 154 | 125 |
| 6 | 3 rows x 2 columns | 20 | 144 | 125 |
| 9 | 3 rows x 3 columns | 14 | 138 | 125 |
The 120 puzzle pages run from page 5 to page 124, so the key starts on page 125 in every back-of-book version. At nine per page the last solution page holds only three solutions, because 120 is thirteen full pages of nine plus three. Going from four to nine per page saves 16 pages. Going from four to six saves 10. Printing the solutions beside the puzzles costs 100 more pages than the six-per-page key. On print-on-demand every page is print cost, so the count matters.
Smaller pages cost legibility, which is the other half of the choice. These are rough sizes on 8.5×11 with the default 0.5 in margins, 0.1 in spacing between slots and about 15% of each slot used by the solution title. They also assume the setup recommended below: page numbers on, which reserve 0.3 in at the bottom of the page, and page cross-references on, which reserve another 6% of each slot. Four and nine per page are limited by slot width, so the footers do not change them. Your own preview is the final word.
| Solutions per page | Largest square solution grid | 15×15 word search, per cell | 9×9 sudoku, per cell |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | about 3.7 in | about 0.25 in | about 0.41 in |
| 6 | about 2.5 in | about 0.17 in | about 0.28 in |
| 9 | about 2.4 in | about 0.16 in | about 0.27 in |
A highlighted word in a 0.16 inch cell is small. A filled 9×9 sudoku at 0.27 inches is fine. So density depends on the puzzle: number grids survive nine per page, while word searches and mazes, whose solutions are a drawn line or a ring of letters, need more room.
Large print
If the cover says large print, the person opening the book is choosing it because small type is hard for them. The key has to be readable for that same reader, and buyers notice when it is not: one public review of a large-print word search complains that the answer key was small and hard to read. For the 120-puzzle example, use four solutions per page. A 12×12 large-print word search then gets cells of about 0.31 inches in the key, and the book still lands at 154 pages. Nine per page saves 16 pages and breaks the promise on the cover. Our large print guide covers the rest of the interior.
The settings to use in Puzzle Maker Pro
The layout options below live in the Book Settings window, which Instant Puzzle Books and Puzzle Book Studio share. Open the section named in bold, set the value, then rebuild the book. In Studio, press Rebuild Book and check the counts at the foot of the left pane (Puzzle Pages, Solution pages and Total puzzles) against the table above.
- Book Settings section, Content Collation group. Choose Puzzles First, Then Solutions for an end-of-book key. Print Solutions With Puzzles puts each solution page straight after its puzzle page.
- Page Trim Size and Margins. Set width 8.5 and height 11 for the worked example. The sizes in the table above assume the default 0.5 in margins.
- PageLayout, Grid Layouts tab. Set the puzzle grid to 1 row and 1 column. Untick Use Puzzles Layout for Solutions, then set the solutions grid: 2 rows and 2 columns for four per page, 3 rows and 2 columns for six, 3 rows and 3 columns for nine. Between Columns and Between Rows control the spacing. The solutions grid only applies when the key sits at the back. With solutions beside the puzzles, they follow the puzzle grid.
- Content Pages. Tick Include a title page and Include a table of contents, and leave List solution sections ticked. Use Add text page for the how-it-works page, tick In table of contents on it, and tick Before table of contents on a copyright page.
- Puzzle Area Settings, Puzzle Footer. Tick Show page cross-references. It reserves a footer band of 6% of the slot height unless you set another height, and it is off by default. The line is drawn in the book’s Table of Contents Font.
- Page Numbering. Tick Add Page Numbers. Numbers are off by default, and a reader cannot follow “page 125” in a book that does not print one.
- Title Settings. The solution title template is Solution # by default, so each solution carries the same number as its puzzle. That number is how a buyer finds answer 87 among nine on a page.
After you rebuild, spot-check one puzzle page: with cross-references on, the footer should name the solution page your book actually uses — read it from the preview or the contents line, not from this article. In the 120-puzzle example with six solutions per page (3×2 grid), puzzle 12’s footer correctly reads Solution 12 on page 126; with four per page (2×2), the same puzzle points at page 127. Confirm the solutions section opens only after the last puzzle page when Puzzles First, Then Solutions is selected.
In Puzzle Book Studio you can also add a page that introduces the solutions. Click the solution section in the Book Structure tree, open Add page, and choose Text page or Title page. A line such as “Answers to Round 1” prints at the start of that section. Solution sections only exist when the key is collated at the back. Your edition decides which Studio features you have, and the editions page lists them. Instant Puzzle Books comes with every paid Puzzle Maker Pro product, so the placement, grid and contents settings above are available from the start.
Which setup suits which publisher
A standard adult book on KDP. Put the key at the back, six solutions per page, with the contents line, the how-it-works sentence and the cross-references all on. In the example that is 144 pages, a 20-page key and an honest sample.
A large-print book. Same structure, four solutions per page. It costs ten pages more than six per page and protects the reader the cover is aimed at.
A short, easy book of small grids. Nine per page is reasonable for a sudoku or number book where the digits stay readable, and the page saving is real.
A children’s or classroom workbook. Solutions beside the puzzles can suit the way the book is used, because feedback is the point. Accept that Look Inside will probably show answers, and say so in the listing instead of implying a spoiler-free sample.
A series. A separate answer book can save pages, but each volume’s first pages must say exactly where the answers are and what the buyer needs to look for.
If you are choosing between all of these, start with the end-of-book key. It is the placement where the sample is most likely to prove the key without spoiling the solve, and the settings above build it in a few minutes.
Commercial rights for the books you generate are part of the Puzzle Maker Pro license, as stated on the homepage. This is general publishing guidance, not legal advice.
Related reading: what a trustworthy answer key looks like, which sample pages make the solve look worth buying, and how trim size and puzzles per page set the page count.