Both let you sell what you make from a word list. They are not the same business, and the choice determines what you should be making — so it is worth deciding before rather than after.
The structural difference
KDP sells a physical book. Amazon prints it, ships it, handles returns, and pays you a royalty. You upload a PDF and never touch a customer.
Etsy sells a file. The buyer downloads it and prints it themselves. There is no printing cost, no shipping, and no physical product — but there is a buyer who may email you about their printer.
| KDP | Etsy | |
|---|---|---|
| What sells | A printed book | A PDF download |
| Minimum size | 24 pages | One page is fine |
| Found by | Amazon search | Etsy search and Pinterest |
| Repeat sales | The next volume | The next themed pack |
| Customer contact | Effectively none | Yes — expect questions |
| Rewards | Series and consistency | Niche themes and presentation |
What each one rewards
KDP rewards volume and consistency
The economics are built on the second sale: a reader who finishes Volume 1 buys Volume 2 without persuasion. One excellent standalone book is a harder business than six consistent ones — which is a whole discussion in itself.
It also has a floor. Below 24 pages Amazon will not print a paperback, so small ideas do not fit.
Etsy rewards specificity and presentation
A single-page puzzle can be a product, which changes what is worth making: a five-puzzle baby shower pack is a perfectly good listing where it would be nothing on KDP.
But Etsy is visual. The listing photo does most of the selling, and 'a PDF of a word search' photographs badly. Sellers who do well show the printed sheet in use — on a table, at a party, on a clipboard — rather than a flat screenshot of the file.
The work is different too
On KDP the effort is front-loaded: get the interior right, upload, and it sells or it does not. Nobody contacts you.
On Etsy the effort is ongoing: listings need photos, tags, descriptions and refreshing, and buyers ask questions — most often about printing at the right size, which is a support burden that never ends.
That last point decides it for a lot of people. If you do not want to answer messages about somebody's printer margins, KDP is the quieter business.
Which to choose
- You enjoy making sets of 80–100 puzzles on a theme → KDP
- You enjoy small, specific, occasion-based products → Etsy
- You want no customer contact at all → KDP
- You already have an audience on Pinterest or Instagram → Etsy
- You want to test an idea in an afternoon → Etsy, then move winners to KDP
That last line is the practical answer for most people. A theme that sells as an Etsy pack is a theme worth expanding into a book; a theme that does not has cost you an afternoon rather than a hundred puzzles.
One thing both need
Files that print correctly. 300 DPI, correct paper size, sane margins. On KDP a bad file gets rejected before it sells; on Etsy it sells first and produces the review afterwards, which is worse. The KDP interior guide covers the settings, and they apply to both.