[Update 9/18/2019: This product is about the only way to get your children’s book onto a Kindle Fire unless you pay for a developer to do it. For EPUB you’ll need Apple’s iBook Author.]
Today, Amazon announced Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Kids to help indie authors publish and promote their illustrated and chapter books for children in Kindle stores throughout the world. In addition, the newly launched Kindle Kids’ Book Creator tool allows writers to easily create their illustrated children’s books – and incorporate popular Kindle features, such as text pop-ups.
I have been recommending Joel Friedlander’s excellent Book Design Templates for illustrated and children’s books as well as fiction and non-fiction books. If you use this tool, please let me know how it goes for you.
Here’s more from the press release about Kindle Kids’ Book Creator
Once the book is ready, authors can upload it to KDP in just a few simple steps, and use KDP’s category, age and grade range filters to help millions of Amazon customers choose the right books for their kids. Authors can earn royalties of up to 70%, while keeping their rights and maintaining control of their content. Authors can also choose to enroll their books in KDP Select for additional royalty opportunities like Kindle Unlimited and the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, and access to marketing tools like Kindle Countdown Deals and Free Book Promotions.
“Authors want to focus on telling great stories and we want to help them do that. No one should have to be a computer programmer to create a beautiful, illustrated Kindle book for kids,” said Russ Grandinetti, Senior Vice President, Kindle. “Kindle Kids’ Book Creator makes it easy. In addition to helping authors craft their books, we’re helping customers find them with things like age and grade range filters.”
By creating a digital edition of their book, authors can reach a whole new audience of Kindle readers, who have already downloaded millions of children’s books this year.
Some authors got an early look at what KDP Kids offers, and here’s what they’re saying:
“The new Kindle Kids’ Book Creator is exactly what I’ve been looking for,” said children’s book author Niki Alling. “I was able to create fun popups with ease. I have plans to upgrade my existing children’s books with this new tool, and to use it with future books also. I highly recommend it to children’s book authors who want to add some extra fun to their eBooks.”
“As a self-published author, doing all the work myself and being no technical expert, I found this so easy to use,” said children’s book author and illustrator Michele Lynn Seigfried. “It will definitely save me time and money when I publish my future books.”
“Since I’ve published books for children of all ages, it’s a big plus that the Kindle Store helps parents find books by their kids’ age range,” said children’s science books author Seymour Simon. “KDP gave me all the tools and information I needed to get my books in front of the right audience.”
Learn more about publishing children’s books through KDP and download the Kindle Kids’ Book Creator.
If you do, please let me know how it goes. Thanks!