Amazon just took another step towards complete dominance of the book market supply chain. The retailer could already handle everything from production to the retail sale, and now they are moving one step up the chain to also provide the tools that are used to format books as well.
I was just reading in the KDP newsletter that Kindle Create, Amazon’s tool for making Kindle project files, has been updated with support for POD books.
In addition to regular Kindle ebooks and the PDF-ish Kindle format, Kindle Create can now also create the files you would need to upload to create a print edition:
With the latest release of Kindle Create, you can now upload your Kindle Create file to KDP as both an eBook and paperback of any trim size, creating both digital and print versions of your book simultaneously!
Routine but challenging paperback tasks like margins, page numbers, left/right side page layouts, widow/orphan treatment, and table of contents creation are also handled automatically.
Ready to publish your next book? Or ready to publish one of your eBooks in paperback? Download the latest version of Kindle Create today and get started.
The output files are of course proprietary to Amazon, and cannot be uploaded elsewhere (this makes sense when you remember that Amazon’s goal is to dominate the market, not give you a more useful tool). This limits their value, but if you are going to be selling through Amazon anyway, this may have cut out an extra step in your production process.
Has anyone tried the new features?
You just finished reading Kindle Create Now Outputs POD Book Files which was published on The Digital Reader.