From personal experience, I’ve found how easy it is to self-publish your work on Amazon or other online merchants. It is a simple process, it’s free, and Amazon or Barnes and Noble or the other merchants take care of printing, inventory, shipping . . . they do everything, as well as share in the profits. But for a child, self-publishing can be an incredible experience and a huge boost to their self-esteem.
As an initially self-published author, I can tell you when I opened that Amazon box and saw my book and held it in my hands; it was a powerful moment for myself as an adult, but for a kid . . . I bet it’s a SPECTACULAR moment! I encourage parents and teachers, watch the video below and you can listen to me explaining the conveniently easy process. Remember, you’ll need at least 24 pages to your book to do this on Amazon.
The video below is old, and Amazon has changed their website a bit for self-publishing. Now the website is https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US?ref_=kdpgp_p_us_psg_kw_ad71
Kids, you’ll need your parents’ help with this if you want to pursue self-publishing, as you’ll need to put in some tax information and bank account info, so Amazon has a place to send royalties. Watch the video below, then if you’re still interested, show it to your parents.
Mark
HOW to set up your book for self-publishing
How to upload your document to Amazon
Below are some young kids, ages from 8 to 12 years old that published their own books. How awesome is that! I’m hoping through this next year, the list below will be getting longer and longer. If there is any of my readers that I’ve missed that have published their own books, please let me know so I can add you to this List of Author-Heros! Book covers and publishing resources – The book cover is really important. It is an expression of what your book is about, and it will be the first thing people see when they pick up your book. You want to be proud of how it looks and need to put some time into making it. Below are some free or inexpensive resources for you for your cover as well as places for you to publish your work.
Amazon.com – Amazon has their own cover creator tool that will help you to make your cover. They have free background images you can use, but I suspect they don’t have any Minecraft images there. You can import images into Amazon’s cover creator, but I don’t know what the rule is about using screenshots on covers. Look through the other Minecraft novels and see what they use and judge for yourself.
Smashwords.com – Smashwords is an ebook distributor. You can post your book here as an eBook, and it will get posted on hundreds of other eBook sites including iTunes, Barnes and Nobel, Kobo, Lulu . . . Formatting can be a challenge, but there is no page limit here, the story can be as short as you want. Also, if you are worried about copyright concerns, you can put your book here and set the price as FREE, which avoids any copyright infringement issues as it then considered fanfiction.
FanFiction.net, Wattpad.com, StoryBird.com – These are all sites for original stories and fan fiction. You can post your work here, without needing a bank account or tax ID. Nothing is for sale, but you’ll get lots of exposure for your stories. Check it out!
Canva.com – This is a free site that will allow you to creature the front cover of your book. It will not create the back cover or the spine, but that’s OK. You can take the image you create here and then use it in Amazon’s cover creator tool. You need to compare the two methods and decide of using Canva.com is beneficial or not. Click HERE for their link. One nice thing is they have some Minecraft artwork that you can use, however it is not free, but very very inexpensive.
Covercreator.com – This is another free site like the one above. It will only create the front cover for you. If you’ve decided to just make an ebook, which I think is a mistake, then for an ebook all you need is a front cover. This site has very few background images to choose from, but the gradients look pretty cool. Click HERE to go to their site.
Fiverr.com – I love Fiverr.com. You can get all kinds of stuff designed for only $5. Sometimes, it’s not the best quality, but it only cost $5. You can have the cover of your book designed by someone here, likely the back cover will also cost $5, or you take what they did for the front cover and import that into Amazon’s tool. There are a lot of people on this site, so look at the review before selecting someone and be careful. You’ll need a Paypal account to use this site. You can get things like illustrations done for a book, but that can cost much more. But I suspect if you need something done, you can find it on Fiverr.com. My first Minecraft-inspired novel, Invasion of the Overworld, was made on Fiverr.com by JiaSen. Click HERE for their site.
Guru.com – Here is another site, similar to Fiverr, but nothing is only $5. This is a more expensive site, but the quality scales with the cost. You’d likely get a better cover here, but not necessarily. I’ve had great covers made here. You can get to their site by clicking HERE.
Mojang Brand and Asset Usage Guidelines – Here are the guidelines from Mojang about what you can and cannot do with the Minecraft brand.
My recommendation for your cover is to make it look like something you created, rather than just a screenshot from the game. You’ll be happier in the long run and it will make your book stand out from the rest.
Books by Elijah Stroud
Books by Ryan Tran
Books by Danny Otten
Books by Elijah Proulx
Books by Emma Trainor
Books by Kylie O’Dell
Books by Joseph Longo
Books by Raleigh Wise
Books by William Strong
