Amazon Releases Textbook Creator

Amazon is making a push into the electronic textbook game, having recently released their Kindle Textbook Creator. The app—which is currently in beta—lets authors and educators easily convert a PDF to an eBook format. That book can then be sold through the new KDP EDU program, part of the Kindle Direct Publishing system. 

While not as robust as Apple’s iBooks Author, Amazon says the feature list will grow in future editions to include items such as video and interactivity. For now, the end result is basically a clone of a PDF with the ability to integrate study-related features. Readers can create flashcards to aid in study, highlight text in multiple colors, take notes, capture images and text, and look up word definitions.

The Kindle Textbook Creator app itself is a free download from Amazon. Creating the final eBook file is a simple process of choosing an existing PDF file for conversion. Creators aren’t limited to producing just textbooks, however. Other items that can be created include course materials, study guides, and other learning materials. The textbooks can be read on Amazon’s own Fire tablet, Android and iOS tablets and smartphones, as well as on Macs and PCs with Kindle reading apps. While not an iBooks Author killer, the Kindle Textbook Creator certainly makes it super easy to convert and sell learning content on Amazon’s Kindle store.

Erica Gamet has been involved in the graphics industry for over 35 years. She is a speaker, writer, trainer, and content creator focusing on Adobe InDesign, Apple Keynote, and varied production topics. She is a regular presenter at CreativePro Week, regular contributor to CreativePro Magazine, and has spoken at Canada’s ebookcraft, Adobe MAX, and Making Design in Oslo, Norway. Find Erica online at the CreativePro YouTube channel, CreativeLive.com and through her own YouTube channel. When she isn’t at her computer she’s probably daydreaming about travel or living in a Nordic noir landscape.

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