Brought to you by The Goof Off Club
Printing your book on demand with Amazon.
On demand means nobody prints a warehouse full of books. One copy gets printed when one copy is ordered. Here is the whole thing in plain words — no publishing knowledge needed.
- 1
Get your pages together first.
Download every painted page from your story. Keep them in one folder, named page-1, page-2, and so on, in the order you want them read. Put the three lines you wrote for each page in a simple document beside them.
- 2
Pick a book size and stick with it.
For picture-heavy family books, 8.5 x 8.5 inches square or 8.5 x 11 inches upright both look great. Choose one before you build the file — changing it later means rebuilding everything.
- 3
Build one PDF of the inside pages.
One painted page per page, with your words underneath or on the facing page. Leave about half an inch of empty space around every edge so nothing important gets trimmed off, and a little extra on the binding side. Save it as a single PDF.
- 4
Make the cover as its own file.
Amazon gives you a cover template once it knows your page count and size. Use your best painting on the front, the title and your family name, and a sentence about the adventure on the back. Save the cover as a separate PDF.
- 5
Create a free Amazon KDP account.
Go to kdp.amazon.com and sign up with your regular Amazon login. You will be asked for your address and bank details so Amazon can pay you if anyone else buys a copy. It costs nothing to open the account or to list a book.
- 6
Start a new paperback.
Choose Create, then Paperback. Enter the title, your name as author, and a short description. Mark it as your own original work. If it is just for your family, you can keep it out of public search when Amazon asks.
- 7
Upload your two files.
Upload the inside-pages PDF, then the cover PDF. Amazon checks them and tells you about anything too close to the edge. Fix and re-upload as many times as you need — there is no charge for this.
- 8
Look at the online previewer, every page.
This is the step people skip. Click through all the pages in Amazon's previewer and check that nothing is cut off and the order is right. If you want, order one printed proof copy for a few dollars before you go further.
- 9
Set your price.
Amazon shows you the printing cost for your page count. Anything you charge above that is yours. A color family book usually prints for roughly fifteen to thirty dollars depending on size and page count — set the price a little above the print cost if you only plan to buy your own copies.
- 10
Publish and order your copies.
Publishing takes about seventy-two hours for Amazon to review. Then your book has its own page and gets printed only when someone orders it. Order your family copies as author copies — those are sold at the printing cost.
Want the slow version of the tricky parts?
Opening the Amazon account, making the cover, laying out the pages and picking a price are where everyone gets stuck. Each one is walked through step by step on its own page.
Rather not do any of that?
That is what the made-for-you book is for. You send the photos and the words, we build the files, handle the printing, and a finished book shows up at your door.