Amazon releases Kindle Textbook Creator for Mac

Kindle Textbook Creator for Mac screenshot 001

The online retail giant Amazon on Thursday announced a brand new application for the Mac which allows anyone to create and publish textbooks on Kindle. Currently in beta and available in English only, the applications can be downloaded to Mac or Windows PCs through Amazon’s website.

Similar to Apple’s iBooks Author app for the Mac, which debuted in 2012, Kindle Textbook Creator makes it easy to create textbooks and other educational material with by augmenting text with graphs, charts and equations and other graphically rich content.

In addition, the app can convert existing PDFs into a digital book, ready for distribution on the Kindle Store.

In addition to Microsoft’s Word format (doc and docx), the app also supports HTML, Mobi, ePub and many other formats. Published books can be accesses across platforms and devices using the cross-platform Kindle app, available on Amazon’s Fire tablets, the iPad and iPhone, Android smartphones and tablets, Mac and Windows desktops and more.

Amazon’s free e-book titled ‘Building Your Book For Kindle’ has more on preparing a professional-quality digital file of your book.

Among the highlights, books created with Kindle Textbook Creator offer the following features:

  • Multi-Color Highlighting — Highlight and categorize key concepts for easy reference.
  • Notebook — Capture key passages, images and bookmarks and automatically add them to the notebook. Students can add their own notes and easily access them from one location.
  • Flashcards — Create flashcards and study important terms, concepts, and definitions in each chapter with a simple, easy-to-use interface.
  • Dictionary — Find definitions and Wikipedia information for difficult terms to improve retention.
  • Buy Once, Read Everywhere — Read eTextbooks on the most popular devices students use, including Fire tablets, iPad, iPhone, Android tablets and smartphones, Mac, and PC.

Download Kindle Textbook Creator through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing EDU webpage. The app is compatible with Mac OS X 10.8 and later or Windows 7 or later.

The Kindle Direct Publishing initiative gives authors and publishers royalties of up to 70 percent, while “keeping their rights and maintaining control of their content.”

Authors can also optionally enroll their books in the Kindle Direct Publishing Select program 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.

Source: Amazon