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This could start another revolution: Amazon announced that it has launched a Kindle Direct Publishing program for children’s books: KDP Kids. From Amazon’s release:

Starting today, you can use Kindle Kids’ Book Creator to create illustrated children’s books for Kindle, taking advantage of features like text pop-ups. Here’s how to get started:

1. Download the tool, and you can convert individual illustrations into interactive books for both Kindle devices and free reading apps.
2. Once your book is ready, export the file and upload it to KDP.
3. Set the book category, age range, and grade range to help customers find

Finally, one of the biggest advantages for trad books on Amazon is now available to self-publishers: pre-ordering. From Amazon’s release:

We’re excited to announce that you can now make your new books available for pre-order in Kindle Stores worldwide. With a few quick and easy steps you can create a pre-order page up to 90 days in advance of your book’s release date–your pre-order product page will be created within 24 hours. When you make your book available for pre-order, customers can order the book anytime leading up to the release date you set. We will deliver it to them

There’s been a lot of fanfare about Amazon’s new Kindle Unlimited program – a service where you can read any book for $9.99 a month.

Well, not any book.

Indie authors hoping to be a part of this program face one obstacle: you need to be in the Kindle Select program, meaning it requires exclusivity to Amazon. Mark Coker laments:

Exclusivity is great for Amazon, but it’s not necessarily great for authors and readers.  Exclusivity starves competing retailers of books readers want to read, which motivates readers to move their reading to the Kindle platform. This is why