Exciting news for children’s book creators—BookBildr now supports the US Trade book size (6×9 inches) in our book editor!
This classic and professional format is perfect for:
Early reader books
Chapter books for kids
Illustrated stories with a more mature look
The US Trade book size is one of the most widely used formats in traditional publishing, and now you can use it to create your very own children’s book—no publishing experience required.
If you’re a parent, teacher, or author, BookBildr gives you the power to write, illustrate, and design your story in this popular book size, directly from your browser.
Why choose the US Trade book size?
The 6×9 in US Trade book size is the most popular book size in the USA. It’s compact, easy to hold, and gives your story a polished appearance that looks great in print. It’s comparable to the international A5 size we’ve been offering from the very beginning, but is targeted at the US market.
This format is ideal if you plan to:
Create a series of early readers or chapter books.
Go to “My Books” and choose the size of your new book project. US Trade book size (6×9 in)
Write, illustrate, and design your pages with our intuitive tools.
Print as few or as many copies as you want—even just one!
With the US Trade book size and creative features BookBildr offers, you have everything you need to bring your story to life, exactly how you imagine it.
Start creating your children’s book today with BookBildr. Because every story deserves to be told beautifully.
Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) has officially opened submissions for the 2025 KDP Literary Prizes, and this is your chance to shine on a global stage!
These annual competitions recognize outstanding new books self-published through KDP, and are open to works written in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.
🗓️ Submission Period: May 1 – August 31, 2025
Important: To participate, you must include a specific keyword in your book’s metadata (under the “keywords” section) when publishing through KDP. Each language category has its own unique keyword, which you can find on the official contest page for that language. Be sure to follow all participation rules carefully!
Participating in the KDP Literary Prizes offers indie authors the opportunity to:
Increase visibility on Amazon
Reach a global audience
Gain recognition from the KDP team and beyond
Compete for prizes and promotional opportunities, and a prize of up to £20.000! The exact amounts vary by language.
This is one of the most accessible and rewarding writing competitions 2025 has to offer for independently published authors.
Edit Your Book for Amazon KDP Requirements
Not yet self-published your book via Amazon KDP because you don’t know how to format and upload it? We’ve got you covered! BookBildr staff will format your book to meet all of Amazon KDP’s requirements—from layout and page size to the perfect cover specs. We’ll handle all the difficult stuff so you can focus on writing your best book!
We can’t wait to see your story come to life—and maybe even help you win the prize!
Tips to Prepare Your Submission:
Know Your Genre & Audience Tailor your story’s tone, vocabulary, and themes to the readers you’re writing for—especially if it’s a children’s book!
Polish Your Manuscript Run it through a spellchecker, read it aloud, and consider our editing service.
Meet the Requirements Amazon KDP requires your book to have at least 24 interior pages if you want to publish your book as a paperback. Kindle ebooks can have as many or as few pages as you like.
Optimize Your Metadata Add that all-important keyword from the contest page in your KDP keywords, and write a compelling book description that reflects your story.
Get Professional Formatting A clean, well-formatted layout makes your book easier to read and look more professional, especially when judged for awards. But that’s not all – your book needs to be formatted correctly so you can publish it via Amazon KDP without getting constant rejections. We can help you with that with our Amazon KDP formatting service.
When we create books, especially for children or diverse audiences, it’s crucial to ensure that our content is accessible to everyone, including those with dyslexia.
While dyslexia-friendly adaptations can improve readability for a broader audience, they also help make comprehension easier for any reader. Here are some tips for creating inclusive books on BookBildr editor that are easy to read and enjoy.
1. Choose Legible, Dyslexia-Friendly Fonts
Font choice is essential in improving readability for books created for people with dyslexia. Fortunately, BookBildr offers various font options that you can use to enhance the reading experience:
Sans-serif fonts like Arial, Verdana, or Comic Sans are ideal since the letters are clearer and easier to distinguish.
Make sure the font size is appropriate, typically between 12-16 points for printed or digital books.
Increase letter and word spacing to prevent characters from “clumping” or becoming difficult to read.
Avoid using underlining or italics; instead, use bold for emphasizing key words or phrases.
2. Use a Clear and Well-Structured Layout
Visual design plays a significant role in accessibility. Here are some tips for organizing your content in a way that’s easier to read:
Align text to the left rather than justifying it, which can make it harder for some readers.
Break your book into short paragraphs and use bold headings to effectively organize the content.
Don’t forget to include plenty of white space on each page to keep the content from feeling overcrowded.
3. Choose Appropriate Colors and Contrast
Colors can be a key factor in the readability of a book. To ensure your book is accessible, follow these tips:
Use a light background (such as white or soft tones) with dark text to ensure good contrast.
Avoid using colors like red or green, which can be hard to distinguish for people with color blindness.
On BookBildr, you can choose from different color combinations to make sure your text and background are visually appealing.
4. Simplify Your Writing Style
The way you write your content also plays an important role in accessibility. Here are some tips to make your text more understandable:
Use short and clear sentences. Avoid complex phrases and technical terms unless necessary.
Opt for simple language that is easy for most readers to understand.
Organize the information into bulleted or numbered lists, making it easier to read and digest.
Adding images, diagrams, or illustrations can also help make your message clearer.
5. Consider the Typography of Your Titles
The format of titles and headings is also key to guiding the reader effectively. Make sure to:
Use a larger font size for headings and subheadings so they stand out from the body text.
Avoid underlining or using all caps for titles, as they can make them hard to read. Bold is a more effective and clearer choice.
How to Create Books for dyslexic people with BookBildr
On BookBildr, you have all the tools needed to create dyslexia-friendly books. You can adjust the design, format, fonts, and colors to ensure your book is accessible and easy to read for everyone. The platform allows you to customize your creations effortlessly, and with a minimum order of just one copy, you can experiment and tweak your design as needed.
Creating accessible books is an important step to ensuring everyone can enjoy reading, regardless of their abilities or needs. If you’re ready to create dyslexia-friendly books, BookBildr is the perfect tool to help you do just that.
Dear BookBildrs, today we have some exciting news for you – we’ve launched an AI Writer to help you create a children’s book quickly and easily. The AI Writer is available right in the BookBildr Editing Tool.
While we understand that you, our users, are the best writers, sometimes it’s handy to have AI’s help.
To use the AI Writer, click on the AI icon in the sidebar and select the Stories tab. Then, enter your prompt and click on Generate.
When the Writer generates your story, you’ll be able to add it to the pages or copy it.
You can always access your AI-generated stories from the sidebar.
The AI Writer can write in English, Spanish and French, and it uses the same AI credits as our other AI tools. As always, you get 5 free credits per month to test things out!
Hey BookBildr friends!
We wanted to give you a quick update about production times for hardcover casewrap books.
Right now, things are taking a bit longer than usual, with some orders estimated to take 10 to 12 business days to be printed.
We’re working closely with our printing partners to speed things up and get things back to normal as soon as possible. But for now, these longer production times might stick around for a while. We’d like to stress that these extended times only affect hardcovers.
We really appreciate your patience and understanding while our printing partners sort this out.
As always, we’re here to make sure you get high-quality printed books and the best service possible. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact our support team.
Thanks so much for choosing BookBildr – we appreciate you!
The holiday season is upon us, and we’re here to help make your shopping experience as seamless as possible. Keep these important dates in mind to ensure your orders arrive in time for Christmas!
Key Deadlines for Christmas Delivery*
To increase the chances of receiving your books by Christmas, be sure to follow these suggested order deadlines. The deadlines are not absolute, they are more of a guideline towards guaranteed delivery.
Mail Shipping Suggested Deadlines:
Hardcover Orders: Place orders by November 30
Paperback Orders: Place orders by December 3rd
Express Shipping Suggested Deadlines:
The last express shipping date is December 23rd
Hardcover Orders: Place orders by December 8th
Paperback Orders: Place orders by December 10th
Holiday Support Hours
Our support team will be available to assist you throughout the season, except on these holiday dates:
December 25th & 26th
January 1st
*These shipping dates are only applicable to U.S. orders. They are estimates and we encourage you to order as soon as possible for the best chance for timely arrival.
We wish you a wonderful holiday season and a fantastic New Year!
At BookBildr, we’re dedicated to providing tools that make your creative journey easier, more enjoyable, and ultimately, more successful. That’s why we’re happy to announce two exciting new additions to our platform that are designed with your writing and publishing needs in mind: a new small landscape format and a paragraph text tool!
Why We Created the Small Landscape Format (9 x 7 in)
Our latest addition, the small landscape format (9 x 7 in or 229 x 178 mm), is perfect for creators looking to make versatile, visually appealing books. Sized between a full-page format and a square book, this new dimension works beautifully for storybooks, picture books, and small chapter books—particularly those created for young readers.
The 9 x 7 small landscape format is also ideal for travel journals, recipe books, photography books, and any other content that shines in a compact yet spacious layout. This format offers the perfect balance between portability and an eye-catching layout.
Flexible Binding Options for the Small Landscape Format
To customize your book fully, we offer three binding styles for the small landscape format:
Coil-Bound (Minimum 6 Pages): This binding style provides flexibility for those creating shorter books with fewer pages. The coil-bound option allows for easy flipping, making it ideal for books that need frequent handling, such as workbooks, sketchbooks, and journals.
Perfect-Bound Softcover (Minimum 32 Inner Pages): The softcover perfect-bound option is sleek, lightweight, and ideal for books that deserve a polished, professional look. Perfect for novels, children’s chapter books, and photo stories, this binding allows your work to shine with durability and elegance.
Hardcover (Minimum 24 Inner Pages): A hardcover binding gives your book a premium feel, with durability that makes it suitable for gifting or showcasing as a keepsake. It’s an excellent option for children’s picture books, coffee table books, and keepsake family stories. The hardcover binding ensures your book has a lasting impact, offering an impressive, high-quality presentation.
Each binding type in the small landscape format is created with precision and care, allowing you to choose the best option to bring your vision to life. Plus, with no minimum order required, you can print just one copy to make your dream of printing or publishing your book without worrying about inventory or high costs.
NEW BookBildr editor tool | Paragraph Text Indent Tool: Simplifying Formatting for Longer Text
In addition to our new book format, we’re excited to introduce the first paragraph text indent tool! This tool has been designed with authors in mind, especially those creating chapter books for children, longer stories, and text-heavy content where a neat, polished layout is crucial.
Here’s how the new feature works:The first paragraph indent applies to all paragraphs within any text box, giving you a consistent and streamlined look across your book. Not only does this make your pages appear professionally formatted, but it also saves you time by automating a common layout detail—allowing you to focus on content rather than design.
If you’re creating a children’s chapter book or any book where the content flows across multiple pages, the text indent tool adds a touch of sophistication, guiding readers smoothly through each new section. The result? A clean, easy-to-read layout that enhances readability, particularly for younger audiences.
How to Get Started with BookBildr’s New Features
Creating a book with our new small landscape format and using the text indent tool is easy! Simply log into your BookBildr account, start a new project, and choose the 9 x 7 size from our list of book formats. As you add text, the first paragraph text indent tool will be available in the text editor for seamless formatting.
Once your book is complete, choose your preferred binding option, preview your book, and place your order. You can print as many or as few copies as you like—there’s no minimum order requirement, making it easy to produce a single copy for yourself or multiple copies to share with friends and family.
Create Your Story with BookBildr Today!
At BookBildr, we’re passionate about empowering creators of all backgrounds and skill levels to tell their stories in unique and beautiful ways. The small landscape format and the text indent tool are just two of the many ways we’re enhancing our platform to make book creation easy, customizable, and fun.
Ready to start creating? Head to BookBildr today, and explore the endless possibilities with our new 9 x 7 small landscape format and the paragraph text indent tool. Your story deserves to be told—and we’re here to help make it happen!
Halloween is one of the most eagerly anticipated times of the year for kids. Between the costumes, pumpkins, and trick-or-treating, there’s also room for a good spooky story (family-friendly, of course!). But what if you don’t have the time to write an original tale? We know life can be hectic, and sometimes sitting down to write just isn’t an option.
This is where BookBildr’s free printable Halloween story template for kids comes in handy. If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to personalize a story for your little ones, this is the perfect solution!
How Does the Halloween Story Template Work?
Our template is designed for those who want something special for Halloween but don’t have the time (or energy!) to create a story from scratch. It’s a fully customizable Halloween template that lets you enter the names of the kids and other specific details, and voilà! The story is automatically generated, ready to be printed instantly.
This simple format is perfect for busy parents, teachers, or anyone who wants to gift a fun and unique literary experience this Halloween—without the stress of writing an entire book.
Personalization in Just Minutes
The personalization process couldn’t be easier. Here’s how it works:
Choose the template: On the BookBildr platform, find our free Halloween template. It’s a pre-designed story, ready to be adapted to your needs.
Add the children’s names: The magic of this template lies in its personalization. All you need to do is type in the names of the kids you want to feature in the story. Whether you’re creating a book for one child or a group of friends, the template easily adjusts to include everyone.
Download PDF or send it to print: Once you’ve personalized the names and details, you can download the story in a digital format (PDF) or send it to print professionally. You can even add customized illustrations if you’d like. Print as many copies as you need!
This process makes anyone a published author of their own Halloween story, with no hassle and no need for advanced writing or design skills.
Why Use a Halloween Story Template?
The tradition of storytelling during Halloween dates back centuries, and even though technology has evolved, the magic of stories remains. Here are a few reasons why using our free printable Halloween story template for kids is a great idea:
Saves time: Creating a personalized story from scratch can take hours, especially if you’re not used to writing. With our template, it only takes a few minutes to have your very own personalized story.
Memorable experience: Kids love seeing themselves in stories. By using their names, you add a personal touch that they’ll remember for a long time.
Educational activity: It’s not just fun—it’s also a great way to encourage reading and creativity in children. They can see how the story unfolds and actively participate in it.
Perfect for events: If you’re hosting a Halloween party for kids, these personalized stories can make for a perfect party favor to send home with the little guests. Plus, since you can print as many copies as you like, it’s an ideal activity for groups.
Ideal for Parents and Teachers
Our free printable Halloween story template for kids isn’t just useful for parents, it’s also a great tool for teachers and educators. Halloween is the perfect time to create themed activities that engage students in learning. You can use these stories as part of your lessons or simply as a fun treat for your students. Plus, since the story can be personalized with multiple children’s names, you can make every student feel special by seeing their name in the story.
You could even organize a group activity where kids read their personalized stories aloud. This not only encourages reading but also creates a sense of belonging and fun in the classroom.
Beyond Halloween: Create More Books!
The best part of our BookBildr platform is that you’re not limited to just Halloween stories. After you’ve tried our free template, you can explore more personalization options for other events and occasions. From Christmas stories to unique adventure books, our platform offers the ability to design and create custom printed books with no minimum order requirement.
It’s a fantastic opportunity for parents who want to create lasting memories or for anyone looking for unique gifts—all from the comfort of your home!
Halloween is a magical time filled with spooky stories and laughter. With our free printable Halloween story template for kids on BookBildr, you can create something special for your children or students, without the need to spend hours writing. It only takes a few minutes to personalize the names, download, and print a story that will make kids feel like the stars of their very own Halloween adventure.
Don’t wait—start creating today!
We have compiled this article to ensure your experience is smooth and your final product is perfect!
Creating a book on BookBildr is an exciting journey into the world of writing, illustrating, and creating the layout and design of your children’s book. However, because you’re doing it all yourself, it’s important to get things right. While we do have extensive FAQs and support docs, we often see people make the same mistakes when submitting their books to be printed. So, we thought it would be handy to list all of the most common mistakes people make when they create books on BookBildr in a blog post. Here goes!
Remember to add a back cover
No back cover is something we started seeing very often. On BookBildr, making your book cover is dead simple – the first page of your book project is your front cover, and the last page of your book project is your back cover. However, we often see an interior page as the last page and no back cover at all. So, we have to stop orders like that and contact the customers, asking them to add the back cover.
This is what the cover file looks like when users don’t add the back cover. Would you like us to print your book like this?
As such, it’s crucial to remember to include the back cover as the last page of your book project. If you forget this step, we can’t guarantee that we’ll catch the mistake and you might have your last content page printed on the back cover.
By ensuring the back cover is properly added, you maintain a clean and professional presentation.
Text and Illustrations too close to page edges
Another BookBildr mistake we see very often is when users ignore the margin lines and put text and important illustrations right near the page edges. Because our printing partners use bleed that usually gets cut off during printing and binging, the text that was too close to the page edges may get cut off.
Margins are essential in book design to prevent important elements like text and illustrations from getting cut off during printing. It’s important to NOT overlook the margin lines in the editor and place text as well as important images inside the margin lines.
The margin lines are not trim lines, though, which means that you can and should stretch the backgrounds to occupy the whole page.
This brings us to another common mistake BookBildr users make.
Background not stretched to occupy the whole page
We know how exciting it is to click on the “Order printing” button – you can’t wait to hold your very own professionally printed books in your hands. However, it’s important to get things right and ensure that the book design looks professional.
When you manually stretch background images to take up a page, we often see a thin white line near one of the edges. That line is sometimes only a pixel wide, but it does spoil the overall picture when the book is printed. That’s why you should always make sure backgrounds occupy the whole page.
Actually, we have a great feature for that – “Convert to background”. This tool ensures that your selected background image (which can be any picture, even a picture you upload) fills the entire page, eliminating any unwanted white spaces. Check THIS link for more info on how to use this function.
Not configuring the book spine
For hardcover and perfect-bound softcover books, configuring the spine is essential for a good-looking look.
By default, we leave all book spines white and users have an option to configure its color and add text. By configuring the spine properly in the BookBildr editor, you ensure a cohesive and professional appearance for your printed book. Check THIS link that will guide you on How to customize the spine.
Using missing fonts
Choosing the right font is crucial, especially for languages with special characters (languages with extended Latin characters, Cyrillic languages, Asian languages and so on). BookBildr offers a variety of Google Fonts that support different languages.
It’s important to select a font that includes all the necessary characters for your text. This ensures that your book looks consistent and readable, both in the editor and in the final PDF version.
Even if you have the right fonts installed on your computer and the book project looks OK on your machine, the BookBildr editor will not convert into PDF if the right fonts aren’t selected in the sidebar and in the font selection drop-down menu. So, here’s what you need to do:
Go to https://fonts.google.com and use the “Languages” dropdown menu to find compatible fonts for your language.
In the BookBildr Editing Tool, click on Text in the left-hand sidebar and search for the font you want to use.
Click on the font to add it to the list of selected fonts.
Select the font from the drop-down menu in the text editor and proceed with writing your book.
Also it is important NOT to remove the font that you are currently using, otherwise the editor will not recognize that font anymore and revert to the default font, Open Sans. This may create text size and spacing issues.
Odd number of interior pages
This is not exactly a mistake but it’s something that we recommend avoiding.
Books must have an even number of inner pages for proper binding. If you have an odd number of pages, printers will have no choice but to add a blank page at the end to be able to bind your book. While this blank page at the end is not a disaster, you might want to avoid it. So, be sure that your book has an even number of pages before ordering printed copies.
If you would like to print a hardcover version of your book, make sure it has at least 24 pages plus the front and back cover. If your book project has 23 pages, for example, you simply won’t get the hardcover option at checkout. And that would be a bummer.
But what if you simply don’t have enough pages for a hardcover? Well, then we recommend avoiding landscape book orientation. While it is available, we recommend square or portrait formats for books with fewer than 24 pages due to better binding options – you’ll be able to order saddle-stitch binding that’s not available for landscape books, which are only available with coil binding, similar to calendars and workbooks.
By avoiding these common mistakes, you’ll be well on your way to creating a professional-quality book that you can proudly share and even sell.
Dear BookBildr Customers,
Some of our partner printing facilities are experiencing some delays in book printing and processing times, which may have impacted your recent orders. We understand how crucial timely delivery and we are doing everything in our power to resolve these issues as swiftly as possible.
Our team is working diligently to implement effective solutions based on the root causes we have identified. We are exploring additional measures to prevent such delays in the future, ensuring that our service remains reliable and meets your high expectations.
In the meantime, we are closely monitoring all affected book orders and we’re making sure they will be manufactured and shipped as soon as possible.
Thank you for your understanding and patience during this time. Your satisfaction is our top priority, and we are committed to providing you with the exceptional service you deserve!
