The 8 Best Free Publishing Tools For New Amazon Authors

Free Publishing Tools For Amazon Authors

Are you planning to self-publish your first book on Amazon? Do you have the best free publishing tools for Amazon authors?

For new authors, Amazon self-publishing is the easy and free way to publish your book.

If you plan on writing a book or have already written one, there is a lot of free book publishing software available to make publishing your book with Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) much easier.

Before you rush in and upload your manuscript, here are some of the best free publishing tools for Amazon authors to help you publish a better book.

Self-publishing for the first time

Many new Amazon authors make the mistake of rushing into self-publishing an ebook.

Yes, it seems simple, and you can publish for free on Amazon.

Upload your book, price your book, and then, in less than 24 hours, your Kindle ebook is available for sale in Kindle Stores worldwide.

But jumping in without preparing your manuscript, finding a quality book cover, and researching keywords and categories usually means very few book sales.

If you are an author new to self-publishing and the KDP platform, it is a step-by-step process. But if you take it one step at a time, it is quite easy.

All you need to do is make sure that you get everything prepared well before publishing your first book.

 

Free book publishing tools for new authors

Once you have set up your KDP account, you are ready to publish your book.

But before you go any further, do you have the right KDP tools to help you produce the best book possible?

Here is a selection of the best free tools for authors that you can use to make sure you get everything right.

 

1. QuillBot

QuillBot 650

QuillBot Grammar Checker is a quick and easy free tool you can use to check your manuscript.

One of the best features is that you can use one-click corrections to fix your grammar, punctuation, and spelling very quickly.

Another advantage is that it has a generous word count limit. I tested it with a text of over 2,000 words, and it quickly analyzed all of my text.

You can probably check one chapter at a time with the tool.

You can check each underlined suggestion and make a quick correction. But it also has a “Fix All Errors” button.

I’m not sure I would trust it for a long text. But it could be useful for a shorter text.

To use the checker, simply paste in your text, or you can use it as an editor and type your text.

When you finish correcting your writing, copy and paste it into your word processor.

Quillbot has other features, but these are only available with the premium version.

However, the grammar checker is totally free to use, and it is an excellent tool to check and correct your writing.

There is also a free Chrome extension you can try.

It is certainly not a fully-featured writing corrector. But it marks areas where you can improve your writing to help you make your corrections.

It really is a great free alternative to Prowritingaid or Grammarly.

 

2. Canva

canva ebook

You need a book cover that will attract the attention of book buyers.

But it is expensive to hire a professional designer.

With a free Canva account, you can design acceptable book covers for ebooks. It’s a user-friendly app with simple drag-and-drop features to make creating a book cover easy.

You can read our full article on how to design a free ebook cover with Canva.

You can create covers that will be much more appealing than trying to make a homemade cover in Microsoft Word.

 

3. Kindle Create

publishing with kindle create

Kindle Create is a free tool from Amazon to help you format Kindle ebooks.

You can upload your Word manuscript in docx or doc files and start working on making your ebook more readable.

Formatting with Kindle Create is similar to how you would do so with any word processor.

Use the formatting menu to make changes to your title page, body text fonts, apply drop caps, change paragraphs, indents, justification, and line spacing.

When you finish, you can export a file ready to publish on KDP.

It certainly is one of the must-have free publishing tools for new Amazon authors.

 

4. Kindle Previewer

kindle previewer tool

The Kindle Previewer is another free KDP software tool from Amazon.

The desktop program is available for Windows and Mac.

It is a convenient tool for authors who want to check the quality of an ebook before publishing it on Amazon KDP.

If you have images in your ebook, it is the best way to check that you have formatted them correctly.

It also has a useful import and export function that can help you convert your ebook to an epub file.

 

5. Calibre

calibre ebook - free publishing tool for Amazon

Calibre is often called the Swiss Army Knife for ebooks.

It is a free desktop program for PC, Mac, and Linux.

You can convert ebook format files, edit HTML, and also edit the table of contents.

It’s probably not for every new author because there is a bit of a learning curve for some more complex editing tools.

But if you have a little bit of technical knowledge, it is a great all-round tool for creating ebooks.

 

6. Ahrefs Amazon Keyword Tool

Ahrefs Amazon Keyword Tool

When you publish on Amazon, you need to select seven Amazon KDP search keywords.

Many new authors make the mistake of not doing any research and merely guessing and filling in the boxes.

You definitely need to research your selections well before you publish your book.

Publisher Rocket is the most popular tool* for the task of researching keywords and categories and accessing data about books on Amazon, but it is not free.

If you want a free alternative to Publisher Rocket or KDSpy, then the free Ahrefs Amazon Keyword tool will help you find relevant search keywords for your book.

The free version of the tool gives you 100 suggestions for each search, so you get plenty of ideas. Another good thing was that it doesn’t ask for your email address.

It’s one of the best free publishing tools for new Amazon authors.

 

7. Book Description Generator

Kindlepreneur Book Description Generator

When you publish your book, you need to add your book description.

However, it will be published on your book sales page in plain text.

A better way to increase your chances of selling your book is to format your description. But unless you are familiar with HTML, it is not easy.

The easiest way to format your description is to use the free Book Description Generator* from Kindlepreneur.

As a bonus, you can easily format your description and editorial reviews for Amazon, as well as Barnes & Noble and Kobo.

 

8. Shaxpir

shaxpir home screen

If you are about to start writing a book, maybe you could consider an alternative to Microsoft Word or Google Docs.

There are many free book-writing programs available for authors today.

Shaxpir is a free and premium book writing program. But with the free version, you have all of the features you will need.

There are many book-writing tools available now, but this one is certainly worth a look.

 

Summary

When you self-publish on Amazon, you have a lot of decisions to make.

Do you want to enroll in KDP Select and Kindle Unlimited? Do you want to publish a print-on-demand book as well as an ebook?

When you set your list price, do you qualify for a 35% or 70% royalty rate?

You need to check the answers to these questions before you begin.

You also have a lot of work in preparing your book.

But at least you have the tools available to you now to help you create a great ebook that will attract the attention of readers.

*This article contains affiliate links. If you use these links to buy a product or service we may earn a commission.

 

Related reading: Free Ebook Creator Tools And Apps For New Authors

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