One of the biggest problems,
a lot of beginners to the no content and low content book publishing business
have is that there is a lot of software out there.
And this is software to do things like niche research, keyword research,
create book covers and create book interiors.
And it can be very confusing knowing where to start. So in this video,
I'm going to compare three of the most common pieces of KDP
cover creator software out there.
And these are those all encompassing suites that allow you to create covers,
provide images, upload your own images,
provide templates and that sort of thing.
And the ones we're going to be looking at are the KDP cover creator software,
which you can find in the KDP dashboard, which is free to use.
We're going to be looking at Book Bolt and also looking at Canva.
What we're not gonna be looking at at this,
in this video are those pieces of software like Affinity Designer,
Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and Inkscape,
which are more pure image, editing pieces of software.
Now they are great.
And I recommend anyone who's serious about this business eventually
learning how to use those pieces of software,
because eventually it will give you more freedom,
give you more creativity and allow you to translate what's in your head onto
the screen. Okay,
we're going to be looking at these three pieces of software and looking at these
main features, which is price, whether they give out KDP cover template,
whether they have any free images, can you upload your own images, font,
selection, ease of use, and whether there are any other useful features. So,
first of all, if we look at price.
Now the Kindle or KDP cover creator tool is absolutely free,
which you find within the, as I said, the KDP dashboard.
When it comes to Canva, there is a free version and there is the paid version.
Now the paid version is $12.99. That's US dollars.
I've got it here in a Australian dollars because I'm in Australia.
Now all the tutorials I show on this channel are using the free
version and the paid version just gives you more images,
more features, more storage space. But basically to create book covers,
you can do this in the free version.
Then we come onto Book Bolt and there are two versions.
One is that $9.99 per month. Again,
this is us dollars and the other is $19.99 per month.
The only difference is is that this pro subscription for $19.99 per month
just gives you access to their puzzle creation software.
So we're going to take the $9.99 version,
which is what you need to create covers. So in giving these a score,
I'm going to give the KDP cover creator three, because it's free,
Book Bolt one point and Canva, again, three points because it's free.
Next we come on to the KDP cover template. And what this is is does.
This piece of software provide you with the cover template that you need to
create your cover. So we'll take a look at the KDP cover creator first.
Now to access this in the KDP dashboard.
When it comes to the section where you can upload a book cover,
you just click on launch cover creator. Then click on, continue.
We'll have an image from the gallery that KDP provides.
We'll just choose something very basic, earth tone cover.
We'll go for this green cover and we'll click on, use this image.
And then it gives you a choice of cover images that you can use.
We'll just choose this design. So this gives you a free template.
You can see here,
it gives you the section for the spine and the section for the front cover,
section for the back cover and the areas around the edge, which is the trim.
If we go over to Book Bolt, this is the area where you create your cover.
Now they've got this new Book Bolt studio,
which can access by clicking on this button at the top right here.
And that will take you to the Book Bolt studio.
So here you put in what your book is a paperback.
We're just going to call this test, got the size black and white interior.
And we'll put the page count at 120. It's going to be a bleed book.
We'll just pretend we're making a lined notebook and we'll hit create project
and we'll see what it gives us. And so you can see this gives us the template,
again the area for the spine front cover back cover and the pink area,
which is the sort of the bleed area for the cover. Now,
when it comes to Canva, you don't get a template.
So you have to download your own template.
Now you can do this and nowadays from the KDP help section again,
you just put in the details of your book, download the template,
then upload it to Canva and there you have it on your page.
So KDP cover creator, yes. Book bolt, yes. Canva, no.
So I'm going to give those three points to Book Bolt and KDP cover creator.
One point to Canva. Now, free images.
So let's have a look at what they provide. Well,
unfortunately all you have these basic background images
that KDP provides. And if we click on, start over,
we can see that all we've got are the options of the background images from the
image gallery, or you can upload your own from your computer.
So when you look at these images, they are very basic.
They are very generic.
And they are the sort of images you might find find on stock photo
websites. Now, when we go to the Book Bolt studio,
we've got these options here in the left hand side menu,
and we've got all these options for different shapes.
So you can cover your background by putting in a rectangle shape,
dragging that down to fill the cover.
And then you've got these other additional shapes that you can place on your
cover. So again, very basic shapes. If you want images,
you do have the option of uploading your own images,
or you've got these options here of looking and searching for images on Pixabay
or Unsplash. I've always suggested with those sites, if you do use them,
you do have to check that you do in fact,
have the copyright by doing reverse image searches on Google. Here,
I've uploaded an image of a cat just to try it out. So again,
the images are pretty basic. The shapes are basic.
You can upload your own images and you can have access to images off Unsplash or
Pixabay. On Canva, however,
you do have a lot more images to choose from. First of all,
you've got different backgrounds. So you can just pick, for instance,
say paper like background, or just remove our template.
Then you've got access to elements and these can be photograph type images.
These can be drawn images,
and you do have a huge range here to choose from.
If you click on graphics and see all you can see here that we've got all these
options. Now a lot of these are available in the free account.
Some of them you do need the pro account to access. But on the whole,
you do have a lot of selection and you can do things like edit
images by adding effects, changing the colors.
And of course you can upload your own images as well.
So when it comes to the features, we've got KDP cover creator, yes,
very generic and limited. Book Bolt, shapes,
plus images from Pixabay and Unsplash and Canva, yes, a good selection.
So I'm going to give KDP cover creator one point, Book Bolt two points, Canva,
three points. Can you upload your own images? Well, we've just looked at that.
Yes for KDP cover creator. However, it is only for the backgrounds.
Book Bolt, yes and Canva, yes.
So I'm going to give all these three purely for the fact that you can upload
your own images,
even though with KDP cover creator it is just for the backgrounds. Now,
when it comes to font selection,
KDP cover creator does have a selection of different fonts,
but it is very very limited,
but it does provide ideas for combinations of fonts.
So you can click on a particular font and it will change all the related fonts
as well to match that particular font, which is quite useful in a way.
But the number of fonts is very limited and you can't upload your own.
Book Bolt studio, we hit the text option.
We have a large selection of font choices.
If we hit the font menu button,
we can scroll down and see the range that we do have.
And you can also upload your own font. When it comes to Canva.
If we hit the text button, and again,
we've got all these different fonts here and sort of quite decorative fonts as
well, the sort of display type fonts.
Who've got a huge selection that you can choose from.
And also you've got the dropdown menu where you've got a lot of the more regular
type fonts,
but there is a very large selection here and easy to access.
So when it comes to font selection, we've got KDP cover creator, limited.
And we're going to give that one point. We've got Book Bolt, good,
and you can upload your own. We're going to give that two points and we've got,
Canva.
A very good selection and you can also upload your own.
So we're going to give that three points. Now, when it comes to ease of use,
I found that the KDP cover creator was quite clunky. You know,
making your own changes was a bit difficult. The changes were limited.
Things didn't always quite work as you wanted to. Book Bolt,
I'd say that was moderate, things weren't as intuitive.
And one of the things that did slightly annoy me was that every time you made a
change, you got the little wait screen,
which would pop up in a second like that, which again,
I found a little bit annoying and I found it slightly difficult to use. However,
I think if you were to use this regularly,
you'd probably get used to all of that. Canva maybe because I've used this more.
I found very easy, very intuitive.
You just got these menus down here on the left hand side, uploads, texts,
elements, backgrounds,
and these basic dropdown menus that you do find in a lot of pieces
of image editing software. And I just found this a lot more easier to use,
and you didn't get that annoying little upload waiting type thing happening.
That little symbol appearing. So score wise,
I'm going to give KDP cover creator one point. Book Bolt, two points and Canva,
three points. Now, when it comes to other features,
KDP cover creator, there were no other features.
It's purely designed for creating covers.
When it comes to Canva, I've said, no, there were no other features.
And these are features in terms of creating KDP books.
You can create your own interiors from scratch on Canva,
but I didn't consider this as a feature. However, with Book Bolt,
you do have a host of other features,
which you get with this subscription. One is,
currently they're doing a weekly webinar, which is quite useful.
And you also get these features on the left hand side,
which are very useful for doing research on your book.
So you can do keyword research.
So here you can do things like put in your keyword and get various metrics
on your keywords.
I don't think it's as good as something like Helium 10 or Publisher Rocket,
however it is useful. And it's good in that it comes in the overall package.
One of the best features I find though is this cloud function,
which I use quite frequently for researching niches.
So things like you can look at the top 100 notebooks.
You can also look at the top 100 journals, music sheets, calendars, planners,
coloring books, activity, books, puzzle books, all different types of books.
And when you hit search, it will rank these books in order of best sellers rank.
And I regularly scroll through this to see if there are any new books,
new niches that are coming up on this list that I haven't thought of.
And also it's very useful to see what's trending.
So overall when it comes to other features, KDP cover creator.
Gets one point. Book Bolt, three points. Canva, one point.
So when it comes to the totals, we've got KDP cover creator on 13 points,
Book Bolt on 16 points and Canva coming in as the winner
on 17 points. So what are my recommendations? Well here,
I've put avoid KDP cover creator.
Now I'd avoid it unless you are an absolute beginner just looking
to try KDP out and create your first book,
because what you do create is very basic and very generic.
So if you are serious about the business, I'd probably, you know,
give it a go maybe just to create one, but avoid it as a regular cover creator.
Now Canva is excellent for creating covers and
creating your own interiors from scratch and it's free. But Book Bolt,
I would advise if not only do you want to create covers,
but you want other features like keyword research, KDP spy,
doing niche research. And also, uh,
they do have a lot of interiors there as well,
which you can use and can modify.
And if you upgrade to the $19.99 a month,
you can also have the puzzle creator software,
which I'm going to do a review on soon, which is actually a really good,
excellent feature. So if you're looking for something free, I'd use Canva.
If you're looking for something with more features,
then look at Book Bolt as an overall package. Now,
if you are new to this whole KDP publishing business and have not yet created
your first book, then I recommend watching this video next,
where I run through the whole process of creating your first book,
which is actually on Canva. Thank you very much for your time.
It is very much appreciated.
Don't forget to hit the subscribe button and until next time goodbye.