How Simple Book Builder Works

Welcome to Simple Book Builder

Simple Book Builder creates personalized books. Whether you want to memorialize a beloved pet, create a love story, or craft a magical adventure for a child, the process is the same: pick a template, choose how much story goes inside, and we make the book.

The Five Steps

1. Browse Templates — Explore our collection of professionally designed book templates. Each template produces a different style of personalized book, and each one lists the editions it sells with their prices. There is more on how to search and filter them in Browsing Templates.
2. Choose How Much Story Goes Inside — This is the step that sets the price, and a template only shows the editions it actually sells, so you may not see all four. Journal Edition gives you the cover art, the title and a dedication page if you want one, but no written story inside. You choose what fills the pages instead: ruled writing lines, a light dot grid or blank paper, all three of which are yours to write on — or, where the template offers one, a word style, which is not blank at all. A word style prints the pages full of one sound or word from that book’s own world, in every spelling you know it by, from the first page to the last. That one is a book to read and keep, not a book to write in. Ready-Made Story, With Your Names in It — A finished story we wrote in advance, with your names printed all the way through it. Ready-Made Story, Fitted to You — The same finished story, with the details you give us about them written into the sentences that hold them — so it is them on the page, not just their name. Written For You — A story shaped around your answers and inspired by their life. You approve the full proof before it prints.
3. Answer the Questions and We Build It — Provide the names, details and memories that make the book yours, then we get to work. Written For You takes about 2 hours, because every chapter is written for you from scratch. An edition whose pages are already written or already ruled is ready in about 5 minutes, because the only thing left to make is the cover. You can watch the progress in real time, and we’ll email you if a book needs a little longer for a final editorial review.
4. Review & Approve — Read through every chapter, preview the cover art, and check page layouts. When you are satisfied, approve the proof. Approval is what unlocks buying, and it is the gate for every way of getting the book — printed, downloaded or listened to. Reviewing Your Book Proof walks through that screen.
5. Order It Printed, Download It, or Listen to It — Add the approved book to your cart, choose paperback or hardcover, and we print it and ship it to your door. You can also buy the Digital Edition: an EPUB and a PDF you download from your account (a Journal Edition made only of writing pages comes as the PDF alone). A book that has a written story inside it can also be bought as an Audiobook — an MP3 read by a synthetic voice you choose. You can buy any combination of the three, and the files live on your Downloads page. Outside the United States, the Digital Edition and the Audiobook are sold by our international reseller, which may charge in your currency and adds your local tax.

What Makes It Special

• You choose how much story goes inside, and the price follows that choice.
• In the Written For You edition every chapter is written for your book from your answers, then checked against the plan for that chapter. Some chapters get one extra revision pass before they reach your proof.
• Every edition gets cover art made for it — from your photo when you upload one.
• You read the whole proof and approve it before anything is printed, and money is only taken when you check out.
• Credits are the one thing that can be spent earlier than checkout. Writing your first book is normally free. After that, starting a book costs credits whenever you already have a book you have not bought, or whenever you have written more free books than you have bought. What it costs depends on the edition: 10 credits for Written For You, because every chapter has to be written for you, and 5 credits for every other edition, because nothing new has to be written — that cheaper price covers both Ready-Made Story editions as well as Journal Edition, even though a Ready-Made Story is a full book to read. Deleting an unbought book does not give the free write back. Buy a book you have written and your next one is free to write again. Very occasionally our anti-fraud checks hold back the first free write as well — if that happens to you, please contact support and we will sort it out. See Understanding Credits.