Author guide
If you've searched for the cheapest or a free way to publish your children's book, here's the honest answer up front: you can publish for £0 — Amazon KDP and other self-publishing platforms charge no fee to put a book on sale. But "free to publish" is not "free to launch".
You can publish a children's book for £0 in platform fees on Amazon KDP — but a finished, sellable book still costs roughly £1,000–£4,000 to produce, and you run the launch yourself. FossPress is also £0 upfront, and runs the launch for you on revenue-share.
This page compares every low-cost and free route side by side — the real price of each, not just the sticker price — so you can pick the one that actually fits your budget. Figures are indicative UK ranges at the time of writing and vary by book, illustration and supplier.
| Route | Upfront cost to you | What that price really includes | Who runs the launch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Self-publish, DIY (Amazon KDP, etc.) | £0 platform fee | Publishing only. You still pay for editing, illustration, cover and (optionally) an ISBN – realistically £1,000–£4,000 for a well-made children's book. | You, entirely alone |
| Launchpad (FossPress) | £0 upfront | Publishing and the launch, on revenue-share. No signup fee, no subscription required. | FossPress runs it; you keep writing |
| Traditional publisher | £0 (they may pay you an advance) | Nothing – if they accept you. Odds are long and the wait is 12–24 months. | The publisher (partly) |
| Hybrid / assisted self-publishing | ~£2,000–£7,000+ upfront | A service package, paid before your book earns a penny – usually quote-only. | The service, for a fee |
Two routes share the same "£0" sticker — DIY self-publishing and the FossPress launchpad — but they are not the same offer. The difference is what the £0 buys.
The £0 on Amazon KDP is the platform fee. It is not the cost of a finished, sellable children's book. The real spend is the production nobody can skip:
So the genuinely cheapest route to a good self-published book is still typically £1,000–£4,000 out of your pocket — and then you still have to run the launch. "Free" was the platform, not the book.
Here's the part the sticker price hides completely. Getting a children's book made is one job. Getting it read — reviews, schools, libraries, bookshops, listings, ads — is a genuinely separate one, and it is the part that decides whether the book sells at all. On the free DIY route you do every bit of it yourself, or it doesn't happen. That's not a fee, but it is a cost: weeks of learning to market, or a book that goes quiet after launch week. Paid hybrid services will run some of that launch for you — but you pay thousands upfront, before the book has earned anything, and the risk is entirely yours.
FossPress is the one £0-upfront route that also runs the launch. You pay no signup fee and no subscription on the free plan; instead of charging you upfront, we take a 15% share of the sales we actually drive for your book. If it doesn't sell, we don't earn.
That's what "£0 upfront on revenue-share" means, and it's the honest version of "free": free to start, and we only earn when you do. It's important to be clear about what FossPress is not. It is not "cheaper KDP" — KDP is a superb free tool if you want to do everything yourself, and we won't pretend to undercut a platform that's already £0. FossPress is for the author who wants the book out and launched without either paying a hybrid service thousands upfront or spending months learning to market it alone. And you keep your copyright — what FossPress licenses, and what stays yours.
| DIY self-publish (KDP, alone) | Hybrid / assisted | Launchpad (FossPress) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upfront cost | £0 fee + £1,000–£4,000 production | £2,000–£7,000+ | £0 upfront |
| Launch run for you | No | Yes | Yes |
| You keep control & rights | Yes | Usually | Yes |
| How we earn | – | Upfront fee | 15% of the sales we drive – only if it sells |
An optional FossPress Premium plan at £19/month unlocks the hands-off tier — a FossPress-provisioned ISBN that's yours to keep, multi-platform publishing beyond Amazon, and automated socials + ads — but it's never required to publish; the free plan stays £0.
See how the FossPress launchpad works →
Still working out the numbers? See the full cost breakdown for publishing a children's book in the UK, or compare the routes end to end.
Publishing itself is free on Amazon KDP: there is no platform fee. But a finished, sellable children's book still needs editing, illustration and a cover, which realistically costs £1,000–£4,000 at the time of writing, and you run the launch yourself. FossPress is also £0 upfront, and runs the launch for you on revenue-share instead of an upfront fee.
You can publish for £0 in platform fees, yes, but 'free to publish' is not 'free to make' or 'free to launch'. You will either pay for production and do your own marketing, or use a £0-upfront launchpad like FossPress that earns a share of sales only when your book sells. There is no route where a professional book markets itself for nothing.
No, and we won't pretend to be. KDP is free to publish, and so is starting with FossPress (£0 upfront, no signup fee). They are different offers: KDP is a free tool for doing it all yourself; FossPress publishes your book and runs the launch (reviewers, schools, libraries, bookshops, listings, ads), earning only a 15% share of the sales it drives.
It means you pay nothing to start: no signup fee, no subscription on the free plan. FossPress earns a 15% share of the sales it drives for your book, so if the book doesn't sell, we don't earn. Publishing costs are recouped from sales, never invoiced. An optional Premium plan is £19/month, but it is never required to publish. You keep your copyright.
Related: how to publish a children's book in the UK · how much it costs to publish a children's book · self-publishing vs traditional publishing. Or see more author guides.
