Frequently asked questions

Thinkybooks is a library of read-aloud storybooks for kids and a studio where your family makes its own. Tell us a story idea, or tell the story out loud, and we turn it into a book with pictures and a narrator. A book can be a picture book, a choose-your-path book where your child picks what happens next, or an audiobook. You can read it on screen, make a video of it with its narration, or order a printed copy. You can make books for ages 0–6, and the library has books for ages 3–9.

We’re a small family business in Austin, Texas. Thinkybooks is built and maintained by a small, dedicated team, not a large corporation. Every decision we make is personal, and we genuinely care about the experience you have.

You don’t need one to read the library. To make books you sign in with Google, and the account is for a grown-up. Accounts are for grown-ups. The best books are made together with your kids. Your account saves your books, characters and voices, and lets you order prints.

Usually a few minutes. You choose the kind of book, the age, who is in it and what it looks like, and we do the writing, the pictures and the narration. The page tells you when it is safe to close it, and your finished book is waiting when you come back.

Three. A picture book is one story, start to finish, with a picture on every page. A choose-your-path book lets your child pick what happens next, and each choice leads somewhere new. An audiobook is the story read aloud with one painted cover and no page pictures, which is quicker and cheaper.

You can make books for ages 0–6: you choose 0–2, 2–4 or 4–6, and the words and the story length are written to suit. The free library has books for ages 3–9.

Yes, and it’s one of the best parts. Start a character from a photo or from a description, and they appear in your book. If you don’t pick anyone, the story brings its own characters and we draw them.

Yes. Press the microphone and tell your story the way you would at bedtime, or upload a recording you already made. We turn what you said into pages and keep your words. Anything you say about how a character or a page should look is used for the pictures and is never read aloud. You can read and edit the result before the book is made.

Original pictures are painted for each page in the art style you choose. You can repaint any page if you’d like a different result, and you can edit a page before you order a print.

Dozens of them, from soft watercolor to bold cartoon. You can see each style before you choose, and you can change it later.

Yes. You can change the words, repaint pictures and change the narrator at any time before you order a print. Your work is saved automatically.

Yes. You can also make a video of your book with its narration. It is made on your own device, so keep the page open while it works.

Yes. Record 12 to 60 seconds of clear speech and we turn it into a narrator you can use in any book. Your child can hear the story in the voice of someone they love.

Your own, or the voice of someone who has said yes. When you make a voice you confirm that it is your own voice or that you have permission from the person speaking.

We use it to make the voice and then discard it. The recording is never saved to your library. Only a short preview made with the new voice is kept.

Only you, unless you choose to share it. A voice you share is reviewed by us first, and you can keep it private.

Kid mode turns the device into a child’s reader. It shows big covers: your family’s finished books first, then the library’s books for kids. A tap opens a book and nothing else on the screen can be reached.

Hold two opposite corners of the screen, then answer a short sum. On a computer, hold the mouse button down in one corner. A small child can’t do either by accident.

There are three. Storybook is a saddle-stitched booklet with standard color on uncoated paper, for books of 4–48 pages. Picture Book is a paperback with standard color on coated paper and a glossy cover, for 32–800 pages. Keepsake Edition is a hardcover with premium color on coated paper and a matte cover, for 24–800 pages.

Four: square (8.5" × 8.5"), US Trade (6" × 9"), US Letter (8.5" × 11") and US Letter Landscape (11" × 8.5").

Printed copies are priced by size and page count. You see the exact price, with shipping, before you pay. Click "Ship My Book" to see the price for your own book before anything is charged.

Yes. You can download your book as a PDF (it costs 40 credits) and print it yourself or at any print shop you like.

When your book is complete, click "Ship My Book". A short checkout asks you to confirm the book, enter a shipping address and pay.

Printed books are made to order. Standard shipping is about 7–10 business days and express is about 2–4 business days. Your order shows the estimate for where it is going before you confirm.

To 20 countries, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and much of Europe. The list is in checkout.

If your book has not yet gone into production we can cancel it and refund you in full. Once production has started it can’t be cancelled. Write to us as soon as you can at help@thinkybooks.com.

Every book is custom printed for you by an outside print partner, one at a time, so we can’t offer refunds on completed orders. Once a book is in production, real costs have been paid that we can’t recover.

If your book arrives with a genuine print defect, such as misprinted pages, a binding problem or damage in shipping, write to help@thinkybooks.com with a few photos. We work with our print partner to send a replacement at no extra charge.

You see and approve the layout before you order, so we generally can’t reprint something you already confirmed. If something looks clearly wrong compared with what you approved on screen, get in touch and we’ll look into it.

We’re real people and we understand that life happens. If you’re in a hard spot, write to us. We look at every case on its own and try to find a fair answer.

Start with 150 free credits — no card needed. More credits come in packs from $10. Reading the library is free and needs no account. What a book costs depends on its length, its kind and the narrator you choose, and you see the cost before you press Make it.

Credits pay for the writing, the pictures and the narration. Packs are 100 credits for $10, 350 for $30 and 1,200 for $100, and credits do not expire. We take payment by card through Stripe.

Every credit you use pays for real work, so we can’t refund credits that were spent as intended. If something didn’t work the way you expected, write to us before you spend more and we’ll help.

If something clearly failed on our side, we don’t charge for it. If you think you were charged for something that didn’t work, let us know and we’ll look into it.

You can print copies of your own books and sell or give them away. We don’t take a cut of anything you do with books you have bought. Stories that use characters, names or logos that belong to someone else are not yours to sell.

Your books are private to your account unless you choose to share them. If you publish one to the library, we review it first.

Extremely. Thinkybooks is made for children’s books, and our own children use it. We use picture and voice providers that have their own safety systems, and we review books before they are published to the library.

Making children’s storybooks, and nothing else. Using it to make violent, sexually explicit, hateful, deceptive or illegal material, or to get around our safety checks, is misuse. We may remove shared content or close accounts that break these rules, without a refund, and we report illegal activity to the authorities.

Write to help@thinkybooks.com straight away. We’ll look into it and act as quickly as we can.

We keep what your books need: your email, the books, characters and voices you make, and a shipping address when you order a print. A photo is used once to paint a character and is not kept; a voice recording is discarded once the voice is made. We don’t sell your data, show ads or use outside tracking. You can see, download or delete everything in Profile → Your data. The full details are in our Privacy Policy, linked at the bottom of every page.

Children read and listen with a grown-up’s account, and Kid mode gives them a safe shelf of finished books. Accounts are for grown-ups: before a child’s photo or voice is used, we ask the parent for permission, and a child’s voice is never shared outside your family.

Refresh the page and try again. If it still doesn’t work it may be a short outage, so try again in a few minutes.

You sign in with your Google account, so there is no separate password to remember. If you are stuck, make sure you are choosing the same Google account you used before, and write to help@thinkybooks.com if you still can’t get in.

We’re a small team and we appreciate your patience. Write to help@thinkybooks.com and tell us what you saw. We aim to answer within one or two business days.