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We’ve already written about companies that serve as book publishers for the masses, and now Tikatok has launched into beta a new service that brings the same opportunity to kids. Tikatok is an online community any child can use to write and illustrate stories, share them with friends and family, and even print them out as real paperback and hardcover books. Children can create a book free-form, or they can use the site’s “StorySpark” templates to help them get started. Words and drawings are easily saved with a book editor that opens right on the site, requiring no extra software to download or install. Children can drag and drop text screens, write their ideas, change fonts and colours, and insert and delete pages at will. They can also easily add their own original artwork by drawing their pictures and scanning and uploading them, or by mailing them into Tikatok. Using the site’s Friends feature, children can invite other friends through an email link to join the Tikatok network. They can also invite others to read their books, join and post their books to Book Clubs on the site, and participate in discussion threads with one another. Security and privacy on the site are stringent, as one might expect. Using Tikatok is free; printed copies of books can be purchased in hardcover or paperback for about USD 20 each. As the youngest members of Generation C, today’s kids are sure to be prolific producers of content. Anything that helps them do that while enabling their parents, grandparents and others to preserve their work for posterity is bound to be met with a warm reception. One to roll out in localized versions for doting families around the world! (Related: Archiving children’s drawings — Gravanity books for kids.) Spotted by: Bjarke Svendsen