Here’s the deal with puzzle books/ activity books: you need to use software to create things like crossword puzzles, mazes, cryptograms, and other things you might put in a puzzle or activity book. There are two main issues with puzzle creation software, each of which will annoy you in its own unique way. The first one is that you need to provide a bunch of different types of puzzles in each book, and how are you supposed to even know about all the different types, much less how to create them?
Your first thought might be to Google “free XX puzzle creation software,” and I’ll tell you right now that you should not do that.
The issue with “free online puzzle generators” is that you’re not going to be able to create puzzles that are high enough quality to be competitive, plus you most likely will not have commercial resale/ print on demand rights for the puzzles you create, so it is better to avoid those. As I mentioned in the guide, puzzle/ activity books can make you alot of money, but you need to actually put money into their creation!
Here are some trusted software resources:
- Use PuzzleWiz, which you can find inside BookBolt Pro. BookBolt recently added PuzzleWiz to their Pro account, so one option is to upgrade to Pro and use that. You can use PuzzleWiz to create Sudoku, Crossword, Word Search Cryptogram, Missing Vowel, Mine Finder, Maze, and more. This is especially handy if you already use BookBolt, because it gives you the extra tools right inside the interface.
- Use Instant Puzzle Generator, which you can get for a one-time fee of $47
- Get the Complete Puzzle Maker Collection, which is a suite of software tools by Corvin van Stone.
Note that you will have to create or bring your own word lists into any crossword or word search software. That is part of the value you add to your book!