Amazon offers teachers a place to sell resources they create

Amazon has opened a storefront and publishing platform for people to buy and sell K-12 educational materials. People who create such resources can upload them for others to purchase.

The Ignite platform is invitation-only for now and free to join. Amazon says resource creators will earn a 70 percent royalty on all sales. On items costing under $2.99, Amazon will take a 30-cent transaction fee. Once you've uploaded your original resources, Amazon will review them to "to help protect the rights of creators and ensure the best experience for our customers." They should hit Amazon's storefront within two business days.

If you're looking to buy resources, you can search for them by grade level, topic, resource type and other factors across areas such as math, social studies, technology, science and language arts. Amazon will offer previews of materials with its "look inside" feature, along with recommendations and customer reviews.

The materials could be a boon for teachers who've been looking to save time instead of having to forge their own educational resources. For those who craft the materials, Amazon suggests it's a way for them to "earn money for work you're already doing."

Of course, it isn't the only place educators can find lesson plans, worksheets, games and other materials online, but perhaps Amazon's hoping they'll pick up some other items from its colossal store at the same time (while, at the very least, making sure it gets a cut of resource sales). Meanwhile, the Amazon Inspire service, which debuted in 2016 to help educators find and share materials for free, is still active.

Update 11/12/2019 2:10 PM: Clarifying the royalty payments and transaction fee.