If you write for children, self-publishing your children's book can be a great route to take. Increasingly accessible and with a quicker turnaround than traditional publishing, the self-publishing option is becoming more and more attractive.
How to self-publish a children’s book in 7 steps:
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There's no such thing as a 100% good thing. Self-publishing takes a lot of hard work and dedication but the potential rewards are great. Before you commit to any single publishing path, it's always good to know what you're in for.
If all of this seems reasonable and you're ready to board the Self-Publishing Express, then let's make our way to the next stop on this line.
Ideally, you would’ve done this before writing your children’s book, although it’s easy to get swept up in that lightbulb moment of an exciting story idea. In researching the market, you’re essentially identifying your target audience, their preferences, and their habits — all of which can help improve your book and strengthen its reach.
If you’ve already done your research, now’s the time to revise and refine it before moving forward. If you haven’t done much other than revisiting your own favorite children’s stories, here are a few things to ask yourself.
The categorization of your book is the foundation of all the work that follows, from editing to designing to marketing. What you don't want to do is to stray too far from the market conventions of your niche while producing and promoting your book.
The main categories of children’s fiction are summarized in the table below.
Type of Children's Book Age Range Word Count Picture Book/Board Book 0-6 years old < 1,000 Early Reader 6-7 years old 2,000-5,000 Chapter Book 7-9 years old 5,000-10,000 Middle Grade 9-12 years old 30,000-50,000 Young Adult 12-18 years old 50,000-100,000Browse through the books at your local bookstore or library, or even online on Amazon, to see what new children’s titles look like, what kind of stories they tell, and what topics they cover. For instance, children’s books about diversity are on the rise, as are those about famous historical figures.
Trends like these should by no means dictate your work, but they do reflect the tastes of children as well as the concerns of parents and educators who will actually be buying your book. Keep them in mind as you go along.
If you want kids to ask their parents to read them your book over and over again, you need a strong story, which means several rounds of manuscript revisions. Of the many types of editing, the first step for most writers is typically developmental editing, followed by copy editing.
At this stage, ask yourself:
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Once you’ve done your best to refine your book by yourself, it’s time to enlist outside perspectives, starting with beta readers and progressing to a professional editor.
As an indie author trying to tightly control your self-publishing budget, you might be tempted to do all the editing yourself to minimize costs. However, you’ll find that since picture books are so short, editing rates are often quite affordable, especially when compared to full-length novels, or even middle grade books. According to real data from the Reedsy marketplace, the cost to edit an average 1,000 word picture book is $340 for a developmental edit and $210 for a copy edit.
Reedsy editor and picture book specialist Leila Boukarim explains that the more time an author spends with their draft, the more attached they become to it, posing an obstacle when trying to create a book that resonates with people who have no idea who the author is, what their process looked like, and what their intentions were when they wrote it. “All readers want is a good story. Editors, thanks to their industry experience, can help authors answer the question ‘So what?’ and focus on the essence and the heart of the story, cutting away anything that isn’t serving the work, and fine-tuning word choice and structure with the target audience in mind.”
It is these insights that only a specialist children’s book editor can offer that convince most authors to invest in professional editing.
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When you’ve got the words perfected, you move on to a very exciting stage of the publishing process — enriching the narrative with illustrations.
Lively illustrations are a prominent feature among the best children’s books, adorning both cover and interiors with immersive visuals that little readers want to run their fingers along.
For Reedsy picture book illustrator Caitlin B. Alexander, who specializes in nostalgic, fresh, and colorful picture book artwork, the goal is to bring the author’s created world to life: “I try to do it in a way that adds even more lush detail, fun hidden treasures, and visual storytelling to the book. The art should reflect the mood and audience of the book, and elevate the professional quality even further.”
Illustration by Caitlin B. AlexanderPicture book illustrators, in other words, do far more than just “decorate” your story. They also act as your creative collaborators, helping you organize your story into the 32-page picture book format, planning out what’s going to go in each double-page spread.
For an example of how an illustrator can be instrumental in your book’s success, read about Zenda Walker’s creative collaboration with illustrator, Anthony Foronda.
There are countless ways to lay out a double-page spread and its corresponding text — just take a look at these examples from illustrators on the Reedsy marketplace:
Illustration by Stella Mongodi Illustration by Siski Kalla Illustration by Basia TranAs you can see in the examples above, some illustrations fill an entire double-page spread, with text overlaid in parts of the illustration that are intentionally left uncrowded, while others feature smaller, inset illustrations that allow text to be arranged in the remaining blank space.
These are decisions you’ll make with your illustrator’s help, working to lay out your text across the 32 pages that typically comprise a picture book.
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Many children’s book illustrators work on a freelance basis, and you can locate them through social media or their own websites. You can also check out Reedsy’s marketplace — we vet every professional on our platform to ensure that every author has the best experience working with an illustrator.
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The next post in this guide covers how to find a children's book illustrator in greater detail, so head over to that for an in-depth look at the factors you should consider when searching for the right artist to work with.
If you're curious about how much an illustrator may cost you, we first recommend taking the 10-second quiz below that will give you an estimate based on real data.
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Not all illustrators will arrange text and format your pages — that is often the role of specialist book designers. The next couple of steps will show you how that can unfold.
Patching texts and illustrations together the way you would make a PowerPoint presentation, while easy and quick, is not how you keep children engaged. Every element of your book layout design (also known as typesetting), from margin size to typeface, will be extremely important for capturing young readers’ fleeting attention, so make sure you get it right.
Illustration by Claudia Gadotti — an example of what an illustrated spread can look like before the text is added.If you’ve commissioned a number of illustrations from an illustrator but they don’t offer typesetting services, your next step is to bring the illustrations to a layout designer — someone who will finalize page layout and typography.
To help you visualize what a layout designer brings to the table, take a look below. These examples were created by illustrators and passed onto professional typesetters to arrange the images and add text, leading to the delightful results you see below.
Design by Sarah Fountain Design by Teresa Bonaddio Design by Michele TupperNotice the unusual ways in which all three designers arranged the text around these images? The first uses different font sizes to indicate the excitement of encountering Reynard the fox, the second uses text to poetically trace the songbird’s flight, and the third playfully uses various fonts, colors, and sizes to illustrate the chaotic animal noises coming out of a zoo. Fun, right?
To learn more about the process of bringing existing illustrations to a layout designer, read K.A. Leigh and Derek Roberts’ story here — with Reedsy designer David Miles’ help, they turned their illustration into an attractive picture book cover.
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From typography to layout, make sure your book is easy on the eyes.
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Those trying to DIY this part of the process will struggle — Amazon has tried to make things easier by introducing a formatting tool called the Kindle Kids’ Book Creator, but it doesn’t guarantee professional-looking products. Ultimately, to produce a professional, fit-for-purpose children's picture book or chapter book, you’d still need some design expertise.
Below are some resources to help you better understand the many aspects of interior book design. Dig in and find out about it for yourself — although we strongly recommend collaborating with a professional to ensure a high-quality, thoroughly enjoyable book.
Congratulations — you’ve finished crafting your book! It’s now time to determine how you’ll share this beautiful volume with the world.
Do you want print books or ebooks? Should you print on demand, or in bulk? Which printing company and distribution channels should you use? What about your ISBN? Let’s go through these issues one by one.
Whether ebooks genuinely help children read is an ongoing discussion between researchers, educators, and parents. The electronic format makes books easier to buy, carry, and interact with (thanks to audio excerpts or animated images). For an author, it provides the chance for wider reach at a lower cost.
On the flip side, ebooks mean more screen time for children, they’re often more distracting, and studies have shown that children retain more information through reading prints. Then there’s the indisputable fact that most of us grew up reading physical children’s books and may find it difficult to imagine one that’s not actually in print.
That said, certain kinds of children’s titles seem well-suited for ebook distribution. For instance, language learning books that schools can use to build children’s vocabulary are more convenient to use and store in digital form. YA novels for older children, who are more likely to own e-readers, are also good ebook candidates.
Raz-kids distributes hundreds of their language learning books to schools in digital format.In any case, you can produce printed and ebooks if there’s a market for both. (Note, however, that the two formats will have different ISBNs — you can read all about that here.)
If you’re set on printing your book, the next question is how that will happen. An indie author can choose between POD and offset printing services, although more companies offer the former service. Nonetheless, we've provided a table here, breaking down the pros and cons of both types of printing to help you decide.
Print on demand Offset printingPros
Pros
Cons
Cons:
There are many self-publishing companies that can print and distribute books for indie authors, and Amazon is a common choice. As unsettling as you may find the growing omnipresence of Jeff Bezos’s empire, it’s undeniable that Amazon provides substantial exposure to a wide audience.
Moreover, its publishing division, Kindle Direct Publishing, invites just about anyone, regardless of their expertise, to bring out their own book. The process of publishing on Amazon is quite simple: you create a KDP account, upload your book, fill in the product details, and hit publish.
Our Amazon self-publishing guide offers a comprehensive walkthrough, for those interested.
You may be wondering whether we’ve strayed from the main question of how to self-publish a children’s book in this step, but rest assured we’re not. Marketing is an integral part of publishing even when you’re taking the traditional route, but especially when you’re doing everything yourself!
As an author, you want not only to boost your book’s exposure but also present a friendly face behind your stories. It’s how you connect to children and parents alike.
This is no easy task. Luckily, bestselling author Eevi Jones has put together a 10-day course on how to market a children’s book, available for free through Reedsy! It covers everything from getting book reviews to leveraging social media — and it’s definitely not something you should overlook.
What are the secrets to reaching young readers? Discover them now with this free course.
That said, here are some crucial marketing strategies in children literature.
📚 Get your book into libraries. Parents and educators trust such an institution to endorse valuable titles — sitting on the shelf of a local library is an impressive stamp of approval.
🏫 Go on tours at schools (in person or virtually). Why not go directly to your readers? If you cannot visit a school physically, email them and ask if they’d consider virtual events.
⭐ Get positive early reviews. “Good reviews” don’t just mean five-star reviews — they also include comments from reputable blogs, sites, or newspapers. If you’re wondering how you can buff up your book’s profile, check out our step-by-step guide on how to get book reviews.
With good marketing, your lovingly crafted children’s book can touch the hearts of young readers anywhere.
In the next post, we'll talk about the cost of publishing a children's book.
How do you write children's books and get them published? You write a children’s book by choosing a target audience, incorporating captivating elements, and beautifully illustrating it. Children’s books may either be self-published or submitted to traditional publishers.
And this article can give you the other tools you need to write the next great children’s book that you may have been thinking about for years, but never thought you'd be able to write and share it with little ones.
What’s your reason for writing children’s books? For me, it’s that smile.
Many authors or aspiring writers dream of publishing a children’s book. Maybe you have an incredible idea that you can’t stop thinking about. Or perhaps you want to put to paper your little one’s favorite bedtime short story — the one you made up while snuggling together.
Whatever the reason, now is the time to check this dream off your bucket list.
And I'm here to help you do that.
I'm a multi-award winning & bestselling children’s book author and ghostwriter of more than 50 children’s books. And I founded a little thing called Children’s Book University®, which helps other authors create books like I have.
What follows is as much information as I could condense into a single article on how to write a children's book. Enjoy!
Get Your FREE Children's Book ChecklistDon't know where to start your children's book? We've got a checklist that will take you through the entire process, from the initial idea to the finished, polished product. Check it out!
Writing and publishing your own children’s book is no longer super challenging to achieve, nor does it take all your life savings (like it might have 20 years ago).
Unless you’re a celebrity or have a large following already, self-publishing your children’s book is a great way to get your foot in the door, even if your ultimate goal is to eventually explore traditional publishing.
If you present a well-performing book and an established author platform, your chances of landing a publishing deal are much higher than if you simply submit a query or manuscript.
How much money can be made from writing a children's book? The answer to this question greatly depends on the subject of the children's book. That's why doing our research is so important, even before we start writing our children's book.
Even for children’s books, we need to validate our book idea.
In this article, you will learn:
Get it here for FREE!Looking to find the right niche for your children's book on Amazon? Download my personal guide on increasing your book's rankings and discoverability on Amazon so you get more sales continuously!
Additionally, book series are generally doing very well with kids. Once little ones come to love a character, they often can't get enough of them and their parents continue buying the books. The Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne and The Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle are wonderful examples.
The roadmap below outlines what steps we’ll take to write and publish a children’s book:
For books marketed to younger audiences, you need to know that parents will want to buy this book. Children usually don’t spend the money to buy your story. Yes, make something entertaining for kids — but you need parents to buy your book first.
The primary purchaser of children’s books is between 30 and 44 years old. Females make up more than 70% of these buyers.
A few ways you could really get to better know your audience are:
Market research is also a huge tool to see what books parents are looking to buy their children. You'd be surprised at how much interest some themes get when compared to others. Take a look at this example here, showing the search volume for common children's book themes on Amazon:
Data provided by Publisher Rocket
Right away, you should see that some topics get way more interest than others- and depending on your personal goals, you might want to avoid writing a book about a topic with low searches.
Side Note: We recently reviewed another great course on publishing children's books, read our review here.
When writing a children’s storybook, it’s really important to know the basic structure of a children’s book. There are lots of templates for writing a children’s book!
To learn more about children’s books and how to structure your writing for a younger audience, you could:
Is there a template for writing a children’s book? Yes, there are many templates for writing a children’s book. Here are some of my favorites:
You should be able to explain your book concept to anyone in a single sentence and in fewer than 30 seconds.
To best explain your book concept to potential readers or traditional publishers, you should develop a logline that encapsulates the plot and the hook.
If you’re not concisely explaining your book’s concept, you might lose potential readers and publishers because it’s too confusing.
These 7 writing tips may help you avoid common issues when writing a children’s book:
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Get Rocket NowYou want to make a children’s book. Below is every resource you’re going to need.
Here is a step-by-step guide on how to write a children’s book:
STEP 1
. Choose the FormatShould you publish an ebook or paperback? You should consider publishing your children’s book in both ebook format and paperback format.
Paperback is still the most popular format for children’s books. If you’re looking to sell your children’s book on Amazon or in brick-and-mortar stores, you should invest in a high-quality paperback format.
Ebooks are not a very popular medium for children’s books. However, children’s ebook usage is continuously increasing.
Most parents still prefer their kids to read print books, but the number of parents who prefer ebooks or who have no preference is growing.
Ebooks also come in handy during promotions and review requests. Giving away an ebook for review is a lot easier and more cost-effective.
With a little research, you can determine how well books are selling in your desired format. Here's an example of five competing paperback books on Amazon showing for the keyword “Children's Books About Puppies”, which should give you an idea of how well that format is performing. You can even see how many pages these books are, so you can calculate your estimated costs!
Price, Earnings, and Pages Data provided by Publisher Rocket
It’s worth noting that a study out of the University of Michigan found that storytime with ebooks is not as effective. Compared with physical book storytime, parents spent more time talking about the technology, instead of the book’s content, during ebook storytime.
So physical children’s books won’t go away anytime soon.
STEP 2
. Know Your Target CategoryTo write a children’s book, you need to know your target category — that is, the age of your target audience.
When publishing on Amazon, you will be asked to list what ages your book is for. So it’s important to add the most appropriate age range. Otherwise you may receive lots of negative reviews from parents and other caregivers that thought your book to be unsuitable for their little ones.
Depending on the kids’ age reading your book, you will want to adjust the number of illustrations, word count, writing style, and more.
Most children’s books fall into one of these 5 categories:
Below is a table to show average statistics for the most common types of children’s books:
Short words and short sentences are critical for the youngest children, so readers don’t feel overwhelmed. Colorful illustrations and fun characters are more necessary in children’s books than in adult fiction. Where adults can mentally grapple with ambiguity, kids prefer resolved stories and answered questions.
Each stage of development in a child’s life requires a different story structure and book setup. Adapting to each stage and its cognitive ability is essential if we want our book to be meaningful, educational, and fun.
Board Books are considered the youngest category — including on Amazon’s marketplace. They are for kids aged 0 to 2.
A Board Book is printed on thick paperboard. Often, it contains all pictures or fewer than 100 words.
In most of these categories, but especially these Board Books, marketing to parents is probably more important than appealing to kids. Of course, you want your book to be fun and intriguing to children. But make sure you give parents what they’re looking for: a good message and subtle, effective education.
Picture Books are the next category of children’s books. They are for 3- to 5-year-olds.
Children’s picture books contain up to 400 words, but there should still be vibrant illustrations on every page.
Also called the “Early Readers” category, Chapter Books are just what they sound like — the first books that children will read with the story split up into chapters.
Though some children will be excited to start reading chapter books, others will be reluctant. The broad age range for basic Chapter Books is 6 to 10.
Middle Grade books are for children 8 to 12 — a step up from Chapter Books.
These books typically feature a protagonist aged 10 to 13, slightly older than the reader. They should contain no profane language, no violence, and no romance outside of a first kiss or an innocent crush.
Common themes include friendship, acceptance, good conquering evil, and the importance of family.
A Middle Grade book is longer than a Chapter Book but shorter than a YA book. It usually contains between 30,000 and 45,000 words.
Young Adult books are targeted towards readers aged 13 to 18. Abbreviated as YA, Young Adult is meant to appeal to teenagers, although it’s important to note that more than half of YA books sold are read by adults older than 18.
Some people also use “Young Adult” to mean a genre where the protagonist doesn’t fit in, the parents are absent, they live in a post-apocalyptic world, and a coming-of-age story takes center stage. These are tropes and don’t necessarily apply to every YA story, but you get the picture.
YA books won’t always be considered children’s books. But some traditional publishers may classify “Young Adult” as a children’s book category.
STEP 3
. Choose a TitleYou need to choose a winning title for your children’s book. You could do this after it’s written, but having a title in mind may guide you in your writing. You can always improve and change the title after the story is written.
A creative title lets your story’s personality shine through. But you also want readers to actually find your book. This could be difficult if you don’t name your children’s book correctly.
Fortunately, Dave at Kindlepreneur wrote excellent articles on How to Title a Book and Book Title Generators. They will definitely help you craft that perfect title.
To title a children’s book, you need:
The book The Color Monster: A Story About Emotions is a great example:
Speaking of subtitles: It’s important to include a subtitle underneath your title. This helps the marketing of your book by including additional keywords that parents can search for.
As you can see, some kids book genres have decent money coming into them, with less competition. So, make sure you do your research beforehand and see what possible types of kids books you can create. One way you can quickly see the competition of a genre is checking out your book's Amazon categories, and seeing how many sales it takes per day to become a bestseller. That should give you a good idea of the competition in that genre.
For example, take a look at the competition difference here for several children's categories about specific animals. Many young children have a favorite, and making a high quality book in a lower competition category can help your book be discovered by readers.
Data provided by Publisher Rocket
By writing a quality book for a category with low competition, but significant interest, your children's book will stand out from the crowd. If you decide to target a high competition category, just know there are publishers and authors with high experience already in that space, and you will have to work harder to capture a customer's attention.
STEP 4
. Find a Writing StyleYou need to find a writing style that fits the age group you are writing for, the associated word count, the story you’re telling, and your own preferences.
You may be an excellent writer, an engaging blogger, maybe even an already accomplished author of adult fiction or nonfiction. But when it comes to writing style for children, you have to adopt a new mindset and an appropriate writing style.
Here are some writing styles you should consider:
There is no right or wrong approach; it’s merely a question of style. Once you have chosen your style, you will need to stick to it throughout the book.
. Incorporate Important Elements
When you write a children’s book, there are important elements that you need to incorporate, such as an appropriate theme, memorable characters, and relatable dialogue.
Your inspired story idea is only as strong as how you tell it. There’s a beginning, a middle, and an end. There are actions, scenes, and emotions. Be sure to be clear about your core message.
The 5 most important elements in a good children’s book:
While the sequence and rhythm of events are significant, keep in mind that not all stories have the same structure. There is no one formula because following a formula would rob stories of their true potential.
Yes, it’s crucial to have an intentional structure. But if it doesn’t fit perfectly, don’t force it.
STEP 6
. Use Solid CharactersYou have to use solid characters in your children’s book. Interesting, unforgettable characters are a must, especially when helping kids recall your story and core message.
The best characters in children’s books…
It's also important to research a character's surface level attributes before starting to write your book. Children will often ask their parents for a specific type of character such as a train, or a pig, or any other current interest they may have. For example, take a look at how much bestselling books earn for these character types, as well as the level of competition become a bestseller:
Data provided by Publisher Rocket
STEP 7
. Make the Story EngagingYou need to make the story engaging in your children’s book.
First, you need a good ending. Younger kids need a happy ending that satisfies them. You don’t want to make a kid cry because your story ended sadly. That doesn’t mean slightly more realistic conclusions are pointless, but your audience may struggle to understand complex topics.
Next, make sure your main character is making deliberate choices to move the story forward. If they aren’t making any decisions, they probably shouldn’t be the main character.
Any good story needs suspense, no matter your age category. Cliffhangers are a great way to engage your reader. In a younger book, a cliffhanger may be as simple as writing “Peek-a-” on one page, then “BOO!” on the next.
Here are some examples of suspenseful questions that different age ranges should ask throughout the story:
STEP 8
. Proofread & EditWhen you finish your first draft, you need to proofread and edit your children’s books.
Check out Kindlepreneur’s useful article on the Best Proofreading Services You'll Ever Find.
You should wait to hire a professional editor until you have self-edited your book. But you need a pro to look at your work before publishing.
Editing is a valuable and necessary investment, particularly for anything longer than 600 words. A professional proofreader or a line editor can help with spelling and grammar. For chapter books and beyond, you may want to hire a developmental editor to look at the big picture.
A good editor is instrumental in making your book a success because poor spelling, grammar, and book structure will reflect poorly on you as a children’s book writer, leading to negative reviews and fewer sales.
Your book and its message might be fantastic, but too many errors will be noticed by your readers. They may voice their opinion in a review like this, which ultimately lowers your overall rating.
So if your book is more than 600-800 words long, you should send it off to a professional editor for proofing.
Yes, you can go over it yourself and let your significant other read through it. But letting an unbiased, independent professional look over it will make your manuscript as good as it can be.
To find a great editor, read Kindlepreneur’s handy article Selecting The Best Book Editor.
STEP 9
. Illustrate Your BookWhen it comes to adding illustrations to your children’s book, there are three options you can choose from:
The best option for you will depend on your budget, time, skill level, and trust you’re willing to put into someone else's interpretation of your story.
Illustrating your book may take almost as much time as — if not more time than — actually writing the words of your children’s book.
I’ve broken up the illustration process into 7 steps:
Your book cover is a particularly important illustration. Make sure it attracts the right readers! Services like 100 Covers can really make it shine with special typography.
When it comes to picture books, there are 3 orientations to choose from:
(This doesn’t apply to chapter books or books for older children. Those usually feature the classic 5½” x 8” format.)
You should choose your book’s orientation early on since it will inform virtually every decision about illustrations down the road.
This is not a hard and fast rule, but here are general reasons to choose each:
Whether you hire an illustrator or create the illustrations yourself, you’ll want to make sure you plan your image sizing correctly. This way, once you upload your artwork, everything runs smoothly.
Below are the most common sizes for children’s book images:
If you plan on having your images cover the entire page, make sure to add 0.125” to the top and bottom, as well as one side. This accounts for trimming (sections to be removed in printing).
Amazon offers handy templates to plan your image sizing. But remember that you’ll still have to add the bleed allowance yourself.
Here are great inches-to-pixels and pixels-to-inches converters. These help you know how large your image should be, depending on your selected trim size. Be sure to choose a DPI (dots per inch) of 300 when using the mentioned converter.
A storyboard or book dummy helps you decide what to include in each illustration and how the text will match up with the images.
This is meant to help you determine which illustrations you want to include, better informing your quest to find and hire an illustrator. This step is extra helpful if you are planning to create your illustrations yourself.
The storyboard creation process doesn’t have to be perfect. Be expressive, and have fun. In the end, you’ll probably create a few different versions, each being an improvement over the previous one.
How to create a storyboard or book dummy:
How you combine your text and illustrations is entirely up to you.
However, it's a crucial element on how to write a children's book. Whatever you choose, be consistent throughout.
There are two ways of combining text and illustrations:
Having the text as part of the image makes your book format much more straightforward,, and looks consistent across all devices.
However, you decide to include the text in the image itself, this will have to be done by your illustrator. This method makes editing the text a bit harder — any changes or corrections have to be made within the image itself.
Below (left) is a page from my book The Garbage Trucks Are Here, and on the right is a page from my book A Gemstone Adventure.
The other option is to have the text and image separate. The text sits below or above the illustration or on a separate page.
Below is a double-page spread from my chapter book series, The Amulet Of Amser. It has an image on the left-hand page and the text on the right-hand page.
You can arrange this layout by yourself. You don't have to involve your illustrator.
I've started gathering individual authors and agencies into one big list to help with your search. Check them and their sites out below. Keep in mind that I haven't used these services myself.
Here’s a list of outsourcing sites and social media sites where you can choose an illustrator for your children’s book:
These outsourcing sites provide you with reviews from the artist’s previous clients and may even include information about previous completion rates. Most importantly, these sites are cost-effective.
On most outsourcing sites, you’ll post your project (similar to a job offering), and children’s book illustrators will bid on it.
To get an idea of how much you should be offering, browse some of the platform’s current projects. Know that your bid sets a baseline only, as each illustrator will bid individually on your project if he or she is interested in working with you.
: To get you started with your illustrator search, I’ve created swipe files that you can use to post your Illustrator Project Description into any of the previously suggested sites. You can download it here
After the initial bidding process (usually a couple of days), you will have to go through each illustrator’s profile and portfolio to decide who would — or wouldn’t — be a great fit.
You’ll need to pay for illustrations. An illustrator is more critical than an editor for picture books — the illustrations are what the reader will be most focused on.
To get a feel for acceptable prices for a project, browse websites to find postings for similar projects. Actual prices differ significantly from service provider to service provider and change drastically over time.
Payments are generally released based on milestones that you set, such as the completion of the storyboard. The milestone setup will depend on the scope of your project and the platform you are using to hire your illustrator.
The cost of your illustrator depends on multiple things:
Once you choose the best-fitting illustrator for your project and they’ve completed their work, you need to obtain the illustrations.
You want high-resolution images (300 dpi) with the proper sizing and the raw files of all images. This will enable you to make changes directly to your illustrations if need be.
A signed art release form is relevant if you decide to hire an illustrator directly. Any art attained via outsourcing sites should automatically make the illustrations your intellectual property.
Take my full featured video course on how to select the best keywords and categories for your book.
Take the CourseThe answer to whether or not you should copyright your children’s book is entirely up to you. Just know that under U.S. copyright law, you already own your work the instant you write it down. However, you can protect your copyright by registering it with the US Copyright Office.
Read Kindlepreneur’s handy article written by a lawyer: How to Copyright a Book in the US
What should I not do when writing a children’s book?
You should try not to sound too preachy or instructional about your themes and morals. Kids are very perceptive. They smell an agenda miles away.
You should not leave a story unresolved or a question unanswered. Depending on the age group you’re writing your children’s book for, you need to provide a satisfying ending — particularly for smaller kids.
You should not break patterns. Children love a routine. The key to routines or patterns is to not break them. In your children's book, once we’ve established a pattern (rhyme, repeating phrase, character behavior, etc.), try your best to stick to it.
One of the easiest ways to convert your children’s book into an ebook is Amazon’s Kindle Kids’ Book Creator.
While I use other methods, I love working with and recommending this simple yet powerful tool. It’s FREE and helps you create an ebook version for your illustrated children’s book. You can import artwork, add text, and create Kindle Text Pop-Ups.
And the best part is that there’s no HTML/CSS knowledge required!
Yes, your children’s book should have a subtitle, mainly for marketing purposes.
As I share in my book How To Self-Publish A Children’s Book, making use of a subtitle can be very beneficial for connecting with potential readers.
Giving your children’s book a subtitle provides you with an additional opportunity to use keywords, key phrases, or synonyms that potential readers might be using when searching for a children’s book like yours.
Using a subtitle also allows for more creative freedom than with your actual title. So if your title itself doesn't fully communicate the topic of the book, you’ll have the subtitle as a backup.
Figure out what is trending in children's books using Publisher Rocket. Use this info to develop an effective subtitle.
Just type in a children's book idea, and you can quickly see how many people are searching for those books on Amazon, the average amount of money made by the top books, and even the competition:
This data was created using Publisher Rocket.As you can see, some kids’ book genres have decent money coming into them with less competition. Make sure you do your research beforehand and title/subtitle your children’s book accordingly.
You write a children’s book description (blurb) by looking at similar books’ descriptions. Pay special attention to length, word choice, and the style they are written in. That’s usually a great way to see what your audience expects and is used to.
Like books of other genres, your book description is fundamental to your children’s book’s success.
While your book cover and title help with your book’s discoverability and grabbing a potential buyer’s attention, your description is often the reason a reader decides to buy (or not to buy) your book.
To help you with your blurb format, be sure to check out Dave’s amazing Book Description Generator that takes care of all the text formatting for you.
Amazon has over 450 paperback and 260 eBook categories for children’s books. Your children’s book should be in the category that best describes your audience:
(These categories are how Amazon’s marketplace categorizes children’s books.)
During your children’s book setup, you may have noticed that not all children’s book categories are offered as an option. That’s because some of Amazon’s categories need to be unlocked before being selected.
However, if you set up your children’s book correctly by adding age ranges, you will be able to add your book quickly and easily to any of these hidden categories by following Dave’s steps in his article How To Choose the Best Book Categories. This is a game-changer for you and your children's book.
The best book cover design for your children’s book is one that entices potential readers, looks professional to parents, looks fun to kids, and communicates what your book is about.
To get the best cover design you can for your children’s book, follow this guide for making standout book covers. Then create a book mock-up for your book marketing efforts.
Follow this guide, and you’ll craft a beautiful story tailored toward your audience. And you’ll have the illustrations to make your children’s book eye-catching, and intriguing.
Children value creativity and individuality. There is no one way to draw. No one way to paint. No one way to write. It’s about being uniquely you, lending your unique voice to your unique story.
That’s why you shouldn’t be afraid of the way you write, and you draw because that’s what sets you apart. Diversity is important. Tell your story.
Check out my book, How To Self-Publish A Children’s Book – Everything You Need To Know To Write, Illustrate, Publish, And Market Your Paperback And Ebook.
It will teach you how to:
Writing a children’s book is one thing; writing a children’s book that sells is another. Check out Kindlepreneur’s video on How to Write a Children's Book: 8 EASY STEPS!
Want more videos like this? Then click HERE to subscribe to Kindlepreneur’s YouTube channel.
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