Are you thinking about using your storytelling or illustrative talents to create a children’s book? If so, you’re in the right place! In this post, I’ll go over everything you need to know about publishing a children’s book. That includes how to make a book for kids, how much it costs to publish a children’s book, and whether publishing a children’s book is profitable.
Generally, anything intended to entertain or educate kids using illustrations and text fits the definition of a children’s book. To make your children’s book, you should start by thinking about your ideal audience.
It’s too simple to aim for a broad appeal to all kinds of kids. Focus on a topic: maybe you’ll tell a story that simplifies mathematics, explains how planes fly, or teaches kids empathy. The goal of your story extends to define your audience: if you’re writing a math book, your audience is children who are struggling with math.
When it comes to writing the book itself, it is time to get simple. Books for kids should be easy to understand and follow, with clear language and a compelling story. Avoid using complicated words or sentences. Your goal is to convey the story as simply as possible, with an emphasis on the illustrations.
Children’s books can be targeted to specific age groups, like ‘toddlers’ and young readers. Generally, children’s books are for younger children. As kids get older and better at reading, middle-grade books feature more text, and storytelling elements are more appropriate. A middle-grade book will focus on helping older children hone their reading skills and build reading habits. Beyond middle grade, young adult stories are chapter books or novels targeted at teens.
Would you like to know what cats do during their nine lives? How do dogs choose their friends? Why do seagulls live by the sea? This beautifully illustrated book will help you discover the answer to these questions and many other secrets kept by the animals in the city.
To help make writing and publishing your picture book easier, here are three story elements to pay extra attention to when writing a children’s story;
Spark imaginations with your
self-published children’s book.
Spark imaginations with your self-published children’s book.
Weak characters will ruin any story, but for early readers, you need characters who elicit a strong and immediate emotional reaction. If your target audience (the kids reading or being read your book) doesn’t connect with the character immediately, they won’t stay interested in the story.
As you create your story, be conscious of how you handle your characters. If you don’t spark your readers’ interest and build a connection between your readers and your characters, your story will fall flat.
And because your story won’t have the length or depth of a novel, the connection must be made quickly. I recommend studying the most popular children’s books with an eye for the author’s character development.
A curious lizard slips into a house and instantly realizes he is in the wrong place. Trapped indoors, the mischievous lizard is unstoppable!
For a children’s book, that goal is almost always education in some fashion. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a children’s book anywhere that doesn’t teach a lesson, whether moral or academic.
That doesn’t mean you can’t be entertaining too. The best children’s books do both! Make your story so much fun, that they won’t even realize they’re learning while reading it.
Learning to cook is a fun way to boost your child’s confidence in the kitchen while providing wonderful opportunities for family memories.
Children’s books put the illustrations first. To make the story compelling, the text and the artwork must work together.
Think about how the book will be read—is your children’s book aimed at kids who will read themselves? The text will need to be slightly bigger and you’ll need to pay added attention to the complexity of your words and sentences.
Or are you aiming at a younger audience who will be read to by parents or teachers? Now you should make the text comfortable for an adult to read and place it so it’s not obstructing the image at all—parents need to be able to easily show their kids your illustrations!
You need to make the illustrations informative and clear, coupled with easy-to-follow text. If you’re an artist, you may be able to create your own illustrations. If not, you may want to consider hiring an illustrator to help bring your vision to life.
Maddie is 8 years old and, like children worldwide, she has been navigating life during the Covid-19 pandemic. She shares with the reader her daily struggles and her creative discoveries during this time of isolation.
Self-publishing is a great option because you can control all aspects of the project and use print-on-demand to keep overhead low. You can self-publish your children’s book for free using a site like Lulu and retain all royalties for copies sold, unlike many of its competitors.
The other side of this is the associated costs of preparing your children’s book. Hiring an Illustrator can be very expensive. Page layout and editing add more costs.
Don’t let that stop you though. There are some great resources out there. The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators is a great place to learn more about creating children’s books and even offers an Illustrator’s Gallery to help find an illustrator for your book. The Children’s Book Council offers more in the area of promotional assistance, but they also have a great FAQ Section for aspiring children’s book authors.
And modern self-publishing platforms make it easier to publish a children’s book on your own. Once you’ve written the book, created the illustrations, and organized your pages you only need to upload your book’s files and start selling!
As you’re preparing your children’s book for publishing, be sure to use any available templates or sizing guides. Sites like Lulu make it free to upload and self-publish your book to sell, but it will still be on you to design and prepare your children’s book for printing!
Create a Lulu account today to print and
publish your book for readers all over the world.
Create a Lulu account today to print and publish your book.
Like any self-published book, selling your children’s book will be most successful if you have an established audience. That can be challenging; you need established connections with schools or kids groups or a captive audience (such as a social or email following).
More than any other kind of author, children’s book creators rely on in-person events. Finding a local bookstore that will host you allows you to read your entire book. If the kids in the crowd love it, there’s a very good chance they’ll be going home with a copy.
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You can foster online relationships too. Look for communities of parents or teachers and look to build an audience there. Offering free extras on your website (maybe with a URL or QR code in the printed book) will help your customers find your site and potentially join your mailing list.
Using Lulu to self-publish your books also gives you the advantage of selling your children’s books directly on your own website with Lulu Direct.
Can it be tough to self-publish a children’s book? Yes, it’s going to take some work. But it’s also a rewarding experience that allows you to help teach kids valuable lessons.
Remember to keep your audience in mind, focus on simplicity and clarity in your writing, and invest in high-quality illustrations and design. Pair those with a high-quality printer that ships internationally like Lulu, and you’ll be a published author in no time!
Paul is the Senior Content Manager at Lulu.com. When he’s not entrenched in the publishing and print-on-demand world, he likes to hike the scenic North Carolina landscape, read, sample the fanciest micro-brewed beer, and collect fountain pens. Paul is a dog person but considers himself cat-tolerant.
Paul is the Senior Content Manager at Lulu.com. When he’s not entrenched in the publishing and print-on-demand world, he likes to hike the scenic North Carolina landscape, read, sample the fanciest micro-brewed beer, and collect fountain pens. Paul is a dog person but considers himself cat-tolerant.
Yes, this is getting it’s own post on my blog.
It was through a bit of trial and error that I discovered the differences between Bob Book Collections and Bob Book Sets. I highly, highly recommend using Bob Books for little readers, so I wanted to write a very clear explanation for all of you, so you don’t make the same mistakes I did when ordering these online.
Bob Book SETS are mini books and include one set of Bob Books which teach a particular reading concept.
Bob Book COLLECTIONS are a collection of TWO of the mini sets in one big box, and are much bigger in size. (see picture below.)
In the sets you get just the books in their mini form. In the collections you get TWO sets of books in large format, sheets of stickers to go with the books, and some other little stuff like a bookmark, door hanger, etc…
Whenever the kids finish reading me a book from their set, I let them place a sticker on the front cover of the book so we know it’s done.
Here’s the part that can be confusing. I’ve listed them below in order of level. Notice in my list that Collection 6 comes before Collection 2. This is correct, do not let the numbers confuse you.
As far as I can tell, Collection 6 comes in between #1 and #2 and there is no Collection 4 or Collection 5. Weird, right? I own all the collections, and the list below is what order your child would read them in.
This is the breakdown, and I’ve linked them all for clarity.
Here is a full listing of the Bob Book Original Sets: Mini Books (in progressive reading order.)
My First Bob Books Alphabet
My First Bob Books Pre-Reading Skills
Set 1 Beginning Readers
Set 2 Advancing Beginners
Sight Words Kindergarten
First Stories
Rhyming Words
Set 3 Word Families
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Set 4 Complex Words
Set 5 Long Vowels
Here is a full listing of what comes in the Bob Book Collections: Large-Format Books (in progressive reading order.)
My First Pre-Reader Collection: Includes “Alphabet” and “Pre-Reading Skills”
Collection 1: Includes Sets “Beginning Readers” and “Advancing Beginners”
Sight Words Collection: Includes Sets “Sight Words Kindergarten” and “Sight Words First Grade”
Collection 6: Includes Sets “First Stories” and “Rhyming Words”
Collection 2: Includes Sets “Advancing Beginners and “Word Families”
Collection 3: Includes Sets “Compound Words” and “Long Vowels”
{All these Collections also include the stickers, bookmark, door hanger, and parent guide.}
We did purchase the Pre-Reader Collection, and it was the first time I was disappointed in Bob Books. I’ll just share a couple pictures of the inside so you can see for yourself. The reason I am not a fan of these is because it is teaching the alphabet using words that begin with each letter—not unlike other books I already own. They are not books that the child can “read” themselves like the other Bob Book Sets. If your child doesn’t know their alphabet, maybe you would enjoy them, but I prefer the resources outlined in {This Post} for teaching the alphabet.
This is inside of one the books from the “Pre-Reader Skills” Set. As you can see, it’s definitely not a first step to reading, but more of a preschool concepts book.
The bigger the better when you’re teaching kids to read. The larger size is more engaging, and the print is bigger so they are easier for little readers.
I also like the Collections because you are getting more value for your investment. One collection is between $24-29, but you are getting TWO sets for that price. The individual sets are between $11-$17 each. So basically, you are paying about the same amount per title either way, but the collections give you the nice large format, plus a nicer box to store them in plus stickers! 🙂
If you have questions, comment and I’ll try to help out!