Self-Publishing A Children’s Book 101

Considering trying to self-publish a children’s book? The Complete Guide to Children’s Books for Australian Authors!

For many people, self-publishing a children’s book is either a passion project or they’re looking to make money as an author. Creating a children’s book or self-publishing a kids’ book in Australia can be a lot of fun. If you aim to self-publish a book on Amazon KDP or IngramSpark Publishing, try one of our new premium children’s book packages. It’s the perfect place to start for new authors.

There are various children’s books that you can focus on. These include illustrated picture books, board books, and chapter books for early readers. Ultimately, the type of children’s book you choose to publish will be entirely up to you and your budget. The more illustrations you have, and the more complicated the illustration style, the more they will cost.

In the following children’s book guide, we’ll focus on the steps you need to follow to create and self-publish your children’s book. This will make the process a lot easier. Each author has their own way of doing things, but this is the way that we’ve found works best.

You can check out some of the kids’ books our talented authors at Author Services Australia created here.

For Australian authors still navigating the self-publishing process and deciding where they’ll self-publish, check out The Best Self-Publishing Platforms to Publish Your Book, where we discuss the pros and cons of different self-publishing platforms. This guide includes Amazon KDP, IngramSpark Publishing, Apple Books, Smashwords, and many others.

Self-Publishing A Children’s Book 101 – Steps to Follow

Writing The Story – Editing – Proofing

The first part of the process is coming up with a story idea and then writing the story. Trying to find unique ideas that haven’t already been done a thousand times isn’t always easy, but it’s not impossible either, and just because it’s been done before doesn’t mean that yours won’t be better.

Once you have an idea for your story, it’s time to get some words down. With children’s picture books, it’s important to remember that you’re working with limited space and words. Unless you want a fifty-page children’s book, try to limit it to between 1000 and 2000 words. Most children’s books are about 24 pages. If your story is going to need a lot more, consider writing an early chapter reader.

When you have the story written, you’ll need to get it professionally edited and proofread. It’s definitely worth the small investment. You’ll also want to break your text up into corresponding pages at this point in the process.

Children’s Book Illustrations – The Text Layout

Pick which text will go on each page, and then try to come up with ideas for illustrations. You’ll need to know your layout size and style so your illustrator can create illustrations that fit it. You’ll need to choose a layout size, but remember that different platforms, such as Amazon and IngramSpark, don’t allow all layout sizes.

Creating a storyboard to give to your illustrator will provide them with a clear idea of the illustrations and show them how much space to allow for text.

You have two options with illustrations: either full spreads, which cover both pages when opened like a book, or half-page illustrations that only cover one page. Full-spread illustrations look amazing, but you also need to allow space for text. Half-page illustrations give you a full page for your text.

Your formatter will place the text on top of the illustrations, so if you speak with your formatter and illustrator at the same time, you’ll be able to make the entire process much smoother for everyone involved!

Children’s Book Formatting and Layout

If you have your story edited and proofread, the illustrations are ready, then it’s time to put them all together. This is done during the children’s book formatting process. Your children’s book formatter combines everything to create your print paperback, hardcover, and ebook files. They will place text on your illustrations and ensure that everything is in the correct format for your publisher or printer.

Now would be a great time to organize your ISBN. If you have settled on the title, get your ISBN organized so it can be entered into your book file by your formatter.

Learn more about ISBNs for Australian self-published authors.

At this stage, if you have worked with your illustrator and formatter, you’ll have an exceptionally smooth, hassle-free experience. If you haven’t, then you could be in for a little bit of hard work.

While some illustrators are fantastic at creating illustrations, not all understand what’s required for layout and text space when creating illustrations for children’s books. There’s nothing worse than having to chop illustrations up to fit your text or, even worse, having to go back and have them redone because they don’t fit your book or text.

When considering hiring a children’s book illustrator, please ensure that they are familiar with children’s books. Specifications include the bleed, trim size, and gutter requirements of children’s book illustrations.

Uploading and Self-Publishing Your Children’s Book

As part of the formatting process, you’ll need to choose where you plan on self-publishing your children’s book. There are various self-publishing platforms to choose from. These include Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), IngramSpark Publishing, Smashwords, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, and many more. Some websites, such as IngramSpark Publishing, allow you to upload a single file type and push your book to multiple platforms. Others, like Amazon KDP, are specifically just for Amazon.

Each platform has its pros and cons. You can read more about choosing a self-publishing platform here. We can also assist you with self-publishing children’s books and uploading to platforms such as Amazon KDP and IngramSpark Publishing, if you require it.

Self-Publishing A Children’s Book 101 | Conclusion

There you go! The basic steps that you’ll need for self-publishing a children’s book. Obviously, no two books are the same. Different authors will adjust the steps to suit their writing and self-publishing style.

While creating a children’s book can be a little more expensive due to illustrations, the final result is often well worth the cost. As children’s book authors ourselves, we have extensive knowledge of the children’s book genre and are happy to assist you by guiding you through the self-publishing process.

If you have any questions about the self-publishing process, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

At Author Services Australia, we support Australian and New Zealand self-published authors and writers with a full range of affordable self-publishing services, including ghostwriting, copyediting, developmental editing, proofreading, ebook and paperback formatting, book cover design, children’s book illustrations, graphic design services, Amazon KDP Keyword and Category Research, manuscript uploading assistance, animated book cover reveal videos, and social media and marketing.