It was lockdown. I had to homeschool two boys in two different years and I had brutal morning sickness with my fourth. My anxiety was at dangerous levels and my busy third baby had just started walking and doing all the dangerous things that new walkers do when they discover their feet – and climbing (and eating buttons) – for the first time.
I simply didn’t have the energy to ‘handle’ any of the kids. But when my toddler’s first word was ‘Peppa’ I knew I had to do something about the excessive screentime I had dumped on her during those very trying times. It was probably one of the worst times in my parenting life, (only second to when I had caught the norovirus from my then 15-month-old and nursed my newborn while I lived by the toilet.)
Now with four children; a baby, a toddler, a tween and a teen, I need to be armed with screen-free tools (like some montessori-style toddler quiet books and a baby quiet book) when things just get a bit much (I’m saying this but when isn’t it too much with four kids?)
I set up 365daysofnoscreens.com and created a toddler busy book just before our half-term trip to North Cyprus so I can occupy my toddler on the 4 1/2 hour plane journey (we forgot the bag full of quiet book ideas for 2-year-old crazy toddlers at home, complete with zippers, buckles and textured fabric, but that’s by-the-by).
So now, when I’m at a loss at how to occupy my toddler, I shove the kids quiet book at her, help her play with it for a few minutes, then get on with other things. At the time of writing this I was dealing with a teething baby who wouldn’t let me go (we call her Piranha Preston because she used to attach herself with teeth and pincers when I didn’t give her enough attention and when I breastfed!)
So, let me introduce you to the best toddler busy book in the house!
It took me three days to create the quiet book for kids on Canva, but the template is done and I’m passing on the learning activities to you! If you don’t know what Canva is or how to create quiet books for kids, then don’t worry, I’ve got a video for you with some snaps here and I’m going to detail the sections below too.
BUY YOUR CANVA TEMPLATE FOR THE TODDLER BUSY BOOK HERE!
So together we’re going to create a learning binder busy book for 2-year-old to 4-year-old kiddies which can also double up as a bit of a sensory book thanks to the little hook and loop dots we’ll be using to affix the sticky parts onto the book.
Things you’ll need for this activity are:
Sure! But it won’t be personalised and you kinda need the interactive pages. You will have access to the toddler busy book printables PDF version when you buy the Canva template, although I would thoroughly recommend at least amending the Canva template version so it’s personalised and then downloading it as a PDF to print. I show you how to do that here.
’50 pages to print out? Are you having a giraffe!?’ (or ‘laugh’ in cockney rhyming slang for those of you who didn’t catch that). My answer to you, my friend, is, well, it’s 25 pages because you’ll be printing the pages front and back. But also it’s actually 45 pages, so 16 pages front and back and then an extra 13 pages for the sticker parts. But, yeah, semantics, I get it.
To be honest, you can’t really enjoy this book if you don’t print it out, so it might be better to think about this toddler quiet book as more of an investment in your quality time and sanity. Also, the point is to get your child off the screens and build on their cognitive skills, so you kinda have to print it out.
What are 45 pages when you can have that cup of tea you always wanted? Or get on with another task on your to-do list? Or, spend quality time with your toddler?
Do you just want to lie on the couch without a toddler hanging off you? (I hear you! Make the book, throw it at the toddler, then lie down – you deserve it).
I’ve stopped doing that for a while because it takes me ages. But I’ll let you know if and when I will ever create and sell them again.
Busy books, especially busy books for toddlers, are great because they do what they intend to set out to do – they keep toddlers busy and they build on the toddler’s fine motor skills!
This book can also double up as a great quiet book for toddlers because guess what? It keeps them quiet!
This busy book for toddlers is action-packed with tons of activities to keep your toddler/preschool child entertained for ages (I don’t want to say hours because toddlers’ concentration spans are short and sharp, but I’ll have you know that my then 2 1/2-year-old spent at least 20 minutes just taking all the stickers off and putting them back on again before she even attempted the activities in the book.
So I’m talking about looooong entertainment value – perfect for long car trips, or at least enough time to make yourself a mug of tea and enjoy some biscuits (or, in my case, an entire pack of Jaffa cakes while I check my emails and deal with Piranha Preston.)) FYI – bonus points for getting a young relative (like the girls’ brothers) to watch over them while they play for even more engaged activity time!
My then 1-year-old also got involved, but she was more interested in pulling off the stickers, much to my toddler’s dismay. There may have been some arguments afoot but at least it occupied both my babies so I could drink the tea I just made for #fiveminutespeace.
I’ll be making a busy book for baby (well a busy book for 1-year-old babies, but younger babies can enjoy ripping open the stickers too), so please watch this space if you’ve been looking for quiet book ideas for 1-year-old babies. I’ve been searching high and low for quiet books for babies and I didn’t even realise that my baby just wanted to use my toddler’s book. So, I’ll be making something similar.
Also, if you’re looking for more toddler busy book ideas, stay tuned, as I’ve caught the Canva template/laminator bug and I’m making a whole load of quiet books for toddlers.
Let’s dive in!
The template is available here* or here. You also get a non-personalised PDF version too if you can’t be bothered with the fuss and you just want to print it out. But Canva is forever free and so easy to use, so I’d strongly suggest you just download Canva here*, make use of the 30-day trial to try out the Pro version and get to work personalising your template before downloading as a PDF and printing. You can always cancel your Canva account afterwards, but I bet you won’t. It’s so good!
We’re starting now, so make sure you’re ready with all your bits from the list above. Also, watch the video here or follow along below. If you have kids and you’re wondering how you’re going to do this project with them around, now is a good time to stick them on the phone keep them occupied with a fulfilling activity, so you can get on with it.
So, with your purchase*, you should have received a ‘thank you PDF’. I’m assuming you’ve chosen the Canva template route as it’s pretty self-explanatory to just download the PDF and print.
The front cover can be personalised in Canva. You can also change the images, but you’ll only have access to the free graphics. If you want to go pro, which is only £10.99 a month, (and I thoroughly recommend you try it with the 30-day trial) then a whole array of amazing graphics open up to you. Link here to Canva* if you’d like to take a look:
Teach your toddler how to write their name by removing the letters you don’t need and adding the letters in their name. It’s super easy to do this. I will show you how here in Canva.
You also have the option to spell their name here in Canva (don’t worry, it’s easy) and then you can amend the page at the back where you get to cut out the pieces.
Although feel free to change all the elements – the template is now yours! All I ask is you don’t share it around and sell it off as your own. Canva actually has the same rules, so please check them out here as they apply to my stuff too.
Does your child have a particular obsession? Do they prefer a particular colour? The beauty is you can change all the elements now to match your child’s preference.
Remember, with a Canva pro account for £10.99 a month, you’ll have many more graphics and elements to choose from, but you can get away with using the free account.
So what do we have in the book?
Tracing activities, which you’ll get in a lot of Montessori books, are great for teaching toddlers fine motor skills and focus. It’s a great way to hone in on the pincer grip and help your toddler gain the strength to hold the pen for longer periods. It also improves concentration skills as well as strengthens hand-eye coordination.
Your toddler should have by now been introduced to numbers. You can use the number activity in the book to not only help your toddler count from one to ten but also have a go at writing them using the prompts in the book. My toddler loves doing this, although it looks like scribbles right now. I know muscle memory is taking place as we go through this activity again and again, so she will eventually improve. No rush though – they’re still so diddy!
Help your toddler understand different ways of counting and introduce them to math! This part has some awesome stickers which help your toddler match the numbers to the apples and the written versions. Again, they may be too young to understand the words or even numbers past ten (we go up to 23 in this book), it will be stored in their memory somewhere and it’ll make it easier for them to access the counting information when they are old enough to process the numbers.
Dot to dots is also great for learning and counting numbers – and I’ve got just the thing for you! The Ultimate Dot-to-Dot Dinosaur Colouring Book for Kids* contains over 100 dot-to-dot colouring sheets for dino fans and ranges from 5 to 100 dots, so your preschooler can learn to count to 100 with this traditional but very fun and engaging game!
Click here to buy The Ultimate Dot-to-Dot Dinosaur Colouring Book for Kids*
The Ultimate Dot-to-Dot Dinosaur Colouring Book for KidsThen we have the fun alphabet game! This part has stickers and your toddler will love matching the right letters. Go through what each of the images is and you can even introduce phonics, for example, /v/ for Violin rather than ‘vee’ or /b/ for banana rather than ‘bee’ if that makes sense.
I give you some activities to help your toddler trace the letters of the alphabet too!
Introduce your toddler to writing the alphabet too with these tracing letters prompts. My toddler may not be there yet, but it’s also a great way to sing the alphabet with her and just get her to give it a good go.
Interested in enhancing your toddler/preschooler’s letter tracing and writing skills? Then check out my book, ‘The Ultimate Dinosaur Alphabet Tracing and Writing Colouring Book*’ which contains 140 pages of letter writing and tracing activities to engage your preschooler – and get them off the screens!
Click here to buy The Ultimate Dinosaur Alphabet Tracing and Writing Colouring Book from Amazon now*
The Ultimate Dinosaur Alphabet Tracing and Writing Colouring Book: Dinosaur activity book and alphabet tracing writing book for kids aged 3-5*My daughter loved the shape activity and I was pretty impressed to learn that she also knew shapes like hexagons and nonagons by counting the right number of sides. I will add to this activity with more elaborate shapes, as it seems she absorbs them like a sponge!
Again, a shape activity, this time with the more elaborate shapes. She had fun trying to trace around the shapes, albeit not quite hitting the lines.
My daughter learned colours quite early on so loved calling out the colours as she matched the shapes. This is another sticker activity and lots of fun too.
I wasn’t aware at the time of making this page that emotions are great for children who sometimes may struggle to read the right emotion on people’s faces. So it’s important to teach kids quite early on how to read people’s expressions and gauge what they might be feeling. So not only did we match the right stickers to the right emotions, but we also tried to express how each emotion would look on our faces, labelling clearly whether we were trying to make an angry or a happy face, for example. Perfect for emotional growth and building on a child’s natural curiosity for expression!
We’re not quite there with learning all the days of the week or months of the year, but my toddler is understanding that different days have different names and slowly but surely, the concept of time. So this activity is a good introductory lesson into just getting your toddler’s head around the fact that time goes on and so do the days of the week and months of the year. You’ll find these activities in most preschool themes for little learners.
In the UK, we regularly talk about the weather and it’s no different with my toddler when I take her out every day. ‘Oh, look it’s sunny today!’ or ‘Oh no, it’s raining again!’. This activity reinforces what my toddler and I already talk about.
In the video, you’ll see the body is a little different as I used Canva Pro elements, but the one above works just as well. In this activity, we’ve cut out the different parts of the body and it just helps my toddler understand what each part is called. She learned this bit quite early, but for babies, it’s a great activity too.
In this activity, we talk about the five senses, which is also great for mindfulness toddler activities when your toddler is bouncing off the walls. What can you taste right now? What can you see with your eyes? Can you smell the air? Can you hear the cars whizzing by? When your toddler rightly utilises one of his/her senses, they can match the sticker part. Also, when they’re at that stage, they can also practice tracing the letters to the words to reinforce what they’ve learned.
My daughter loves animals and constantly asks me about what each animal’s parents are. So I created an activity which describes the adult animal and their young. In fact, I didn’t know a baby rabbit was called a kit or kitten, so I learned something too!
In the first book I created, I added a whale, a crab and an octopus which my husband pointed out didn’t go into a farmland’s pond! So I took them out and specified this page as a farm animals’ page. I added some more farm animals and cut them out so my daughter could match them to the picture. We also shouted out the parts as she matched them.
This activity is a great addition to the book because my toddler and I talked about each of the jobs and I found out my daughter loves hair and makeup. So we discussed owning a business where she could work on hair and makeup, which has been successful for a lot of other people, too.
She was quite interested to learn more about what each job meant and so we spent more time on this activity. It’s important to note that the Canva free version doesn’t offer many female options, so the selections above are based on what was available rather than whether they were male or female. The Pro version has more female examples. This is just to suit the fact that this book is for my daughter.
My daughter’s favourite vehicle is an Excavator after the infamous Blippi song, Excavator (which we sing on repeat in our household!) so I had an idea to add a ‘Vehicles’ section for her. The above are free Canva images, but the Pro has a LOT more options available.
My daughter is obsessed with dinosaurs and actually now knows all the names to the dinosaurs above (very impressive) so I cut out all the dinosaurs and she had fun matching the sticky parts as she called out their names. You can add whatever animal you want to this activity, but the dinosaur page suited my daughter very well.
So, now all the pages are done and personalised, you have the last 16 pages which are designed for you to print, laminate, and cut out. Go through the instructions provided in the file after you’ve purchased the Canva template on how to download and print each of these pages.
The sticky parts are a game all on their own!My favourite part of this whole activity was the lamination! Everything apart from the last 16 pages should be printed front to back and each page will be placed inside a lamination pouch, ready to be laminated.
Once each of the pages has been laminated and the sticky parts in the last 16 pages have been cut out. You can go through the document and add the hook and loop dots to where you intend to stick the sticky parts, which were an instant hit with the kids as they could play with just those parts if they wanted to. It was even a massive hit for the tween and teen too!
Hole-punch the documents and bind them using the clip rings as mentioned in the list above. Hole punch the corner of the first page so you can add a piece of string which will attach the dry marker pen. Use a dry marker pen with an eraser so your toddler can wipe off their markings and use this activity book again and again.
The finished document should look like this!
So, there you go! Your very own personalised Toddler Busy Book, perfect for busy toddlers and even busy babies! It’s a lovely book to keep them quiet and they are relatable activities so make sure you engage what they learn with the outside world too, so it makes sense.
I put a lot of thought into this brilliant book and when you laminate it has incredible quality and enough durability to withstand toddler fingers.
Any questions, pop in the comments below but here are the links again so you can get started:
And make sure to stay updated via our Facebook page and Instagram for any new product launches and I always welcome feedback!
Download your FREE screen-free reward chart to complete 101 screen-free activities over the school winter holidays! #SFWC22
*Links marked with a ‘*’ are affiliate links which means I may earn a small commission if you click through to buy at no extra cost to you.
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:
Over 47,000+ authors, NYT bestsellers, and publishing companies use Publisher Rocket to gain key insight to the market. Help your book now
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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