If you’re a children’s author, self-publishing can be a great way to share your writing with your audience. This option offers several benefits, such as increased accessibility, a faster turn-around time, and more freedom and flexibility (just to name a few), which is why so many writers are opting for self-publishing over traditional publishing.
If you’re interested in self-publishing your children’s book, read on to find out some simple tips that you can use to guide you on your journey.
Learn the Pros and Cons of Self-Publishing
As with anything in life, nothing is 100 percent positive. No matter how many advantages an opportunity offers, there are always a few drawbacks, and this is certainly true with self-publishing. Publishing your own children’s book takes a lot of time, patience, dedication, and hard work, which some might consider downsides; however, the rewards that you can enjoy, if done right, can be amazing.
Before you decide which path you want to take for publishing your children’s book, familiarizing yourself with the pros and cons of self-publishing is a wise idea.
Pros
- You’ll retain complete control over your work; both creatively and artistically. You’ll be able to write the story you want to, choose the illustrator that works best, and more.
- It allows for much more flexibility than traditional publishing. For instance, with traditional publishing, picture books usually must adhere to a standard size, as well as specific word and page counts. With self-publishing, you can deviate from these kinds of rigid norms.
- Self-publishing is much faster than traditional publishing. With traditional publishing, it can take several years to complete the process; however, with self-publishing, you can have your book on the market in a matter of just a few months.
- You don’t have to rely on anyone to offer you a book deal. You decide that you want to publish your book and you can go ahead and publish it; no questions asked!
Cons
- More than likely, you will need to cover the cost of editing, illustrating, printing, marketing, distributing, proofreading your children’s book.
- You’ll have to figure out where you can find reputable professionals and reliable tools to help you publish your book. Unfortunately, there are some scammers out there, so you’ll need to learn how to identify them so you can avoid getting cheated.
- You won’t have the professionalism of a publisher behind you to back up your children’s book and support its launch
If, after weighing the pros and cons, self-publishing seems reasonable to you, you’re ready to proceed on this exciting journey.
Identify the Age Group of Your Audience
This is a step that should really be done before you set out to write your children’s book; however, when a great idea gets planted in your brain, sometimes you can’t help yourself and you have to put pen to paper to get it all down. That said, you’re going to want to invest the time to research your market and identify the age of your potential readers. Age is important, as it will allow you to determine what their interests are, where they are developmentally, what their reading abilities are, etc. All of these pieces of information are invaluable, as they will allow you to enhance and improve the reach of your children’s book.
Identifying the age group of your potential readers is also important, as with children’s literature, age determines the categorization of books, and the category is the very foundation of all elements of a children’s book, from the word count to the illustrations, and from the format to the marketing. The following are the main age ranges and categorizations of children’s books:
- Ages 5 and under – picture books/board books
- Ages 6 to 7 – early readers
- Ages 7 to 9 – chapter books
- Ages 9 to 12 – middle grade
- Ages 12 to 18 – young adult
Set a Budget
When you’re self-publishing, you’ll need to cover most, if not all, of the costs that are associated with the publishing process. As mentioned above, this can be seen as one of the downsides of self-publishing; with traditional publishing, these costs are usually covered by the publishing house. That said, it’s important to set a publishing budget for your children’s book so that you can determine how much you’re going to need to spend beforehand and aren’t taken by surprise.
Make sure that you list out all of the costs that are associated with the entire publishing process. Some of the common costs that are associated with self-publishing include:
- Editorial services (developmental editing, copy editing, proofreading)
- Design services
- Illustrations (including sample and complete illustrations)
- Book identifiers (ISBN, CIP Data, Copyright)
- Printing
- Marketing (website development and maintenance, social media, email, online ads, etc.)
- Distribution
Edit Your Manuscript
Just like with traditional publishing, you’ll need to edit your children’s book manuscript before you self-publish it. There are several different kinds of editing; however, at this point, developmental and copy editing are likely going to be the most important.
During the editing process, ask yourself the following questions:
- Is your story clear and concise?
- Does it engage readers?
- Are the characters interesting and memorable? Do they have unique and distinctive voices and will readers connect with them?
- Is the language appropriate for the developmental level of your target audience?
You can revise your manuscript on your own; however, you will want to hire a professional editor before you publish.
Hire an Illustrator
Illustrations are a fundamental element of children’s literature. They bring the story to life and make the message and meaning resonate with readers. Some of the best children’s books feature vibrant, unique, and attention-grabbing illustrations.
There are several sites where you can find and hire professional children’s illustrators. Just do a quick search on Google and you’ll be sure to find a long list of options to choose from.
Decide: Print or Digital?
Now you’re ready to bring your book to the public, which means that you’ll need to decide if you should print it or go all-digital with an eBook. The benefit of printing is that you’ll have hard-copies that readers will be able to hold onto and keep; however, the downside is the added cost. The benefit of digital printing is that it’s more cost-effective and eBooks can be downloaded instantly; the downside is that there’s nothing physical to hold onto, it means more screen time for little eyes, and there’s always a chance that something could go wrong and the file could get corrupted or lost.
Which choice is right for you? Ultimately, that’s something you’ll need to decide.
Self-publishing is a great option for new, aspiring, and even established children’s authors. With the tips outlined above, as well as a lot of hard work and determination, you can bring your children’s book to life – all on your own!