Parents and teachers represent a large number of “new writers” on the print-on-demand scene today, driven by the idea of sharing a moral or lesson with the children in their lives. Why are children’s storybooks so popular with these new authors? One reason is length. Many children’s books are less than 1,000 words long, so unlike the daunting endeavor of cracking out a 100,000 word novel, a children’s book can sometimes be composed in an afternoon.

In the past, what made publishing a children’s book an insurmountable hurdle was the illustrations and up-front printing costs. But today, even high-quality artwork is packaged for sale by many self-publishing services, and by using print-on-demand technology, authors only pay for printing the number of copies that actually sell. Formatting and distribution is often included as well. Many would-be authors are discovering the only thing standing in their way is desire.

For those who hold the desire, here are five pieces of advice on how to increase the chances for success when self-publishing an illustrated children’s book.

#1 MAKE EVERY PAGE COUNT

Good advice for any well-crafted story, but especially true for children’s books that are short in length to begin with, and feature full-color illustrations. Printing books in full color is relatively expensive and this is particularly true with print-on-demand. Each two-page spread will need to feature at least one illustration (and preferably a full, two-page illustration spread), so you want to make every page integral to the story.

For self-publishing authors, fully illustrated children’s stories are best kept to 32 pages or less. Why? First there are the printing cost advantages: 32 is divisible by the two most common off-set signatures of 32 and16, as well as the most common print-on-demand signature of 4. Additionally, a “short” book allows for a competitive retail price compared with the number of printed pages.

#2 INCLUDE A LESSON OR MORAL

One appealing aspect of publishing a children’s book is the opportunity to impart knowledge to a youngster. All successful children’s books have a moral or theme. The protagonist must overcome adversity to change, improve or grow by exercising a positive trait, perhaps one adopted during the course of the story. Well-conceived children’s storybooks share good values and lessons to their readers; make sure your story has a strong moral without being preachy.

#3 WRITE FOR YOUR AUDIENCE

While many themes in children’s books are universal, you may have more success finding the appropriate tone if you write specifically for girls or boys. Most successful children’s stories not only have an age group in mind but a gender. Keep a laser-like focus on your specific demographic. This will also help the artist produce appropriate illustrations. Children usually pretend they are in the story, at least on an abstract level, and it is easier for a boy to relate to a drawing of a boy than a drawing of a girl. Equally important to the artwork is the use of language and the message of the story. Concepts that fall outside your demographic or words that are too difficult for your target age group to understand, will cause your book to miss its mark.

#4 DESIGN A MOCK-UP

One of the trickiest elements to publishing a children’s book is coordinating the story with the illustrations. Not only does this involve allocating the proper words to the matching illustrations, but you need to make sure there is enough “white space” (either within the drawing itself, or on the opposing page) for the actual printed words. If the words are printed directly over the artwork, they run the risk of being difficult to read. By creating a physical mock-up of the entire storybook, you can make sure the illustrations will match the words and that there is enough room for the words when you describe each illustration to the artist. This allows you to arrive at solutions in advance when words must lie over busy or dark portions of the artwork. Some solutions include changing the font color or using an opaque “text box” to separate the text from the illustration.

#5 AVOID STICKER SHOCK

Self-publishing a children’s book is a rewarding and exciting adventure. It also requires a monetary investment. Granted, the investment is not as high as it used to be, but it still isn’t cheap. If pursuing the independent self-publishing route, prepare to order a print-run of at least 2,000 books to make the endeavor worthwhile. Depending upon your off-set printer of choice, and the dimensions/length/format of your book, your 2,000 copies may require an out-of-pocket expenditure of $5,000 or more. If pursuing the more convenient route of print-on-demand with an online publisher, full color packages range from $500 to $2,500, depending upon your publisher of choice.

Artwork is another expensive element. Commissioning original illustrations from a professional artist can cost you between $300 – $800 per drawing. For a 32-page book, it’s easy to see how the costs can escalate. On the print-on-demand side, the same company you choose for publishing may also offer original illustration packages for considerably less money. Print-on-demand self-publishing companies often subsidize the up-front production and artwork costs because they make money on the back-end book sales, too, whereas printers and many independent artists do not.

Some new authors who have self-published a book compare the experience to birthing a child. It can be expensive and painful, but also incredibly rewarding. And through self-publishing, a growing number of parents and teachers are now sharing one bundle of joy with another.

Brent Sampson is the best-selling author of “Sell Your Book on Amazon” and the award-winning, “Self-Publishing Simplified.” As president and CEO of Outskirts Press, Brent offers full-service, on-demand, custom book publishing services to authors seeking a fast, cost-effective way to publish and distribute their books worldwide. Through Outskirts Press Brent has helped thousands of authors with writing, editing, marketing and entrepreneurship. Brent is also a member of the board for the Education & Literacy Foundation. For more information, call 888-672-6657 or visit www.outskirtspress.com.

Related posts:

1. Tips for Self Publishing Your Book If you want to self-publish, or otherwise pay for publication,...
2. A Guide to Self-Publishing You’ve made the decision to self-publish your manuscript as it...
3. Naming Your Book Publishing Company When you decide to start a publishing company, one of...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

While the article itself was filled with valuable information, the majority of the responses and feedback focused on whether the proper word was “worse” or “worst.” English majors came out of the woodwork to plead their case, camps were divided, and flame wars began. Sure, the article garnered a lot of attention, but perhaps not the best kind of attention for the author. These people were not divided on the subject matter; they were divided on whether or not the writer was proficient with the English language. By the way, I tend to think “worst” is more grammatically correct as it defines the very worst of something, rather than a comparison between something that is bad and something that is worse.

The point is that the wrong word devalued the article and as a result, discredited the writer. Don’t make the same mistake. Below are five tips you can employ to drastically decrease the chance of mistakes finding their way into your business writing, whether it be a proposal, a website, or a newsletter.

1 – Utilize an editor

The most common mistakes are minor, such as misspellings or incorrect use of punctuation. Other common errors are incorrect word use (their, they’re, there; or worse, worst, borscht, etc.). A professional editor is adept at noticing and correcting these kinds of mistakes. If your professional writing will be seen by many (like a website, for example, or an emailed newsletter) do not make the mistake of relying solely upon a computerized spell-checker, which cannot tell the difference between “worse” and “worst” since they are both properly spelled words. Use an editor – a human one.

2 – Get a second (and third) set of eyes
Even if you do not wish to pay a professional, anyone who reviews your writing will find mistakes you invariably miss. Since you are overly familiar with your own work you are much more likely to miss obvious mistakes because your mind already knows what it is supposed to say, rather than what it actually says. When someone else reads your work, they have nopreconceived notions about your writing. At the same time, human behavior will often motivate them to find fault. Use that to your advantage. In addition to finding mistakes, other people may offer helpful suggestions to make your business writing stronger.

3 — Come back to it later
Do you wait long enough after writing something to begin editing it? Many writers edit their work us they write it. Not only does this slow down the creative process, it increases the chance that your mind will ignore blatant errors in deference to your intentions. Once your brain thinks a paragraph is free from errors, it tends to overlook any new errors that are introduced during the rewriting process. Put your writing away for several hours, days, or weeks (depending upon your deadlines) and revisit it later. After some time away from your work, you will be more likely to read the words as they appear on the page, not as you envisioned them in your mind. The mind is error-free, the page is not.

4 – Read your material backwards

Fortunately, you are only familiar with your writing in one direction — forward. Reading your material backwards makes it seem entirely different and fools your mind into ignoring the intention and only concentrating on the reality. Furthermore, your critical view of the writing at its most technical level will not be corrupted by the flowing exposition you have massaged into sparkling prose. When you read your manuscript backwards, it becomes a collection of words. Without contextual meaning, the brain has nothing to focus upon other than the words themselves. Mistakes literally jump off the page.

5 – Read your material out loud
When you read words aloud, your brain must slow down and concentrate on the material. How fast can you read the following sentence? The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs. Now how fast can you read it out loud? It takes at least twice as long, and those precious milliseconds sometimes make all the difference between a typo that is missed, and one that is caught and corrected. As a popular Internet posting informed us in 2003, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the Itteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and sat Itteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wtihuot any porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey Iteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. But try raednig tihs out luod and see how far you get. An extra bonus for reading your material out loud is that you may discover stumbling blocks like awkward sentence structure and choppy dialogue. Strong business writing is not only dependent on error-free prose; it must be crisp and clear.

What is your worst fear as a writer? Is it publishing something littered with mistakes? Don’t make good writing bad or bad writing worse by failing to catch errors before publication.

Employ these five simple suggestions. Your writing career, your business, and your readers will thank you.

Brent Sampson is the best-selling author of “Sell Your Book on Amazon” and the award-winning “Self-Publishing Simplified.” As the president & CEO of Outskirts Press, Brent offers turn-key, on-demand custom book publishing services to authors seeking a cost-effective, fast, and powerful way to publish and distribute their books worldwide. Outskirts Press has helped thousands of authors realize their dreams of publishing profitably and is the third fastest growing privately-held company in Colorado. Call 888-672-6657 for more information or visit www.outskirtspress.com.

Related posts:

1. Five Writing Tips for All Levels of Writers First, is the fact that if the story is not...
2. Tips for Writing Children’s Books: How to Incorporate “The Slow Reveal” In life most people become more complex as we get...
3. Concise Writing As I tell the authors whose books I edit, it’s...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.