Realizing your dream of becoming a Children’s book author
When Ingram Content Group paired up with Lightning Source and began printing full color hardcover books in 2007, they made it possible for many talented authors and illustrators to make their dreams come true to publish a Children’s book.
This new age of Print On Demand (POD) with IngramSpark makes it possible to print a beautiful full-color, laminated hardcover Children’s books in small quantities, at affordable costs, that can make your dream a reality.
Hal Blakeslee and his son Tom Blakeslee had a vision of publishing Children’s books from the stories and verses Hal had written and collected over the years. After his father's death, Tom started The Blakeslee Company and continued the vision to publish these wonderful stories and verses in beautifully illustrated Children’s books in his father’s memory.
You’ve written a Children’s book. Now what?
That’s an excellent question. We have the answers and expertise that we would be happy to help you better understand the process with our professional experience and friendly advice. In the meantime, you are welcome to browse our helpful articles and self-publishing tips listed here:
- Creating a storyboard
- What you should know before having your children’s book illustrated
- Children’s Book Trim Sizes
- Reader Age Groups for Children’s Books
Consider the many aspects of Children’s books before advancing too far; let’s review a few decisions you must make.
Deciding on a Book Trim Size and Binding
Fixes for Illustrations that don’t fit
Deciding on a final book size before illustrating the book will help make sure they fit in the book page layout. IngramSpark currently lacks landscape binding sizes (wider than tall). This could be a significant issue if you design your illustrations for a landscape page. If you find yourself with finished illustrations that won’t fit your book size, we can possibly work with them by adding design elements or extending illustrations to fill in for the awkward fit.
Book Binding types for Children’s Books
Perfect Bound (Softcover) Children’s Books
Perfect bounding books work well for some types of Children’s books. IngramSpark has a 50 lb. white paper to keep the cost down for workbooks, coloring books, and teaching manuals. The Premium color 70 lb. white, though it cost a little more, is preferable for full coverage illustrations to minimize image bleed-through from the other side of a page. Here are a couple of examples.
Color Illustrated Softcover Children’s books most often target Ages 3–8 with inside pages printed in full color.The finished book will have a full color cover with a choice of matte or gloss laminate.
Coloring books, Primary Workbooks, and Activity books. These types of books usually have designs for Ages 3–8 with inside pages printed in black only. The finished book will have a full color cover with a choice of matte or gloss laminate.
Laminated Hardcover Children’s Books
Color Illustrated Hardcover Children’s books are the most popular of Children’s books for young readers Ages 3–8. The inside pages of the publication for ages 3-8 are most often designed to be printed in full color. The finished book will have a full color cover laminated and bound to front and back hard boards. We recommend IngramSpark Premium Color with 70 lb. white paper to give a beautiful crisp quality to illustrations.
Illustrated Hardcover Children’s books for Ages 8-10 Middle Grade Readers may print the inside in black depending on the subject matter. The finished book will have a full color cover laminated and bound to front and back hard boards. There is a choice of 50 lb. and 70 lb. white paper.
Illustration Planning (Storyboard)
Planning story illustrations will help determine how many illustrations to create and what parts of the story to illustrate. Illustrations may also need to include an area where designers will place text or design it as a full-page illustration with the text placed on a separate page. Designers refer to this process as a storyboard.
A storyboard will help determine what text we will place on each page and the subject and content of the illustration to accompany the text. It will also make sure you have adequate illustrations to distribute illustrations evenly throughout the book layout.
A storyboard will also make sure your illustrator provides enough illustrations to be consistent with the flow of the story without leaving gaps in the layout.