Someone wrote me today, asking about how to produce her own children’s book. I get this one a lot, so here’s my answer to her questions, in case it might be useful to somebody out there:
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So many people I talk to want to produce a children’s book! I think some folks think it’s an easier market — “It’s just for kids” — but it’s actually much tougher, as kids’ books are more expensive to create and it’s a very crowded market.
Still, if you’re doing it just for the love of it (which is the best place to start, anyway), it’s entirely possible to make your own books at home. It’s just a bit more expensive than text-based books, mainly because the most common and accessible kind of colour printer is an inkjet, and the price of inkjet ink is ridiculous. (It might be cheaper to print in blood or whale-oil, though more controversial.)
Still, being able to produce a real, hold-in-your-hands is a wonderful feeling, and probably the best way to prove your dedication and talent to a publisher if you did ultimately want to go that way.
So, to do this you’ll need:
— a computer
— a scanner
— a printer
— software to lay out the pages
I featured some software packages in my podcast, and it’s beyond what I can do in an e-mail to explain how to use them, but it’s easy to find something cheap and fairly easy to use, if you’re okay with learning by trial-and-error. Otherwise, I’d recommend hiring a designer to assemble the book once you have all the elements planned out.
Professionals will say you need Adobe’s InDesign (a layout program), but I managed to do my books in Apple’s Pages (before they wrecked it a few years ago by oversimplifying it). Since then, I’ve switched to a PC, and I use a program called Serif PagePlus. Both of these programs are much, much cheaper than InDesign, and in the podcast I mentioned an open source program called Scribus that’s free. (It’s just a little ugly, though, and not so easy to use.)
Again, the printing and binding are described in videos on my podcast.
Strong card is going to be hard to run through most home printers (which roll sheets of paper through their innards while printing on them), but is a good idea for a flipbook. You might want to get everything ready on-screen then go to a local copy-shop and have them do it.
A hint: stick to an easy paper size, like 1/4 A4 or Letter, so you can easily measure out and cut the pages: Getting the front and back pages to line up properly is challenging enough without using special dimensions!
Like you, I understand not using Print-on-Demand, as it’s impossible to know beforehand exactly what the end result is going to turn out like. That’s why I’ve never done it, though CreateSpace has become quite user-friendly and relatively affordable.
There’s a wealth of help out there on the internet if you search. One of my favourite sources is the user “Sea Lemon” on YouTube, whose bookbinding videos are much clearer than mine!
I hope that’s all somewhat helpful!