This is such a great question, mainly because mistakes early on can greatly impact the progress you’re making with your children’s book. So I’ve created a mini-Masterclass, where I share the 5 biggest mistakes aspiring children’s book authors are making.

This is one of my favorites, because not only do I share these 5 biggest mistakes, but I’ll also show you how to prevent them AND how to fix them (if you should have already made them). 

It’s free and you can access it right here: THE 5 BIGGEST MISTAKES. 

NEW: This is your new & official Children’s Book University YOUTUBE channel where I share bite-sized videos on the book creation process. Be sure to subscribe. This is also where I share a number of fun and creative Book Trailers – just for fun and for inspiration.

I’d love to! That’s exactly why I’ve created Your Story Idea Uncovered. This FREE three-part Masterclass will show you how to find your bestselling story idea TODAY.

You can access it right here: Your Story Idea. 

I’m so excited to hear that you want to write a children’s book. To get you started, I’d suggest my bestselling book How To Self-Publish A Children’s Book.

You can get your copy here.

Of course! If you have already written a magical story and would like me to go over it with you, you can book a 30-minute 1-on-1 FEEDBACK session with me. I will prepare and talk you through an in-depth script assessment, teaching you how you can make your story the best it can be, so that both kids and parents absolutely adore it.

By the end of this call, you will have clear action steps you can take to make your children’s book an absolute success.

If you’d like to check out your 1-on-1 FEEDBACK session, please click here.

The answer entirely depends on your personal preferences. I’ve written for multiple age groups, and I personally love and prefer the 2-5 age group, with colorful illustrations on every single page, and a rhyming text. But others might prefer writing middle grade chapter books, with 10-12 black and white illustrations per book.

To help you with your decision, I’ve created this fun AGE RANGE QUIZ, which will shed some light on what age range you should write your children’s book for. 

If you would like to find a professional illustrator and also learn how to commission one and navigate your project with your illustrator in the most effective and efficient way, I’d suggest my Ideation & Illustration Perfected program.

This comprehensive course enables you to find talented illustrators, teaches you what to pay attention to before hiring them, and how to commission them, so you get it right from the very start.

To check it out, click here.

Color vs. b&w would depend on your personal preferences. My children’s books are in color, and my middle grade chapter book illustrations are b&w, just like industry standards.

Just know that color illustrations will incur higher printing costs. Also, try uploading your illustrations in .jpg instead of .png, as .jpg will take less memory, which is what you’ll want.

ILLUSTRATION TEMPLATE GENERATOR – This tool helps you find the exact size & dimensions for the illustrations you should use for your children’s book.

And here are two more converters just for pixel calculations. Be sure to select a DPI (Dots Per Inch) of 300:

PIXELIZER (Pixel to Inches)
PIXELIZER (Inches to Pixel)

NINJAUNITS (Pixel to Inches)
NINJAUNITS (Inches to Pixel)

KDP has a fairly large selection of sizes. Click here to view them all.

Try uploading your illustrations in .jpg instead of .png, as .jpg will take less memory, which in turn will result in a lower minimum cost Amazon requires you to charge to make up for its printing costs for paperbacks and delivery costs for Ebooks.  

I’m so happy you ask about the illustrations before you begin! First, I always decide what orientation to choose (vertical, landscape, square), and whether or not the illustrations are going to extend over the entire spread (left and right pages), or just one page.

Then I plan my illustrations accordingly. I personally outline my drawings on white paper, then scan them into the computer, and fill in all the colors digitally, including the background.

You can do it either way, scanning or taking a pictures. Again, just make sure you know the dimensions of your page beforehand, as you don’t want to put hours into one illustration, only to crop out half of it because it doesn’t fit on your page.

To see some of my own illustration examples and what tools I’m using, go right here.

Photoshop and photographs are certainly a wonderful option. Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems comes to mind. Just be sure you have the rights to the photographs you’re using.

If you’d like to format your book yourself, please take a look at Formatting Mastery, my comprehensive course that enables you to format your beautiful children’s book from A to Z, with step-by-step video instructions. With this course, you will learn how to create a Paperback, Ebook, and Hardcover version like an absolute pro.

To check it out, please click right here.

When it comes to the actual writing process, I still just prefer using either Microsoft Word or Excel. I know, however, many others that swear by Scrivener, a word-processing program and outline tool. You can purchase it here.

As for the formatting of your ebook, I’d suggest Sigil, a multi-platform ebook editor. You can download your free version here.

By far the best investment you can make, when it comes to the marketing of your book, is a software called Publisher Rocket. It’ll help you discover profitable keywords and find the right categories. I’m a big fan and have been using it for years. To see how exactly I use this tool throughout the entire book-creation process, go here.

KDP provides templates you can use here.

I also explain step-by-step how to set up your own template in my book How To Self-Publish A Children’s book.

I usually recommend hiring an actual formatter to do your formatting work, as illustrators simply create the illustrations according to your specifications. So be sure you provide your illustrators with the correct sizes before he or she begins the illustration process. 

I do offer a program called Formatting Mastery, where you will learn how to format your book yourself, like an absolute pro. And of course, you can always just outsource it and hire a formatter. If you’d like to take a look at Formatting Mastery, please click here. 

For my category and keyword research, I use a software called PUBLISHER ROCKET.

KDP Rocket is essentially an easy to use self-publishing software that will help you find categories, kindle keywords and profitable book ideas by showing you how many people are interested and how much you can make with each as well as the level of competition.

It’s been instrumental to the success of my children’s books.

To see how exactly I use this tool throughout my book-creation process, click here.

I highly recommend looking into KDP as a platform to publish your beautiful children’s book. If you would like step-by-step instructions, please check out LAUNCH & MARKETING SUCCESS, my comprehensive course that helps you draft an impactful launch strategy.

 But a successful book goes beyond its initial launch. With this course, you will also learn how to create long-term success for your children’s book that you put so much love and effort into.  

 To learn more, please check out the course right here.

If you are ready to launch your book, or need some insider strategies to increase your sales, book a 60-minute 1-on-1 STRATEGY session with me here. Let’s make your launch an incredible one!

By the end of this call, you will walk away with a winning strategy to promote and market your book. If you’d like to check out your 1-on-1 STRATEGY session, please click here. 

Amazon is actually trying to phase out ISBN 10. The switch to ISBN 13 started in 2007, and now that Createspace has been completely replaced (or rebranded) by KDP, you won’t need an ISBN 10 any longer. 

I mainly work within the self-publishing world, so I generally don’t provide much information on how to sell your book idea or how to send out queries to publishing houses.

If you’re looking to do so, I’d suggest you purchase the most recent edition of the book Children’s Writer’s And Illustrator’s Market, which contains information on individual publishing houses and agents that are currently signing on new clients to represent.

I personally have never used KDP’s cover design services, mainly because they are very overpriced. You can find more affordable ones directly on outsourcing sites or on actual cover design websites. See my extensive list of vetted cover designers and websites in my book How To Self-Publish A Children’s Book.

This can be helpful if enough people are using those terms, because you’re essentially teaching “Amazon” what keywords to associate you with. Just remember that people don’t like it if they have to follow too  many steps, so they might not go and take that extra step (multiple steps, really, because they have to (1) go to the amazon website, (2) type in your keyword, and (3) scroll until they find your book, and (4) click again, as opposed to just (1) clicking your link.

But if you really know your launch team members and are are certain they’d take these steps, then why not!

If you do decide to go this route, maybe you can provide them with Amazon’s homepage link, so that they just have to click on it. And also provide them with the search terms and say something like:

“Copy and paste ‘YOUR NAME, YOUR BOOK TITLE’ into Amazon’s search bar.”

So whether you officially copyright register your book is entirely up to you.

You certainly can. You can order up to 5 proof copies from KDP. You will be offered this option during the proofing process of the setup.

If you’re planning to write more than one children’s book, I would highly recommend you at least think about your own website. It is extremely important to build trust with our little readers and their parents, providing more information about yourself via your own website is one way of doing so.

Having your own website will also enable you to showcase all your beautiful work in one place.

I understand that the creating of your own website can be intimidating, and that’s why I’ve written a step-by-step article on this, so you know exactly what you would need and how you can go about this. You can read my article A FREE Website For Children’s Authors. 

Here’s to your very own, beautiful website!

I absolutely love and appreciate this question. If my book has helped you in any way please consider (1) leaving a review on Amazon and (2) if you’d like to be considered to either be featured in my upcoming marketing book OR my website, please fill out this FORM RIGHT HERE. 

I can’t wait to read what you have to say! 

For this, I love using Mediamodifier, which works really great. They have a wonderful selection of mockup images, including square book covers. They also offer mockups that showcase the inside of a book.

You can check them out right here.

Besides my own {LAUNCH & MARKETING SUCCESS} step-by-step program, I’d suggest Gundi Gabrielle’s amazing course Dream Client On Auto Pilot.

Learn how to trigger Amazon’s ranking algorithm so powerfully during launch week (and beyond) that this online giant will keep promoting your book FOR YOU!

And you will learn a multitude of additional marketing techniques that will help keep your books selling long term!

To learn more, click here.

If your book is already on Goodreads, linking your profile to it should be fairly simple. First, find your book, click on it, then toward the bottom it should say something like 

Is this you? Let us know.

Once you’ve click on that, Goodreads will process your request, which may take up to 48 hours or so. 

Just be sure NOT to set up your Goodreads account with your Facebook profile. Goodreads is now owned by Amazon, so if Goodreads has access to your Facebook friends, this may affect the reviews you might be getting from friends and family, as Amazon will see that you are connected. 

Thanks so much! I really love them as well. I actually created these via my own graphics design studio, Loewenherz-Creative. And while we no longer accept new clients, I often refer my clients and students to Kashu, a fun and very creative motion graphics crew. 

If you end up using Kashu for your book trailer production, I’d really love to watch it, so please do share! 

Thank you so much for considering me! I’m flattered. But my hands are more than full at this time, and I will not be able to fulfill your request. However, I do offer my INFLUENCER OUTREACH master class that will teach you step-by-step how to genuinely connect with influencers so they write a foreword or editorial review for your children’s book. To access INFLUENCER OUTREACH, please click here. 

I’m so excited to hear that you want to work with me. Please select one of my three 1-on-1 Sessions here.

I’m so looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks so much for your question. The book will cover every single step you will need to take in order to create and publish your children’s book. I’ve created Children’s Book University because many of my readers reached out and asked if I could work with them one-on-one and guide them through the entire creation process. 

With this course, you can essentially look over my shoulder how I myself create an actual children’s book, all the way from coming up with the story idea, how I wrote it, how I searched for, vetted, and hired an illustrator, and how I put it together and launched it. I video-recorded every single step I took within this process and left no stone unturned. Because I couldn’t work with one-on-one clients, Children’s Book University was my answer to my readers’ requests. 

So, while How to Self-Publish a Children’s Books gives you every single step you will need to fulfill your dream of publishing your very magical story, Children’s Book University gives you all the visuals with step-by-step video instructions.

The short answer is YES. ABSOLUTELY!

I have intentionally left out price references in my book How To Self-Publish A Children’s Book, as the cost of your children’s book depends on your personal preferences.

I always say that if I had to choose what I would pay for in my book production process, it would choose (1) an editor and (2) a cover designer, as these truly make or break the success of your book. That being said, I’ve published more than a dozen books, and none has every cost me more than $600, and that includes illustrations, cover design, and an editor.

Note that most of my books usually cost a lot LESS than that!

I’m so happy you asked. Please feel free to check out my award-winning and bestselling book How To Self-Publish A Children’s Book and my Programs.

I’m looking forward to seeing you write and publish your very own children’s book!