As a Covid Hobby, I decided to try to write and self-publish a children’s book on Amazon. It took me several months but I managed to finally get it done a couple months ago when I self-published Boo and Ted’s Amazing Adventures on Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). Check out the review here. It won’t win the Newberry Book Award but it turned out pretty well. It was an interesting learning experience and I thought I’d share the steps I took for anyone interested in trying it themselves.
Step 1- An Idea
Having a story to tell (or subject to write about) is the first step. When my kids were younger, I made up bedtime stories for them. Most weren’t very good. Occasionally I’d come up with a keeper, but I would soon forget it. So I started recording them. For a Covid family project, I decided to transcribe one of the better ones about our two dogs.
Step 2 – Edit, edit, edit
I knew next to nothing about writing a children’s book. My sister linked me up with a Denver based children’s book author who offers classes on writing picture books and who would also help edit. Her guidance was invaluable. I thought my initial draft was pretty good. However, I ended up cutting my story almost in half and really improving what I soon realized had been a raw original version.
Step 3 – The illustrations
As mentioned, this was originally supposed to be a family project with my kids drawing the illustrations. They both went on strike after about one drawing each. I turned to the collaboration website reedsy.com which brings together writers, illustrators, editors, book designers etc. Looking through sample drawings of several illustrators. I found about five whose work I liked and solicited bids from each and ultimately chose Holly Withers. Holly did a marvelous job. She took my manuscript and really made it come alive.
Step 4 – A publishable format
Amazon requires the pdf format and offers a variety of sizes. This is especially true for picture books. My initial attempt at uploading onto KDP got rejected because the text went to far into the margins. The cover was also off. I ended up going back to Reedsy and found a book designer who got everything sized correctly. She even improved the ending of the story with a slight re-ordering of the illustrations.
Step 5 – Self-Publish
Using your Amazon.com login credentials, the first thing you’ll do is open a KDP account by going to kdp.amazon.com. The website will walk you through the process. For a picture book you’ll have to also download the KDP Kindle Kid’s Book Creator application which get your book into the correct format for publishing. There are a number of youtube videos that give a pretty good rundown of the publishing steps once you have your KDP account.
Step 6 – Marketing
Now that you’ve gotten your book published now it’s time to sell it. I confess that I haven’t really cracked the code on this step. I sold about 140 copies the first month, mostly by shamelessly imposing on my friends and family. I’ve gotten the book into one bookstore in San Diego. I started an Instagram @booandtedsamazingadventures but as you would see if you went there, I’m not very good at it yet. I bought some adds on Amazon with limited results thus far. I’ve reached out to a couple of “influencers” but no luck yet. I plan to give some copies to schools and libraries. If any of you know Oprah, please let her know I’ve got just the book for her book club.
Final recommendations
Self-publishing on Amazon with KDP doesn’t require that you get your own ISBN number to sell on Amazon and will assign your book its own number. However, if you want to sell at bookstores, put in libraries, or sell on other platforms you’ll want own ISBN number. You can buy ISBN numbers at bowker.com. You also don’t necessarily need to file for your own copyright but I decided to file for one by going to copyright.gov. I also filed for a trademark on Boo and Ted. When/if they become famous, I’ll be covered to sell all kinds of great paraphernalia.
Conclusion
Writing and publishing a picture book was a fun project and an interesting learning experience. Amazon makes it pretty easy to turn a professional looking product. The whole thing cost me about $2000 – most of that for the illustrations and book design. If I can make my money back (which requires me to sell about 1000 copies) I’ll write a sequel. The book costs $9.99 and you can by your copy here.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases
Visit the Modern Dad Topics Store here.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.