2:45-Most important thing with your first children's book is just to get it finished and out there. If you obsess about mistakes, you may not finish. Thanks for reinforcing this for me :) I've had an idea for a children's book for 15 years but always delayed because I didn't feel my art skills were perfect enough. Finally just committed to finishing the book and publishing it and learn from the process. I only have one more drawing to go!
Everyone makes mistakes no matter how many books you have in print. That's why many authors don't go back and read their books again after publication. There's always something you want to change or a mistake may be found. Had several people read my manuscript before publishing and still found four or five places where a character name was spelled wrong after publication. Thanks for sharing your great information in all your videos. Haven't done a picture book yet, but hope to sometime. Your videos will be helpful for that.
The all spreads seem great to me.... Just started vid. Not sure if it needs to say more than "copyrighted material" - def agree with "just get it out there."
Thank you so much for this video, Heather. Really makes me, a new KDP author, relax a little bit and stop beating myself up for making mistakes or trying just hard to get everything right. Could you also share how you were able to market/publicize/advertise your book?
Thanks Heather. I appreciate. Struggling with making mine perfect before putting it out there but I have learned not to, thanks to you. Please do a follow up video. 💕
I was all excited today about getting my first Children's book published. I joined Amazon KDP and to my absolute horror, discovered their minimum colour page count is 72 pages. How on earth do you create a 72 page story for pre school or toddlers? The only option seems to be a book with multiple stories.
Thanks for the information. These 5 learning tools are great to hear from someone I have something in common with. I'm currently working on my second children's book, so I'll be cognitive of these 5 learning tools. Thanks again for the insight! ❤
is the copyright page part of the standard 32 pages that you create? where did you find a template copyright page? also do you wish you had done a back cover, maybe a picture and summary on the back?
Hi! Yes the copyright page along with any other non-story pages does count toward the number of pages in the book. Re: Copyright text, I just kind of grabbed different things from different sources (like looking inside books I have for example) to come up with something. If you want I can send you my sample text, just email me at heather@heathercash.com. and now that we are talking about it I realize I should probably put it on my website for people to be able to access it easily! I did do a back cover with a summary! Thanks for the great questions ☺️
Hi Heather, can you please tell me how you got good quality paper? As my author's copy just got here and the interior seems very bad quality wise. Extremely light paper. And that is supposed to be the premium quality. What advise can you give?
Hi Heather I just subbed thank you for all your advice. I luckily found Procreate on my iPad air during lockdown and was able to do my illustrations. Have you now designed all your book on your iPad using Adobe and Photoshop? Or Is it better collating all the info on a bigger computer screen?
Hi! Thank you so much for watching and subbing! 😊 In my opinion it is sooo much easier to do the layout on the computer. I pretty much only use my iPad for drawing and then do everything else on the computer. 🙂
I’ve followed your layout videos and sizing for an 8.5” x 8.5” book and found it so helpful! I’ve just received my proof copy of my book and am disappointed with the quality of paper- how do you get the glossy option for the interior? I’ve selected the premium colour interior with white paper but was expecting a much better result! Do you know if this just how the proof copies are printed and an actual copy will be of better and glossy quality? Thanks a lot!
Hi! You are selecting the correct choice for the interior. KDP really doesn't have super consistent quality since they use different printing companies for different print runs. So it is possible that future book orders can be of a different quality. Mine aren't super glossy but they do have a nice sheen to them. In general KDP isn't going to be *amazing* quality, but it's usually acceptable. Sometimes it's bad though. I've ordered books that even have horizontal banding (like when your printer is running out of ink). You can always try IngramSpark, they have very consistent quality. It is just not as user friendly for beginners, so I do think it's best to do your first few books on KDP until you feel completely comfortable with bleed, safe zone, formatting, etc then try switching to IngramSpark. Look for my video KDP vs IngramSpark for more details.
@@HeatherCashArt thank you so much! I think I’ll give KDP a go for my first book and see how it goes ! I’ll definitely look into Ingramspark too. Thanks again☺️
Hi! I've only dabbled in the ads, I did get sales from it but I ended up with no profit because the ads cost too much 🫤 I don't get many sales, only some here and there. I do sell locally at local shops where I live, and that goes great.
Hi, I am an established author and earlier this year began my journey into writing children's books. I thought I had done my homework but recently found out Amazon requires a children's book to be at least 24 pages. Mine is not. I have been working with an illustrator and am pretty far into the process and she did not tell me. I admit, I should have checked but it never dawned on me to do that. I have been counting on this book being released this year. I have book signings set up and don't know what to do! I reached out to the artist and I am waiting to hear back from her. Any advice? Thank you!
Hi! How many pages is your children's book? You can always add more filler pages like cover page, copyright page, about the author, dedication, and you can even put a blank page between each of these (essentially making them single-sided). I've even seen some other fun ideas like "this book belongs to ________", first and last having a neat pattern made with the book artwork, activity pages... The possibilities are really endless!
Hey! Very nice video thanks! I have a question can you take the book of your video as an exemple and tell me what parameters you used on KDP amazon website? Like number of page, size of the book hardcover etc ? Thank you !
Hey I ordered a proof copy but the pages are not glossy I’m not sure what option I am not selecting, I selected glossy for the cover but the actual pages are not great please help 😢 thank you
The pages aren't really super glossy... If you picked premium color that's the highest quality you can get from KDP but it's not amazing or anything. If quality is super important to you I recommend IngramSpark.
Do you know by chance if there is a way on KDP where you can do a hardcover landscape orientation for a children’s book? Can’t seem to find the answer anywhere , Thanks Kate
Hi! Unfortunately no, not in KDP. KDP only offers 5 options for trim size: 5.5x8.5, 6x9, 6.14x9.21, 7x10, and 8.5x11. They are all portrait orientation.
@@HeatherCashArt Hi Heather, thank you so much for getting back to me so quickly! You have helped tremendously! I couldn’t find a straight answer anywhere else. Also thank you for your helpful videos!
Hi! For most of the images in this book I painted them traditionally with acrylic on canvas. But then towards the end I got an iPad pro and used Procreate. For the book I'm working on now, I am also using Procreate on my iPad pro.
I’m trying to get my first book out but stuck at the error message of “content out of margin” and “fonts not correctly embedded”. I tried following kdp instructions to fix those issues to no avail.. so frustrating!
Hi! For content out of margin, it sounds like you probably have text outside of the margin. Just pull the text in some more! For the fonts - what program are you laying your book out in? You'll either need to make sure it embeds the fonts (there should be a checkbox when you are exporting) OR just flatten everything (which I think is the better option, less chance that it will look different after uploading).
Hi! You can try adding some "filler" pages, like a copyright page, and a title page, and also put blank pages between each of those. You can also try putting a blank page between each illustrated page, so basically when you're flipping through the book, you have the illustration on the right, and blank on the left, if that makes sense. Also if you have 2 blank pages in the beginning (which is the equivalent of 1 sheet of paper since the pages are two sided) and 2 blank pages / single sheet at the end, that will take care of 4 pages. But you can't have like 10 blank pages in a row. Another option if it's a children's book is to have the image on the left and text on the right or vice versa. Hope that helps!
Hi Heather, thanks so much for your video. I am having problems with resolution, I designed my book in Adobe Illustrator, 8,5 x 8,5 inches, I export in RGB in the highest quality possible, but when I see the art on Kindle Kids' Book Creator the quality looks very bad. Not sure what to do as it is exported as the highest resolution possible. What can I do? Do you have a video about this? Or can you help me?
Hmm, I wonder if it might just be the preview. Did you try exporting to mobi & viewing the final version? Feel free to send me a sample of what you're importing into kids book creator and I'll be happy to take a look! heather@heathercash.com
@@HeatherCashArt Oh, now that you mentioned, I am referring at the view before exporting. You mean when the file is exported the quality gets better? I am going to try to export. Also, can I create 1 file for Kindle in RGB and in the right proportions for Kindle and then another file in CMYB with a 8,5" x 8,5" size for printing?
@@marianchus I'm not sure if the quality will get better. But I figured it's worth a shot :) Yes, you can create an RGB file for Kindle and then a CMYK file for print. Just remember it won't be exactly 8.5x8.5, it will need to include a little extra for bleed. If you export he book and still have issues with the quality, email me your Illustrator file and your PDF that you're generating from it, and I will take a look. :) heather@heathercash.com
You just can't upload it as a whole spread. You have to break it up into two pages. Check my tutorials that show you how to do it in Photoshop, Canva, or Procreate!
@HeatherCashArt, thanks for the response, Heather. And one more thing if you dont mind, what if I want to use a Pen name and not my actual name, do I need to register it then?
@@HeatherCashArt yes and also full color I'm an artist and the price for full color raises the book cost but its worth it, I'm taking your advice on my kids book and making it extremely inconsistent it will probably make you cringe but I am total opposite of consistent I will send you a link when its published .
Yes and I have a whole series of videos on the topic! Here is the playlist 🙂 Canva - Children's Book for Amazon KDP: ru-vid.com/group/PLfwRTvxmUwGyGN_hvhs6ghn7zssVvy9UT
@@HeatherCashArt I’m trying to combine the front and back and it’s not working I’ve completed two books but haven’t been able to post it it’s not accepting it
How are you defining "spreads"? Do you mean two-page illustrations or color bleeding? Also, what are you referring to when you say you used "traditional media" and that you "painted it all"? Having spent several years researching self-publishing a children's picture book I haven't come cross these terms. Thanks, Heather.
Hi! Thanks for your questions and for watching my video! By spread I mean when an illustration spans across both the left and right page. As opposed to having, say, an illustration on the left page and text on right, or an illustration on left page and a different illustration on right page. What I mean by traditional media and painting it all is that I literally used acrylic paint on canvas for the artwork as opposed to doing the artwork digitally using an iPad or Wacom tablet. Hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other questions 🙂
@@HeatherCashArt Thank you, Heather. I appreciate your quick response. I thought that is what you meant but I wanted to be certain. I just haven't heard either referred to that way. So, along with being a writer, you're also an artist. As I often say, "It's hard to hide talent." Much success and take care.
