Guide for Authors: Children’s picture books are the stories that are meant for readers of all ages. These books are a great way to pass on your love of reading to your young ones, and they can even help teach basic reading skills. When you are ready to publish your very first children’s picture book, you will want to make sure that you are putting your best work forward. This guide will help you navigate the complex world of children’s picture book publishing, and will point you in the direction of the best places to submit your book.

1. KDP
2. LULU
3. BLURB
4. Apple iBooks
5. Google Books
6. Publish Independently

Guide for Authors: KDP Kindle Direct Publishing

Kindle offers 3 formats:

1. ebook or kindle
   You only need the MOBI file, kindle’s KPF, or even a PDF of the interior of the book, as well as the JPEG cover file. Then your book will be released to millions of possible readers! It is completely free to publish on kindle, and the process only takes up to 72 hours, then your book will be live on the Amazon store. See this post for the step-by-step guide on publishing via KDP.
2. Paperback
   You will need a fixed PDF interior format, in CMYK print color profile, as well as a well-formatted PDF cover. Amazon has a cover calculator and manuscript template to get you started. And yes, it is still completely free to publish your paperback book. When a buyer orders your book via amazon, amazon will be the one to print, book bind, and deliver the book to your buyer. All you have to do is prepare your story and your formatted files.
3. Hardcover
   Like the paperback, you’ll need the interior PDF and the cover PDF of your book. Since this is a hardcover, Amazon requires a minimum and a maximum number of pages within 75-550 only. See Amazon for details

Kindle and Amazon are seen and available worldwide and on all devices. It’s quite universal and you are assured your book will be shown to your potential buyers. All you have to do next is to market and advertise your book. Read our blog on successfully marketing your book!

If you wish to publish an audiobook, Amazon has https://www.acx.com

Publishing and ISBN is free on KDP

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LULU

Lulu is quite simple and possibly one of the oldest self-publishing sites on the internet. You’ll have to make an account on lulu.com and then start creating a project. You’ll be guided on the page, and it will ask you about some types of products you need, and they also provide templates for you to use. So on lulu, the formats requires will be about the same as Amazon, a PDF interior, and a PDF cover for print. They also have ebooks available. Lulu can print and publish the following:

• Print book in hardcover or paperback
• Photo Book
• Comic Book
• Magazine
• Yearbook
• Calendar
• Ebook

They have plenty of options for high-quality printing as well. Just choose your preferred types, like the paper, and sizes. And it is also completely free to publish on lulu, except for the proof copy and shipping free. You should only upload and publish your book if all the details are already final before you approve a proof copy. Because every time you make changes to your book details, the revisions will be approved once again and you have to order another proof copy.

If you choose the global distribution, the book will be available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Ingram displays stores online. If you don’t want it to appear on Amazon again, you can instead use Lulu for a format that is not available on Amazon. Let’s say, choose Amazon for your paperback and kindle, then choose Lulu for a different size and a hardcover format option so when both appear on Amazon, buyers will have different choices.

Publishing and ISBN is free on Lulu

Blurb

Blurb.com is another great self-publishing site for you. The printing is quite pricey compared to others, but the quality is quite great and the site has a variety of print products to choose from. In a nutshell, blurb offers these products:

• Photo Books in 5 sizes
• Trade Books in 3 sizes and lower cost
• Magazines with premium and economy options
• Ebooks for Kindle, Ipad, and Android devices
• Wall Art, multiple sizes, and really good quality
• Notebooks and journals and you can customize everything in it

Blurb has 3 cover options:

• Softcover, lower cost, and easy to sell
• Imagewrap, hardcover, pricey but strong and high quality
• Dust Jacket, hardcover, pricey and really good quality cover

They also have really good printing and paper quality:

• Photobooks and magazines are of photo quality paper
• Standard book paper for trade books is still high quality and not the economy or offset unless you choose bulk printing
• Magazines have an option for Newsstand or economy paper as well, the cheapest option for all their products
• Wall Art, high quality and large size up to 20×30 in
• Large Layflat books, best for photo books

You can publish your book on blurb bookstore, and globally distribute it through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Ingram, Apple Bookstore, and also Kickstarter. It is still FREE to publish, you just pay the proof copy.

Publishing and ISBN is free on Blurb too

Apply Ibooks

If you’re into ios only, https://authors.apple.com/ is a good place to go for publishing your original books. You can start by making the book via the apple pages app. Then publish from there.

To be honest, Apple iBooks is quite annoying to set up. You’ll get some issues with your iTunes account, or maybe iCloud, and many other bugs that you need to fix before you can seamlessly publish your book iBooks. It is quite a hassle. Apple boasts of its strict privacy settings, so this could affect their connections on their apps and people’s accounts.

Note also, that they only accept eBooks. So there is no need for ISBN, and the target audience will be people who use Apple products only.

Google Play Books

Anyone with an android can read an ebook. There’s also lots of free stuff on google play books you can download anytime. What’s also great is that google play has a very easy and seamless process for publishing your ebook.

Most of us have an account on google, use it to sign in to Books Partner Center here https://play.google.com/books/publish

Simply prepare your pdf, epub, jpeg, png, wen, tiff, or a zip file of your book, then add it to your book catalog. You set all your pricing, and then publish and sell it worldwide!

Publishing and GGKEY is free on Google

Publish Independently

Publishing independently means that you’ll buy your own ISBN from https://www.bowker.com/ or check your local country’s official seller of ISBN and buy one for each format. Each format like a paperback of a certain size 8×10 will have its own ISBN. The purpose of ISBN is that the book can be tracked globally, what its size and format is. But it is also your choice if you want to go the FREE route. Just print your book without an ISBN, there are no rules to it.

Find a printer, or print it and bind it yourself based on the format for this ISBN. Some would order bulk printed copies from custom printers to save more. Then, once you have the book with you, sell it, market it online, advertise and earn money!

If you want to go further, you might want to buy the copyright to your book. Every country has a government website for buying your own copyright. Search it, and then register your copyright so that you are doubly protected. It is not necessary, this is just optional. All produced work will automatically have copyright. See our blog about copyright here.

This is either free or paid

See this link for marketing your product

There you have it, everyone, a list of all free self-publishing sites online that you can use right NOW! Everything is free, you just need to write down your idea, and share it.

We offer services for publishing your book, from start to finish. We can help with illustration, cover design, book formatting, typesetting, book trailers, and even animation!