I wrote a couple of short stories based on my creative variation of known fairy tales when I was in my 20s. And then I decided to repurpose those stories and publish them as a couple of paperback books for children and young adult readers. I added thought-provoking inspirational concepts that make one think and ask questions with both stories. That is what’s needed for a valuable children’s book!
In the process, I expanded on the themes with more detail and found public domain illustrations that include licensing for commercial use. That means I can use them with money-making content.
Putting it into paperback book form was easy. I started with an empty template for a 5-inch by 8-inch book. You can download that from Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing site for free.
I copied and pasted my stories into these templates, then reformated them with 16pt font to fit the pages for easy reading. I also added a copyright page and other content to complete it as a book.
I also designed the cover, and I found copyright-free images that I could use from sites such as Pixabay and Unsplash.
I uploaded the files for the cover and the book pages to Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Amazon’s self-publishing platform for ebooks and paperbacks. It used to be called Create Space, but Amazon merged it with the Kindle publishing platform in 2018.
Amazon's KDP platform is free to create your book as an independent publisher. After you're done, Amazon will list your book for sale. They will also print and ship when people order.
Amazon makes money from the sales and pays you royalties based on the difference between your chosen retail price and their printing costs. Your royalty for the sales will be deposited into your designated bank account, or you can have them mail you a check.
You only pay printing costs when you purchase your own copies. The retail price is dependent on how much you want for your royalty.
You can use any decent word processor to create a doc file of your manuscript. I like to use MS Word. It has a built-in spelling and grammar checker.
It also shows you the grade level of your finished product, which is helpful to know when writing for children. You need to be sure you keep your writing at the proper grade level for a child.
MS Word also has formatting tools, such as:
It has everything you need to create a professional print image of the pages of your book that's compatible with KDP.
If you need a detailed tutorial for formatting the book's manuscript with MS Word, I cover that in another article, "How to Properly Format and Self-Publish Your Book." The link is in the references.2
Let's go over what you need to know to create a children's book.
Proper Layout of Pages
The first page should only contain the title. That's true for any book.
The backside (page 2) should be blank.
The next page (right-hand page) is a duplicate title page but with more content, such as the subtitle or short description, and the author’s name.
The flip side of that title page is the copyright page (always on the left). I'll go into detail on that below.
Adjacent to the copyright page (on the right) you can start with an introduction, foreword, or preface—whatever works for you. This could also be the table of contents page if you prefer to use one.
Copyright Page Format
The copyright is always on the left (even-numbered page) after the title pages. It starts with the title and subtitle, followed with a list of genres (the type of literary or artistic work).
When you use KDP to print your book, you are the publisher as well as the copyright holder. Therefore, you should indicate that accurately on the copyright page.
You can find a lot of material on the Internet to use for your images. That can help save the cost of paying an illustrator. You just need to make sure that they are free of copyright and offer a license to use commercially. That means you may make a profit with its use.
Two of the best sites (in my opinion) that have free images and illustrations are Pixabay.com and Unsplash.com. I use both of them. They both have copyright-free content that's in the public domain.
If you look elsewhere, such as Google Images, then you need to locate the license and carefully read it. Remember to check that it can be used commercially.
For best results, the resolution should be 300 DPI (dots per inch), so download the highest quality image when multiple options are available.
You do not need to provide credit to the creator when you use images from Pixabay or Unsplash, although I prefer to do so. The artist appreciates that, and it shows your credibility for being honest. I include that information on the copyright page. See the "Image Credits" on my example copyright page above.
How an Expired Copyright Goes Into Public Domain
In some cases, you may find old images that are available for commercial use because their copyright expired.
In the United States, anything first published before January 1, 1924, is in the public domain. However, if you use these images, you can only let Amazon sell your book in the United States. I'll explain how you limit distribution to specific territories later in this article. Amazon makes it easy.
MS Word has an option to save your manuscript as a PDF file. That is the preferential file of the book's pages to be uploaded to KDP because all the formatting, including fonts and spacing, will be precisely used as you designed it.
Don't forget to save it as the DOCX file first. That's what you will edit if you find something you need to change before publishing.
After reviewing a proof copy to check out how the physical book looks, I found a few things I needed to improve. So, I made the revisions and ordered a second proof of each book to confirm that everything looked good.
When both books arrived a few days later, I examined every detail, from page number positioning to the correct heading layout on each chapter.
I also proofread the entire thing out loud, as I do with my articles before publishing. Then, when I was satisfied with my work, I logged back onto the KDP platform to click the publish button to complete the job.
Now I have two additional books in my Amazon collection that you can see here:
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