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Self-publishing picture books for children is doubly difficult than adult books in terms of production, because of the cost of print books, which are necessary for that market, and also because targeted marketing is much harder.
In today's interview, Karen Inglis shares her fantastically detailed and honest information about writing, self-publishing and marketing books for children.
In the introduction, I mention my own goals for 2014, as well as commenting on Joe Konrath's resolutions for writers. I also discuss Russell Blake's success and what I constantly have to come back to in my own writing schedule. I talk about translation plans for my books, and also why you should consider exploiting the rights for your own work.
The podcast is sponsored by Kobo Writing Life, which helps authors self-publish and reach readers in global markets 
through the Kobo eco-system. You can also subscribe to the Kobo Writing Life podcast for interviews with successful indie authors.
Karen Inglis is the author of books for children including ‘The Secret Lake' and ‘Eeek, the runaway alien,' as well as Ferdinand Fox's Big Sleep, which is also now an iPad app.
You can watch the interview here on YouTube or listen/download the audio above. You can also subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.
- How Karen got started with writing for children after being a copywriter for the financial services industry for many years. The stories ‘found' her, beginning with a beautiful fox she saw in the winter mist one morning, which became Ferdinand Fox.
- Why self-publishing picture books for children is so hard. There's the aspects of illustration and the cost of printing, but also, the stats show that the sales of picture books compared with general children's fiction are much lower, and especially so for unknown authors. 500 copies is a very good number to sell for picture books, so don’t expect to sell a lot.
- The problems with print on demand for children's picture books. You can't get the ‘silk page' finish with print-on-demand, and the books don't look like the others in bookstores, plus the income per book is much less. It's much more of a labor of love.
- You can make more income selling direct into schools if you do short print runs, but that means you have
to order more units and pay upfront costs. Karen explains how she has books for different age groups so when she goes into schools, she can present to the whole school and sell them all. Hence the time spent on the personal appearances and upfront printing can be worth it, if you have multiple books.
Tips for children's picture books
- How to write and publish a children's picture book. You'll need to plan your word count and page count, and Karen shares her mistakes in this regard. Creating a storyboard will help you to avoid common design mistakes. Here's Karen's free template.
- How to find and work with an illustrator. Karen recommends ChildrensIllustrators.com and LinkedIn Groups for children's writers and illustrators. Karen found her own illustrator on Elance.com, he's actually in Eastern Europe and they do all their communication virtually. There are different styles of working e.g. controlling every aspect vs letting the illustrator do their own creative thing. There are also different business models e.g. JV split or payment up front. Remember to discuss the copyright and who owns the images when they are done.
- On book design, Karen does a lot herself for the older children's books using Createspace templates. She also uses Lighthouse24 for book layouts to make sure it will all work without problems.
- For distribution, Karen uses Createspace for Amazon.com, and Lightning Source for everything else so she can order short runs, make it easy for UK bookstores to order her books and provide books for party bags. I mention my trick which is ordering my own print books from Amazon.co.uk as a member of Amazon Prime which gives me free shipping, and I get ranking and money back in royalties, so the pricing works out at a similar rate.
Marketing books for children
- On marketing, Karen talks about copywriting, optimizing keywords on her blog, about her author website. She uses specific #tags on twitter to find people searching for children's books. She has targeted specific book bloggers but this is a long-term and long-tail strategy, as you can't control the timing of their reviews.
- The importance of networking with local bookstores, including large chain Waterstones (which doesn't usually let indies do signings). Karen talks about using a wholesalers to be the middleman with Lightning Source and how she gets round the issue of ‘out of stock.' [Karen is one determined lady, and I am so impressed with her tenacity to persuade industry folks to give her books a chance!]
- Karen does a lot of physical appearances at schools. She phones them up to get the right contact, and then emails directly with links to the website and the books and an attachment with lots of information. For children to buy books on the visit, Karen provides a slip that the school can send home for the money and even arranges pre-signing to speed things up. Sounds like a great idea!
Turning Ferdinand Fox into a book app
- Karen explains the decision behind turning her picture book, Ferdinand Fox, into a book app, and how the process worked in finding and working with her developers, East Yorkshire Apps.
- Karen also mentions Authorly which will help authors to make apps with drag and drop software, and then publish them to the various platforms.
- You can read her article on creating a children's book app here.
You can find Karen on twitter @kareninglis and at her websites:
SelfPublishingAdventures.com – packed full of great info on self publishing for children and a fantastic article on tax for non-US authors which I recommend to everyone!
Her author site KarenInglisAuthor.com which has all the info and buy links for Ferdinand Fox, EEEK and The Secret Lake.
Do you have any questions for Karen on writing, publishing or marketing books for children? Or any tips of your own? Please leave them below in the comments.
Karen,
Great little article here on self publishing children’s books. I am quickly beginning to find out how difficult it really is to sell these things. I was very shocked to hear that selling 500 copies of a self published children’s book is considered very good.
I love the concept of getting into the schools as well. I’m a teacher and can easily relate to that. One problem is getting the time to go. But then again, there is the neighbouring country to visit which has different breaks than us. Anyway, it sounds like a great idea and I am actually in the process of doing so. I hope it works out.
Thanks for sharing and I look forward to the podcast.
All the best!
Joseph Forte
Where Words Come Alive
Hi Joseph
Thanks for your comment. Just to clarify that the low sales figures relate specifically to *children’s picture books* rather than to general children’s fiction. And that figure of 500 was hard to come by and was very ballpark. Also, it applies to mid-list/unknown authors, naturally – not the household names who sell in the tens of thousands. However, where there is a will there is a way, and if you have a good picture book and are prepared to go out on the road with it to schools I am sure you can surpass the 500 number if you have the time, but getting anywhere near that volume of sales via bookshops is pretty unlikely I think.
Re *general children’s fiction* I have now sold around 2,200 copies of The Secret Lake in print and close to 1,200 of Eeek! The Runaway Alien in print. Around 85% of those sales have been in the UK where the split is approx 2/3 via Amazon UK and bookshops and 1/3 via school events. (I’ve done around 10 signings in Waterstones and that tends to lead to more sales afterwards.)
Again, the number of general children’s fiction books you are likely to sell (assuming you have a good book!) is largely down to how proactive you are prepared to be in terms of arranging visits. As a teacher yourself you are off to a good start! However, being prepared to put time in on social media is important too because that’s where you sell ebooks. I’ve sold almost 3,000 copies of The Secret Lake on Kindle and the royalties are just as good… much of that is thanks to the great reviews I’ve received which in turn affects sales and in turn means The Secret Lake shows on quite a few ‘also bought’ lists. But getting those reviews took time and included contacting book bloggers etc as well as the face to face events.
I give a more detailed breakdown of my sales figures here: http://kareninglis.wordpress.com/sales/ – albeit that page is from last year and so the figures don’t match those above. (I will update in soon!)
You might also want to check out my marketing tips page http://kareninglis.wordpress.com/marketing-tips/
Good luck 🙂
Karen
Helpful as always, Joanna. Thank you for the information, Karen.
And what can $2.81 buy. Tons. I just bought your new book on public speaking, Joanna. Wow, talk about information-rich. I’m taking tons of notes. I especially found the information on doing author readings helpful as I will be doing one of those in February at an open mic night.
Helpful as always, Joanna. Thank you for the information, Karen.
And what can $2.81 buy?
Tons. I just bought your new book on public speaking, Joanna. Wow, talk about information-rich. I’m taking lots of notes. I especially found the information on doing author readings helpful as I will be doing one of those in February at an open mic night.
My pleasure, Leanne – do get in touch if you have any questions. I’ve just book to visit a whole school the day after book day. That’s 450 children :)) Looking forward to it!
Karen,
Thanks for the detailed reply. Some very valuable information and insight is provided as I continue to learn this new game. All the best and I am looking forward to reading up on more posts from your website.
Thanks again!
Joseph Forte
Where Words Come Alive
Thanks for including the links in the blog post Joanna; the Russell Blake article is inspiring!
Great article as always Joanna and a big thanks for all the info Karen, it’s been a big help to me and I love your blog and book app!
Glad you’ve found it useful, Sandras – and I’m glad you’ve enjoyed the blog!
If you find a moment to leave a rating and short review of the App in the App Store I’d hugely appreciate it! Every little helps, as we all know 🙂
Karen
What a wonderful site! I have just come upon it. You are really inspirational and I love your work Karen
Thanks for the compliment, Emma. And, yes, Jo has a *great* site here! If you’re writing for children do check out my self-pub blog using the link above as it covers other aspects of self-publishing for children. You’ll also find my author site (aimed at readers/parents/teachers etc) at http://www.kareninglisauthor.com All the best, Karen
Very helpful article Karen! And thanks for hosting such great information Jo, as ever.
Karen, your blog is enormously helpful and I found the sales info enlightening.
I’m launching my children’s picture book, Robot Dragons Come From Mars, at the end of July through crowdfunding and I wondered about your thoughts on that. I’ll be blogging about my experiences and hopefully someone will bid on it 🙂
Thank you
Anila
Hello! I am a new Children’s Book Author who loves to show kids the consequences for doing what their not supposed to do or the benefits for doing what’s right. With humor of coarse! I am also a writer who is in a financial bind, considering I am a single parent of a five year old. Although I love to write to humor the world, in which is more than needed in this day and time. But my question is, do you consider publishing,editing and illustrating someone’s books for a higher percentage of royalties, in exchange to do the editing, illustrating and publishing for free.
Hi Mike – I’m afraid that I don’t offer editing or publishing services as I’m so busy with my own work. Nor am I an illustrator… It sounds to me as if you’re looking for someone to edit / publish your books in exchange for a share of royalties… I’ve not heard of people working in this way… and the trouble with asking an illustrator to do this is that it’s a huge amount of work for them with no guarantee of any income… But that’s clearly only part of what you’re looking for from the sounds of things. I suppose if you wanted to see if there is anyone out there who would be prepared to work in partnership with you, you might try the children’s publishing groups on Linked-in? Best of luck! Karen
I have written and illustrated a children’s picture poetry book . It’s an 8-1/2″ X11″ matte laminated hardcover, 16 glossy colored pages. Could you give me an idea of how much I should charge per book? Thanks, K.
Hi Kay – the best thing to do is to look at what price equivalent books to yours are selling at and base your price on that…. but of course make sure you’ll make some money! And if you’re not using Print On Demand, make sure you factor in your delivery costs…
Another place to look for artists is at http://childrensbookartists.com
There are many sites to find children’s book artists. It is up to each indie writer to find the right style and look for their stories.
Richard Olson
children’s book illustrator
http://braintofu1.blogspot.com
Hi Karen,
Thanks for writing a great article! I have published several books for my clients so i understand how difficult it is to promote children’s books. There are several advertising, distribution & illustration tips that i learned which i think can contribute to your post:
– For authors want to sell on Amazon but don’t want to use their print on demand services (www.createspace.com), FBA (Amazon fulfilment center) is a great choice. Amazon charged for certain fee but they will handle all the hassles from distribution to customer service.
– Advertising on Amazon is tough and competitive, because thousands of authors are selling on the platform already. However, authors can get much exposure from targeting a right keywords.
– Beside selling children’s books to schools, library is also another good option. One of my client hosted a children’s book event in local library, she sold close to 100 books in a day.
– Illustrations – Price varies from $500 to $10,000. it depends on styles, artists and workload. This area i know much better because i’m running a small illustration company for self-publishers – learn more about children’s book illustrator for hire.
Best regards,
Dang Bui
Thanks for the extra tips, Dang Bui – yes libraries are also a good choice. How many books you will sell though will depend on how many children turn up (and their age). And that in turn depends on how well publicised the event is, what day of the week it is, what the weather’s like and so on!
But, yes, it’s all about thinking where children already gather or where it’s easy to gather them together!
Thanks for the extra link which authors can of course check out along with the others I mentioned.
Karen
Karen,
I found your tips very helpful but wish to ask a more specific question of you, if I may?
I am a mentor to a group of high school age kids that make up the FIRST Robotics Team 1671, The Buchanan Bird Brains. My little bird brains have written and illustrated a fantastic children’s book that promotes STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) while inspiring kids to get involved with FIRST Robotics. The adviser for the team would like to see it published. We have the opportunity to reach a worldwide market since this is all a part of FIRST Robotics. My concern is the cost associated with self-publishing and the limited funds the team has to work with.
Do you have any suggestions that would help us out? I would appreciate any insight you can offer me. I’m not afraid of a challenge, but I don’t want to get these kids hopes up if this isn’t something that can be done.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Dauer
Hi Jennifer – I’ve just googledThe Buchanan Bird Brains and see that you have some amazing achievements and do great work volunteering and mentoring and generally inspiring. Well done you! I’d never heard about any of this or the competition before!
With regard to self-publishing and costs, the whole point is that once your manuscript is ready to print, then if you use print on demand (POD) – such as Amazon’s CreateSpace – or Lightning Source there are no extra costs to you – the book is only printed when someone orders it; you don’t need to hold any stock and Amazon/ LS takes care of shipping. But you need to work out your book price carefully to see what profit you will make. And be aware that neither of these services provides silk finish interior paper. Also I can’t say that picture books sell in any large numbers online!
Using the POD approach your only monetary outlay is the cost of getting the illustrations and formatting of text done and then buying one proof copy. In terms of funding the costs of this I’d suggest maybe finding a friendly sponsor if there is no existing budget to cover this. This said, it sounds to me as if you may have the illustrations done already? In which case it’s really just proofreading and formatting that you need. That shouldn’t really break the bank…. I use someone called Lighthouse24.com in Texas – Doug – for all of my print book formatting and he is very reasonable.
The above all said, it sounds as if you are quite well-known and *may* have a ready and waiting market. If you think that is the case it may make more sense for you to get quotes for a standard print run and then set up distribution for that. The downside here though is that you will have upfront costs. And there’s a bit of a Catch 22 because the more you order the cheaper the unit cost, but then again the greater the risk of you being stuck with the stock! I talk about this over on my blog in my post on Self-publishing a children’s picture book >> http://kareninglis.wordpress.com/self-publishing-a-childrens-picture-book/
For what it’s worth I’ve sold 99% of my picture books face to face at school events or books signings and not online. And to get the silk interior pages I wanted I ordered a short digital print run stock of 500 – I’ve sold around 430 of these which isn’t bad going. but it was scary having this much stock and it wasn’t cheap. But I’m not sure I’d do it again as it’s a lot of work for not a huge amount of return!
Another possibility might be an eBook – see my blog post on this here: Picture book to eBook conversion >> http://kareninglis.wordpress.com/picture-book-to-enhanced-ebook-conversion/
Best of luck and I hope there may be some food for thought in here…
Karen
Hi again Jennifer – I’ve just realised that your book may be aimed at slightly older kids, in which case the silk paper interior wouldn’t be necessary. In that case Print On Demand might work for you – but you’ll just need to be sure you have an effective marketing strategy to drive your customers to the online sales pages. Karen
Hi Karen – Thank you so much for all the praises. These dedicated and hard working kids deserve it and more. They are really something special, as I’m sure you’ve seen by their chairman’s video, which won them the honor of going all the way to championships, an international event held in St. Louis.
I truly appreciate all the information. The illustrations are high quality, done by a graduate of Buchanan High School and alumni of the Bird Brains. She did a marvelous job. I feel these kids have a unique product to offer publishers, and plan to send a few query letters to those that are accepting unsolicited projects. If that doesn’t work out, then we’ll tackle the self-publishing route, so thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the wonderful advice and links. I do believe that we have a market, which is not just U.S. but international in reach. I foresee these kids traveling to elementary schools to promote the book and FRC as a program. The robots they’ve built in past seasons will also spark interest … those are always fun to see in action. I encourage any school to get involved with this engaging mentor-based program. It truly is worth every moment.
Thank you again from FRC Team 1671, The Buchanan Bird Brains, for all your time and feedback. You’ve been a wonderful resource.
Jennifer
My pleasure, Jennifer. And all the best with it 🙂
Karen
Hi Karen. This is all such useful and helpful stuff. My novel ‘The Paupers of Langden’ came out in February. I have a fantastic review on ‘Books for Keeps’, it’s in local bookshops and museums and it has 10 five- star reviews on Amazon. I have sent 13 FREE copies to local schools with a press release and had NIL response. I notice you’re in Waterstones; I understand they have only a centralised buying policy for Indie authors, so will I be wasting my time taking the book in to my local branch? Any other tips about what my next move should be? As an ex-teacher I would be very comfortable going into school but if no-one responds…?
Hi Julia,
I would certainly take the book into your local Waterstones and explain your track record – especially if you have had a good review from Books for Keeps – that’s quite an achievement! If you have more than one Waterstones branch nearby I’d start with those that that have a strong children’s books’ section. You have nothing to lose as my experience is that some managers still have discretion. If they say they don’t, then ask for the contact details of the area co-ordinator for children’s books as they seem to operate that way these days.
Regards schools, I think you need to pick up the phone and make contact that way first – and try to speak to or get the direct email address of the literacy co-ordinator (or librarian) if you can – and then send him or her a personalised email, and then follow up with a phone call if you don’t hear back after, say, a week. It’s a drawn-out process… and not all will respond. You just have to keep chipping away. But my experience is making a personal connection seems to word best.
Also why not see if you can do something at your local library – if that works it will be something that you can quote to local schools? And many will have heard of Books for Keeps…
I hope that helps and very best of luck with it!
Karen