Lessons Learned: Children's Book Publishing:

♫ It’s a BIG world after all… It’s a big, big world. ♫ The world of children’s book publishing was already getting bigger by the minute back in 2010, when I published Lucky, the Left-Pawed Puppy. I originally wrote this as a practical HubPages guide for aspiring children’s book authors. Now that HubPages is winding down, I’m revisiting the parts that still hold up—reframed as Lessons Learned—with one reminder: this “big world” changes quickly, so always confirm details with multiple current sources.

What We THINK We Wrote Versus What We Wrote

True Story: It was in 1994 when I visited my daughter at NYU in New York. I had naively tucked my first children's story, Polly Petunia, in my suitcase--just in case. Of what? I don't know. But while my daughter was in classes one day, I found myself walking over to a building that housed a well-known children's book publishing company. It was close to 5:00, and a young woman was locking up the office. Timidly, I handed her my story, and she, being incredibly gracious, took it! I never expected to hear from her again, but when I arrived home, a letter was waiting from that fancy-dance publishing company: "This is a lovely and well-written story, but we have to pass on it because it's too long for a picture book and not long enough for a chapter book. I had no idea there were children's book categories, ergo: the chart below. You will also see expansions of this chart through a Google search, and there's a nice breakdown on this website: https://miriamlaundry.com/childrens-book-age-categories/

Word Counts Can Guide You

• Picture book

  - 250 words to 1,000 words

• Early reader

  - 1,000 and 4,000 words

• Chapter book

  -10,000 and 15,000 words

• Middle grade novel/nonfiction

  -25,000 to 40,000 words

• Book for teens/young adults

  -50,000 to 70,000 words

Submitting Children’s Books to Publishers

• Writers typically submit manuscripts only, without artwork, since publishers usually pair stories with their own illustrators.

• Author–illustrators (those who write and illustrate their own work) submit the story with artwork, often as samples or a simple dummy.

• Writer–illustrator teams should usually submit text only, unless a publisher’s guidelines specifically allow joint submissions. Always check individual publisher guidelines before sending work.

Always Check Publisher Guidelines Before Submitting.

Self-Publishing

Book, Ebook, Audiobook...?

Once you're clear about what you actually did write, you might have decided that you don't want to go the traditional route with a publishing company and want to hurry up and just get your book out there. This is where self-publishing comes in. How to start depends on deciding what form is best for your story. Humans will probably always love the tangible book for the way it engages our senses. Still, it’s worth awakening your inner Star-Trek/futuristic persona and considering at least five possible forms for publishing your story:

· a physical book

· an e-book

· an interactive or animated app

· an audiobook

· a read-along or narrated format

Where to Go for Self-Publishing

Digital platforms such as Amazon’s KDP make it possible to publish quickly, but their tools and requirements change often, so it’s best to rely on the platform’s own documentation for current step-by-step guidance. I had started with Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), but there are now multiple platforms serving different goals, so it’s worth searching for “children’s book self-publishing platforms” and reviewing the most current options before committing to one path.

The Most Important Lessons I Learned Through Publishing Lucky, the Left-Pawed Puppy.

1. I thought I was home-free because I followed the guidelines for children's book categories by keeping Lucky under 1000 words. As a former teacher, you would have thought that I would have clearly decided whether I wanted Lucky to be a read-to-me story or a read-it-myself story. While little first graders can sit through the story as it is read to them, I could have pared down the language a little and used the Flesch-Kincaid Reading Level test to see what grade level my book matched. The attention span of a little first grader wanes as you get to the end of the story. As a self-publisher, I wish I had realized that the different type of book you want to sell, especially a print vs ebook, can require different art versus text consideration!

2. Text embedded directly into illustrations can look beautiful in print and on larger screens, but it often becomes unreadable when a book is viewed on a smartphone. When images are scaled down, the text scales with them—sometimes to the point where young readers can’t easily see or read the words. That’s why it’s important to decide early which

   

   Embedded Text Can Present a Problem for Ebooks

   form your book will take (print, ebook, read-along, or interactive), and to communicate those plans clearly with your illustrator. Design decisions that work for one format may create problems in another.

   Publishing a children’s book is not just a set of steps or a checklist — it’s a journey that asks you to understand both the young reader and the world in which the book will live. Knowing where your book fits, what form or forms you want it to take, communicating with your artist if you're self-publishing, and thinking early about where and how children will read your book are important. The details of how to upload to a particular service will change again and again, but are now readily available on the web. Every article has its unique "something" to offer. Whether you choose print, ebook, audiobook, interactive story, or a combination of these, you'll learn what works best by jumping in. There’s no single “right” road; there is only the next step you take with curiosity, care, and the belief that your story will be meaningful to some child who needs to hear it.