How to get started on your first kids book
5 easy steps to get you started
It has been a long time coming but I can finally start sharing it with the world!
I have officially made my first ever kids book! And now it is time for me to share how I did it.
Let me take you on a journey (not literally of course) to have a look into my childhood. When I was younger I shared a room with my sister, I was probably around eight which meant that she would have been six, back in those days whenever one of us had trouble falling asleep (mostly this was my sister) we would take turns telling each other bed time stories. As an already very creative child I took this task very seriously and I made up my own story. This was a story with as a main character a little robin who always wore a red hat, that is why he was called Red- Hat Robin. And he would go on an adventure together with his sister and his best friend. Now there were a couple of stories with him in it that I would tell my sister, of which her favourite was one in which they snuck into a pool completely filled with nuts. “That is what a birds swimming pool looks like, didn't you know?” Now, you are probably wondering why I am telling you this, well... About a year ago, I suddenly found myself thinking about that time and I had the sudden idea to turn the stories that I used to tell my sister, into a kids book. I thought it sounded so fun! And an added bonus for me would be that I could then one day read it to my children. I know I don't have children yet, and I m also nowhere near having them, calm down people I am only 20! Or should I tell myself to calm down? Still I figured if I start now my kids will get to read them when they are toddlers.
So that is what I did, I took a deep breath, ignored all the fears and doubts and just started.
I think the most important thing within this journey for me in getting the motivation to get started and then in turn keep going has been to remember that I am not doing this to become a famous kids book writer, or to make a ridiculous amount of money as an author and illustrator, of course if those two things end up happening I won’t be upset but those are not my motivations, my motivation is to create a kids book that I can enjoy, that I can give to my siblings to one day read to their kids, or to hold onto as reminder of our childhood and even to be able to read this book to my own children, once they come along.
I think it is so important for you to find out what motivates you, what will keep you going and make you determined to actually bring a book into this world, so take some time to think about this.
Now comes the practical side to creating a kids book...
Step 1:
Create your characters. Don’t rush! Really think bout which characters are important to include in the story… What will their names be? what will they look like? How old are they? Are they important/ main characters in your story or are they the side characters, there to enhance the story and support the main characters?
Now in my case I am both writing and illustrating the kids book so if you are the one illustrating you should start by making sketches,
How would you draw this character? Think about resemblances for characters in the same family as well as differences, And have fun with this, take your time and really make sure you love the characters that you have created.
Step 2:
Write the plot or book outline.
Think about the things you feel are important to include in the book. Take your time with this part, also don't feel like you absolutely have to stick to what you first wrote down but it can be so helpful for when you start actually writing or even drawing or getting the book illustrated to know where you're book is going.
Step 3:
Using the outline you have made for your book start actually writing. Think about things like; do I want it to rhyme? Are the words I am using too hard for children to understand? Do you want to expand their vocabulary or keep it simple? How can I include sounds that they will laugh at and that will keep them engaged?
Get creative with this and don't be afraid to ask for feedback and tips from people that you trust, or to take a peek at how other kids books have approached the writing (just don't start copying them, you have your own powerful voice, don't deprive the world of hearing it!)
step 4:
Read and revise what you have written. Does it flow? What things need help? Ask someone you trust to give you feedback. If you want you could ask an editor to take a look at your work.
And Then, make the necessary changes, so that the book makes sense to more people than just you.
step 5:
This is when you want to start thinking about bringing the book to life by involving an illustrator (or if like in my case you are illustrating yourself, you want to start thinking about what you want the characters to look like).
Take time to think whether you have any specific requirements for the Illustrator when it comes to how they are going to bring the characters to life & make sure that you like the work of the illustrator you are working with and that they fit in with the overall vision of your book.
Because I Illustrated my own book and there is no gatekeeping here. I want to share more about this part of the creative process of making a kids book
Hello fellow illustrator!
Now comes my favourite part. The part where you take those lovely characters of yours and build a world for them. Before you start panicking and let the overwhelm kick in take a deep breath because I am not throwing you into the deep end.
Lets start this part slowly, take some time to write down the locations that you are going to explore in you book.
Make sketches of these locations the things that are going to be there: trees, Mushrooms, Clouds or if it is taking place indoors: plants, books, lamps etc.
When you are ready, break the writing down into pages with the illustrations, think about how many pages it might end up being.
Then get out that sketchbook (if you are like me then this is probably something you end up doing reluctantly) and start making a thumbnail sketch for each page. This can be as rough or detailed as you want them to be. In my case they were probably as rough as you can get away with. Make sure you are happy with your layout. If you are illustrating for someone, don't forget to ask the writer what they think, and whether they want you to make any changes.
Once you have all of your sketches complete it is time to start making the actual pages. I always start by drawing them out with pencil, but this part can be unique to you and your creative practice if you are automatically ready to go in with your material of choice then go ahead and do it.
Once I have drawn a page out, I go in with my art material. In this case it was watercolour. Take your time, don't rush (especially if you are using watercolour) enjoy the process of creating because it is fun!
In my case once the watercolour was dry, I went in with my favourite part and that was the fine liner, this is when I start putting in all the extra little details I love so much. Again this may vary depending on your creative practice.
Now comes the tricky part. you guessed it, time to assemble the book in a program. In my case, I used InDesign. Honestly, putting the pages in was not hard, I just made a decision to use a font that I created myself which ended up taking a LONG time. But still, I thought it was worth it.
Another reason it took long was that I had to look up a lot of the formatting for InDesign and I didn't just want to jump into this step without doing any research. Always know the ins and outs of the program you are working with.
Research is always so important!
Now let's make it all come together
Hopefully, you as the author have been in constant communication with your illustrator and by now you have seen the ideas of the illustrator. The thumbnail sketches and various other steps in the process.
Please make sure you ask your illustrator for frequent updates on their work! This is important because you want to make sure that things are progressing. You can ask for thumbnail sketches of every page, of updates of how far along they are with the actual pages, then pictures of all the pages when they are complete, updates on the InDesign process, how are the pages coming together?
At this point it would also be important for you to think about how you want the text to be displayed. Make sure that there is plenty of space on the pages to add your text later. Think about layouts in your text and maybe also discus what type of font you are going to use for your text.
When your illustrator has assembled the book in a program like InDesign (Check that they know how to do the formatting!) it is time for the final review, now is the time to point out anything you want to change, these can be big or small changes. It is so important to get those final details hashed out. Once that is done, you have your finished children's book!
You can then get it printed for yourself and your own enjoyment (Maybe for your children :)) or think about publishing it.
But most importantly you should celebrate finishing your creative project, celebrate the fact that you have made something that previously didn't exist. there is nothing more satisfying than knowing you made something that only existed in your dreams or imagination before, so it is important to take a moment and celebrate that we have made our dreams come to life.
Always remember to stay connected and to stay creative,
Joëlle Brandes 23.10.2024
