Self-Publishing Children's and YA Books E-Book

Alliance of Independent Authors

• Herausgeber: Font Publications
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: Genre Guides
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 84

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

Drawing on the expertise of members of the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi), particularly ALLi’s Children’s Publishing Advisor, the highly successful children’s author Karen Inglis, this book provides everything you need to know to publish and sell children’s books in ebook, audio, and print editions, and promote them in person, and online.

- How to work with professional children’s editors, illustrators and designers, and how ALLi can help you to find them

- Why in-person events like school visits matter and how to do them successfully

- How to manage the business of being a children’s author

Everything you need to create beautiful books and reach the young readers who’ll most enjoy them.

Leseprobe

SELF-PUBLISHING CHILDREN’S AND YA BOOKS

ALLi’s Guide to Kidlit Publishing for Authors

© 2024 Orna A. Ross, Second Edition.

First edition 2021.

Alliance of Independent Authors

EBOOK: 978-1-917292-00-9

PAPERBACK: 978-1-917292-01-6

LARGE PRINT: 978-1-917292-02-3

The authors’ moral rights have been asserted. All rights reserved.

Enquiries: [email protected]

Created with Vellum

SELF-PUBLISHING CHILDREN’S AND YA BOOKS

ALLI’S GUIDE TO KIDLIT PUBLISHING FOR AUTHORS

ALLIANCE OF INDEPENDENT AUTHORS

CONTRIBUTOR: KAREN INGLIS

FONT PUBLICATIONS

CONTENTS

Preface by Karen Inglis, author of The Secret Lake (A UK & USA bestseller)

I. Understanding the children’s book industry

1. Publishing for children

2. Self-publishing a children’s or YA book

3. Popular genres for children and young people

II. Steps to publication

4. Self and professional editing

5. Interiors, illustrations and covers

6. Printing and Distribution

7. Building your brand and community

8. Meeting young readers

9. Marketing a children’s book online

10. One book, many formats

III. Resources and support

11. Frequently Asked Questions

12. Resources

Acknowledgments

Other Guides

About ALLi

PREFACE BY KAREN INGLIS, AUTHOR OF THE SECRET LAKE (A UK & USA BESTSELLER)

ALLI’S CHILDREN’S PUBLISHING ADVISOR

If you’d asked my 10-year-old self what I wanted to be when I grew up, it certainly wouldn’t have been a children’s author. Up until age 14, I spent every spare moment helping out at the local stables, earning my rewards in free rides–and later with the pony I finally convinced my parents I deserved. (My older sister, meanwhile, was devouring The Borrowers, Enid Blyton and all the rest back at home.)

As I grew older, I dropped the ponies, and my mind turned to boyfriends, bilingual secretarial work, and living my life out in France. Alas, this didn’t happen—but I did get the French degree and spent a year living in Tours.

My first job was teaching English as a foreign language where I quickly fell into writing the weekly lessons for a rolling syllabus. My later roles all involved writing one way or another, culminating in over 30 years as a professional copywriter, consulting to government, and the financial sector. It was during this time I had the idea for my first children’s story.

As I suspect might be the case for many reading here, this was when my children were toddlers, and I spent hours reading to them—adoring some books, but loving others far less, and wondering if I really shouldn’t try my hand at this. (Household favorites Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy et al, and Six-Dinner Sid are still up in the loft.)

Like so many other writers, I went through the process of sending my stories out to agents and publishers only to receive back (in those days) the brown envelope with the single-paragraph rejection. It was disheartening (not least when I had a close shave with Bloomsbury) to the extent that I finally packed all of my writing, including The Secret Lake, into a box and went back to my day job for 10 more years. Fast-forward to December 2010 and a year’s sabbatical, and I discovered the term “self-publishing” when searching (this time online) for agents.

From that moment, I didn’t look back.

With my professional writing background, I knew I had to do it “properly”—and that was hard. I was all at sea on my own back then—getting to know print gurus in the online forums of Amazon’s early self-publishing platform, CreateSpace; spending literally days trying to format a Word file ready for print; then giving up and outsourcing to my newfound formatting friend, Doug, over in Texas. I later spent a full week trying to format the same file for Kindle, this new e-reader thing that was suddenly all the rage. No one ever said it would be easy—but it really was the Wild West.

For those of you just starting out, or thinking about self-publishing, I promise those days have long gone. The writing and planning and rewriting don’t get any easier, but there are great support groups, podcasts and courses to help with this, as I’m sure you know. However, compared with just a few years ago, we now have at our disposal a plethora of tools and online platforms that make self-publishing so simple compared with the early days. By this I mean technically simple. This is especially true when it comes to formatting your books for publication, finding specialist freelancers to help you complete your project, and tools to help you create collateral marketing material to promote your book.

We also have wonderfully supportive organizations such as The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi), whose thriving member group is both a safe haven and a place to get advice if you are stuck or need moral support. The organization is now working closely with the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) to support its children’s book authors.

Last, but by no means least, the marketing opportunities that have opened up to authors in the last few years have been game-changing for me and many other children’s authors I know. Until this happened, 95 percent of my sales had been face-to-face at school or book signing events. I achieved close to 10,000 sales by the end of 2017 that way—and that was no small feat—but without a marketing team behind me, it was hard to scale up.

Love them or hate them, Amazon and other online retailers now enable us to reach our buyers. Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and siblings—and anyone else who is shopping online for children’s books—can now see our books as they browse the site. From the moment indie authors were given space on this online table alongside traditionally published books, things started to change. And this is an opportunity for everyone. As I write this in 2024, The Secret Lake has now sold more than 500,000 copies.

If you have a children’s story that you can’t find a home for that has been written from the heart and put through all of the required stages of research, drafting, writing, rewriting, feedback and review as well as professional editing and proofing, there is no reason you can’t self-publish that book and get it into the hands of hundreds if not thousands of readers, without breaking the bank.

All of which is to say, welcome to ALLi’s guide to self-publishing books for children and young adults. I was honored to be asked to contribute to it, and I have shared, at appropriate points and at a high level, much of what I have learned over the last 10 years of self-publishing.

Karen

* * *

PARTI

UNDERSTANDING THE CHILDREN’S BOOK INDUSTRY

Books for young people are a distinct arena of publishing with particular demands and challenges. This guide draws on the expertise of ALLi members and particularly ALLi’s Children’s Publishing Advisor and international bestselling indie author Karen Inglis.

* * *

1

PUBLISHING FOR CHILDREN

For children and young adults, books are not just pages bound together; they are windows to new worlds, mirrors reflecting their own experiences and doors to endless possibilities.

A successful children’s book pleases two readers: the child who enjoys the reading and the adult who purchases the book. While adults are the ones who make the transaction, the children are the ones who will decide whether the book will be enjoyed or even treasured. You must keep the children in mind as you write and the adults in mind as you publish.

First comes the writing. Beware of writing about children as some adults might see them: as cute and comical sub human-beings. What children actually want is stories where they are the heroes, driving the action, facing the challenges, and making choices that lead to good outcomes.

Ask yourself:

Why do I want to tell this story?What is my story about?Is this idea and theme going to be relatable to children?Is it unique?Is it marketable? What would make it more marketable (and pleasing to more readers)?

Recall what you liked to read when you were that age. Bounce ideas off children you know. Consider suggestions, explore and experiment, wander down different creative avenues.

RESEARCHING THE MARKET

Knowing who your readers are and what they want is key to successfully self-publishing a children’s or young adult (YA) book. You need to know what makes them tick—what catches their eye, how their attention span works, what inspires laughter or curiosity.

Hang out with young people of the same age as those you want to write for. Read to them and tell them stories to see their imaginations in action. And hang out with your own inner child. What fills you with joy and a sense of adventure?

Read at least 100 children’s or YA books, for research and inspiration. Take yourself off to the kids’ or YA section at your local library or bookstore. Read the classics as well as lots of contemporary books, especially those that are winning awards.

As you read, you’ll notice similar themes or character behaviors that make for good storytelling. If there are pictures, pay attention to the way they work with the text on each page. Make notes about anything that jumps out at you, appealing or unappealing, and how it might guide you to craft your own book.

Research the market for your kind of book, considering its ideal age-group, genre, niche and micro-niche. Children's literature ranges from baby board books to YA novels, so your target age range may be anywhere from 0 to 18. It's important to know your target audience's age range so you can deliver what your readers expect in terms of length, style, topic and treatment.

Understanding these things enables you also to keep those purchasing adults in mind, shaping your publishing choices so your book will actually sell.

Age Ranges