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This is my version of how I created my first kid's book 'Sir Cotton Wotton Puff Tail: Colors' as an artist and writer. Hey, my name's Siaddie, and I mostly create web comics and manga, also I have plenty of novels in work that should've been published by now. But aside from that, here are the steps I took when I was creating my kid's book.
Purchase my book 'Sir Cotton Wotton Puff Tail: Colors
1 Get the story together
Okay, so here we are. Remember when it comes to writing for kids everything is entirely different, especially the age range. There's much information online about the different age ranges in kid's books. I advise you to be sure to do your research before getting started.
My target age for my book was ages 2-5. What I did was create a quick draft of my story, then finalize everything in Microsoft Word.
2 Book Size
The next thing I did was decide which platform I was going with so I can know what book size the printing company works best with. Always do this first because everyone's printing requirement is different unless you don't mind making adjustments later to fit requirements.
3 Purchase ISBN
After completing the story phase, I purchase my ISBNs.
You can purchase ISBN from your local agency. All ISBNs come from Bowker.
4 Storyboards
I'm all about planning beforehand. So now that I have my story at hand, I began doing my storyboards- a tip to every artist who loves writing is to always plan your story using quick sketches, just to get a grasp of what you want on each page which helps a lot. Storyboards are very important, never leave this out.
Here are some drawing tools you'll need:
Tablet with pen
Drawing app (I use Clip Studio Paint), for artists on a budget you can use Medibang Paint which is free, and Procreate which is only 9.99. Be sure to take a look at tutorials on YouTube to familiarize yourself and understand how the program works.
5 Drawing Phase
This phase was the longest. Although the pages were simple, It took me around four months to complete all pages. I created all my drawings in Clip Studio Paint.
6 Formatting & Editing
You can choose to self-edit or have a professional edit your book. My book was simple so I carefully self-edited my book, then had a friend backcheck for errors.
7 Publishing
When I was finally done with formatting, I uploaded my book to Amazon KDP and now my book is set and ready to purchase.
8 Marketing
Now that your book is published, it's time for marketing.
