Help to Publish a Childrens Book

fonzyg

Dear All

Good morning all Please can you help me
I am a very creative person and had an idea well it was from 4 year old.

The idea came to me when my child (age4) wanted a certain book, i searched everywhere for example - on the net and in bookstores but could not find anything like it. So i dedcided to make a book for him with my own illustrations using A4 paper folded together. I felt whilst making the book that the stories should be shorter so i made an 8 page book with poetry about specific subjects. I read the books to him and his brother (age2) everynight and just thought why cant i publish this??

I have been researching how to publish but i need to be shown the right direction and advice in this field. I do not have an amount of money to invest at the moment but i have an idea that my books could be very popular and i just need a helping hand.

looking forward to your comments

Lethal

I'm not quite sure about how you could get it published but its a great idea and good luck!

carolbe

I'm afraid I don't have any specific advice on getting published, but have you looked into self-publishing through Lulu (http://www.lulu.com/uk)?

Best of luck to you!

PasturesNew

It is unlikely any publisher will take you on and fork out thousands of pounds to develop, design, print, distribute and market your book - there's a LOT of competition out there.

However, there are ways you can do it yourself, including going down the (free) print on demand route. Hewlett Packard are now even in on this marketplace. There are new players emerging on the back of this too. You design it into a PDF and upload it, then it's sold and when it's ordered they literally print one copy of your book out and send it in the post, all professionally done.

You would then need to do the marketing yourself, but copies are made available on the websites of these companies, so you would pick up some random surfers... and I think there's even a feed through so they appear on Amazon (bit sketchy now as I've not researched it for 2 months or so).

QuincyBella

I think a copy of the Artists and Writers Yearbook could really help you. It should guide you through the whole process of contacting agents, submitting manuscripts etc.

You can normally get one in your local library.

Good luck!

OnyxWolf

I have been down that road.Self-publishing is very difficult whereas publishing with a third-party is very costy.
Dorrance Publishing is ok-I dealt with them once and they offer fairly cheap publishing packages compared to others.I had to decline as being a student I couldn't afford around £200+ Author House are also very good.They send you a guide which I found very helpful.

brooke3

I would recommend buying a copy of the writers handbook where you find addresses and information regarding publishers and agents. Don't be put off by the fact that there's a lot of competition, you won't lose anything by trying! Good luck.

Valli

or borrowing it from the library;) :money:

GettingItRight

One guy I know through work received rejection-after-rejection, but he finally got his books published. I think the first one is starting to gather pace, having been out in the shops for at least a year.

I would have thought a publisher would like to see a completed book and perhaps plans for others. However I don't work in the industry and not sure how easily publishers would commit to a single book.

I've considered writing books, but not for children. I get ideas, but then I tend to lose motivation after day 1 of writing. A school teacher once said I should write fiction in future life, but that was for the reasons I gave for sometimes not completing homework.

Good luck

NigeWick

fonzyg wrote: »

I do not have an amount of money to invest at the moment

I used lulu.com to publish my autobiography. I shall be buying a number of copies and having a book signing in the local bookshop. Lulu do not charge you anything for setting up unless you want an ISBN number and that costs about £80.

You upload your file to their site and print costs are charged by the number of pages. There is a slightly different procedure for setting up the book cover but it is still part of their free system. You work out how much profit you want to make from each book and price it accordingly. The customer pays lulu for the book and postage. Obviously the book will work out more expensive for the customer as lulu will print one book at a time. The "problem" with the system is promoting your tome. I buy copies at cost and sell them for the full price, paying the postage myself. I also do a little promoting on line. My pricing means that I earn about £3 before tax this way and about £2 per copy if it bought through lulu.com. I get even less profit from a hardback version but that was my choice of pricing policy.

My advice, write a book in a relevant format and see if YOU like it, then look at publishing methods.

mumof2nanof2

Try 'You Write On' they publish a few a year for nothing.