Starting with the most obvious \u2013 the illustrations. These are what make a book a children\u2019s book (particularly books for toddlers and the age group 4 to 8 years of age). Illustrations are also the most costly compared to other services needed to publish a children\u2019s book. This is because most of the time is spent on illustrations: illustrations require skilled illustrators with the creativity of coming up with never-seen-before unique characters, with or without a complex background. Drawing an illustration is a complex skill, and illustrations of good quality cost. Most of the time, the illustrations are in colour. There is an option of having them in black and white. It\u2019s a good idea to also browse through the work of illustrators, so that you can decide which style of illustration you would like, is best suited or more appealing for your target audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Number of illustrations<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Cost of illustrations<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Book cover design<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Quality of illustrations<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Artwork briefs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is essentially the detailed description of each illustration you require: from the hair type and skin colour of the main character to the colour of the clothes they are wearing. It\u2019s very important to make sure you\u2019re clear about every single detail of every illustration you require at different stages of your book. This will minimise errors on the part of the illustrators, the back-and-forth communication, delays, and the reworking (and ultimately additional costs) of the illustrations. On your draft, under each sentence or idea, write the matching artwork brief. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Length of children\u2019s book<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The length of your children\u2019s book depends on the audience you\u2019re writing for. With toddlers and children between the ages of 4 and 8, the books have less words and more pictures. Therefore, the word range is 500 to 1 000 words. The number of pages range between 24 to 32 pages (not more than that). For middle grade books (for children between the ages 8 and 12), their books have more words and less illustrations (ideally black and white). Although there may be flexibility with this age group (as it truly depends on the child’s reading and comprehension skill development), the minimal word count should at least be between 5 000 and 10 000 words. The number of pages can be close to 68 pages (and more).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Size of children\u2019s book<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Appropriate typography, size, and placement of illustrations <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Just as layout and design is required for adults’ fiction and non-fiction books, children’s books need it too. The key word is presentation<\/em>. As it is with adult reading books, there is typography (different font types) for children’s literature, font size and appropriate positioning of the illustrations. A designer, especially illustrators, provide this service. They have the knowledge, experience, computer software\/applications for a presentable children’s book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Language level<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This may be an obvious factor, but it is still important. The language level to use for your children’s book depends on your target audience. You need to be cognisant of their level of reading and comprehension skills. Ofcourse, there may be exceptions – some children are fast. However, you do need to consider and cater for the majority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Printing<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n The one thing many first-time self-publishing authors miss, which is very important, is having a printer-ready manuscript and book cover. Fortunately, our printers assist authors with that. The other factor to consider with printing is the cost: the more colour used (especially for illustrations), the higher the cost. The type of cover used (hard cover or soft cover) also drives the printing cost. The printing cost per book can range from R40 per book (soft cover, black and white illustrations) to R90 (soft cover with colour illustrations). Hard cover books may cost from just over R100 to print.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Period of publishing a children\u2019s book<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The amount of time it takes to complete a children\u2019s book depends on the completion of the illustrations. Here at Mpilo Publishing, we dedicate a maximum of 3 months to complete a children\u2019s book. It can certainly be less. Illustrations can take less than a month to complete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Below are examples of some of the illustrators we decided to work with for children\u2019s literature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Illustrators: Chantelle and Burgen, IG handle: @chantelle_burgen<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Illustrator: Thabiso Gcwensa, IG handle: @realthabisodbn<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Illustrator: Nqobile Adigun, IG handle: @earthygirl01<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have any questions, or would like assistance to self-publish your children’s book (even consultation for guidance), do email us: admin@mpilopublishing.co.za.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Blogger:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Simthandile Mhlambiso<\/a><\/em> \u2013 Founder and Managing Director of Mpilo Publishing (Pty) Ltd; Member of Professional Editors \u2018 Guild<\/a> (PEG), Branch Secretary of PEG Committee \u2013 Western Cape.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Children\u2019s literature may seem like the easiest genre to publish. Perhaps it is, but you\u2019d still be shooting yourself in the foot to self-publish this genre without the relevant knowledge to hinder you from going astray from the standards, compromising the quality of your children\u2019s book. It is also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[149],"tags":[177,178],"class_list":["post-4202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-self-publishing","tag-childrensbooks-2","tag-childresnliterature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mpilopublishing.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mpilopublishing.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mpilopublishing.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mpilopublishing.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mpilopublishing.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4202"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/mpilopublishing.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4250,"href":"https:\/\/mpilopublishing.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4202\/revisions\/4250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mpilopublishing.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mpilopublishing.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mpilopublishing.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mpilopublishing.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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