Let’s start at the beginning. My last semester of college (this past fall to winter), I started and completed a children’s picture book. The artwork for this was comprised of hand-drawn/colored pictures(14 of them) with different aspects of collage on each one. I had already figured out what I wanted as far as the words for each page. I used a combination of crayons and colored pencils as the medium. I really loved the way that the style reminded me of what a child would create. After I finished each of these, my book was complete. Now what?
Innocent to how publishing works, I researched different children’s book companies I was familiar with to see if I could send in my manuscript. I had googled how to make one the night before. For most reputable and well-known publishing companies, you need a literary agent just to get your manuscript looked at. And to get a literary agent, you have to submit your work and see if they are even willing to do that. This whole process can take a very long time. I then researched which publishing companies accept manuscripts from the people who actually wrote them. There aren’t many, and of the ones that are out there, many are not accepting submissions. I did end up sending my manuscript to two different companies. One, I am assuming, based on the lack of communication, rejected me. The other made me an offer that involved me paying them to publish my book. I did not feel great about my prospects here.
I then decided to self-publish. After lots of googling and reading questions and answers on Reddit, I decided to go through Amazon KDP. There was A LOT I had to do before I was ready to publish, though. First, I had to digitize all my illustrations, which took several days, but not too long because I was just recreating the work I had already done. After this, I got Adobe Express, where I organized and created each page layout.
Theeeennn, I downloaded the entire thing as a print PDF and attempted to load it onto Amazon KDP. It did not work, and it took me six hours to figure out why. No exaggeration. I was able to figure it out, though, and was none too pleased. For whatever reason, Amazon KDP does not do horizontal rectangular books. The options are a vertical rectangle or a square. I decided to go with the square and chop off the sides of all of my illustrations. Grr. And while not exactly what I wanted, they still came out pretty good, and I was able to upload the manuscript. Next, I needed my cover and back sections. Those I did not have drawn up, so I designed those on my tablet from scratch. Then onto Canva, where I was able to design the lettering and sizing.
Upon completing the cover design, I uploaded it to Amazon KDP and went to preview it. This did not work right off the bat. I had to research and watch YouTube videos on how to make it all fit correctly. I learned a lot about margins and bleed. After going back and fixing everything I needed to, it was done, and I was ready to publish. That was all easy compared to trying to understand and operate marketing.
I thought I would be able to be all nonchalant and subtly self-publish my book and have it be recognized and purchased. Wow, was I so far off. My mom and partner were really sweet and made posts about it on their Facebooks, and other people who know me, reposted and/or bought a copy and left lovely comments, and the feeling is amazing. But I wanted to know how to get a lot of people to see my book and potentially purchase it. So I decided to try the marketing offered on Amazon KDP. So far its not going so hot.
So yeah…still working on it.
This is when I decided to publish my book on IngramSpark as well. This at least provides me with the ability to seel whole sale to large companies, bookstores, libraries, etc. Even if none end up wanting to buy a single copy, the option is there. Also, on IngramSpark, I was able to make a horizontal rectangle book and include my full illustrations, which is awesome. So far, I have not done any advertising for that, but I ordered a few copies and was thinking of taking them to local places to see if they are interested. I am still working on figuring this all out. But I have hope and am going to continue writing and creating, and hopefully someday there will be enough people interested that I can be a full-time writer and illustrator. That would be sick.
© Copyright 2026. All rights reserved.