How to Publish Books Written by Kids
In the not so distant past, even the most precocious of budding child authors was unlikely to ever see his or her work in published print. However, contemporary author services abound for young and old alike, and there are many more ways to bring your child's work to the masses than throwing query letters at giant book publishers and waiting months for form rejection letters.
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Instructions
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Publishing Child Authors
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1
Transfer the written work of the child to a word processor with full format capabilities. Microsoft Word's newest functions make formatting a book an easy task. Lay out the page exactly as you would expect a finished product to appear. Choose page dimensions, margins, line spacing, font, style, headers, footers and page numbering that correspond to your vision of the final book.
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2
Scan and insert illustrations into the formatted book. Add the front and back cover artwork.
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3
Proofread the manuscript. Once you send off your work to be published, changes are expensive. Save time and money by reading and rereading the manuscript many times before proceeding to Step 4.
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4
Save the work in a portable document file (PDF) format. If you do not format the book in PDF, you will be charged a formatting fee by whichever publisher you choose. Downloading free software to turn word files to PDFs is simple and takes little time.
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5
Choose a publisher. There are several print on demand (POD) companies that can turn your child's homemade book into a professionally bound and authentically published hard or soft cover book. Lulu.com is an example of a popular and reasonably priced POD.
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Go to the website of the publisher and choose your book's type (hard or soft cover), dimensions, number of pages and quantity of books you wish to purchase.
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7
Upload the complete book file, including interior and exterior artwork.
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8
Pay online with your credit card.
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9
Apply for copyright and an International Standard Book Number (ISBN) through the POD. The copyright protects your work, and the ISBN is a 10-igit number given to published books that allows the book to be sold and marketed as a product to the general public.
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10
Distribute the book to friends and family or market it to the world. PODs have options that place their books in the public domain via their own websites or book distributors like Amazon.com. The general public can then order your child's book, and he or she can receive royalties each time a book is printed.
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Tips & Warnings
If you are only using the book for family and friends, there is no need to obtain an ISBN.
Conforming to traditional book size of 6 by 9 inches will save you money.
Resources
- Photo Credit http://www.orangebeachlibrary.org/
