The Perfect Summer Project For Kids: Writing and Publishing Their Own Book!

After nearly two decades of education with a Master’s degree in Reading and Literacy with a Reading Specialist certificate and thousands and thousands of hours spent reading children’s books, I decided to write my book for kids finally… and get it published!

 

It always seemed like it would be a daunting task over the years. Something that would take forever to accomplish. But it wasn’t the case at all. You can do it with your children (or even yourself) and have it ready to be purchased by others by the end of this summer!

 

The Process Does Not Have to Be Difficult

Even as a child, I wrote short stories at eight. I had my students doing the same decades later. If there had been such technology back then as there is now, my dream of writing my book with my name on the cover would have been accomplished much earlier. 

 

The First Step

Before looking down the road and getting ahead of yourself, start with the basics. Figure out what age group your book will target, and then create a story that will captivate your audience. 

 

But there certainly are some things to consider first. What type of book are you planning on writing?

 

• Is it going to be a picture book? And if it is, who is going to do the illustrations? Most children’s books will at least have a few pictures in them.
• Will it be a scary book?
• Will it be a funny book?
• Is it going to be a heartwarming story?
• Will the book try to teach a lesson?
• Do you have a catchy title to interest the reader?
• Who is going to be the main character?
• How long is the book going to be? Some children’s books are only a hundred words long. Other books are more than a thousand.

 

The Second Step

This is going to be the hardest step because this is the step where you WRITE THE BOOK! If a child is working with their parents or someone else on this process, it is a great idea to write it using Google Docs. The document will then automatically save and can be accessed through a link on essentially any computer device; pictures can easily be placed in the document, and when it is all finished, the story can be saved as a PDF (the importance of this will come into play later on). 

 

This step is one to take time. Even after writing the entire story, there should be several attempts at editing to make it completely perfect. You could spend a lot of money on the editing process, but this project is on a tight budget. If you know someone you think has the skills to edit a children’s book, approach them and see their take on it. (On the other hand, iAchieve has several top tutors who could also look at editing your children’s book.)

 

The Third Step

Once you have the illustrations and the story formatted with a cover and back cover for your book, you can contact literary agents and publishing companies to see if they are interested in working with you to get your book out to the public. However, with that in mind, fewer publishing companies are printing books nowadays because self-publishing is available. 

 

A basic publishing contract will earn the new writer approximately ten percent of all book sales. The advantage is that they will promote your book and make it available to millions through marketing. On the other hand, you can self-publish by setting up an account on Amazon and instantly have your book available to almost anyone worldwide. Of course, it will be up to you to market and advertise to earn more sales. They are a print-on-demand- service, so you will not be swamped with the high cost of other self-publishing companies that ask you to order 100 or more books at a time. Plus, instead of earning ten percent of the profit, you can take home all of it once the price of printing the book is taken out. 

 

Children Will Love This

How great of a summer project is writing and publishing your book within a few months? Your children can hold their books in their hands, show their friends and family, and walk away with a sense of real accomplishment. There are thousands of adults around the world that have written a book high on their To Do List. Your children can accomplish all of this in weeks instead of years! 

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