The task of finding a publisher for your book can be daunting. Even J.K. Rowling, the highly acclaimed author of the Harry Potter books, received many rejections before achieving her phenomenal success. To circumvent the publisher problem, you may wish to consider publishing a children's book yourself. This route can be a very profitable one, providing you know what you're doing.
As soon as you start to investigate the possibility of self-publishing you will find yourself surrounded by apparent offers to assist. There are hundreds of companies only too ready to part you from your cash, and charge you a very high price indeed for publishing your work. Known as "vanity publishers", these organizations are out to make high profits - for themselves, not you!
As a self-publisher, your best option is to simply choose a regular, commercial printing company to carry out your work. You should fully investigate the market and choose a company that offers competitive prices. By following this route you will have full control of the process, and can make your own decisions about quality of materials and finish.
By using a mainstream printing company to assist you in publishing a children's book you will be able to retain full copyright to your work. There will be no requirement for you to sign a contract with the printer in this respect. This leaves you free to take all the profits from sales of your work, and also at liberty to use another printer, should you so wish, for any future reprints of your book.
It's important that you are fully aware of the work involved in publishing a children's book yourself. You must be prepared to take responsibility for all aspects of the process such as editing and proofreading. Also there will be important decisions to make on layout, font size, typefaces, bindings and so on. The level of involvement is considerable, but perhaps this is something you will in fact relish.
Providing you choose a printing company with a good reputation and high standards of customer care, these additional tasks need not be overtaxing. Ensure your children's book printing company is prepared to offer plenty of guidance, and that you can easily contact them for updates and clarifications.
Lastly, I'd like to touch on the subject of ISBNs. International Standard Book Numbers are unique 13 digit identifiers and enable books to be ordered and tracked in a commercial distribution network. If you are planning to handle sales of your children's book yourself, by selling directly in person or through a website, it's not necessary to have an ISBN.
As soon as you start to investigate the possibility of self-publishing you will find yourself surrounded by apparent offers to assist. There are hundreds of companies only too ready to part you from your cash, and charge you a very high price indeed for publishing your work. Known as "vanity publishers", these organizations are out to make high profits - for themselves, not you!
As a self-publisher, your best option is to simply choose a regular, commercial printing company to carry out your work. You should fully investigate the market and choose a company that offers competitive prices. By following this route you will have full control of the process, and can make your own decisions about quality of materials and finish.
By using a mainstream printing company to assist you in publishing a children's book you will be able to retain full copyright to your work. There will be no requirement for you to sign a contract with the printer in this respect. This leaves you free to take all the profits from sales of your work, and also at liberty to use another printer, should you so wish, for any future reprints of your book.
It's important that you are fully aware of the work involved in publishing a children's book yourself. You must be prepared to take responsibility for all aspects of the process such as editing and proofreading. Also there will be important decisions to make on layout, font size, typefaces, bindings and so on. The level of involvement is considerable, but perhaps this is something you will in fact relish.
Providing you choose a printing company with a good reputation and high standards of customer care, these additional tasks need not be overtaxing. Ensure your children's book printing company is prepared to offer plenty of guidance, and that you can easily contact them for updates and clarifications.
Lastly, I'd like to touch on the subject of ISBNs. International Standard Book Numbers are unique 13 digit identifiers and enable books to be ordered and tracked in a commercial distribution network. If you are planning to handle sales of your children's book yourself, by selling directly in person or through a website, it's not necessary to have an ISBN.
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