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Writing a children's book is hard, but so is illustrating and designing it. Yet everyone sees to think he or she can create a children's book. Plenty has been written about why children's book authors need feedback from children on the story before they publish a children's book. But just as important is getting feedback on illustrations and from the adults who might actually be the ones who read the book to children. No matter how good the story might be, more than with any other type of book, how a children's book looks is going to determine whether kids or adults want to read or buy it.
In other words, hire a professional illustrator and a professional layout and design person. In this age of computers and all kinds of graphic design programs, everyone thinks she can design her own children's book. The result is usually a disaster made by someone who does not understand that less is more. Many things need to be avoided when designing a children's book. Based on years of experience reviewing children's books and seeing what my children and grandchildren have and have not liked, here are a few tips on what not to do:
Unprofessional Artwork: With a children's book, a picture is worth a thousand words, and trust me, little kids know the difference between good and bad art. You may not be able to tell what they are depicting in their own drawings, but they know when something "sucks." I was discussing children's books with a friend of mine one day who recalled a particular book he read as a child where the pictures were colored in with dots. He does not remember anything about the book other than there were a bunch of animal pictures and a recurring question for each one such as, "Why was the lion unhappy?" My friend remembers his mother reading the book out loud and he repeatedly answered these questions by saying, "Because he has bugs all over him." The dots in the illustrations looked like a swarm of flies or bees encircling the animals, which was a real turn off to him and made him not like the book-in short, the illustrations were not very good.
Lately, I've seen a trend in self-published children's books to have illustrations done by children. Really? Why would an eight-year old want to read a book illustrated by an eight-year old? The kid could have drawn his own book instead. I do not know about your kids, but the ones I've known have always liked good illustrations. When you have a child illustrate your book, it just looks like a mess and you often can not even tell what the illustrations are. Almost as bad is when the author does the illustrations him- or herself. I can not tell you how many books I've seen where the illustrations were done with colored pencils-I'm not talking watercolor pencils here. When reproduced, the pictures look cheap and scribbled. Sadly, a couple of times I've been mistaken-illustrations I thought had been done by a child actually were done by an adult-why did not anyone tell this person he can not draw!
Pay the extra to have a professional artist create your illustrations. Look at examples of the person's work before you hire him or her. It will make a big difference in how your book is viewed by children and adults alike.
Book Size: Just because it's a children's book does not mean you can do anything you want with it. Stick to a standard size for your book. Making a book that is too big just makes it unwieldy. More than anything, consider the bookstores and libraries. Librarians and bookstore owners hate books that do not fit on their shelves or that can not be displayed so people can read the spell. Look for recently published books and talk to bookstore owners and parents about what books children feel comfortable holding and what sizes are practical.
Fonts: Here's where it looks people think anything goes. "Let's have a sixteen-point flowery pink font." Can you hear me screaming, "NO!" Stick with black type on white background. In planning the illustrations, make it understood you want space left on each page for the words and then plan the illustrations accordingly. In fact, if you're writing a thirty-two page children's book, determine what text will go on each page so the illustrator can work the illustration around the text's placement. It's best to leave a white corner or white bottom to each page so text in a black twelve-point easy-to-read standard font can be placed there. The last thing you want is for your illustrator to make full-page illustrations with black or dark blue night skies so when the black font is placed on it, it can not be read, and you do not want to put a white font there and then a black font on another page. Make your font and font-size and color standard through the book.
Remember also that children may not be the ones reading your book. It may be read out loud to them by grandpa, who wears bifocals and can not read small fonts or yellow typeface on a white page. Be grandparent-friendly.
Printer vs. Computer Screen: Finally, remember that colors on a computer screen are very difficult to match up with what will be printed. Your red may look orange when printed. Your blue may look darker or lighter than you planned. Discuss these issues with your printer. You want your colors to look good when printed, and you want your text still readable if a colored background is going to be a little different in print than how it looks on your computer.
Less is more when designing children's books. Kids do not need pink words to be imaginative. They need well-written, professional looking books that not only enrich their imaginations and teach them to read, but also teach them what a quality product looks like so they will not grow up being mediocre in their own life pursuits. The story and the look and feel of a children's book sets an example for children, so do it right and you will not regret it later.
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