A studio service
Make your own children's book.
There are three honest ways to make a children's book: do every step yourself, make a quick personalized book from photos, or bring your story to a studio and have the book built around it. This page lays out all three, what each costs, and where each one breaks down.
Pick the route. We'll help with any of them.
N° 01Route one
Do it yourself, step by step.
You can make a children's book alone, and people do. The sequence matters more than talent: settle page count and reading age, write to the page-turn, storyboard the whole book in thumbnails, draw character sheets, then illustrate in order, then lay out the type, then print.
Our guides cover every one of those steps in the order they have to happen. The expensive mistakes in a first book are almost always ordering mistakes, not craft mistakes.
01
How to make a children's book
The full sequence from blank page to printed copy, in 12 minutes of reading.
02
Writing a children's book
Word counts by age, writing in spreads, and leaving room for the pictures.
03
Self-publishing a children's book
KDP, IngramSpark and offset: what each costs and which suits a first book.
04
Trim sizes and page counts
Why picture books are 32 pages and 8×8, and when to break the rule.
N° 02Route two
Make a personalized book in an afternoon.
If the goal is a gift rather than a publishing project, you do not need to write and illustrate a book from scratch. Two shortcuts work well.
A personalized coloring book turns your own photos into line-art pages online in minutes, ready to print at home or order bound. A personalized story book takes one of our finished stories and draws your child into it from photos, with their name through the text, shipped in about two weeks.
01
Coloring book from photos
Upload photos, get line-art pages, print or order. The fastest route to a book with your child in it.
02
Personalized book with photos
Your child drawn as the hero of a finished story, from $480, in about two weeks.
03
Personalized board book
For under-threes: twelve thick spreads with their face and their name, from $390.
N° 03Route three
Bring the story, we build the book.
You have a manuscript, a premise or a family legend and you want a real picture book made from it: characters designed from nothing, a world that does not exist yet, a cover that belongs to your title alone. That is a custom children's book.
We read the whole manuscript, write a visual plan, and you approve it before any drawing begins. Then character sheets, then the storyboard, then spreads in order, each signed off before the next. Six to ten weeks for a full 32-page book, from $2,800 for a short book and $4,800 for the standard format. Full commercial rights transfer to you on final payment, so you can publish and sell it.
N° 04Investment
Three ways to work together.
Do it yourself
Free
Your time, our guides, a print-on-demand printer.
- Every step in our guides
- Print one copy for roughly $10 to $20
- You own everything
- Illustration is the hard part
Personalized book
From $390
Your child drawn into a finished story or board book.
- Child illustrated from photos
- Name through the text
- Printed hardcover or board book
- About two to three weeks
Custom book
From $2,800
Your story, illustrated and built from scratch.
- Visual plan you approve first
- Character sheets and storyboard
- Up to 28 illustrated spreads
- Print-ready and ebook files
- Full commercial rights
- Six to ten weeks
N° 05Questions
The answers we give most often.
- Can I make a children's book for free?
- Yes, apart from printing. Writing, storyboarding and layout cost only time, and our guides cover each step. A single print-on-demand copy is roughly ten to twenty dollars. Illustration is the part most people cannot do alone.
- How long does it take?
- A few weekends to write and storyboard. Six to ten weeks for an illustrator to paint a full book. About two weeks for a personalized template book.
- What's the cheapest way to make a book as a gift?
- A personalized coloring book from your own photos, made online in minutes. A personalized story book with the child drawn from photos starts at $480.
- Do I need to be able to draw?
- No. Everything except the illustration is learnable, and the illustration can be commissioned for the spreads alone or as a whole book.
- Can I sell a book I make with you?
- Yes. Full commercial rights transfer on final payment for custom books, so you can publish under your own imprint.
Start your book
Not sure which route?
Tell us what you have: a finished manuscript, a rough idea, or just a child and a birthday. We'll reply within two working days and say honestly which of the three fits.