How much does it cost to publish an Illustrated Children’s book?
How much does it cost to publish an illustrated children’s book? The answer to this question has been a moving target over the past four or five years. Technology has helped lower the entry level into the children’s book market but still not to the point where it makes financial sense to produce digitally other then for tests. In other words,. POD for Illustrated children’s books, is still not a viable option.
Parents have been telling children bedtime stories since the beginning of time. Many of these stories are passed down from generation to generation via word of mouth. Some of these stories find a publisher’s desk and become illustrated picture books which are printed in the hundreds of thousands so many more children can enjoy them. At this moment there are literally tens if not hundreds of thousands of different stories being told from memory while only hundreds of these stories ever make the printed page.
As with trade books, the cost of publishing an illustrated children’s book has dropped dramatically. It is dropped enough that the same Vanity Press’s who are sailing freely on the Internet picking trade book writers pockets have unfortunately, jumped on the children’s book band wagon as well. I won’t dwell on any of this in this article but let it suffice for me to say if you are dealing with one of these companies, you are wasting your time and money. It’s real simple. If there is any doubt in your mind, ask your prospective “publisher” is 8 ½ x 8 ½ is a standard illustrated children’s book size. If they say yes, stick your money back in your pocket and run the other way. Enough said on vanity presses and illustrated children’s books.
As with self-publishing a B&W trade book you need to seriously examine your motivation in publishing your story. If your intentions are to merely convert your oral story into a printed format for your family, there are many options. The easiest option is to have your son, daughter, grandson or granddaughter illustrate the story that you have either written by hand or typed in a word processing program. You can then scan the illustrations and type and combine them into single pages and either print them out on your printer, one sided, and staple them into a book. This can actually look pretty nice. A step up from that would be to take the same thing to Kinko’s where they could print on two sides and print a separate cover and comb bind the whole thing into a book. Producing your book in this manner would take a little time but would only cost $25, at the most.
If you want to step up the presentation but still have the same basic market, you can still use those pictures that were drawn by your grandchild and the type that you type in MS Word, only this time have your book professionally designed. This can be done for about $500 and you would have a PDF file you could give to Kinko’s or other printer to print up a few copies. The end product would be a nicer looking version of the first example and would be more than adequate for even the pickiest of family members.
The real fun, and money, comes in at the next level. This is the point where all of your friends and family have told you that you have a great story that should be shared with the general public. When I was writing about trade book self-publishing I referred to this level as the “Serious Hobbyist”. I’ll stick with that label in this article as well. Now that you have made the decision to take your story beyond your family and friends, you need to follow some basic publishing standards if you hope to succeed.
First you need to have your text edited. Editing a children’s story is a bit different than a normal trade book. First, you are only dealing with 500 or so words. How hard can it be, you ask yourself? I have seen children’s book edits take two and three times as long as a standard trade book edit. I have seen single phrases go back and forth between editor and author to the point I can’t watch anymore. Editing runs between $300 and $700 depending on how much back and forth with the editor. In addition to a regular edit, many authors choose to also have the same editor edit the artwork. This second edit insures that the illustrations work well with the words. This usually runs an additional $700. In figuring your budget, authors seem to fall in two categories. The first is happy to pay the $295 for the basic edit. The second jumps right to the $700 edit plus the art edit. There doesn’t seem to be much in between.
Next, and most important are the illustrations for your book. Those pictures your six year old daughter drew for you in the first example, will probably not be good enough, once you have decided to take the leap to “Serious Hobbyist or Pro”. It is at this point I have seen projects get completely out of hand. A couple of months ago I introduced a “Let us guide you” illustration program. The whole program costs around $1500 and includes layout and cover design. This program is perfect if you have an open mind. Unfortunately, I have seen an otherwise reasonable author, turn completely unreasonable when it came to illustrating their book. The closer you are to having a perfect image in your mind of what your illustrations should look like, the more expensive the illustrations will be and the least likely that you will ever be happy. This is not to say you can’t be happy. If you consider yourself a “perfectionist” or some variation of that word, you better have a boatload of money. Illustrations for a 32 page book can easily be driven north of $5000 – $10,000 and even more. If you are a perfectionist and on a tight budget, stick with your daughter’s drawings.
Once you have your text edited and your book illustrated, it’s time to put it all together into a book. For this you need a book designer. If you have a sharp illustrator, they can design and layout the book at the same time they are doing the illustrations. Our $1500 “Let us Guide Your” program includes layout and design. If your illustrator does not want to create the final layout, figure you will pay between $750 and $1000 to get that part done for you. Of course you can spend more, if you want but under $1000 should do it. Up to this point you have spent $1895 for the basic editing and our “Let Us Guide You” illustration package. Unlike any of the vanity presses out there that are pimping themselves off as children’s book publishers, you own the printing files to your book, free and clear. IE: No strings attached.
Now comes the fun part, turning your idea into a printed product. The technology is such that authors can buy small test runs of 25 books or so at a fairly reasonable price. Before I go further, remember when I mentioned running the other way if someone told you that 8 ½ x 8 ½ was a standard size? That size was pulled out of the air by someone with a digital press who knew nothing about children’s book publishing. It works fine for the digital press but you are never going to make any money with digitally printed children’s books so you need to think in terms of what fits the offset printing press. 8×8 fits perfectly. A single sheet of paper will yield a full 24 page book. As the quantity gets above 10,000 the size fits perfectly on a half web which runs 2/12 page signatures without waste. Digital copies of this 24 page product cost under $7.00ea and will never be any less. At 1000 copies, the price drops to $2.75ea. At 3000 copies the price drops to $1.29ea. If you have ever looked at this size in Target or Wal-Mart and wonder how they can sell it for $2? The publisher printed 50,000 to 100,000 at a time and bought them for less than 25 cents each. On the other hand, that 8 ½ X 8 ½ size works for nobody other than that digital printer. It’s Ok if you want to pay $6 + ea forever for a book that should never retail over $6 but if you want to be in the publishing business, it doesn’t work.
The good side of these $6 books is that it is a very good idea to run a few test runs prior to running the longer offset run. When my daughter first printed the Oliver the Clownfish book, which you see all over my website, she printed three different digital runs and found things she wanted to change after each one. The books in the test run have a high unit cost but a low overall cost, especially given the fact that mistakes were found at each printing Once she got everything perfect (as perfect as publishing gets) she ran 3000 copies at the $1.29 unit cost. My daughter has now sold over 1000 of the original 3000 copies and is working on the second book in the series. I have asked her to write an article about how she marketed her book. It’s a very interesting story.
In conclusion, how much does it cost to self publish a children’s book? Let’s look below. Good luck.
Editing – $295 – $695
Art Editing (optional) $695
Illustration – $1495 – $10,000 +
Printing (Test 25) – $175
Second test 25 ) – $175
3000 Main print run – $3,874 (1000 copies – $2.75/book, 2000 copies – $1.65/book, 5000 copies – $1/book, 10,000 copies – $.65/book
A final note: You can always continue to print test runs until you feel comfortable with an offset run.
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April 11th, 2007 at 7:52 am
Just curious, Ron… where are you getting your information on printing 8.5 x 8.5 color books? I just checked and found that a 24-page color 8.5 x 8.5 from a big-name printer… Print On Demand printer… and the cost is under $4 per book, even in one-off printing quantities. If I ordered larger numbers (500 or more) I could get discounted pricing. I can take 5% off at that point, and at higher break points, I can get more discounts.
NEVER under $6 or more, each? That\’s patently false.
So what, you find a POD printer at under $4(I\’ll take your word on that). Now what? The market dictates the retail price on that product of $5 – $6. How does anyone ],other than the printer, make any money?
Ron Pramschufer
April 11th, 2007 at 8:27 am
Hello There,
Please advise if you distribute and marketing the books.
Regards,
Maria
April 11th, 2007 at 12:08 pm
You and know that, in the children\’s book arena, making money with that book withOUT going with a large print run is going to be difficult. This is especially true in view of the pre-press costs, just as you pointed out in your article. If I went with a larger print run, sure, I can get a much better price on the printing, but there\’s always that tradeoff on the amount of money you want to risk. A couple of cost factors that I DIDN\’T see mentioned are the post-press ones of storage, distribution and fulfillment.
Again, there are tradeoffs. If you want to have distribution through the two major distribution houses (Ingram and Baker & Taylor), then either you need to (1) have an existing relationship with them, (2) pay the exorbitant fee to get into one of their distribution programs independently OR (3) use a printer which arranges that for an affordable amount. Most self-pubbed authors don\’t have the first, and can\’t afford the second.
And there is the Amazon Advantage program… which works 100% to the advantage of Amazon and does very little for the author.
Of course, you can self-distribute. That means storing those books somewhere in a climate-controlled environment so they don\’t swell, curl, mold and mildew. And though you can get a fantastic deal on offset printing 10,000 copies of a book, where does the average self-pubbed author store those 10,000 copies once they are freighted to his or her door? The extra bedroom? And it also means taking care of your own shipping, packaging, and schlepping.
There are other distributors than the two 800-pound gorillas, but my experience has been that, for the most part, the booksellers want to see books available from either Ingram or Baker & Taylor. It\’s not impossible to get those books into a bookstore without that, but it certainly is challenging.
I don\’t disagree with you that the way to make any money on a color-interior book, children\’s or otherwise, is to go with a larger print run. But I do think that the post-press costs have to be taken into consideration, especially by self-pubbed authors. For the most part, self-pubbed authors are innocents about such things.
Tony,
If you are publishing for fun, digital printing odd sizes may be fine for you. It doesn\’t do a bit of good to have your book included in the POD databases if your retail price is way out in left field. The only people who will buy your book will be your friends and neighbors (Not unlike POD in general). As far as a distributor, the process is the same as picking up a distributor for a trade title. The math works exactly like that of a trade book, which is the reason you need to print books to make money. If you get a charge out of being able to tell people your book can be found on Amazon, then POD is fine as long as you realize you are not going to sell any books beyond the ones you buy yourself. Just don\’t kid yourself into thinking you are going to make a commercial go of it using POD. The numbers just don\’t work.
Ron Pramschufer
April 16th, 2007 at 9:09 am
This was a great article, Ron. I really appreciate that you actually presented the stapled-book option as I’ve always told people that this is truly “publishing.” They look at me askance, but I continue to be skeptical that most people on the hobby level even want a fraction of the complexities of taking it to the next level.
One other great from-home option that I’ve discovered is using a thermal binder. You can get one of these for between $70 and $100, purchase the pre-glued covers, or buy just the glue strips to make your own custom sized books with some heavier weight paper for your cover. Then, all you need is a color printer to create perfect-bound books to your heart’s content and they look very nice.
I wonder if you would explain, perhaps in your next post, what makes a book “standard” sized in terms of the entire sheet size and the trim for full bleed pages.
Dar Hosta
Brown Dog Books
April 16th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
I am always impressed by your articles, Ron, as they ‘tell it like it is’. As Dar Hosta said, having you go over ALL the possibilities is wonderful, as it causes people to evaluate where they are on the publishing map.
If I have anything to add, it is a serious evaluation of how many to print once you get to the “I’m doing this for real” stage. It is ‘so tempting’ once you love your book and have put work into it to say – hmmm 5000 copies is $5000, and 10000 copies is $6500! I can get FIVE THOUSAND more books for only $1500!
When, of course, as you know, it is very likely those “only $1500″ books will end up as a heavy load around the neck. The author probably should have been looking at 1000 or maybe 2000 with reprints in mind if things actually took off. Better to save the “just a little bit more money” and keep it in your pocket than to have a bunch of books you can’t sell in your bedroom or basement.
May 8th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
I am trying to offer another option for publishers of children’s books, although I am, admittedly, just starting my business.
I intend to provide POD services and order fulfillment without the exorbitant costs I see all over the web. Yes, everything will be created and printed digitally, then bound by a perfect binding machine that retails for around $4000. My goal is to make publishing accessible to authors. This works especially well for authors who currently have an e-book and want to provide it as a paperback. It offers additional credibility to the author and another stream of income, albeit it a someone smaller one as the ebook download costs nothing in most cases and the book does have a fee attached to it.
Again, I’m just starting out. My web site is only a “shell” at this point. Pages will start going up in the next couple of weeks. I am just amazed at how ridiculous the prices are for printing books. It’s not that expensive.
~Carla
May 8th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
Wow, very good info here. Thank you. I’m glad to have found this site. Very informative.
Have worked publishing (the legal publishing side) for years. Too many to count. Children’s book publishing is fascinating so far, and expensive! But I feel worth the ride in the long run. Lot of knowledge here. Again, thank you!
My little house is not open yet (Blackberry Publishing) but we’re in the learning and set-up phase. First book due out next year (holiday season)… have found a printer, Codra (kinda of the middleman, really, between me and the overseas printer)… any thoughts on Codra?
Please, please keep the banter going! I need it! You guys are great!
May 10th, 2007 at 10:02 pm
I have wirtten a children alphabet book any ideas or suggestions on how to get it into the schhol systems and after school programs. Thanks Jay
May 15th, 2007 at 8:55 pm
Hi Ron,
This is very interesting reading, thankyou. Do you have any good or bad reports on Trafford Publishing? I am writting and doing the art work for my first childrens book, and found Trafford Publishing on the internet, but as I\’m not really sure what I\’m doing any comments would be great from you or anyone else who has dealt with them. Cheers Debs
Nothing good. Just one of many vanity presses. You can certainly do better.
Ron
June 5th, 2007 at 7:47 pm
Ron, as you have stated the bulk of the cost will be in illustrating. Do you know of a site that list illustrators I can contact to find someone that can do what it is I’m looking for in my price range. Also, would you reccomend computer generated illustrations over the other ways. What’s your thoughts on pricing a 10 page childrens book w/ full illustrations?
June 19th, 2007 at 9:41 am
Price of Illustration: I’ve been a freelance children’s book illustrator for almost 20 years. Most of my clients are selfpulishers. They all want hand done illustrations, with the artist capable of editng & creating the correct files digitally. Pricing will vary on the size of the illsutration, amount of detail, media, complexity, and sometimes on the turn around time (if it’s a rush & other work with longer deadline may have to be set aside for awhile.) I hope this hleps you.
June 19th, 2007 at 11:29 am
Just wanted to thank you for the great infomation you have provided… Its nice to see people share their knowledge without charging you $1995 just to find out what the heck they are talking about. I am starting my first childrens book and will send you a copy when im done…
Thanks
Marty
June 28th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
I wrote a book for children ages 3 and 4y/o. I need assistance as to how to illustrate it and with the editing. Please advise.
July 20th, 2007 at 5:18 pm
Hello Ron,
I have written and had pubished (3) children’s picture books dealing w/ “special needs”.
Looks like I will be self-publishing my next book.The illustrator has 3 pictures left.
I am curious, can I get this self-published books on an ALA (American Library Association booklist/ etc/ I would love for it to be in libraries, etc.
July 31st, 2007 at 1:27 pm
Thank you! Been writing for many years. Been looking into artists and self publishing for a few years without much luck ,but really haven’t decided which way to go. Just decided to start researching the possibilities again today, and maybe pick up the pen again. Your information is a great asset. Thank you!
August 6th, 2007 at 8:48 pm
I wrote a 15 page childrens book and my son who is very talented illustrated it in black and white. What do I do now? Can I take it to someone like it is and have them color it in and spruce it up and then print the book myself? I don’t know any services that are good and reliable. You tell all the bad but I don’t know where to turn. Any suggestions?
August 16th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
I’ve waited for 2 long months for editors to get back to me. Any suggestions on how to contact an editor that will give me some feedback? I have written a book that I would very much like to have printed by June of 2008 in time for a Centennial celebration i our community. It’s about our history. Help.
August 21st, 2007 at 1:49 am
Thank you for your warning. I am a professional artist. My children’s book is very short, 6 pages illustrated by me. I don’t care about making money with it, I just want to see it published. Is Publish America an option? I cannot take much money out of my budget to pay for the publishing.
Thank you. Yelena.
August 22nd, 2007 at 9:56 pm
I’m glad I happened upon your site. I am a new author, who has written and illustrated a children’s book. I’ve printed and sold about a 100, on my own desktop printer, and am looking for a way to print them professionally but I don’t have a lot of money. Is that impossible? Also, I heard about an Illustrators Handbook that’s supposed to offer a lot of leads to literary agents and the like. Are those worth the money? I feel lost and don’t know what step is best to take right now.
August 30th, 2007 at 2:32 pm
How much percentage does your publisher pay to be in barnes&Noble or Waldenbooks? Is it 35% or 40% or 44%. itis important that I know because ifyou pay less that 40% the two leading stores will not stock my book DEE
September 13th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
this site has really helped me. i’m 16 and for my senior project at my school i’m hoping to publish a childrens book thank you Anita
September 13th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
this site has really helped me. i’m 16 and for my senior project at my school i’m hoping to publish a childrens book thank you Anita
October 13th, 2007 at 9:12 am
I’m interested in protecting my idea. copyright. No one mentions this so am I to presume that “publishing” the book/idea is a form of copyright or do i simply need to mail the book to myself? And on that note, does it need to be the finished article or is the idea + title enough for a copyright? The title, in my cae, is key. This book idea I have is a small book to say the least, and is educational, therefore title + layout is the key here. Hence my copyright questions……
BTW – where might I go for collaboration?
October 29th, 2007 at 10:47 am
Hello,
I need your opinion please, I made a story for children 3 til 6 years old, I wrote it and draw it and it’s about Discrimination.
But I donno how much should I ask for Selling it or publishing it.
and how’s the procedure.
Can you give me some tips.
Rima
November 27th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
Hi Ron,
I was researching and i bumped into your lovely write-up….so insightful. Going by your cost breakdown below, does the cost for illustration stand for exclusive buy out of rights of the illustration off the artist?. I\’ll greatly appreciate your quickest response.
Editing – $295 – $695
Art Editing (optional) $695
Illustration – $1495 – $10,000 +
Printing (Test 25) – $175
Second test 25 ) – $175
3000 Main print run – $3,874 (1000 copies – $2.75/book, 2000 copies – $1.65/book, 5000 copies – $1/book, 10,000 copies – $.65/book
Kind Regards,
Ibeabuchi Ananaba
Lagos, Nigeria
Yes, the author/publisher owns the rights to the illustrations
Ron P
November 27th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
Hi Ron,
I was researching and i bumped into your lovely interview above….so insightful. Going by your cost breakdown below, does the cost for illustration stand for exclusive buy out of rights of the illustration off the artist?. I’ll greatly appreciate your quickest response.
Editing – $295 – $695
Art Editing (optional) $695
Illustration – $1495 – $10,000 +
Printing (Test 25) – $175
Second test 25 ) – $175
3000 Main print run – $3,874 (1000 copies – $2.75/book, 2000 copies – $1.65/book, 5000 copies – $1/book, 10,000 copies – $.65/book
Kind Regards,
Ibeabuchi Ananaba
Lagos, Nigeria
December 14th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
Great advice. Are the “test runs” of 25 hard copy or paperback?
January 11th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Hi Ron,
I am curious to know what printer offers 1,000 children\’s books to be printed for around $3…are you talking soft cover or hard?
HI,
It\’s actually $4 for 1000 ocpies and $2.34 for 2000.
Ron
February 13th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
I\’m an artist and have a 32 page child\’s book almost ready. Please tell me what size the bleed should be?
I\’m impressed with the information you impart in your New Letter and Blog. Thank you.
Cheers,
Ruth
Hi,
1/8 inch is fine
Ron
February 28th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
So, if I have this correctly, to publish and illustrate my children’s book, it would cost me over $5,000? Is that about accurate?
Illustrations can range from around $1500 to over $5000
Ron
May 15th, 2008 at 10:19 am
I am a new special needs publishing company that just won a grant through Yahoo! small business called Seeds for Success. I am needing to publish a children’s board book 16″ x 20″. Do I need to consider the page count by 8? If I use my own illustrator, could I use the program you offer to design my own book for cheaper than using a book designer?
Karla
July 30th, 2008 at 10:06 am
I have no web site that a person may access. I recently had a children’s book published. The book is beautiful, but have had and am continuing to have serious problems with the “print on demand” publisher. Outskirts Press has been working on this book since last summer. They indicate I am too “fussy”. Hired my own illustrator, (EXPENSIVE), printed the book at a local printer (Barnes and Noble are selling it as well as here at the Pumpkin Farm). I sent the finished book along with the flash drive of all the files to Outskirts Press. And still the whole process is not complete. The name of the book is Gene The Pumpkin Man. The book is well written and illustrated, with a delightful story that is accurate for the history of the farm. They promised my own web site, and if it is, Outskirts Press has to be mentioned first. I wanted the ability for kids to type in Gene the Pumpkin Man and the site come up. Has any one else experienced working with Outskirts Press? Quite frankly, I don’t believe my next book will go to them. I also would like to own my files instead of having to pay a yearly storage fee for them to store. When the company sent my five free books, there was a major error on the front cover. The manager asked that I scan it and send it to her as she had no knowledge of this. I refused to do this, as the mistake happened somewhere in their printing process. Kind of at a stalemate right now. Any suggestions as to a reputable children’s book publisher would be welcome.