When my oldest was a toddler, I made him a book about a bunny who’s afraid of going to swim class (because he, like my son in real life) got water in his eyes. We read it over and over. At nine, he still pulls it out from time to time.
I’ve been making books for my kids ever since. A LOT of parents have ideas for stories they want to tell (or create) for their own kids but don’t do it because it seems like the process is mysterious: like they need illustrators, publishers, formatting software, ISBN numbers, etc. But you actually can make a children’s book for your own kids fairly easily using free or mostly free tools, on your laptop. I’ve done it multiple times now for my own kids.
I wrote a full guide on this exact process: Write & Self-Publish a Children’s Book in 7 Days, for parents who want the comprehensive, step-by-step version with Canva walkthroughs, KDP screenshots, etc.
A note about the book—each “day” in this 7-day framework is really more of a “step.” You can move through the “steps” in seven actual days if you have the time, or stretch each step out across weeks; the framework is the same either way.
Before the how, a quick note on the why in case you’re on the fence on whether it’s worth the time…
Most creative projects you do with your kids (or for your kids) end up forgotten (or trashed) but a book doesn’t. It will get read (probably a lot). It’ll become a part of your kid’s bedtime routine. And years from now, it’ll still be in their hands. My own kids have books I made for them when they were toddlers that they still read.
When you make a book for your kid… whether it’s about their interests, or their experiences, or it features a version of them as the main character, it’s truly something that’s just for them.
Unless you’re making the book as a surprise, you can include your kid(s) in the process. Letting them watch (or help!) you write, design, and publish a book is such a great way to show your kids that books are made by people, that the stories they come from somewhere, and that they could make a book too.
It teaches your child where stories come from.
Unless you have a very strong oral storytelling culture in your household, chances are your kids perceive stories as “things” or like products. They see them in a store or get delivered home or on shelves at the library. But they don’t see the process.
Watching a parent make a story is different because it dismantles the idea that books are just a product. And…
…and it also dismantles the idea are made by some other kind of person, in some other kind of place. Seeing you make a book makes it an accessible thing for them. THEY can write a book too. THEY can create anything they want to create. And that’s why…
You should make books for your kids because once you have the skills to do it, you can teach them how to do it too.
You making books (in front of your kids; for your kids; with your kids) opens up a creative pathway your kid might not have known existed for them.
Once you get the hang of the process, it becomes a creative project you’ll very likely want to do again.
And remember the goal here isn’t to make the next children’s bestseller, it’s to make a real book for a specific kid you love. And to also model that anyone can create.
Will it really take only 7 days?
YES!!!! …If you’re focused and the project is simple. But as with all things, it can be as complex as you want it to be.
If you treat each “day” as a step, you can choose to stretch it out over weeks or months or even years. Whatever you want to do is fine, but the “7 days” are a framework rather than a rigid restriction. And once you’ve done it once, you’ll know exactly how to do it again… and the next book will go faster 🙂
(IF YOU WANT TO!)
Here is a quick overview of the steps that I hope should give you enough information to get you oriented and understand what step actually involves, and (hopefully) enough to convince you it’s doable. 🙂
If after reading this you want the full how-to with all the specifics, the book is here. If you just want to understand the process, this overview should get the broad strokes:
Start with a concept that excites you and that your child will recognize themselves in. The easiest place to start is something specific to your child’s life. What are they into right now? What are they working through? What was a memorable moment from the last year? The more personal the starting concept, the better the book will land for your specific kid.
The best children’s books come from specific, real, slightly weird moments, not from trying to write the next big universal story. And also remember you’re writing for a target audience of ONE (or multiple kids).
Once you have the idea, sketch out the structure of the story. For a typical 24-32 page picture book, you want a clear beginning, middle, and end (I have templates you can use! for fiction OR nonfiction children’s books).
Keep the language simple, the sentences short, and the rhythm readable-aloud. Picture books are almost always read aloud to a child, often many times in a row, so think about what YOU want to be reading aloud (possibly every. single. night.) to your own kid.
This is the step most parents are scared of, and it’s the one with the most flexibility. You have several real options… Make the art yourself, use free stock illustration, hire an illustrator, etc. But the coolest option might be to have your child illustrate the book.
This is where the book actually starts to look like a book. Canva (free version is fine) is the easiest tool for laying out a picture book without specialized software. You’ll be creating the book in a document and dropping in illustrations and text.
TAKE YOUR TIME with this step. You’re laying out every page and getting the visual flow right. While you can definitely still do this in a day, stretch this out as much as you need or want to get it right.
The cover is the single most important design choice you’ll make. It’s what catches a reader’s eye, what your child will see most often, and what determines whether the book feels like a “real” book. You can use Amazon KDP’s built-in cover creator, design the entire cover (front, spine, back) in Canva, or use a combined approach.
Again, the book walks you through the options in detail (with screenshots!).
Look at children’s books you already own for inspiration and try to focus on how their covers handle title placement, image scale, and color choices.
Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is free, takes about 30 minutes to set up an account, and lets you print and distribute your book with no upfront cost. Here is the process:
The KDP previewer is good because it shows you exactly how the book will look when printed, including any margin or bleed issues. Don’t skip the preview. If you’re only making the book for your own kids, you don’t even need to make it available for public sale. You can publish it privately and order author copies just for yourself (in which case you can skip a lot of the Day 7 stuff).
If you set the book to “published,” it’ll go live on Amazon within 72 hours so anyone can buy a copy.
But before that OR instead of that, you should order author copies through KDP. They’re available at cost (meaning the printing price plus shipping, which could be somewhere around $4-8 per book). You can order your copy for your family, but you can also…
If you want the comprehensive version (with Canva walkthroughs, KDP screenshots, and more), you may want to read my book Write & Self-Publish a Children’s Book in 7 Days. It’s a guide you can hold in your hand as you work on your kid’s book and you can order it here.
And if you want occasional notes on the writing life (including my novels, my research, musings and tips on self-publishing, and just general behind-the-scenes author life stuff), you can sign up for my newsletter here.
