How to Block Out Your Children’s Text and Picture Book Illustrations

I had a great training session this morning with an author on how to block out her children's book with text and illustrations. This exercise gives you a quick idea of what the parts are and how they work together. I think this is a vital step in planning your book. 

We did this in Google Docs using the Table feature, INSERT > TABLE and then expanded the table to the size of the intended drawing. She was very gracious in allowing me to record the session



How to Block out Your Children's Text and Picture Book from Bruce Jones on Vimeo.

Can I Sell My CreateSpace Books at Local Stores in Our Town

Question from the How to Publish Your Book Facebook Group:

Enjoyed your live session just now. I think someone has asked this before but...if I publish through Create Space, can I sell my books at local stores in our small town?

Answer: Most stores won't order books from Createspace because they can't be returned, but there is nothing stopping you from doing it and selling them to the stores yourself. I agree with getting your own ISBN, but in reality if you are the sales person and you are managing your own little book distribution business then it doesn't really matter. If you have your own ISBN and your books start selling you could then reprint them on IngramSpark and go bigger. Something you can't do with CreateSpace.

Remember the books you see in stores are actually all there on consignment. Meaning they can all be returned if they don't sell. You can manage it that way or you could price your books so that you could give a big discount with the thought that the stores buys them outright and you don't have to deal with returns. Make it a one way trip. That is what I have done when I have sold books to a store or festival. Also come up with a bulk package. Maybe 10 books at 60% off and free shipping. The store then makes a nice profit and you don't have to get them back. Just work with the price. Go for it

Example:
Essential Chords for Guitar, Mandolin, Ukulele and Banjo
List price on Amazon $14.95
My cost for buying the book directly from CreateSpace is $5.05
My royalty from CreateSpace is $3.92
The rest are Createspace's costs

I could sell this book to a store or event at 50% off the list price of $14.95.

$14.95 x 50% off to the store = $7.47.........$7.47-$5.05 costs = $2.42 profit for me

Or I could raise the price to $19.95 and sell at 50% or 60% off.

$19.95 x 50% off to the store = $9.97.........$9.97-$5.05 costs = $4.92 profit for me
$19.95 x 60% off to the store = $7.98.........$7.98-$5.05 costs = $2.93 profit for me

There are lots of ways to configure this. Free shipping, minimum orders, include a display box such as from Uline.com. What you want to do is figure out a large enough order size and the correct pricing to make it worth while. Stores love free shipping or, come up with a number that covers most of it. If you don't have to run around and pick up books or small checks and make a decent profit this could be a nice little business.






$19.95 x 20 copies = $399.00 x 50% off + $199.5 - $101.00 cost ($5.05 x 20) = $98.50 profit.

Also think about your community, is it a vacation area, is it historical, does it have interesting things. Could you make a book around what is there and sell it in local stores. Ask your local retailers if they would sell your books. Or what kind of books would they like to sell in their stores. Basically create custom books for your community. I know of someone who created a fun summer children's book and sold it around the lake in their area. Every summer they would print 3,000 copies and just sell them in local stores. They could manage it, they lived there and deliver the books and pick up the checks. Could you do something like that. Do you have a store, go to festivals, sell at a farmers market. All opportunities to create a book or series of books and sell them.

Resource, Uline.com for display boxes, https://www.uline.com/BL_5609/Corrugated-Displays

Connection and Learning
Bruce Jones is the author and creator of over 40 self-published books.

If you want to learn how to create your own book visit Publishing Mastery 101 and see my courses: https://bruce-the-book-guy.usefedora.com/

Come over and join my Facebook Publishing Group, ask me questions, show your books. Great place to connect with authors and self-publishers
Join at https://www.facebook.com/groups/HowToPublishYourBook/

Create Your Own Picture Book, Live Presentation with Bruce Jones

I recently held a live presentation at the Boston Media Makers April get together on creating and publishing a picture book using PowerPoint and Kindle Create. I though this would make a good companion example of the Picture Book Challenge.


Creating a Picture Book Using PowerPoint and Kindle Create, Live Presentation by Bruce Jones from Bruce Jones on Vimeo.

Resources:

The challenge will be held in the Facebook Group: How to Publish Your Book

Want access to all the templates, storyboards and video content, visit the companion course InDesign for Authors 

Post #1 The Picture Book Challenge, Create and Publish a Book on Amazon
Post #2 Start Collecting Your Images for the Picture Book Challenge

Start Collecting Your Images for the Picture Book Challenge

The Picture Book Challenge is underway. The first step is to start collecting your images, photos, drawings, illustrations. Whatever you need to create your book. We are creating a 24-32 page book, so you probably need a few more than the number of pages. It all depends on how many images you will be putting on each page. You also want to start to edit down the photos to your best collection for the book.

Be sure to join the How to Publish Your Book Facebook group for the regular lessons, videos and any questions.
In the File area in the Facebook group is a free storyboard pdf so you can start to sketch out your book.


Collecting your Pictures for the Picture Book Challenge Video 2 from Bruce Jones on Vimeo.

Resources:

The challenge will be held in the Facebook Group: How to Publish Your Book

Want access to all the templates, storyboards and video content, visit the companion course InDesign for Authors 

Post #1 The Picture Book Challenge, Create and Publish a Book on Amazon


#PICTUREBOOKCHALLENGE

Connection and Learning

Bruce Jones is the author and creator of over 40 self-published books. 

If you want to learn how to create your own book visit Publishing Mastery 101 and see my courses: https://bruce-the-book-guy.usefedora.com/

Come over and join my Facebook Publishing Group, ask me questions, show your books. Great place to connect with authors and self-publishers

Join at https://www.facebook.com/groups/HowToPublishYourBook/

Publishing Your Book on CreateSpace vs IngramSpark, Which Way Should I Go?

Learn How to Print, Sell and Distribute Your Book with IngramSpark from Bruce Jones on Vimeo.

We received this question from a follower on my Vimeo page and this video, thought I would answer it here

I have a couple of questions. I am publishing children's picture books which will be a series. I've been working through CreateSpace and I'm in the process of ordering a physical proof, but now that I've seen this video I'm not sure if I should be doing everything through Ingram Sparks instead.

 1)Which one do you recommend Bruce? 
I am a huge fan of CreateSpaceAmazon, it is easy to use and they do a great job. They have a couple of limitations, they don't have hardcover, or a real horizontal format for children's books and they don't distribute to bookstores. But for what they do, they are excellent and I like them a lot. If bookstores aren't really in your mix and you are just staying on Amazon and with paperback then CreateSpace is a great choice.

 2) Is it too late to go with Ingram Sparks if I already assigned a free ISBN to my book in CreateSpace? 
It really comes down to if you see your book in stores then your want to buy your own ISBN and if you want to use CreateSpace for Amazon then that is ok, but don't click Expanded Distribution. The you can also print on Ingram using the same ISBN number and use them for book store distribution. You can also just go with IngramSpark and use their distribution system to send your book to Amazon. Many people use both, CreateSpace and Kindle for selling on Amazon and Ingram for the rest but as I said Ingram can do it all.

 3) I was planning to sell my books on my own website as well as Amazon. Which one would be better for this? I do this and CreateSpace works very well for doing this, you can set up a book selling page on your site and have a link that sends people right over to the Amazon sales page for that book. Ingram isn't really set up for doing this. You could set up an order page but you or someone would have to then transfer the info to Ingram for ordering the book. They can take single orders but you have to kind of do it. As I said I do this on my AcousticMusicTV.com website and sell my book from the site. It works great. here is one of the pages, http://www.acousticmusictv.com/html/BookStore/EssentialChordsRight.html

 4) I was also planning to go personally to my local library, bookstores, and schools to see if they would be interested in carrying my books. Would that not work? Is Ingram Sparks the only way to get into bookstores, libraries, and schools? 
I guess yes, CreateSpace has a distribution channel to libraries but I am not sure anyone buys it. Bookstores don't really buy from CreateSpace because their books can't be returned. That is a key for bookstores, the books need to be able to be returned. Ingram is a real distributor and the books can go back or be destroyed if they don't sell. But CreateSpace. I think also libraries only really want hardcover, so you can use Ingram to make the hardcover, remember that is a different ISBN number. If you are using IngramSpark select destroy instead of return for unsold books, otherwise you are paying the shipping back.

 5) Does Ingram Sparks also distribute to schools? 
I don't know, but I would assume yes because they are the world's largest distributor and that is what they do, distribute books. You would probably want to be in the Ingram catalog, (an extra $85) so books can be ordered easily.

6) Is it true that if you have your books available through Ingram Sparks you won't make that much money at all because of the hefty discounts given to bookstores? I was reading some comments in which people were saying that you shouldn't go with Ingram Sparks because of this, so would love to hear your opinion on this.
I would assume yes, but it is just any product, each step in the distribution chain has markups and discounts. Most authors with publishing houses receive about $.70-$1.00 per book, with CreateSpace I get $2.50-$3.50 per book unless I am in the expanded distribution and then it is in the lower range. You aren't going to get rich publishing books. Want more money make more books or raise the price. You are dealing with a under $20.00 product which includes printing and storage and two markups, so yes it will be low. Don't let that discourage you, but once you add distributors in the mix the return goes down. That is one reason to keep the CreateSpace channel, there is no distributor.

My advice, just staying on Amazon then use CreateSpace and also put your book on Kindle. Use the new Kindle Create app. If you want to be in stores then look at IngramSpark. If you are using Ingram then you will have to decide if you want to CreateSpace or just go with Ingram for everything.


Connection and Learning
Bruce Jones is the author and creator of over 40 self-published books.

If you want to learn how to create your own book visit Publishing Mastery 101 and see my courses: https://bruce-the-book-guy.usefedora.com/

Come over and join my Facebook Publishing Group, ask me questions, show your books. Great place to connect with authors and self-publishers
Join at https://www.facebook.com/groups/HowToPublishYourBook/

Q & A Questions on CreateSpace, Kindle Books, Coloring Books, Selling Books

I received a great email just loaded with questions on publishing, coloring books, CreateSpace.com, Kindle Books, all kinds of things. I thought the best thing to was record a video and share the answers.

Question: I like your Youtube on creating children's books in powerpoint. We followed that video for the Mandalas. You use the same format, correct?
Answer: I use PowerPoint and I use Adobe Indesign. My go to program is Indesign but most people don't have that. But almost everyone has PowerPoint, combine that with Kindle Kid Creator and it is pretty easy to make a book.

Question: Do you put your ebooks on for free for a couple of days on Kindle?
Answer: What you are talking about is the Kindle Select Program. No I am not a big fan of that program because it locks you up for 90 day periods of time and restricts you from releasing content. I am big on releasing content

Question: I notice that on kindle you can put your ebook up for free for a couple of days and it does not really cost you anything, however when I checked out Createspace it gave me a negative when estimated my book on for 99c, so that is not a good idea.
Answer: This is the Kindle Select program, CreateSpace does not have anything like this. CreateSpace creates an actual physical product while Kindle does not. You can't really give it away if it is real

Question: I notice some people are putting their colouring books on kindle. Something about they can colour online on their ipads.
Answer: I have done this also because other people were doing it. Amazon is kind of frowning on this. There is no way to color that I know, mostly they just become picture books. There are coloring apps for smart phones and tablets, don't know if you can feed a pdf into them or not.

Question: Would you put a colouring book on kindle ebook and for how much?
Answer: I think maybe, if it is more of a picture book then maybe so. You use the 35% royalty and sell for $2.99, otherwise you pay for the download

Question: Is it not easier to pirate the colouring books that way?
Answer: This is a common question, I don't worry about books being pirated, just keep moving forward. Most book will never be something that people want to pirate. I don't know how they would do this from a Kindle.

Question: What file do you use for Createspace, also mobi?
Answer: CreateSpace uses high res pdf file for both the interior and the cover, Kindle uses a html for the book and jpg for the cover.

Question: Do you just charge the full price when you put it on Createspace?
Answer: Yes I do, usually around $9.95

Question: I looked at Amazon and there seem to be a lot of complaints about markers bleeding through the pages. Does Createspace give you a choice of
Answer: They do but it is just between white and off white, I use the white. I put images on just one side of the page, seems to work fine, this is how I deal with it.

1. Thickness of paper
What they have is what they have

2. Opportunity to perforate the pages?
No, I wish they did

3. What would be a good thickness?
80lb text? but you would have to print them with a regular printer. Not a fan of a garage full of books. Print on demand is amazing.

4. Is starting an account with Createspace free?
Yes it is, all cost come out of the royalties, same with Kindle

Question: if not, what do you know about Ingramspark?
Answer: It would be the option if books stores are in your marketing mix, I have a good video in the resource area http://brucethebookguy.blogspot.com/p/resources.html

Question: Is starting an account with them free?
Answer: I think it it, but there are costs for each book, see the video or the site

Question: Do they give the above two opportunities?
Answer: Do you mean Kindle and paperback, they do, but there are restrictions

Question: Do you sell many adult coloring books?
Answer: Yes I do, Mandalas books and my Geography books

Question: I notice that you have two sizes: 8.5X11 and 6X8   Which one sells best? Is the 6x8 for kindle?
Answer: This month yes, the smaller size sold more

Question: What is the best way to sell children's books on kindle?
With a good marketing plan, I release a lot of my book content on blogs, websites, Pinterest, and then wrap my own ads around the content.

Question: Which way makes the most money? I attempt to write and my daughter sketches.
Answer: I sell way more print books than Kindle, it depends on the book and your market. I recommend releasing on both platforms, except maybe for the coloring books

Question: Do you have a membership group? How much does it cost a month to join?
Answer: Yes I do, just started, it is in BETA, $19.month, $119/years and then a coaching program
http://bruce-the-book-guy.usefedora.com/courses/publish-your-book-membership-site

Where Do I Print My Hardcover Children's Book?

Question: Hi Bruce. I came across you via YouTube. I am an aspiring children's book publisher. I feel strongly about publishing to hard cover. Where do I pursue that?




Answer: Hi and thank you for reaching out. Most of what I do centers around using CreateSpace.com which is the print on demand side of Amazon. They only have paperback and vertical or square
If you want to go with hardcover and use the print on demand world then there are several other options all which use Print on Demand, You can use IngramSpark.com which also opens you up to the bookstore market and world wide distribution along with Amazon.

Two other sites are Lulu.com and Blurb.com both of which have hardcover and have relationships with Amazon.
 What I like about CreateSpace.com is that it is Amazon and it is free to use. IngramSpark is $49 plus the $85 for the ISBN. You could also use this ISBN number with CreateSpace. With Ingram you are acting like a publisher. which is good but a little more work.

Lulu and Blurb are free to use, all fees get charged when the books sell but nothing is out of your pocket. Of these two I would pick Lulu, mostly because of the selling price of the book, Blurb gets a little pricy. Lulu also has a horizontal format.

You could also just go out and just print the book and then deal with distribution on your own. That can be a pain.

If you want hardcover my recommendation would be to do both CreateSpace and IngramSpark but with your own ISBN number which you would buy from Ingram so that you are in their world.

Resources
http://www.CreateSpace.com
http://www.IngramSpark.com
http://www.Lulu.com
http://www.Blurb.com

Join our Facebook Publishing Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/HowToPublishYourBook/