Extract from an article by Carla King on Book Works Site:

Lisa needed some help figuring out how to layout and distribute the children’s book she just finished.

She had already paid an illustrator and in our conversation revealed that the book was 42 pages long, the text was embedded in the Photoshop files, and images were square. Warning bells were already ringing in my head, so I asked her to send me the files. In review, I found the following issues to resolve.

Children’s books are standardized at 32 pages lo1ng with 24 pages of illustrations plus 6 end pages and front matter. Her book would be 48 pages with the additional front and back matter needed. She simply decided to create a non-standard book.

The illustrations were close to the edge of the printable area without any wiggle room for bleeds, so back to the illustrator it went!

There were some typos in the text, which would again require her to re-hire the illustrator to correct. I suggested having him send her the illustrations without the text so she could type the text directly into a Word template.

With a little extra time, frustration, and expense, Lisa’s book problems were resolved, but you can follow this primer to bypass issues with the production and distribution of your children’s book. Here’s what you need to know.