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Self-Publishing a Children’s Book
So you want to self publish a children’s book locally. Get ready for a big expense ($50,000) for 5,000 copies, hardcover, 4 color. Be prepared for marketing your book. Most books are sold through amazon.com. If you’d rather check other sales opportunities, there is the library association annual meeting, or going school to school, book store to book store. Some book stores will only speak with sales agents from recognized book publishers. Barnes and Noble happens to be one of those stores
The best approach is to submit your story manuscript to recognized book publishers. They will help you edit your story to make it flow better and will do the marketing for you as well as find/select the best illustrator for your book based on the style of the story. If you have the talent, you can illustrate the book yourself. Produce a book dummy (sample replica) with the text placed on each page and produce two to three finished illustrations and submit these with your manuscript and book dummy.
Is it o.k. to submit to multiple book publishers? Yes – but, as you are submitting materials make sure you tell the publishers that this is what you are doing in your letter of query.
