Thanks for these great instructions! I just purchased your book on Amazon. It’s a real treat to see how your book was made and to have an actual copy. I’ve illustrated children’s books in the past but that was a long time ago. I was wondering if I could self-publish a children’s picture book on Amazon and now I have an excellent teacher who gave me thorough instructions of how to do it. This would make a great Skillshare class for you to offer!
I recently started a small company with my friends to start publishing children's book, we still in the writting process but these videos are like a gold mine to me, Thanks a lot
Thank you Heather for sharing info this so useful. Your voice is easy to listen to, you have helped many people I’m sure. My journey hasn’t been easy, I have adhd and difficult to find someone explaining things the way I can connect, then stumbled across your videos, you have brought the spark back I needed. I have finally started to set out my pages ready to download on kdp. Thank you again. Once I press publish I would love you to check out my picture diary with some much appreciated feedback 🙏🏼❤️
oh by the way my small "horse journal " idea turned in to me publishing kids books ( something my mom has been telling me I should do my entire life ( and of course I don't do what she tells me) LOL nice meet you.
Good Day Miss Heather. Quick question; I notice you didn't create a copyright page with AISN number and all that stuff that we typically see after a cover page and before the story starts. Is that not a thing in Amazon kids' books? Thanks for the help and advice!
Hi! You don't necessarily need the copyright page, but you can include it if you want. I think most publishers include it so the info is there about the copyright and to discourage people from stealing your work. It's probably a good idea but again it's up to you and not required :)
Thank you so much Heather, this was very useful! You mentioned taking your paper artwork to be scanned. Can you share where you get that done? Thank you
Yes!! I was actually going to make a short video on that because I get asked that a lot! I go to the FedEx print & ship center, and have them scan it on the flatbed scanner. The scanner is not big enough, but I have them scan it in 2 parts. Then I take the files home on a USB drive. I combine them together myself in Photoshop. I'm going to show how to do that in a video! Also I like to do 600dpi just so that it's nice and high res!
When I saved, I had to unclick “embedded colour profile” or my pictures saved with a white film over them. Does that make sense? Just want to make sure I’m doing this right. Thank you!!!!
That's super weird, I don't know why that would happen! If it looks ok in the PDF then you are probably good 👍 just make sure you order a copy of your book to make sure!
I think to automatically do it you'd probably need to do some kind of script. I'd probably do it manually OR consider doing your layout in InDesign instead of Photoshop. Do you need page numbers? Is this a chapter book or other kind of text-heavy book? If so, it should probably be done in InDesign anyways. Otherwise if it's a picture book, which is more creatively laid out, it is easier to do in Photoshop and doesn't really need page numbers.
@@HeatherCashArt thanks ya its for young children all pictures so I've opted to leave page numbers off except I may do creative ones one the non spread pages I am in the middle of it now so I haven't decided but I will say this is a collaboration with my aunt who wrote the story and wanted me to illustrate it years ago and I didn't have the drive, now I'm doing it for fun no pressure and I'm just enjoying the whimsey of it, I love working in canvas. I finally published a real book using Microsoft word and word docx and canvas and it took me 7 months to pull it off ( what a nightmare! I feel like I am adept enough now to know a little bit to do it again but phew! Im kinda glad I'm doing children books now , that was so stressful. I give all glory to YHWH god that I actually published.
Hi! When you save as a jpg, it will be flattened - JPG's don't have the ability to have layers. That way, you keep your Photoshop file still in tact in case you want to edit it later.
@@HeatherCashArt Ah, ok! I always keep my work as a PSD file for editing, but then I manually flatten and save as a jpeg file. I was also under the impression that text would get 'fuzzy' looking if it was in a jpeg format? (at least I was always told not to save an image that had text as a jpeg.. but that advice was given a decade ago.. haha)
@@katecolby5878 you do have to make sure you are saving at the highest possible quality jpg, so that you don't get the visible compression. I know what you mean, I was in college 20 years ago and I remember when PNGs first came out with their alpha transparency and how amazing it was! And how long it took Internet explorer to display them correctly - ha ha!
I think your tutorials are some of the best on TH-cam. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. May your generous spirit be a light to many
Wow, that is so sweet of you to say! Thank you so much!!! ❤️❤️❤️
Thanks for these great instructions! I just purchased your book on Amazon. It’s a real treat to see how your book was made and to have an actual copy. I’ve illustrated children’s books in the past but that was a long time ago. I was wondering if I could self-publish a children’s picture book on Amazon and now I have an excellent teacher who gave me thorough instructions of how to do it. This would make a great Skillshare class for you to offer!
Aww you're so sweet!! Thank you for your kind words and for purchasing my book!! Your support means so much to me!! 😊😊😊
Thank you so much Heather, for this most helpful and informative video. It is just so clear and easy to follow!
I recently started a small company with my friends to start publishing children's book, we still in the writting process but these videos are like a gold mine to me, Thanks a lot
You're so welcome! Thank you for watching! Let me know if you have any questions 🙂
@@HeatherCashArt Yes I will 😊
Whoa, I remember watching this FORVERR ago 😱
That's so cool!!!
Thank you Heather for sharing info this so useful. Your voice is easy to listen to, you have helped many people I’m sure. My journey hasn’t been easy, I have adhd and difficult to find someone explaining things the way I can connect, then stumbled across your videos, you have brought the spark back I needed. I have finally started to set out my pages ready to download on kdp. Thank you again. Once I press publish I would love you to check out my picture diary with some much appreciated feedback 🙏🏼❤️
Aww thank you for your kind words!! I'm sooo glad you like my videos. ☺️ I would love to check out your book!!! Let me know what it is called!
Glad you are making these videos....can't wait for the other videos....great job explaining step by step
oh by the way my small "horse journal " idea turned in to me publishing kids books ( something my mom has been telling me I should do my entire life ( and of course I don't do what she tells me) LOL nice meet you.
What is a horse journal?
@@HeatherCashArt I train and care for horses, so its a way to track progress
th-cam.com/play/PLfd9pm_QjZr7WJy-ClhEU1ztIeZWiILwe.html
I love these instructionals Heather!
Thank you!!
Thank you so much.
Very helpful
I was looking for this information for so long. 🙏🙏
Yay!! So glad I could help!!
Excellent tutorials, thank you!
thank you!!! this is really helpful ❤
You did it!!
Yes! Thanks to self-publishing! 🙃
Thank you so much for helping ❤
You're so welcome!
thankyou for the great tutorial!!
You're so very welcome! ☺️
Thanks for sharing
Thank you very much 😍
You're so welcome!
Hi. Can you also do steps in Canva? for the layout, spread.... thanks a lot
Yes I already did! Here you go!!
Canva - Children's Book for Amazon KDP: th-cam.com/play/PLfwRTvxmUwGyGN_hvhs6ghn7zssVvy9UT.html
Good Day Miss Heather. Quick question; I notice you didn't create a copyright page with AISN number and all that stuff that we typically see after a cover page and before the story starts. Is that not a thing in Amazon kids' books? Thanks for the help and advice!
Hi! You don't necessarily need the copyright page, but you can include it if you want. I think most publishers include it so the info is there about the copyright and to discourage people from stealing your work. It's probably a good idea but again it's up to you and not required :)
@@HeatherCashArt Excellent! Thanks very much!
Thank you so much Heather, this was very useful! You mentioned taking your paper artwork to be scanned. Can you share where you get that done? Thank you
Yes!! I was actually going to make a short video on that because I get asked that a lot! I go to the FedEx print & ship center, and have them scan it on the flatbed scanner. The scanner is not big enough, but I have them scan it in 2 parts. Then I take the files home on a USB drive. I combine them together myself in Photoshop. I'm going to show how to do that in a video! Also I like to do 600dpi just so that it's nice and high res!
@@HeatherCashArt Thank you Heather, I really appreciate you sharing your knowledge!
@@meerabahl5344 aw, of course!! ☺️
When I saved, I had to unclick “embedded colour profile” or my pictures saved with a white film over them. Does that make sense? Just want to make sure I’m doing this right. Thank you!!!!
That's super weird, I don't know why that would happen! If it looks ok in the PDF then you are probably good 👍 just make sure you order a copy of your book to make sure!
@@HeatherCashArt thank you!!
is there a way to add page numbers easy in canvas or would it have to be done differently ?
I think to automatically do it you'd probably need to do some kind of script. I'd probably do it manually OR consider doing your layout in InDesign instead of Photoshop.
Do you need page numbers? Is this a chapter book or other kind of text-heavy book? If so, it should probably be done in InDesign anyways.
Otherwise if it's a picture book, which is more creatively laid out, it is easier to do in Photoshop and doesn't really need page numbers.
@@HeatherCashArt thanks ya its for young children all pictures so I've opted to leave page numbers off except I may do creative ones one the non spread pages I am in the middle of it now so I haven't decided but I will say this is a collaboration with my aunt who wrote the story and wanted me to illustrate it years ago and I didn't have the drive, now I'm doing it for fun no pressure and I'm just enjoying the whimsey of it, I love working in canvas. I finally published a real book using Microsoft word and word docx and canvas and it took me 7 months to pull it off ( what a nightmare! I feel like I am adept enough now to know a little bit to do it again but phew! Im kinda glad I'm doing children books now , that was so stressful. I give all glory to YHWH god that I actually published.
If the book is in a PDF and put into an art board how are each page edited and formatted ?
Hi! I'm not sure I understand the question. Are you using Photoshop to lay out your book? If so, then you would edit and format it in Photoshop.
Sent you an email
my images are 1024x1024. what size do i need for amazon kdp?
That's too small, if you want an 8.5x8.5 book you'll need 2588x2625 (you want them to be the size in inches plus bleed, at 300 DPI)
@@HeatherCashArt thank you!
Question: Why didn't you flatten the layers before saving as a Jpeg file?? Wouldn't leaving the layers unflattened cause issues with the pdf file?
Hi! When you save as a jpg, it will be flattened - JPG's don't have the ability to have layers. That way, you keep your Photoshop file still in tact in case you want to edit it later.
@@HeatherCashArt Ah, ok! I always keep my work as a PSD file for editing, but then I manually flatten and save as a jpeg file. I was also under the impression that text would get 'fuzzy' looking if it was in a jpeg format? (at least I was always told not to save an image that had text as a jpeg.. but that advice was given a decade ago.. haha)
@@katecolby5878 you do have to make sure you are saving at the highest possible quality jpg, so that you don't get the visible compression. I know what you mean, I was in college 20 years ago and I remember when PNGs first came out with their alpha transparency and how amazing it was! And how long it took Internet explorer to display them correctly - ha ha!
@@HeatherCashArt I feel like such a dinosaur who's been out of the design game forever, haha! I always work at 300DPI