Self-Publishing a Children’s Book with Print-on-Demand? Here’s What You Need to Know

Print-on-demand, or POD, has opened the door for many authors to publish beautiful, professional-quality children’s books—without the hassle of warehousing books or fulfilling orders. But is it the right fit for your project?

Let’s look at the pros and cons of self-publishing a children’s book with print-on-demand, from trim sizes to artwork specs to distribution options. Whether you’re publishing your very first book or exploring options beyond traditional publishing, understanding POD can help you move forward with confidence.

Topics Covered In “Self-Publishing a Children’s Book with Print-on-Demand: What You Need to Know”

Can a Print-on-Demand Children’s Book Even Look Good?
Benefits of Print-on-Demand
Restrictions of Print-on-Demand
        A Note on Ebooks
Working with an Illustrator (or Doing It Yourself)
        Illustration Methods and Specs
        Tips for a Successful Collaboration
Print Costs and Pricing: Planning for Affordability
Dual-Track Distribution: Using KDP and IngramSpark Together
You Don’t Have to Do It Alone

Can a Print-on-Demand Children’s Book Even Look Good?

Yes—it can.

In the past, POD color printing didn’t always meet the needs of children’s book authors. Full-color artwork appeared streaky, pages felt cheap, and print colors and saturations were wildly inconsistent.

But in the last five or so years, that’s all changed. With better color and page thickness options and steadier printing quality, even the most detailed artwork has the potential to shine. This leap forward in quality makes POD a legitimate path to a high-quality children’s book.

With that settled, here’s a quick rundown of the issues that matter most to children’s book authors self-publishing with print-on-demand.

Benefits of Print-on-Demand

In general, all the usual pros and cons of self-publishing apply to children’s books. Here are some of the points especially noteworthy:

Pros:

• You can test the market or build an audience without a large upfront investment.
• Your book is available to order from Amazon and thousands of other retailers around the world.
• You don’t need to manage warehousing, shipping, or print runs—books are printed, bound, and shipped to order.
• You can test the market or build an audience without a large upfront investment.
• You control your publishing timeline, list price, and book metadata.
• You receive royalties directly from distributors—there’s no traditional publisher taking a cut.
• You can update your files or metadata at any time, even after publication.

Restrictions of Print-on-Demand

While POD can meet the printing and distribution needs of most authors—even children’s book authors—it isn’t always the perfect solution. Potential limitations include:

• POD paperback books are perfect-bound, which will not stand up to frequent rough handling as well as books with sewn-in pages.
• There may be slight color or saturation variance between printers.
• Dust jackets and large landscape formats are not available across all platforms.
• Page options are limited (you cannot include a section of glossy color photo pages in an otherwise black-and-white book, for example; no cutouts, rounded corners, end papers, or board books).
• Very short full-color children’s books (under 24 pages for KDP, under 18 for IngramSpark) are not available.
• Spine text cannot be printed on short books (KDP requires over 79 pages; IngramSpark requires 48 pages for paperback and 18 for hardcover).

A slight difference in tone between the two top distributors.

If your project requires more flexibility, POD isn’t for your project. But for many projects, even with these real and potential limitations, using print-on-demand to self-publish a children’s book is a low-risk way to launch your children’s book author career and a fulfilling experience for many.

Pro tip: If you’re looking for dual-track distribution, which we recommend, shoot for a minimum of 24 pages. (If this sounds too long for your project, don’t worry—this means total pages, not pages of actual story. Consider a copyright page, a dedication, an author bio, and potentially blank pages and even extra pages of artwork, and your story could be much shorter.)

Pro tip: While POD pages are glued to the cover and can be printed at any page count within the available range, offset printing typically requires a page count of multiples of 8. If there’s a chance you’ll want to use offset printing sometime in your future, consider this now.

A Note on Ebooks

For most books, it makes sense to offer an ebook alongside the paperback version: They’re immediate, accessible, and preferred by many readers. But what about for children’s books?

When it comes to the question of whether or not to release an ebook of your POD children’s book, there’s no right answer—it depends on your goals. On the one hand, recent studies show that parents and children have better and more frequent interactions reading print books over ebooks; children’s ebooks just aren’t as desirable as their print counterparts. Indeed, post-pandemic trends show a return to print formats.

On the other hand, since most of the expense and heavy lifting has already been taken care of, the cost to add an ebook—even a children’s book—is relatively low. And if you’re not planning on a hardcover edition, an ebook can offer a second price point for potential buyers and help reinforce the paperback as the “premium” format.

For many authors, whether to produce an ebook is a personal decision. If you decide to release your ebook as a children’s book, here are a few points to consider:

• Children’s ebooks (and any other image-based book with a full bleed) should be fixed format, meaning pagination is retained exactly (rather than reflowable, meaning that readers can adjust text size and margins to fit their e-reader)
• While ebooks do not have the production cost of print books, there may be file delivery costs depending on your royalty structure
• Fixed-layout ebooks uploaded to KDP should be KPF files, not the typical EPUB

Working with an Illustrator (or Doing It Yourself)

Whether you’re hiring a professional illustrator, collaborating with a friend or family member, or illustrating the book yourself, you need to understand the technical requirements for POD artwork.

Illustration Methods and Specs

• Digital art is easier to control for color and layout
• Watercolor, ink, and other hand-drawn art must be scanned at high resolution
• Color profile: CMYK, not RGB
  • Remember, black-and-white is also an option!
• 300 ppi resolution
• Artwork sized at 100% of final page size
• Flattened image files (no layers)
• Consistent bleed and margin setup (0.125″ bleed; 0.5″ safe zone)

Pro tip: Knowing where you’re going to distribute your book helps your illustrator and book designer know which specs to follow. If you’re publishing to KDP and IngramSpark, share that plan with your contractors so they can help you avoid having to troubleshoot issues later.

Tips for a Successful Collaboration

The key to a successful collaboration with your illustrator is good communication. 

• Finish your book first. It’s tempting to continue tweaking and revising, but once you start working with an illustrator, you need to stop. As Mary Kole, children’s book editor and author, notes, “You should only consider hiring an illustrator after revisions are complete.”
• Choose your illustrator carefully. Illustrations are a huge factor in bringing your vision to life, but even a highly skilled artist in one genre may not have experience creating work that connects with young readers or fits your book’s tone. Consider using a professional illustrator with children’s book experience. 
• Make sure you understand the illustrator’s process. How many samples will you be shown? How many revisions are included? At what stage? Misunderstandings about scope or cost can tank a working relationship and sour what should be a fulfilling publishing experience.
• Storyboard your ideas. You don’t have to be an artist to sketch a page-by-page plan for how your book will look. It can be a rough digital mockup or stick figures a child would laugh at. But thinking through your ideas for the artwork, text placement, and pagination will give your illustrator a framework to add their own. (Bonus: Envisioning your book as you’re writing it will help you better understand your young readers’ journey.)

Pro Tip: Know your trim size and formats before approaching an illustrator. They need to know exactly what size canvas they’re working with—and whether they have dust jacket flaps to consider—and you don’t want to ask (and pay) for artwork in a trim size that isn’t available with your chosen distributor.

Print Costs and Pricing: Planning for Affordability

While premium color printing is a viable option for producing beautiful children’s books, it does cost more to print than black-and-white interiors, and that print cost will affect your minimum list price.

We know it isn’t fun to think about, but its crucial that you understand how the size, shape, and format of your book affects the cost to you—and how that affects the cost to your readers.

POD print costs are based on these factors:

• Page count
• Page thickness
• Trim size (books over 6.12” wide or 9” tall are considered “large” and priced differently than “regular” trim sizes)
• Format (paperback always costs less to produce than a hardcover)
• Ink type (we recommend “premium color” for most types of children’s book illustrations)

Before getting started on your artwork, use KDP’s Printing Costs and Royalty Calculator and IngramSpark’s Publisher Compensation Calculator to preview your expected print cost and royalty margins for the list price you’re considering.

Color interior at 8.5” x 8.5” interior priced at $9.99 on KDP. The author makes an estimated $2.39 from Amazon sales.

Color interior at 8.5” x 8.5” interior priced at $9.99 on IngramSpark. The author makes an estimated $2.28 (at a 40% wholesale discount) from IngramSpark.

Warning: You may find that you’re not able to price your book as low as you’d like—or that your royalties are too low at your desired list price. Try adjusting your trim size to bring the numbers back in line. If you can’t get these calculators to work for you, it might be time to consider offset printing.

Pro Tip: IngramSpark requires you to set a wholesale discount of 40–55%. Unless your marketing plan includes trying to get your book into bookstores, there’s nothing wrong with setting a 40% discount to maximize your royalties per sale.

Dual-Track Distribution: Using KDP and IngramSpark Together

There are many options for distributing your print-on-demand children’s book, but at the end of the day, the KDP and IngramSpark are the two top distributors for high-quality POD books. We believe KDP is best for paperbacks, Amazon sales optimization, and speed, while IngramSpark is best for hardcovers, bookstore/library distribution, and special editions. 

At Spoonbridge Press, we recommend using both KDP and IngramSpark together for a “best of both worlds” approach:

KDP for Paperback and Ebook:

• Maximize Amazon discoverability with KDP keywords and categories
• Get higher royalties per sale compared to other distributors
• Easily update book info, files, and author page

Note: KDP has historically provided higher royalties because it distributes directly to Amazon, while IngramSpark’s publisher compensation was lower due to wholesale discounts and additional retailer fees. However, that gap closes somewhat with books using premium color. Always check current royalty calculators for the most up-to-date information specific to your book.

IngramSpark for Paperback, Ebook, and Hardcover:

• Distribute to schools, libraries, and bookstores (called “going wide”)
• Distribute a hardcover version with a dust jacket that appears on Amazon (where it with appear alongside the print book)
• Create a specially designed hardcover edition for libraries, classrooms, or family 

For most authors, using both platforms gives you the flexibility, reach, and format variety you need.

Pro tip: If you’re planning to distribute your book through multiple platforms, make sure you purchase your own ISBN. Using the free version through either platform will limit your distribution options or cause multiple version of your title to appear on Amazon. 

You Don’t Have to Do It Alone

Self-publishing a children’s book with POD doesn’t have to mean doing everything yourself. At Spoonbridge Press, we help authors turn their stories into professional-quality books—ready for Amazon, bookstores, loved ones, and more.

If you’d like to talk about your project with a publishing professional, schedule a free author consultation with Spoonbridge Press. Whether you’re still writing, looking for an illustrator, or preparing files for print, we’re here to help at every stage of your journey.