Five hundred words that a four-year-old will demand every night for a year, and an adult can bear reading that many times. Almost nothing else in publishing is judged that strictly.
A children's book is not a short story with illustrations added afterwards. The text is written knowing where the page turns will fall and what the pictures will carry, so that words and images do different jobs rather than repeating each other.
That works from either direction. Authors come to the house with a story and need an illustrator; illustrators come with artwork and need the words. Either way the writing is done with the visual sequence in mind, and the illustrator is briefed from the manuscript rather than handed it.
Five stages, and you can take any of them on their own. Plenty of authors arrive with the story finished and need only the last three.
- 01
Children's book writing
An outline, characters worth returning to, plotlines that move, and educational elements woven in rather than bolted on, developed with you from your idea or from a blank page.
- 02
Children's book editing
Proofreading and developmental editing, plus the thing specific to this form: checking that the language and vocabulary genuinely suit the age band you are writing for.
- 03
Illustration and design
Original artwork in the style your book needs, developed in conversation with the text. Multiple illustration styles are available, and you see them before one is chosen.
- 04
Publishing
Formatting and layout for print and digital, cover design, ISBN and copyright registration, print-on-demand, and reliable printers who can handle a full-colour picture book.
- 05
Marketing
Targeted online and social advertising, promotional material, outreach to bloggers and reviewers in the category, school and library programmes, and book fairs and festivals.
Four things that distinguish a real children's book from a short story with drawings.
- 01
Written to the age
A picture book, an early reader and a middle-grade novel are separate crafts with separate vocabularies and separate structures. The writer is matched to the band rather than the subject.
- 02
You stay in it
Authors are involved throughout. Your vision is what is being executed, with professional storytelling technique applied to it rather than in place of it.
- 03
Words and pictures integrated
The story and the illustrations are developed together so that they work as one object. A book where the picture simply shows what the sentence already said has wasted half its pages.
- 04
One place for the whole book
Writing, editing, illustration, formatting and cover under one roof, which in an illustrated book matters more than usual, the handoffs between those disciplines are where children's books usually go wrong.
Eight steps, and the illustrations join earlier than most authors expect.
Initial consultation
A conversation about your vision, your story ideas, and (critically) exactly who the book is for. A three-year-old and a seven-year-old are not the same reader.
Outline and structure
A detailed outline built for pace, with the page turns planned. In an illustrated book the structure is partly a physical thing.
Story development
Storyline, characters and themes developed with you, until the book has something to say as well as something to show.
Writing
The manuscript written with close attention to language, style and readability at the target age. Read aloud as it goes, because that is how it will be consumed.
Review and revision
The manuscript reviewed and revised for clarity and coherence before the artwork begins, changing text is cheap, changing finished illustrations is not.
Illustrations
The illustrator works from the manuscript and with you, building visuals that complete the story rather than restate it.
Editing and proofreading
A professional pass for grammar, readability and consistency across the whole book, text and captions together.
Formatting and finalisation
Text and artwork laid out for print and digital, with the typography and design decisions a full-colour children's book requires.
A few of the people the house has worked with, in their own words.
I had eleven years of notes and no book. What I got back read like me on a good day, my turns of phrase, my arguments, and none of the padding I would have added myself. The first chapter arrived and I stopped worrying.
Marianne ElleryIndependent author The structural edit was not comfortable reading. It told me the second half started in the wrong place, which I had suspected for a year and nobody had said out loud. Moving three chapters fixed a problem I had been trying to solve with better sentences.
Devon AlukoIndependent author What sold me was being told I did not need half of what I had asked for. I came in wanting the full package and left with a cover, a proofread and an honest explanation of why the rest would not have helped yet.
Priya RaghunathanIndependent author Three cover directions, all of them plausible, none of them the thing I had described. The one I picked worked at the size that actually matters, I could recognise it in a list of forty other books, which is more than I can say for my first attempt.
Tobias HearnIndependent author I own the book outright and that was written down before I paid anything. After two years of being quoted percentages by people who would not put them in writing, that was the whole reason I stayed.
Cecile MarchandIndependent author The audiobook took longer than I expected and they told me why each time rather than going quiet. The narrator they cast got my grandmother's accent right, which I had assumed would be the thing I had to let go of.
Nathan BoakyeIndependent author
What authors ask before writing for young readers.
A book written and designed for young readers, anywhere from infants to pre-teens, with age-appropriate content, illustration and storytelling built for that stage of development. It spans a very wide range, picture books, early readers, chapter books and young adult novels are all under the heading and have almost nothing in common technically.
By knowing the audience closely. Balancing imagination, adventure and experiences a child can recognise from their own life, at a length and pace that matches their attention. The test is not whether an adult finds it charming: it is whether a child asks for it again.
Characters who are relatable and varied, and who encourage empathy rather than simply model good behaviour. Their journey carries the lesson instead of announcing it. Vivid description, real dialogue and age-appropriate language are what let a young reader identify with them.
Yes, and it is essential rather than optional. Simple repetitive language for the youngest readers; a wider vocabulary and more complex structure for middle-grade and young adult. Tell us the age band you are writing for and the writing is built to it from the first sentence.
By putting it in the story rather than on top of it. Kindness, resilience and empathy come through the narrative, the characters and what happens to them, using humour and situations a child recognises. A lesson a child can feel being delivered is a lesson they stop listening to.
Closely, and from the outline rather than the finished text where possible. Key scenes and characters are discussed, and detailed descriptions guide the artistic direction without dictating it. Open communication between the two is what produces a book where the words and the pictures are doing different work.
You do, completely. The author holds 100% of the rights to their work, in every format, for its whole life. The house is paid for the work it does, not with a share of the book. That is the arrangement the house reopened in 2008 to offer, and it does not change with the tier, the price or the point at which you come to us.
Yes. Your name is on the cover and in the record. Everyone who works on the book (writer, editor, designer) works on your book, and none of them is credited on it unless you ask for them to be.
Yes. Your story is yours, and nothing about the project leaves the house. We will sign your NDA before you send anything, or supply ours if you would rather use one.
No. Six disciplines are available and you take the ones you need. Authors arrive here at every stage (with an idea, a half-draft, or a finished manuscript that only needs a cover and a shelf) and the work starts where you actually are.
It depends on the work: length, how much research is involved, how much of the book already exists, and which disciplines you need. There is no list price for a book, and any firm who gives you one before reading your material is quoting something other than your book. Tell us where you are and we will price the actual job.
Move the marker. You do not need to know what to call it: you only need to know where you are.
Tell us where your manuscript is, where you want it to go, and we'll show you what's possible.