Grand Kidz

A children's book is a made object.

Words are perhaps a third of it. The rest is pictures, page turns, paper and trim — and that is where a good story usually gets let down.

What we handle

The parts that
are easy to get wrong.

  • Illustration

    Matched to the story rather than to a house style, and briefed page by page. You approve character designs before a single spread is finished.

  • The page turn

    A picture book is read aloud, and the turn is the punchline. Text is broken to the spread it belongs on, not poured in and hyphenated.

  • Print specification

    Trim size, board or paper, matt or gloss, and the bleed that stops a full-page illustration from being trimmed into. Decided deliberately for the book you have.

  • Reading age

    Vocabulary, sentence length and word count checked against the age the book is actually for — which is not always the age it was written for.

The Grand Kidz
shelf.

Every one of these is in print and on sale. Open one to read the description from the back of the book.

The imprint

Grand Kidz has
a home of its own.

Children's books are a separate imprint here, not a category tab. Different shelf, different design language, different conversations.

How it goes

From story
to printed book.

  1. 01

    You send the story

    The full text — picture books are short, so send all of it — and a note on the age you are writing for.

  2. 02

    We read it

    A publisher reads it and calls you. Illustration is the biggest single cost in a children's book, so we are straight with you about whether the story carries it.

  3. 03

    Illustration is briefed

    Characters first, then the spreads. Nothing is finished until you have approved how everybody looks.

  4. 04

    It is laid out and proofed

    Text set to the spreads, a printed proof where the specification warrants one.

  5. 05

    It goes out

    ISBN registered, listed with Amazon and distributed into the trade, which is how a school or a library orders copies.

What to know
before you commit.

Illustration is what separates a children's book from a manuscript, and it is the thing that cannot be added cheaply afterwards. Roughly speaking, a 32-page picture book needs somewhere between twelve and fifteen finished spreads plus a cover, and each one is a piece of commissioned artwork. Any quote that does not tell you how many illustrations it includes is not a quote.

Who owns the pictures

Ask this of anybody. In our agreements the copyright in the text stays with you and the licence to the finished artwork is yours for the book — you are not renting your own pages back. If a publisher cannot answer this in one sentence, that is your answer.

Word count

A picture book for three-to-six-year-olds typically runs 400 to 800 words. A first chapter book for six-to-nine runs 5,000 to 10,000. Longer than that is not a fault, but it changes the format, the spec and the cost — so it is worth knowing which book you have written before anybody prices it.

Where children's books actually sell

Schools, libraries, independents and gifts, far more than through search on a retail site. That is why trade distribution matters more here than in almost any other category: it is the mechanism by which somebody who cannot buy from you can still order your book.

What our authors say

See all our reviews on Trustpilot

Children's book
questions.

No — most of our children's authors do not illustrate. We commission the illustration and you approve it at every stage, starting with the characters.

Send us the story.

Picture books are short. Send the whole thing and a publisher will read it and call you.

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