Is it possible to print a a chldren's book 4.25 x 5.5 color children's book by yourself?
I noticed that McDonalds is giving small children's books away with their happy meals. Their books are 4.5 x 5.5, but I'm wondering why a person couldn't print a children's book on 8.5 x 11 glossy paper laid out in 4 quarters front and back, with a heavier glossy cover. My original book published by bookbaby cost $6.00/ea for a 6 x 9 (paperback cover) 24 colored pages. With retail stores needing 50% wholesale price, it means if I sell them my book for $7 (making a dollar at the most), they in turn have to sell it for $14 (soft cover!) I'm thinking a "small" book like McD might be an answer.
I would suggest you look into create space, while the size of the book may not be available,You might check out pricing there. You are looking to do a color book, and for paperback that is expensive, but it is worth checking out.
Gene Poschman
Thanks Gene. I've known about createspace for a while, but keep forgetting to go there! Thanks for suggesting that. I'll buzz over and see if they offer lower prices than I've paid. Cheers, Billie
If you want to print it yourself, first you need to lay it out in book form. The best way to do this is to use a desk top publishing application and you don't need to go to the hyper expensive like Quark. For Windows, Page Plus will do the job, for Mac, iStudio Publisher, both sub £$100. The main requirement is that they output PDF and its not as difficult to do as you might think. The key is that everything is done in boxes, the same as using word or picture boxes in word but with greater capability.
Next, get yourself a good colour laser printer. It doesn't have to be expensive but consider per page print costs. Here's the rub. You'll get good colour on plain paper but some glossy papers can be problematic. I can go into the technical details but it would take time. An alternative would be an inkjet type printer that uses solid ink but even here, a good colour laser, on good quality 100 gsm plain paper, will give better output.
Then its a matter of binding and depending on the number of pages, you could get away with using a long arm stapler. Going up a stage, a low cost desk top heat binder will do.
Then you'll need to trim, which requires a guillotine. Or you could go to your local printer, print shop, as I have done in the past, and ask them to trim to size. Expect a small charge but in short, the answer is that you can do it yourself and if you invest what you might pay someone to produce one title in the tools you need and the time it takes to learn how, you can, in the future, produce as many books and as many titles as you want, all by yourself.
PS. I'm working on a book on just how to do it all.
Radical Rog, Very helpful, especially since you have experience! I should try to figure out the cost per page of printing at home. I have used Microsoft Publisher. I didn't realize a person could get a heat binder! Looking forward to your book!!!!
I recommend checking out CreateSpace.com if you're interested in independently publishing your book.
Thanks, Ana. I did have it published with Bookbaby. I signed into CreateSpace last night to see if it would be cheaper. The cost of printing is my biggest obstacle for the second printing since I have few sales. Thanks for your suggestion!
You could try using MS Publisher to convert your existing book into 4.25 x 5.5 format. From there, you could try the standard publishing sites the others suggested.
Thanks chefmancave, that's an idea. I was thinking about that. I'll check out some of these ideas. Cheers, Billie
by altius 14 years ago
I have written a children's book. How do i go about getting it published?
by Billie Kelpin 11 years ago
My question was removed because it apparently seemed as if it wouldn't generate a hub, but I'd LOVE someone to write an article about the whole process. So, here's the thing. I'm going to kickstarter to ask for funding to get my children's ebook in print. The print-on-demand...
by Lilly May Rose 10 years ago
"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go." - Dr Seuss (Oh, The Places You'll Go!) What does this quote say to you?...
by Lisa 13 years ago
What is your favorite children's book?
by Kim Lam 13 years ago
Do you have suggestions for someone who wants to write a children's book?How does one begin to write a children's book? Tips to get it published?
by Billie Kelpin 10 years ago
I was thinking about doing this, but my husband said there is no need because we have Amazon. Here's my idea: I thought of offering anyone who has self-published a children's book a free listing on my website (it deals with language... heaven and hubpages forbid I should actually give...
Copyright © 2025 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
Copyright © 2025 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective owners.
As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy
Show DetailsNecessary | |
---|---|
HubPages Device ID | This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. |
Login | This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service. |
Google Recaptcha | This is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy) |
Akismet | This is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Google Analytics | This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Traffic Pixel | This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. |
Amazon Web Services | This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy) |
Cloudflare | This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Hosted Libraries | Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy) |
Features | |
---|---|
Google Custom Search | This is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Maps | Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Charts | This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy) |
Google AdSense Host API | This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Google YouTube | Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Vimeo | Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Paypal | This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Login | You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Maven | This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy) |
Marketing | |
---|---|
Google AdSense | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Google DoubleClick | Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Index Exchange | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Sovrn | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Ads | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Unified Ad Marketplace | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
AppNexus | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Openx | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Rubicon Project | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
TripleLift | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Say Media | We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy) |
Remarketing Pixels | We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites. |
Conversion Tracking Pixels | We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service. |
Statistics | |
---|---|
Author Google Analytics | This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy) |
Comscore | ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Tracking Pixel | Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy) |
Clicksco | This is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy) |