If you have a mac and want to create a children’s picture book (or any other picture book for that matter), Steve Sagovac has posted some step by step directions.

I create my pictures books using InDesign, which, unfortunately, is not a program you can figure out by trial and error. There are some things in InDesign that are similar to photoshop, because they are both adobe products, but there is a lot of functionality of the program that you’d need to take a class to learn. Check with your local technical college or online for classes if you’re interested in learning. Or hire someone to do it for you. It’s a service I provide and so do a lot of other illustrators or graphic designers.

Using ibooks or Indesign both give you a pdf that you download to Amazon. It works for both programs.

I think Kindle also has a way to create a picture ebook on their site – a relatively new service – but I don’t know how to use that or how well it works for those who have. I know some people have had with the upload of the file – the whole book not uploading – but I don’t know much more than that. If you have used the Amazon process for creating a picture book, please feel free to share how it worked (or didn’t work) for you.

Illustrated books need a fixed layout for ebooks vs a flowing laying for books with primarily text. The program Jutoh is supposed to be able to do fixed layout ebooks, but again, I have never tried it because I have InDesign. Jutoh is great for creating mobi and epub files of your ebook, though. That’s a service I provide for clients.

Thanks Steve for your help with ibooks author!

How to use Kindle Kids Book Creator – Tutorial.

 From Christine Keleny of CKBooks Publishing