Tim Castleman www.kdkidsbooks.com
What You Need To Get Started
www.kdkidsplots.com 10 New Plots put together monthly by an award winning children’s author for you to use
As A Bonus I’m including 5 Children’s Illustration Plots for you to use – they come complete with illustration instructions as well
KD Kids Plots Use them as inspiration for your stories or change them up and have your outsourcer write them for you
Making Them Your Own Simple Tweaks Character Names Location Of The Story Timeframe Of The Story
Making Them Your Own Advanced Tweaks Add / Subtract A Character Add A Plot Twist Change The Life Lesson “And Then …” Work Backwards Combine Different Elements
If You Want To Do It Yourself If you don’t want to buy premade plots, then:
1. Think of stories you enjoyed as a child 2. Look at research to see what’s already selling 3. Read children’s books for inspiration, story ideas
Doing The Research Use the spreadsheet provided to look at what is currently selling and model your story after them
Live Research Example
Hire The Writer I’m changing my hiring strategy going forward …
The Old Way Hire the cheapest writer possible to do the work as quickly as possible When possible hire American writers
The New Way Hire experienced subject writers only US writers preferred UNLESS they match the target profile in another way
Hiring Template
Hiring Template
Live Hiring Example
Who We Used
Who We Used
Hiring Properly To prevent issues & delays, we typically hire two writers simultaneously to work on different stories
Keeping In Touch We typically check in with our writers once a week (at least) to ensure projects continue to go smoothly
Paying Them Because the amount is so small, we typically pay them once the job is done and passes Copyscape Pro
Time To Edit
Suggested Editor
If You Want To Do It Yourself If you don’t want to go with an editor, be sure to at least: 1. Print and edit the story 2. Read the story out loud 3. Share the story with a child if possible
Once The Writer Is Hired It’s time to hire an illustrator and format and upload the book
Hiring An Illustrator The only place we hired our illustrators from was Odesk.com It’s free to post, you get to see samples of their work and interview them
Why I Don’t Use Fiverr For This
Why I Don’t Use Fiverr For This
Our Job Description
Who We Used For Illustrations
Who We Used For Illustrations
Who We Used For Illustrations
Our Process See Samples Prior To Hiring Ask For A Single Image Require Constant Communication & Delivery
See Samples Prior To Hiring Look at their previous work to determine if their style matches how you want the book to look Does it match the age range of readers as well?
Hire For A Single Image We ask them initially to do a single image so we can see the quality of their work, communication, and turn around time We let them know if we like what we see, we’ll hire them for the rest of the book
Provide Feedback On Their Work
One Other Important Thing When having illustrations made for your Kindle book, remember most people will be viewing it on a tablet so having a single image cover two pages is not recommended
Require Constant Communication We hear from each of our designers daily or every 48 hours They are required to turn in at least a drawing per day for the current project
Setting Your Budget Have both a minimum and maximum amount of money you’re willing to spend Only increase your budget if you get zero responses or poor candidates applying
So Far, That Hasn’t Been An Issue
Things To Consider Complexity Of Design & Characters Timeframe You Need It In Final Needs (jpg vs PSD)
Negotiating Price If you have several qualified candidates, use that to your advantage to try and secure a lower price per image or overall cost
Remember: The Worst They Can Say Is No
Pay & Management We pay “milestone” payments each time 5 drawings are submitted and accepted by the author
They are required to submit illustrations daily or at least every 48 hours
Bonuses Sometimes, we offer a $25 bonus if they finish the work by the deadline (rush jobs usually) In some circumstances, we offer to put their name as an illustrator in the book (it’s at your discretion) – negotiation tool
Timeline Expectations Plan for a single image per day or 5 images delivered per week 25 images = 5 weeks Usually they finish on or ahead of time
Formatting Your Book
Formatting For Createspace
Questions?
Can You Help Me? I have a children’s story already written that I don’t plan on producing because of my other commitments As a result I’d love to give it to one of you for free ….
Here’s What I’d Like You To Do Please email me at
[email protected] Provide me with your honest opinion & feedback about tonight’s training. I’ll enter everyone into a drawing and email the winner by this Friday.