Category: Writing Guides

Here’s how to write a children’s book, step by step, with the best children’s book writing tips from Monty author Claire Owers and me. You’ll learn how to write, edit and publish a children’s book, with the right word count for a picture book or chapter book and the right age band for your reader. Publishing your own children’s book can cost nothing upfront, because Amazon KDP lets you publish a paperback and an ebook for free. These steps work for any kids book, whether you’re writing children’s stories for your family or for bookshops.

My primary 5 teacher wrote in my report card that I had a talent for creative writing. After my first book came out, she cooked me dinner, brought out albums of photos I’d never seen, and showed me her copy. It was homework, handed in 25 years late.

Children’s books stay with people that long, so they’re worth getting right. The short version of how to write a children’s book takes five moves. Choose your reader’s age, learn the word count for that age, give one character one problem worth caring about, and cut every word the pictures can carry. Then pick your route to publication.

If you’ve got a bedtime story a child keeps asking for, and no idea how it becomes a book with a cover, an ISBN, a barcode and a price, this guide is for you. Most of my books are for adults, so I wrote it with someone who has done this four times. Claire is a children’s author from Aberdeenshire who writes the Monty series of chapter books for five- to nine-year-olds, starring her family’s chocolate Labrador and his weakness for cheese. She self-published all four, and her advice runs through every step below.

The five golden rules for writing a children’s book

• Write for one age band and keep to its word count, which is 500 to 600 words for your average picture book.
• Give one main character one problem, and let them fail before they win.
• Leave room for the pictures by cutting anything an illustrator can show.
• Read every draft aloud, then test it on children who will give you honest feedback.
• Send agents the text only, and if you self-publish, budget for an illustrator and a cover designer.

BOOKMARK this step-by-step guide on how to write a children’s books in 20 easy steps. Then use this list to create your own amazing story books for kids!

Where do I start when learning how to write a children’s book?

The best place to start learning how to write a children’s book is by reading around 50 recent books for the age group you want to write for. Read them, then pick one format. The usual choices are board book, picture book, early reader, chapter book and middle grade. That choice sets your word count and who you pitch to.

Monty by the numbers, one self-published children’s series

Claire published the first three Monty books in eight months, between September 2020 and April 2021. Here’s the series:

• Monty: A Nose for Trouble came out in September 2020. Monty trashes the school fair, and Megan and her sister Nicole set out to cure his food obsession and his weakness for cheese. goodreads
• Monty: A Nose for Treasure followed in November 2020, at 150 pages in paperback. It’s an island adventure, with Monty’s sister Daisy along for the ride. amazon
• Monty, A Nose for Truffles came out in April 2021, at 184 pages. A camping holiday goes wrong when Soufflé the pig is pig-napped. amazon
• Monty, Double Trouble brings in a new fur-sister, Dot, with a habit of nipping tails. amazon

Each book runs around 150 to 200 words.

A series also does work a single book can’t, because a child who finishes book one asks for book two. For anyone working out how to write children’s books that sell, that’s the strongest argument for planning a series.

Stage 1. Planning how to write a children’s book

Step 1. Read 50 recent children’s books in your age band

Reading 50 children’s books published in the last five years, all for the age you want to write for, is the quickest way to learn how to write a children’s book for today’s readers. Classics show you what lasts. Recent books show you what agents, publishers and parents choose now, including how short picture books have become. Writer’s Digest goes further and suggests reading at least 100 picture books.

Borrow them from the library or sit in the children’s section of a bookshop. For each book, note the age on the back, the word count(counting the words in a picture book takes about five minutes), where the problem first appears, and the line or lesson a child would repeat in the playground.

Watch for the page a child turns back to. As a boy in Wick, I read a big full-colour book called Ancient Egypt until it fell apart, and the chapter that I remember most was the one on embalming. Children might reread a bit an adult would skip. A book with one of those gets read until the spine gives out.

If you’re new to writing at any length, my guide to how to write a book covers the habits that will help you.

Step 2. Choose your age band and children’s book word count

Every format has its own children’s book word count, and there are six to choose from. Most new writers start with picture books or chapter books. Picture books should aim for 500 to 600 words and stay under 1,000, and chapter books run from 4,000 to 15,000 words. Choose the format first, because it sets your page count and who you pitch to.

Format and reader age	Typical length
Board book, ages 0–3	50 to 100 words in total, about 10 card pages
Picture book, ages 3–7	500 to 600 words, never over 1,000, 32 pages
Early reader, ages 5–7	Up to about 1,500 words
Chapter book, ages 6–9	4,000 to 15,000 words, about 60 to 150 pages
Middle grade, ages 8–12	30,000 to 60,000 words
Young adult, ages 12 and up	50,000 to 80,000 words

These ranges were checked against several sources. Writer’s Digest (via kdpbook.io) and Mary Kole cover picture and chapter books. Write for Kids gives middle grade as about 30,000 to 60,000 words. UK Publishing House puts board books as low as 50 to 100 words and young adult novels at 50,000 to 80,000. Usborne’s That’s not my bus… is a typical 10-page board book. Mary Kole sets a lower ceiling for picture books aimed at the youngest readers, at 400 words.

My father gave me The Hobbit far too young, and I struggled through it. It’s still my desert island book. Children will forgive a book that’s too hard if the story is strong enough, but they shouldn’t have to, and the age band on your cover is a promise to the adult buying it.

Your kids book listing will carry an age range (Claire’s Monty books say 5 to 9), so choose the narrowest honest one. A book bought for the wrong age is the one that gets the disappointed review. For adult fiction lengths, see average length of fiction writing.

Step 3. Find a children’s book idea with a twist, and check it isn’t taken

A strong children’s book idea puts one unexpected thing into a situation children already know. In Judith Kerr’s The Tiger Who Came to Tea, a hungry tiger walks into the family kitchen while Sophie and her mummy are having tea. In Claire’s books, a chocolate Labrador with a weakness for cheese leads two sisters into chaos. Search for your premise before you write.

Kerr’s tiger grew out of a trip to the zoo and a lonely afternoon with her daughter, who kept asking her to ‘talk the tiger’ until the story was just as she liked it. If a child keeps requesting one of your bedtime stories, you may already have your idea.

Then check the competition before writing a children’s book on that idea.

1. Search Amazon’s children’s books and your library catalogue for your premise in three or four words.
2. Ask a children’s librarian or bookseller what children ask for that they can’t find.
3. Ask a teacher which books disappear from the class library and never come back.
4. Read the one-star reviews of the closest book. They tell you what readers wanted and didn’t get.

If your idea has already been done, that’s good news, because it means children want it. Change who tells it (the parrot narrates the pirate’s voyage) or who it happens to (the pirate is scared of water). As Claire puts it, ‘Make sure that you have a fresh take or a point of difference. Mixing the familiar with the unexpected can work well.’

Step 4. Write for two readers, the child and the adult who buys the book

Writing a children’s book means writing for two readers. The child listens or reads. An adult chooses the book, pays for it and, with a picture book, reads it aloud, often for the hundredth time. Nielsen’s figures show women bought 59% of children’s and YA books in the UK in 2020, so the first person your book must win over is usually a parent or a teacher.

Adults look for a story they won’t mind reading aloud for the fortieth time, and a joke or two aimed over the child’s head. Matty Long’s Super Happy Magic Forest does both, and readers praised its jokes on every page for children and grown-ups alike.

Parents also buy books that teach something useful, like sharing or being brave, as long as the lesson arrives inside the story. Claire’s warning is worth pinning above your desk. ‘A strong message can be valuable in children’s storytelling, but don’t be tempted to talk down to children. A subtle message should feel organic in the story and will resonate more than a lecture.’

Step 5. Build a children’s book character kids want to be friends with

A strong children’s book character has one clear want, one visible quirk and an age close to the reader’s, or slightly older. Write those down before you draft, along with what scares them and what makes them laugh, and you’ll know how they behave on every page.

Claire’s test is a simple one. ‘I find that children identify well with a main character that is around the same age as them, or slightly older. If your reader wants to be friends with your main character then you’re on the right track!’

Answer these before you write a line.

1. What’s their name and age?
2. What do they want more than anything in this book?
3. Which three words describe them?
4. What’s their catchphrase or habit?
5. What scares them, and what makes them laugh?
6. Who do they clash with?
7. Do they have a pet, a hobby or a secret?
8. What will a child remember about them a week later?

My PhD studied the connections between perception, emotion and behaviour, and I now use the CBT five areas model to build characters. It splits any moment into five parts. Children’s characters show all five on the surface, which makes them easy for young readers to follow. Here’s Isla, seven, on her first day at a new school.

• Situation. The teacher asks her to stand up and say her name.
• Thought. ‘Everyone will laugh at my voice.’
• Emotion. Fear.
• Physical sensation. Hot cheeks and a wobbly tummy.
• Behaviour. She whispers her name to her shoes.

Change one area and you’ve got a story. If Isla thinks ‘My dog would do this better’, her behaviour changes, and so does the book. For physical description, my guide to how to describe people has the techniques. In a picture book, leave most of it to the illustrator.

Stage 2. Writing a Children’s Book

Step 6. Give your character a problem, and let them fail first

Writing children’s stories means giving your main character one problem to solve, with each attempt harder than the last. Bring the problem in on the first page or two, let the character fail at least twice, and make sure the child solves it in the end, with grown-ups kept to the edges.

Claire doesn’t wait long. ‘I try to introduce the key problem as early as possible, usually on the first page or two, kids don’t tend to like a slow burner!’

Think of it as The Crystal Maze, with every room harder than the last and the crystal waiting in the final one. Say your hero is on a treasure hunt. They dig up a boot, then a bottle cap. Rain turns the garden to mud. Then they’re called in for tea just as the spade hits a box.

Check your draft against these four questions.

1. Does the character face several obstacles, rather than one?
2. Does the reader know why solving it matters to this character?
3. Does each attempt cost them more than the last?
4. Does the character, rather than an adult, make the final move?

Step 7. Open fast, or open in a voice

Open a picture book on the problem or the action, because young readers decide fast and the word count leaves no room for backstory. A chapter book can open in a voice so distinctive that the reader wants more of it, as long as the problem arrives by the end of chapter one.

Claire opens fast. ‘You want to hook your reader from the first sentence. In my experience, kids are less likely than adults to stick with a book that doesn’t grab them early on. An action scene can be a great place to start.’

When I was Editor-in-Chief of an independent publishing house, reading over 100 submissions a year, the openings I liked best began in a voice that could only belong to that narrator, often before anything had happened at all.

So here’s my pick. For picture books, follow Claire and start with action. For chapter books, start with voice, and get the trouble moving before chapter two.

Step 8. Choose your point of view, tense and vocabulary

Most picture books use third person and past tense, because both are easy to read aloud. Present tense suits stories that happen as you read them, like Michael Rosen’s We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. Pick one point of view and one tense, keep them for the whole book, and match your vocabulary to the reader’s age.

Claire suggests trying more than one. ‘Point of view and tense are a matter of personal preference, and different styles will work better with different stories. Try writing your opening lines a few times in different styles, and see which feels best, just make sure to stick to the same style throughout the story.’

First person works well in chapter books, where a funny narrator can carry a whole chapter on attitude alone.

For early readers and chapter books, borrow a test teachers use. The five finger rule, which Scholastic explains for parents, has a child read a page and hold up a finger for every word they can’t read or say. Two or three fingers means the book is about right. Run it on your draft with a child in your age band.

Step 9. Decide whether your children’s book should rhyme

Only rhyme if you have the time. Rhyme works when the rhythm holds in every line, whoever reads it and at whatever speed, and a forced rhyme is one of the quickest ways to lose an editor. Mary Kole warns that rhyming picture books are a tough market and that many agents and publishers aren’t looking for them, so a strong story in prose has the better chance of getting published.

Hand your rhyming draft to a friend who has never seen it and ask them to read it aloud. Mark every place they stumble. If they stumble more than once, the metre needs work, or the story wants to be prose.

For the masters, flick through any Dr Seuss book or Julia Donaldson’s The Gruffalo. The stories would still work without the rhyme, so that’s the test.

Step 10. Use repetition and patterns

Repetition lets young children guess what comes next, and guessing right is half the fun. Usborne’s That’s not my… board books, written by Fiona Watt and illustrated by Rachel Wells, have run since 1999, repeating their title line on every page until the last one, where the right puppy, bus or unicorn finally turns up.

The wolf in The Three Little Pigs huffs and puffs at each house for the same reason. The pattern sets up the surprise.

Claire uses it too. ‘Most picture books for younger children will involve repetition of some kind, it really helps them to connect with the story and anticipate what’s coming next.’

In chapter books, repetition becomes the running joke. Monty’s weakness for cheese turns up in every book, which gives a young reader something to look forward to in the next one.

Sound patterns count as well. Pamela Duncan Edwards built Some Smug Slug as an alliterative tale, and Henry Cole hid an S on every page of the pictures.

Stage 3. How to Edit a Children’s Book

Step 11. Write for your children’s book illustrator with page turns, spreads and art notes

A standard picture book has 32 pages, because printers bind pages in groups of eight. After the title and copyright pages, you have about 14 double-page spreads for the story. Split your text into 14 scenes, put each page turn where you want a surprise, and cut anything the pictures will show.

Once the title, copyright and dedication pages take their share, about 28 story pages remain, or roughly 14 spreads. Here’s one common way to lay them out. Publishers move the front matter around, but the shape holds.

Pages	What goes there
1	Half-title or an opening picture
2–3	Title page and copyright
4–5	Spread 1, meet the character and the problem
6–19	Spreads 2 to 8, attempts that fail, each bigger than the last
20–27	Spreads 9 to 12, the worst moment, then the turn
28–31	Spreads 13 and 14, the win and the callback
32	The last joke or a quiet final picture

Make a dummy before you edit. Fold eight sheets of A4 in half, staple them along the fold and number the pages 1 to 32. Write your text on to each spread. Gaps and crowded spreads show up straight away.

Keep art notes for moments when the picture says what the words don’t. If your text reads ‘Nobody had touched the cake’ and the picture should show the dog with icing on his nose, add a one-line note. Otherwise, trust the illustrator.

Give your illustrator something worth drawing. Super Happy Magic Forest sends a unicorn, a gnome, a fairy, a faun and a mushroom on a quest, with jokes and details to pore over on every page. An ordinary setting works too, if something extraordinary walks into it, as Judith Kerr’s tiger proves in a family kitchen.

If you’re submitting to agents, send words only. The publisher chooses the illustrator.

Step 12. Land the ending

End a children’s book soon after the problem is solved, with a win the main character earned. The strongest endings call back to the opening with a repeated line or a returning joke, and they finish within a page or two of the climax.

Claire’s rule for endings leaves room for mischief. ‘Happy endings are important for little ones, but that doesn’t mean that they need to be predictable. As long as all of the story threads reach a satisfying conclusion, then a funny twist at the end can be brilliant and memorable.’

Perhaps your character wanted the biggest present at the party, and comes home happiest with the cardboard box it came in.

Step 13. Choose a title children can say and parents can find

A good children’s book title is short, easy to say aloud and tells a parent what kind of book it is. Keep a working title while you draft, write ten versions at the end, and search each one. If your favourite is already a bestseller, pick another.

Most strong titles fall into one of four types.

• A mystery, like Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden, which promises a secret.
• An instruction, like Mo Willems’ Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, which children long to disobey.
• Alliteration, like Some Smug Slug, which is fun to say aloud.
• The hero plus their trouble, like Claire’s Monty: A Nose for Trouble.

Test your top three on children and adults. The one a child repeats back to you without being asked is usually the winner.

Step 14. Edit your children’s book to word count, then read it aloud

Editing is where you really learn how to write a children’s book, so give it two passes. The first pass is for story, and asks whether every spread or chapter moves the problem forward. The second is for words, and cuts anything the illustration will show and any line you stumble over aloud. Then read the whole thing aloud again, to someone else.

Claire is blunt about the work involved. ‘Don’t underestimate the work involved in writing a children’s book. They demand all of the same elements as a book for grown-ups; a strong hook, a well-considered story arc, an inspiring setting and characters to fall in love with.’

The one time I entered a primary school poetry-reading competition, I was whisked into a hall full of strangers to recite a poem I’d half-memorised. I can’t remember the poem. I remember the terror. Read your draft aloud anyway, ideally to a room. You’ll hear every clunky line before a parent does.

When I taught academic writing, the commonest mistake I saw was leaving work to the last minute. My line was ‘Given enough time, we can accomplish anything.’ A picture book has nowhere for a rushed line to hide, so give the draft a week in a drawer before the second pass. Late homework is allowed here.

Before you move on, check each of these.

• The word count sits inside your format’s range from step 2.
• The problem appears on the first spread or in chapter one.
• Each spread shows a new scene.
• Page turns land on surprises.
• You can read it aloud without stumbling.
• The character, rather than an adult, solves the problem.

Step 15. Test it on children, then hire a children’s book editor

Before you pay for editing, read your draft to children in your age band, through a library or a school, with a parent’s say-so. Watch more than you ask, because a fidget tells you more than ‘I liked it’. Then hire an editor who has worked on your format, and fix the overall story before the sentences.

Some of the best children’s book writing tips come from children, and Claire relies on their honesty. ‘I’m inspired by the energy, creativity and brutal honesty that children have when coming up with story ideas and reading their favourite books!’

Editing comes in layers, in this order.

• Developmental edit. Fixes plot, character, pacing and age fit.
• Line edit. Fixes rhythm and read-aloud flow.
• Copy-edit and proofread. Fixes spelling, grammar, punctuation and consistency, and for picture books comes after the art is placed.

Edit the story first and the commas last. Fixing grammar in a scene you later cut is money down the drain.

Ask any editor which books they’ve worked on in your age band, and for two authors you can contact. Membership of SCBWI, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, tells you less than you’d think about an editor, because SCBWI British Isles welcomes published, self-published and brand-new writers alike. It’s a brilliant place to find a critique group.

Stage 4. How to Publish and Sell a Children’s Book

Step 16. Decide how to publish your children’s book

Traditional publishing pays you an advance and covers the costs, but you usually need an agent and you give up control of the art. Self-publishing gives you control and a bigger share of each sale, but you pay for illustration and editing yourself. My pick is the traditional route for picture books and self-publishing for chapter books like Claire’s.

Colour printing makes publishing your own children’s book costly when it’s a picture book, and hard to price. KDP’s hardcovers also need at least 75 pages, so a 32-page hardcover picture book has to be printed elsewhere. A chapter book is mostly text, prints in black and white, and grows into a series.

Traditional publishing

• The publisher pays for illustration, editing and printing.
• In the UK, you usually need an agent.
• For a picture book, you send the text only.
• A picture book paperback typically pays a 7.5% royalty, split equally when the author and illustrator are different people, so the author gets 3.75%.
• You have little say over the art, but bookshop shelves are far easier to reach.

Self-publishing

• You pay for illustration, editing and the cover.
• You don’t need an agent.
• On KDP, paperbacks pay 60% or 50% of the list price, depending on price, minus the printing cost, and ebooks pay 35% or 70%.
• You control every picture and the cover, but bookshop shelves are hard to reach.

Step 17. On the traditional route, find a literary agent for your children’s book

Most UK publishers accept submissions only through literary agents. Find agents who represent your format in the Children’s Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook. Then send each one exactly what their website asks for, which is usually a query letter, a short synopsis and, for a picture book, the full text.

1. Shortlist 20 agents who represent your format and age band, using the Yearbook and agency websites.
2. Read each agent’s guidelines and recent deals before you write a word to them.
3. Write a one-page query letter with a paragraph on the story, the word count and age band, two lines about you, and why this agent.
4. Format the manuscript double-spaced, with no illustrations unless you’re an illustrator yourself.
5. Track every submission in a spreadsheet, and expect silence from many of them.

Competitions get you noticed too. My writing competitions list is organised by month, and more submission guides are on my free author resources page.

Step 18. To self-publish a children’s book, hire an illustrator and a cover designer

If you self-publish, you commission the art. Choose an illustrator whose portfolio already shows the style and age band you want, agree in writing who owns the images and where you can use them, and budget for the cover separately, because online the cover sells the book before anyone reads a word.

Claire learned this with her first book. ‘I have some basic graphic design training so initially I did my own cover design, but once the first book started to sell well, I decided to invest in a professional one and used Fiverr to find a designer. The new cover really shifted sales up a level.’

Ask every illustrator these questions.

• Have you illustrated a book in this format before?
• How many spreads or pictures does the fee cover, and how many rounds of changes?
• Who owns the copyright, and can I use the art on adverts, merchandise and later editions?
• Will you supply print-ready files at the trim size and bleed my printer needs?
• When will each stage be ready?

In UK Government Copyright, an illustration’s copyright arises automatically the moment it’s made, so the contract decides what you can do with the art. Bring a rough sketch of each spread, however simple, so you’re both picturing the same book

Step 19. Publish on Amazon KDP, Kindle Unlimited and beyond

Amazon KDP lets you self-publish a children’s book for free, as a paperback, which needs at least 24 pages, and as an ebook. Enrolling the ebook in KDP Select puts it in Kindle Unlimited, but makes that ebook Amazon-only for 90 days. Skip Select if you’d rather sell the ebook through Apple Books, Kobo and libraries via Draft2Digital.

• Paperbacks. Since June 2025, KDP has paid 60% of the list price at or above a set price and 50% below it, minus the printing cost. Printing cost rises with page count and with a colour interior, so a picture book needs a higher price than a black-and-white chapter book of the same length.
• Ebooks. These earn 35% or 70%, depending on the price band.
• Kindle Unlimited. Amazon divides a monthly fund by the total pages read and pays each author their share. The exclusivity covers the ebook only, so your paperback can be sold anywhere.
• Going wide. Draft2Digital sends ebooks to Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and library distributors such as OverDrive, and now offers print on demand too.

Here’s how Claire describes the first printed copy. ‘I was filled with a surreal, childlike glee when the first printed copy of my book arrived in the post. It felt amazing to hold it in my hands; a condensed, beautiful version of all the hours of hard work. But the best reward of all is hearing from your first avid reader. Children really are the best fans, they truly fall in love with your world and characters, and being a small part of their childhood is an honour.’

Step 20. Sell your children’s book through schools, libraries, reviews and a series

Once you know how to write a children’s book, the next job is getting it in front of adults. Children’s books sell through people who meet the author or trust whoever recommends the book. Plan your launch around people, with school and library visits, local press, a launch event and reviews from parents. Then write the next one, because a series lets every new book send readers back to the first.

Local press is the easiest coverage a new author can get. Send your local paper a short release, a photo of you with the book, and a reason the story belongs in their paper.

For school visits, contact the school librarian, offer a reading and a short writing activity, and let the school order signed copies in advance.

Questions about how to write a children’s book

Writing a memorable children’s book

Which children’s book did you read until it fell apart? Tell us in the comments, along with the children’s book you’re writing now.

My P5 teacher kept my book beside her photo albums. Write yours well enough that a child keeps it beside their bed.

Subscribe below to get an email when the next guide goes live. And if you write for older readers too, my craft guide, How to Write Fiction: A Creative Writing Guide for Authors, includes how psychology can help writers stand out.

Stay creative,

Aaron Mullins and Claire Owers

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Claire Owers is a children’s book author living in the North East of Scotland with her husband, two girls and one slightly daft Labrador, Monty – the unwitting star of the show! Her sports coaching background helps her wrangle this unruly mob. She loves working with kids, taking inspiration from their energy, creativity and brutal honesty. Claire self-published her Monty series of children’s chapter books through Amazon. These funny and fast-paced pet adventure stories are ideal for 5-9 year old animal lovers.

How to Write Children’s Books
Writing for older readers too? Browse more free resources for writers, with guides on characters and book lengths.