Children’s Book Design
Designing a children’s book is a different kind of adventure—one filled with imagination, heart, and a thousand tiny details that matter. From trim size and proper pagination to typography, illustration treatment and placement, and production specs, every choice affects the end product and reader experience.
Our team understands that creating a children’s book can feel exhilarating and overwhelming. Whether you’re working with an illustrator, searching for one, or bringing your own artwork to the table, we guide you through every step of the design and production process. We’re here to help you shape a book that feels magical in a child’s hands and looks beautiful on the shelf.
Use our contact form to schedule a free consultation so we can talk through your vision, age range, format, and publishing goals. We’ll help you navigate trim size, pagination, storyboarding, layout, typography, printing options, and distribution platforms so your book is not only charming, but professionally produced and ready for the world.
If you’re an experienced publisher, we understand the nuances of picture books, early readers, and chapter book interiors and would love to become a trusted part of your team.
If this is your very first children’s book, we’ll walk beside you from manuscript to finished files. We believe the journey of creating a book for children should be as joyful as the story itself.
Let’s create something that begs to be read, again and again!
Children’s Book Design
We’ll make sure you’re at the top of your game.
Publishing children’s books can be both challenging and rewarding—kind-of like kids themselves. 😉 This genre is super-competitive, so you need to be at the top of the game to get noticed. This means awesome illustrations and a design to match. We develop a cohesive product with creative interior and cover designs that engage young readers and encourage a love of books. Designing picture books is a specialization within the field of book design and many firms choose not to offer this service. It’s one of TLC’s specialties!
Services can include: Client consultation, PDF questionnaire, storyboarding, assistance in finding the right illustrator, coordination with illustrator, schedule management, layout and design of book’s cover and interior, jacket design, creative endsheet design for hardcover books, consultation on printing options, press-ready files, and book images for promotional usage.
We can help you, no matter the state of your book:
A. Not yet illustrated; need page layout and illustration direction
If you and your illustrator are not sure where to start, have no set plan for how to break up the text on the pages, what to illustrate, or where the illustrations should go, this is your option. Also for those who are looking for an illustrator.
B. Illustrated but designer needs to manipulate and/or augment illustrations
This is the right option if the text and illustrations all have a place—the storyboard is complete, but the illustrations need enhancement, color boost, color changes, or other digital manipulation.
C. Illustrated with a page layout and trim size in mind
If you and/or the illustrator have already determined where each illustration and text block goes, this is your option. In other words, you have a complete and final storyboard and you’re already working with an illustrator.
NEED AN ILLUSTRATOR? Illustration is a separate service not offered directly by TLC Book Design. Visit the recommended illustrator page on our site. We would be happy to help you find the right talent to bring your project to life.
Learn about working with illustrators, why you also need a book designers, terminology, the parts of a picture book and options for creating each, and pitfalls to avoid during the book creation process.