Formatting Children's Books

Question

Hi everyone, I have a lot more knowledge in traditional books when it comes to formatting! But I thought I'd reach out to the community to check I am doing everything correctly when it comes to children's picture books!

I have tried endless amounts of research, but I find everyone who comments in these threads far more helpful.

I am formatting a hardback and ebook for a children's book.

Firstly, with ebooks, I am struggling to keep the same layout. So I am now exporting as a epub fixed layout, rather than reflowable. Reflowable was causing too many issues, because of all the images. Is fixed layout normal for children's books?

Secondly, the page count is only 34 pages. So the margins I am using 0.5 outside, top and bottom, and inside 0.7. With the page count so small, the gutter/inside margin surely doesn't need to be too large, however, I wondered if this is different because it is a hardback? So basically, would these margins be correct for a children's book?

Thirdly, my client designed/created the images on canva. So I am trying to transfer the designs from canva to InDesign. Although, I am starting to wonder if I was better off just exporting and formatting straight from canva. However, the colour seems to be duller on the epub file compared to the pdf when I export it. I understand that RGB is better for digital and CYMK for printing, so I have been exporting it that way, but it may be how it's exported from canva. So I am just trying to establish what is normal and what is not? Perhaps the vibrancy of the colors will always differ between PDF and epub, and this is normal?

Sorry, that was a lot of questions, but any guidance would be much appreciated 👍

Thanks

James Gifford—NitroPress · Answer

Children's books for print require no special formatting, other than following conventional layout and rules for presentation and readability for each age segment. Export to PDF (probably with bleeds), design a good wrap cover and you're good to go. Since I assume you will use one of the printing/fulfllment services (Ingram, Lulu, KDP) you will need to review the specific service's print and layout requirements closely to answer any questions about page trim size, cover margins and layout, page counts, color options etc. There are no generic standards; you need to fine-tune your submission to the vendor's demands. (And the same is true for commercial/trade printing, if you're going that direction — get your specs from the exact printer who will be doing the job.)

As for EPUB... well, to start with I am pretty negative on the notion of e-books for children. Pretty much something that should nto exist, IMVHO.

And since fixed-layout is the only good alternative for children's books, it means you're limited to a somewhat cranky, difficult, borderline obsolete technical format that does not display well on many devices. Creating a working FXL EPUB is an all-or-nothing proposition; you either get it right or it fails upload and validation checks, and there's no easy fix except to export it again after trying (guessing at) some changes.

You can do FXL EPUB from InDesign, but it's a poor workflow to an all-but-crippled end, and then there's the issue of audience. I suggest you look into KDP's Kid's Book Creator if you insist on an e-book version. It's supposed to be 1-2-3-E-Z, although I can't confirm that.

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