🎉 New Book: Might Could Make a Book is HERE!🎉

How to Write, Illustrate, and Publish Your Children’s Picture Book

It’s Here, It’s Here—The Book is Here!

I’ve been hard at work for months on my newest book, Might Could Make a Book, and it’s finally live today!

This book takes the content from two of my most popular online classes (together taken by over 14,000 students on Skillshare), updates and expands it, and restructures it all as a book! Over 27 chapters, this book takes you through the entire process of writing, illustrating, and publishing a children's picture book—including how to submit to traditional publishers or self-publish your own indie book! And it’s available as a printed book or ebook!

What’s In the Book?

Picture books are an unusual art form, combining a unique blend of writing, illustrating, and designing. This book demystifies the picture book making process so you might could make your own!

Through 27 chapters with templates and exercises, I’ll guide you through the process of molding your jumbled-up story idea into the 32-page picture book structure. Using my book, We Are Fungi, as an example, I’ll show you how to do it all:

• writing your story idea,

• refining your manuscript,

• designing your characters,

• drawing your storyboards,

• crafting a book dummy,

• and creating the final art.

But the bookmaking process doesn’t stop there! I’ll also show you how to finish your book whether you want to focus on:

• Traditional Publishing: submitting your book dummy to publishers, or

• Self-Publishing: designing, distributing, and promoting your indie book!

Plus there’s a bonus Resources section at the back of the book that includes more process, more examples, a Further Reading list, and Templates for you to use while making your own book!

Why Did I Make This Book?

I wanted to remake my two online classes as a book because I made those classes almost 10 years ago, and a lot has changed since then! Not only is the audio and video quality of those two classes poor compared to today’s standards, but I’ve also learned an enormous amount since I made those classes—I’ve published 7 books, 4 of those traditionally published with Scholastic! This book has been expanded and updated with everything I’ve learned along the way.

Also, many of the books I read myself when learning to make picture books have since gone out of print or are now outdated with the newly widespread access to design tools and print-on-demand. I also could not find a book that covered all 3 aspects of bookmaking: writing, illustrating and publishing.

All this to say: the content in Might Could Make a Book has been seriously upgraded from the class version, so this book is even better than the classes! Even so, reviews of the classes are glowing. Here are a few reviews from the online class version of this content.

“Likely the best class I have taken on skillshare. I was floored by the amount of information I received in this class. It was an entire college writing class in a nutshell and so user friendly with lots of examples and ideas. A phenomenal instructor! Looking for other classes that she teaches for sure! Thank you!”
–Cathie P., Picture Books I: Write Your Story student

“I’ve taken a few classes here for writing children’s books and this one by far is the best. it’s broken down and has A LOT of information. Perfect if you are like me and have never written anything before. There is amazing information on the structure of a good book. My favorite part was with everything she taught, she gave an example of a book that uses it.”
–Natasha J., Picture Books I: Write Your Story student

“I took a number of children’s books classes here on skillshare and out of all of these, Christine’s lessons are the most comprehensive, informative, and organized! I gleaned knowledge here that I didn’t from the other classes. Thanks for all your efforts in putting all this together :)”
–Annie Q., Picture Books I: Write Your Story student

So just imagine how much better the book is!

What? You’re Still Not Sure?

Well dear reader, I am so proud of this book and so confident that it is the resource you need and so excited for you to start making your picture book, that I’m even sharing the book’s Resources webpage right now with you!

At the back of Might Could Make a Book, I point readers to this Resources webpage on my website that includes an extensive list of every book, link, template, and digital download mentioned in the book. It also includes extra process shots and an abridged list of Further Reading suggestions.

Y’all—that’s just the EXTRAS!

You Might Could Make a Book!

So c’mon, what more do you need to know? If you want to make a picture book, this book is for you. I’ve poured everything I have and everything I know into it and I can’t wait for you to get it and start making your own picture book. I’ve been sharing the progress of making my next book here on this Substack and I want nothing more than for you to be working on your own book alongside me. It’s better together! Making a book is hard work, but the joy of holding your book in your hands or hearing a child tell you how much they love reading it is incomparable!

I know you have a picture book idea—practically everyone does! Let’s finally do something with that idea and transform it into a real, live book!

Thanks a bunch, y’all! I can’t wait to hear what you think of the book! And if you do get it, please leave a review once you’ve read it! :)

<3,
Christine