Writing Your Own Children’s Book

 

During of the great Covid lockdown of 2020, I decided to write a children’s book to pass the time. My inspiration came from a childhood memory involving a confusing Christmas gift from my grandmother. She had gifted me a bicycle tire pump. As I tore through the wrapping paper I got really excited believing there must also be a bicycle hidden somewhere nearby. I searched the house high and low but it turned out it was all just a misunderstanding. Grandma was simply unaware I didn’t have a bicycle, and had no need for a tire pump. I’m sure many can recall a time of receiving a similar mismatched gift during birthdays or holidays. I thought it would be fun to write a story where all those strange gifts turn out to be unexpectedly useful after all.

The story came together relatively quickly. At first, I just wrote a few ideas down and would work on it every once and a while. It was only after I figured out what each of the five unique gifts would be that I was able to really sit down and write the story. After the story was finished the challenge shifted to how I would illustrate it. My own style veers towards cute and cartoonish, but I wanted something a bit more epic for the book. At that time, I was already experimenting with Midjourney and I felt the illustrations would be the perfect way to test cutting-edge AI technology.

Mindful of all the controversies surrounding AI use, I decided to only use references from famous artists of the 1940s or older in my style prompts. Occasionally, I also incorporated my own photos as references for the AI, which is how I was able to create the cover illustration of my grandmother. The AI process, of course, came with its share of frustrations. Obtaining the right images took a lot of time as the AI produced wild interpretations of my prompts, each with a multitude of problems. After finally gathering a collection of workable AI starter images, I spent 6-10 hours on each one, editing and refining them in Photoshop. In total, I estimate I dedicated over 150 hours to working on these images. 

As for the controversy: Using AI as a starting point didn't necessarily save time or effort, nor did it replace the need for artistic skill, as I relied on my art classes and Photoshop experience to transform the images into book-worthy illustrations. And, let's be honest, it didn’t take a job away from an artist, as I would never have hired someone else to illustrate my book anyway. In the end, the AI was an imperfect yet valuable tool. I’m not ashamed I used AI for this specific project, and I’m glad I had an opportunity to really test it out. 

So, with the images finalized, the next challenge was to determine where to self-publish or print. I chose Blurb to make high quality hardcover copies for my family. However, the expense led me to look for an alternative option to print more. In the end I choose Barnes & Noble publishing. I’ll be making a separate post on the entire self-publishing process. Overall, this project has definitely been a labor of love, blending creativity and technology. It’s a wonderful feeling to finish a project and I’m really happy with how my book turned out. I've uploaded a video so you can enjoy/judge the book for yourself. Watch it below. Note: Blogger won't let me upload a bigger or better quality video so the images are not as crisp as they are in real life. Watch in the small screen for best results.