When you're a writer or illustrator, there's nothing better than seeing your work turned into a colorful, crisp, beautiful hardcover book that little hands will cherish. But creating a stunning children's hardcover book means more than just having a great story. It means making smart choices when it comes to design, material, and production. Let's take a look at what the process looks like and show you step-by-step how to get your own beautifully bound hardcover children's book.
Plan your book around the format
Hardcover children's books deliver more than just a prestigious look and feel. Choosing a hard cover is also about durability. Little hands find it easy to grip storybooks, board books, and picture-heavy books, and OnPress Book Printing gives you a variety of options to choose from.
For example, you can choose from case-wrap covers, dust jackets, and more, giving you full-cover design flexibility and lasting durability. You'll also want to consider the trim size, paper weight and book binding early. With sizes that range from 6” x 6” for baby books to 8.5” x 8.5” for picture books, the format you choose will influence layout and printing costs, so it's good to be aware of this at the planning stage.
You'll be glad to know that OnPress makes this process even easier with free children's book templates and design guides to help you craft your book in a way that makes printing easy and fast.
Choose vibrant, kid-friendly materials
From bedtime snuggles to sticky fingers, children's books endure a lot. And if your book becomes a favorite (we have no doubt that it will!), you can expect many, many page turns. For that reason, your materials need to be as tough as possible while still being pleasant and easy to hold and read.
This is precisely why OnPress uses durable, non-toxic inks with the option to choose FSC-certified paper. This type of paper is shiny, smooth and built to last while still showcasing bright, bold, and beautiful color while being safe for curious little hands (and mouths!). If you really want to make your cover pop and stand out while catching the attention of eager little minds, choose gloss or matte lamination to protect against smudges and ordinary wear and tear. Spot-UV highlights make characters pop with vivid color, while options like spot UV coating give your book that extra wow factor.
Plus, our dry-toner, roll-fed presses make sure that your book shows off true-to-hue designs and crisp lines, making your children's story even more fascinating to young readers!
Interior and cover formatting
You can write the most captivating story in the world, but if the interior layout or the cover looks weird or the text is formatted strange, the experience falls flat. Fortunately, OnPress Book Printing offers professional design and formatting to make your story look and read flawlessly. Our experienced team of cover designers work with you to make the illustrations and typography come to life, while interior formatting makes sure that the book is readable by using clean, kid-friendly spacing and accessible fonts.
We also do complimentary prepress reviews where our team can quickly catch and correct issues before your work goes to print. Common issues include misaligned images, low-resolution images, and missing embedded fonts. This way, you can be sure that when you're holding your first physical proof in your hands, it looks and feels nothing short of incredible.
Production speed and print runs
So how long does it take to print a book? We're often asked this question by children's authors, and it's understandable! Maybe you're gearing up for a school book fair launch or a local bookstore reading and you need plenty of copies that look great and steal the show. For anywhere from 1–24 copies, we offer an industry-leading turnaround time of as little as three business days, with up to 1,500 copies taking just five business days.
We also offer bulk printing of orders where the more you print, the less you pay. You can even customize a pricing quote right on our website!
Order, proof, and approve
The process of creating a high-quality hardcover children's book starts when you get a free quote from our website. You can also download our free templates and explore various trim sizes, paper types, and quantities to adjust pricing. You'll see your quote instantly! Once you decide to move forward, you can upload your finished cover, interior, and specs. These uploads include the finished artwork, fonts, and images.
If you need design help at this stage, our team is ready to jump into action. If you've done it yourself, we'll still do a prepress review to check your files for errors. Once everything is good to go, we'll send you a proof copy. Check it carefully for any issues, including color fidelity, binding alignment, and text crispness. Once you give us the go-ahead, we'll start printing the full run.
From there, we'll handle shipping quickly and easily. We can even split shipments if you need to send copies of your book to schools, events, or reviewers in different areas. Plus, everything we do is backed by our satisfaction guarantee. If for any reason you're not completely satisfied, we'll work with you to fix the issue. That's how committed we are to your success!
Getting started with a high-quality hardback children's book
Ready to take the next step? The team at OnPress is here to help! With durable, age-safe printing materials, lively designs, and quick turnaround times with a focus on quality and speed, we aim to make sure you (and your young readers) are completely delighted! We look forward to turning your book into a well-loved work that brings joy to generations of readers. Contact us today or get a free quote to learn more. Let's put you on the road to publishing success!