In this video, I'm going to
show you from start to finish, how to create and publish
a kid's KDP coloring book using artificial intelligence. Now, I was blown away by the
quality of images we can create using AI and the speed with
which we can create the images to create our coloring book. And I
think after watching this video, you're gonna think the same too. Now there's gonna be a lot
to cover in this video, so we're just gonna jump straight
into it. Now, first of all, why are we creating a
coloring book? Well one, they're fun to create and also they
sell extremely well as we can see here on Amazon. And in fact, if
we take this example here, bestsellers rank of 106, put this
into a book sales calculator. It's selling between 9,000
to 18,000 books per month. And each book is bringing in a
royalty of around $1.40. So you can calculate the amount of money
this particular book is making. So we're going to be publishing our
book to Amazon via the KDP platform. Our book is going to be
8.5 inches by 11 inches, going to have 80 pages, and
we're going to sell it for $6.99. So we're going to split
this into three steps. One is we're going to create
the interior of the book. Two, we're going to create the cover
of the book. And then three, we're going to upload this all
to the KDP platform and then hopefully hit that published button. And the software we're
going to be using is Canva. You can do what I'm going to show you
today in the free version of Canva. And we're going to be using
MidJourney to create our images. So let's get started. First of all, we need to set up the interior of our
page and we're going to do this in Canva. And we could do this by either clicking
on custom size and entering the size of our page or clicking on create a
design and then clicking on custom size down below. So the
size of our page, as I said, it's going to be an
8.5 by an 11 inch book. Now these pages are going to have bleed. So the actual size of our pages
are going to be 8.625 inches by 11.25 inches. So we need to change our
units to inches and then enter 8.625 by 11.25 and hit create new design. So here we have our page. And now the next thing
we need is our images. And this is where we go to MidJourney. I'm going to be using the basic
plan which costs $10 a month. And there's one reason why using
the paid for plan is pretty much essential. And it's this down here. You do get
the commercial license to use any images you create, which is obviously important because
we're going to be creating a book that we want to sell. In order to create images we
need to give MidJourney some instructions, and this is called a prompt. Now I have experimented quite a
bit with this and have come up with what I think are good instructions for
MidJourney that you'll be able to also use. So in order to enter our instruction
into midjourney first need to do a slash then imagine, click on this
option here where it says prompt. So now we enter our prompt. So we're just going to put
in coloring page for kids. Now next we're going to enter
what we want our image to be of. Now I'm going to do a
dinosaur coloring book. That doesn't mean to say you need to go
out and do a dinosaur coloring book. You can use this method to create any
number of different types of coloring book that you want. So I'm gonna put in Tyrannosaurus Rex in a jungle. The next instruction is going to be what
sort of style and we're gonna put in cartoon style. Then I'm just going
to tell it how I want the lines. And I want this with thick lines, low detail and no shading. Now I put in no shading, but you'll find that it probably will
create some images with some element of shading. The next is we need to put two
minus signs and then ar for aspect ratio. So we're just gonna put
in 9:11 and then we hit enter. And we can see here it's starting to
create the images. And here it's finished. So we can just click on this image and
we can see our four images here. Now when you do want to use one of these images, you can see we've got these options
here. Now I'm gonna choose this one here, which is image three. So we'll click on U3 and usually within
a few seconds we'll have our image. So now we can click on our
image and then open in browser. This will give us a larger image size
and what we can do with that is then right click and save
image to our computer. So the next step is to take this
into Canva. So, left hand side, click on uploads and then just drag in
your image that you've downloaded to the uploads box. Once it's uploaded,
just click on the image. So now we just need to drag that to one
corner to cover the page completely. So next we want to hit on add page. Now in most coloring books
you'll have a page and the page behind it will be blank.
And that's because sometimes, depending on the types of
pens a kid or an adult uses, it can sometimes bleed through
onto the other side of the page. So this first image is going
to be the right hand side page. And this blank image is going
to be the page behind it. So we need to go onto the next
one, which is add page. And again, we just download an image from
MidJourney like we did before. And then go to Canva, drag it
into the uploads box, and again, go through the same process. Just
fill the page with that image. Next a blank page. And then the next
page will be a page with our image. So what I'm going to do is now just
go ahead and create the rest of the pages in this book. Okay, so
now we've done our 80 pages. The next thing to do is to
download this as a PDF file, which will then be ready to upload to KDP.
So top right, hit share, then hit download. Then in the
dropdown menu, choose pdf print, and then just download. And that will
download the PDF to your computer. And we can open this up and just scroll
down and we can see we've got our images followed by a blank page. Okay, so next what I think is even more
fun and that is creating the cover. So we're going go back to midjourney. So
now we put in slash imagine. Hit enter. Now it's ready for our prompt and we're
just gonna paste in our previous prompt and we're going to make a
couple of changes. Instead
of coloring page for kids, we're going to put in kids
illustration and we're going to delete this bit where it says no
shading and instead write vivid color, hit enter. And wow, as you can see, we've got these absolutely amazing images. And what we're going to do
is choose this second image. And so we're going to hit upscale
2 and this is going to be our image open in browser. Looks stunning, right click save image as
download that to our computer. So this is going to be the
basis of our book cover. So we're going to go back to Canva. Now this time we're going
to hit on custom size. So this time we want to put in
the dimensions of our book cover. How do we find out what this is? Well, we need to go over to Amazon to
our KDP platform, our dashboard. Now if you've not already set up an
account here, it's absolutely free to do. So you can just go along there
and sign up. Then at the top, hit help, then hit format your paperback, then download a cover template.
And so now here we have to put in some details. So binding
type, paperback, interior type, black and white, paper type, white paper, turn direction left to right.
Measurement units inches. Interior trim size. This is
going to be 8.5 by 11 inches. And page count is 80. Calculate dimensions
and download template. Once you've downloaded the template, you'll notice it downloads
as a PDF and a png. So we just want to
double click on the png. And here we'll have the important
information that we need. And it's this the overall
dimensions of our book template. So that's 17.43 by 11.25. So we go back to Canva and
we put in those dimensions. Make sure this is inches that's selected. So it was 17.43 by 11.25, create new design. Next thing we need to do is left
hand side click on uploads and then just drag in that .png file of the template.
Once it's uploaded, then just click on it and then
drag top left hand corner, drag down to the bottom right hand corner. And so this is the basis
of our book cover. Next, click on elements and where
it says lines and shapes, we're going to just click on see
all and click on this square shape. Now we're going to just create
the back cover first of all. Now we want this to be black. So
we'll click on color, change to black. Then I'm just going to click on it,
drag to the top left hand corner, drag down to the bottom,
and then drag across. Now going to increase the size of this
for the moment so you can see what we're doing. Where you can see
these two purple dotted lines. That's the edge of the spine of our book. And we just want to drag our black shape across to that second purple dotted line.
Just reduce the size. Next we need to drag in our
image of the dinosaur. So, again, back to uploads and just drag across
from where you downloaded that dinosaur cover image and just drag it into the
upload box. Wait for it to upload, then click on the image.
Okay, so there we have it. Now I want to change this. I
want to flip this horizontally. So at the top I'm going to
click on flip, flip horizontal. All right, next, I'm just going to drag this to the top
right hand corner and I'm going to just drag down until it fills our area. Now you can see here that it
drags over our back cover. So just drag your image so it
covers that black back cover a bit. Then select the back cover
at the top. Click on position, select forward. Okay, so now it's over our front cover.
So now we can just drag our front cover and adjust it
to the size that we want. So we'll have it something like that. Next we want to add some text to
our book cover. So left-hand side, click on text, then click
on add a subheading. And just going to drag this
to the top, type in dinosaur. And our coloring book is going to
be called dinosaur coloring book. I know very creative. And what you want to
do is change our font. So I'm just going to double
click on dinosaur top. Here we have our dropdown font menu
and we have all these different fonts to choose from. Now if you see
a font with a little crown next to it, that means that this is only
available to those with a pro account. But there are so many different fonts
available that can be used with the free version. If you do have a pro
account, you can upload a font. Now I do have a pro account and
I've uploaded this font here, which I got from Creative Fabrica. Now Creative Fabrica is
my go-to site for fonts, especially decorative fonts like this. And I just did a simple search for
prehistoric font and came up with this, which I downloaded. Now I will leave a link to Creative
Fabrica down below in the description. So this has been uploaded
and we're going to select it. I'm going to enlarge that
slightly, move it into position. Now I want to change the color of
this. So click on our text color. And I want this not to be white, but just to be a slight
off white, like so. Then at the top I'm going to click on
effects and I'm gonna click on outline. Cause I want an outline to our text.
Then I'm gonna change the color, change it to black and
increase the thickness ever so slightly. Now I want to add some text
underneath and that'll be coloring book. So I click on add subheading
again. Type in coloring, and we'll just move that into position.
I'll double click on that again. Now this time we're going to choose a
different font. I've got a few here, Bobby Jones. Okay, and we want this
outlined as well. So click on effects, outline, color, black. And again, just increase that's going
to move that into position. Increase the size. Now
what I'm going to do, hold down option and drag down. Double click on this
and type in book. Okay, starting to look good. Next. In
the bottom right hand corner, I want to put the age for
the audience for this book. So go to elements. We
want to choose a shape. Now we're going to choose this cloud
shape and we're going to drag that into position. And I'm gonna change the
color. So at the top, click on color, and I'm going to choose this
orange color here. Again, I'm just going to just the
shape of that evers slightly. Now we need to add some text and that's
going to be the same text that we've got here for coloring books.
So hold down option, select the text and just
drag and type in age, reduce the size of that ever so slightly. Then hold down option drag again,
double click on that and put in, I'm going to put in 8 to 12 cause I
think that's probably the reasonable age group for this particular
type of coloring book. Okay, so now what we want to do is
make sure that none of our vital elements, our text, are going to cut off when the
actual book cover is created. So what we need to do is click on
our dinosaur image. At the top, click on our transparency button and
just turn the transparency down. Not completely, but just enough so we
can see our template underneath. And you'll notice that pink border.
So all our important elements, text, has to be within that pink border. So
with our text, just hold it down shift. I'm just going to select it all.
And I'm just going to move that. So dinosaur is in the middle of the cover. Move it down ever so slightly. Now we want to make sure this text here
at the bottom is also within the pink border. So click on our
little cloud shape at the top. Click on transparency, turn the
transparency down. And again, it's going to select, holding down shift. Select both our text elements and
just move that across cause we don't want it right on the edge of the
book cover. Click on our cloud again, increase the transparency,
click on our dinosaur cover, click on transparency and turn the
transparency back up. And there is our book cover essentially finished. So the next step is to download
this as a PDF file. So at the top, hit share, then download, then pdf print, and hit download. So
once that's downloaded, the next step is now to
upload all of this to KDP. And finally hit that publish button. So we need to go to our
KDP dashboard, hit create. Select, create paperback. Now is
going to scroll down our book title, which has to be on either the front cover
or the spine of our book is going to be dinosaur coloring book.
The next, our subtitle, again, I want to try and get in a similar
keyword related to our book. So I'm going to put in
awesome dinosaur coloring book for kids age 8 to 12. Now normally when I am creating a book, a bit more sort goes in to the
keywords I'm going to be using in a book title
and the subtitle have done videos on that, on how to do keyword research and
how to use the keywords effectively. And you can find that in
my book tutorials playlist, which I'll leave a link to down below in
the description. For the sake of this, we're just going to go through this
quickly. Next, we want our author name. So going to just choose my name. Normally I choose a pen name for all
my author names. No contributors. So we can leave that blank description. I normally put in here
some sort of a bullet list. So I click on bullet list
and put in coloring book, 8.5 by 11 inches, 80 pages, black and white coloring images. Now I do suggest you do add a bit more
text to this because the description is indexed by Google and can help your
book sometimes get found on the Google platform.
Publishing rights, I own the copyrights and hold
necessary publishing rights. Next, the keywords. So again, here I'm
going to put in coloring book, kids, eight to 14. Then I would put in keywords
relating to coloring books. I put in dinosaur, monsters, reptiles. Then I put in
something like gifts, ideas, presents and so on. Again, the video that I've done where
I'll show you how to use keywords, goes into this in more
depth. Now categories, there's no shortcut around this, we've
just got to choose two categories. Juvenile, non-fiction, and I'm gonna select activity
books and see what's under art. I'll just choose
general and we'll click save. Now what you can do with those with the
categories is just go through them a bit more in detail than what I've just done
there and find two categories that are the most appropriate to
your particular book. Now, does your book classify any of these
types? Low content or large print book? Well, no, this is not a low content
book, so we'll leave that blank. Adult content, nope, save and
continue. Then get a free ISBN, we can click on that and Amazon
or KDP will assign our book with a free ISBN. Don't need to worry about
publication dates Print options, black and white interior
with white paper. Trim size. It's not six by nine, so we
can select a different size. It is 8.5 by 11. Our book has bleed, so we select that and the
cover finish is entirely up to you. I do actually have
a preference for matte cover, but you can choose either of those.
Next we go to our manuscript, click on upload paperback manuscript, and this is that PDF file of the
interior that we created earlier. Open. And that will start uploading to the KDP
platform. This can sometimes take few seconds to a few minutes, depending usually on the speed
of your internet connection. Once that's uploaded, we go
to the book cover section, click on upload a cover we already
have. Upload your cover file. Again, find that PDF file of the
cover that you downloaded, and again, give it a few
seconds. Once that is done, we can then click on
launch Previewer. Again, this can take a few seconds to open
up and this will show us what our book actually looks like and we
can check it for any errors. And here we have our
preview, which <laugh>, that just looks so good. I love
it. .ormally if there's any errors, you'll see them here on the left
hand side, we don't see any errors, so that's good. Or you'll see some
little red warning triangles as well. So what I would just do is flick
through the pages and again, just check that everything looks okay.
This all looks absolutely fine. And again, we have no, none of
these little red warning triangles, so that's all good. So
we can click on approve. I would recommend going through the
whole of your book. So once that's done, Amazon will tell us what the printing
cost is and we can click on save and continue. And we come onto our final
page where it says territories. I usually click all territories,
worldwide rights primary marketplace, I leave as amazon.com. And
then we come to pricing here. I'm going to put in $6.99. You'll see that Amazon automatically
prices this book in the different jurisdictions. If you want to
change any of those prices, you can. I normally leave these as is. Then it's just a case of scrolling
down to the bottom and then clicking on publish your paper back
book. And so there it is. Your book is now published. It can take
up to 72 hours for your book to actually appear on Amazon. Sometimes a bit longer, particularly if it is a
busy time of the year, something like Christmas for example. But Amazon will normally send you an
email once your book is actually on Amazon. And so congratulations if
this is your first coloring book, you are now a publisher. So those are all the steps to
create and publish a book on Amazon. If you are a complete beginner
to this or you're wondering how some of those steps like keyword
research, niche research, how it all happens, then I do have
this book tutorials playlist here, which goes through all the the publishing
steps in a bit more detail and also some useful videos if you
are complete beginner, thank you very much for your
time. It is very much appreciated. Don't forget to hit that subscribe
button. And until next time, goodbye.
