Music For Kiddos Podcast
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If you are reading this in September or the first weeks of October, or if you got here after searching for Halloween children’s books, guess what?? It’s Shy Little Monster Season!
The Shy Little Monster is the music-book I wrote & self-published, illustrated by Sarah Pilar. This (not scary!) Halloween story is a charming and beautifully illustrated Halloween book that celebrates silliness, friendship, and shows kids that hard things can be made just a little bit easier with the help of your (adorable monster) friends. Listen to the song Shy Little Monster, on YouTube ↓
On this blog post & on episode 33 of the Music For Kiddos Podcast, I’m sharing how I self-published a children's book because I want to save you some time if publishing a children’s book is one of the things you’d like to do. It’s a lot more simple than you would think.
The story behind The Shy Little Monster
I wrote the song Shy Little Monster because I wanted a Halloween song that wasn't scary. My daughter was three years old then, and anything remotely scary, everything about Halloween, absolutely terrified her. I also worked with a lot of kids that were in the same boat.
Because of this, I really wanted to create something that was awesome for Halloween that was not scary.
You may ask “But there must be something like that that already exists, right?” If you Google “Halloween songs” there just aren't that many options that are cool and just not scary, you know?
I really wanted to create a song that music therapists and music educators could use around Halloween but that it isn't a very Halloween-y song because I also wanted teachers and music therapists to have a song they’re able to use in schools or places of work where Halloween is not celebrated.
What is The Shy Little monster about?
The Shy Little Monster is a song where monsters dress up in silly costumes. The whole premise of the book is based off of this shy little monster who dresses up like a lobster and needs the help of his friends because he is a little bit nervous about these Halloween spooks.
Over the course of the book, the shy little monster gets his voice back. At first, he starts booing really, really softly. With the help of his friends, he gradually gets a little bit louder and confident over the course of the story.
How I self-published The Shy Little Monster
The first step for me was to really find an artist that could illustrate the Shy Little Monster.
I hired my childhood friend (who is a wonderful artist!) to create this monster. Part of the reason why people kept telling me that Shy Little Monster needed to be a children’s book was because when I released this song in a Song-of-the-Month email, I had a little graphic that was sent along in the email with the mp3 and the chords. I asked my friend, Sarah Pilar Echevarría, to come up with an illustration of a monster dressed up like a lobster because I could not find an image like that anywhere.
The illustration that Sarah sent back to me was so amazing and adorable that people kept saying “you need to make this a book!”
With the illustrations down, we started looking at other children's books for inspiration on how they were organized, what font they used and what size, where did they place the illustrations, etc.
Since I was creating a music book, not only was the word flow on the pages important to me, but the singing flow was important.
So, I sketched out a book, wrote where I wanted the words and illustrations to be, I made myself a book and I sang it to learn if the page turns made sense with the song. I also consulted with someone who printed books who had expertise on these small but important details.
You really need to figure all of these details out ahead of time before you start the illustration process. Decide what are the parameters and specifications that you will create your book around.
We have to make sure that when it's sung, the book makes sense. We have to make sure that when it's spoken, it makes sense. We also have to make sure that it fits the parameters of a printer.
The illustrations
Sarah illustrated the images by hand, with a pen and watercolors. She is so creative that she imagined all of these monsters and their different costumes and put them on paper and brought these ideas to life in a whole new way.
We also showed a lot of these images to kids. We wanted to see what happened when a kid saw a monster in a shark costume, in example. Kids were just delighted by the monsters themselves.
Printing the Book
One of the things that I learned is that when books are hand illustrated, they need to be professionally scanned in and color matched. Basically, they go in and they make sure that when they scan things, the colors match page to page.
Putting together a book like this it's probably something you can DIY, but I chose not to.
They select a font, they get it all on the page. They make sure that everything is all set and ready for printing. I have found that my local print shop is excellent and way better than anything I can find.
The Final Details
Before you print the book, the last thing that you need is an ISBN code (it stands for International Standard Book Number). All you have to do is go online and fill out a form.
It's about $100 dollars and you have a dedicated number and a bar code, for your book. The ISBN code makes it is easier to sell on places like Amazon and other stores.
Lastly, find a printer for your book. If you don’t print your book locally, getting a box of books shipped to you can be very expensive. Something that I suggest is to look at options in your area. I have a printer in my area that does an excellent job. They use really high quality paper, and they are not all that expensive.
Make sure to give yourself enough time to work on all of these details and process because when you’re first creating the book, the process can last a couple of months.
That’s it! That’s the story on how I self-published a children’s book. I promise, it’s not that hard.
The Shy Little Monster continues to be loved by many, many children, music therapists & music educators, and has evolved to have a physical form version, an e-book version, and a Spanish version!
Download the chords + lyrics of Shy Little Monster HERE.
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