Creating Coloring Books for Kids!
“Why don’t you make your children’s books into coloring books to print?”
I’ve been asked this question for the past 11 years! But it was only within the last year that the idea sunk in and I began to take it seriously! So I started by experimenting with the release of my third children’s book, Topo and the Second Chance Circus and created several fun coloring pages for kids, to test the waters. And guess what? The public loved them!
Adult Coloring Books
I wanted to further identify the audience “out there” that might be interested if I turned my children’s books into coloring books for kids so I posed the question on social media.
The overwhelming response I got, took me totally by surprise! Not only were parents interested in coloring books for their growing children, but the parents and grandparents were interested as well! I really had no idea that so many people of varying ages liked to sit and work on coloring books! It just goes to show that you should always ask questions before you start a new venture!
Okay, now I know an audience exists, so how do I start the process of creating coloring books for kids that also serve as adult coloring books and hold everyone’s interest?
Coloring Books of Animals
Since my children’s books all contain consistent themes and a multitude of fun animal characters, I sat down with my first book and broke down the story into its most essential elements of art and copy!
It wasn’t difficult to find some fun drawings I’d made of my three main characters, Jasmine the black lab, Topo the wise little mouse, and Roxanne, the big Tibetan mastiff and the Prince’s “official dog”. I chose drawings that could easily tell the story and deleted all extra material and ideas. I printed out miniature versions of the pages I liked, and made a small “folding dummy” of what the book might look like, to help me figure out the pacing of the story.
Next I had to redraw the art I’d chosen, so that it looked more like coloring book pages! It was actually a simple matter of taking my original black and white art and redrawing it on my homemade light-box, throwing away extra lines and detail that could clutter the drawings! The result was clean, simple, black and white line work that when printed, can easily be colored with crayons! Once I finish writing simplified copy to go with my images, my first coloring book will be published Spring 2022!
What’s Next?
My plans for 2022 include producing two more coloring books based on my children’s books, especially since I’m so happy with the conversion of my first book! And since I’m with a new publisher, I’m going to reformat and release the Italian versions of my first two books, which will also be available on my website (cucciaKidsBooks.com) and on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other distributors across the globe! And if all goes well with the translation, the Italian version of Topo and the Second Chance Circus! (Topo e il Circo della seconde opportunità!) is slated for release later this year too! That will make it a spectacular year!
Bear in mind these plans doesn’t include book signings and other promotional ideas or appearances! Keep watching for future blogs that will give you progress reports, samples of art to come, and release dates for my work now-in-progress! Grazie!
