AI Children's Book Illustrations: Complete Guide

How to Use AI to Create Professional Children's Book Illustrations

If you've written a children's story but struggle with the cost of hiring illustrators or lack drawing skills, AI offers a powerful solution. This comprehensive guide walks you through how to use AI tools to create professional illustrations for your book — without breaking the bank.

🧒 Setting Up Your Character Prompts

Begin by establishing consistent character descriptions using Claude AI by Anthropic:

✍️ Start with a short story draft
Use specific prompts to define your characters’ appearance and style
Aim for a base prompt that remains visually consistent across all scenes

To keep character consistency, force the AI to include character descriptions in every scene — even when it tends to skip them. Consistency is key 🔑 for coherent illustration.

🖼️ Generating Images with AI Tools

Start generating ideas at https://childbook.promptus.ai — one prompt creates a children’s book-style illustration for free.

You can edit, recolor, animate, and more — all with just a single prompt
Promptus connects directly to AI models so you don’t need any setup

🧰 Other Tools for Illustrations

Use DALL·E 3 via Bing Image Creator for simplicity and consistency:

Input prompts from Claude into DALL·E
🌀 If generations stall, refresh the page
Review all four generated images per scene
Save your favorite images and organize them by chapter

Don’t worry about minor inconsistencies (like clothing color) — these can be fixed later during editing.

🖋️ Building Your Book's Interior and Cover

Use Canva to lay out your book:

Set custom dimensions: 8.625 x 8.75 inches to allow for bleed
Set 0.375” margins using square guides
Upload and organize your images by chapter

Use Canva Pro's AI tools:

Magic Expand: fill full pages
Magic Eraser: remove unwanted elements
Magic Grab: reuse visual elements consistently

For text:

Choose readable fonts with white text + drop shadows
Add visual support like colored blobs behind text for contrast

Include all front matter (title, copyright, dedication) and back matter (review request page) for a professional finish.

🧾 Creating Your Book Cover Template

Use Amazon KDP’s cover calculator to generate a perfect-fit cover template:

Input: paperback, premium color, white pages, LTR layout, 8.5 x 8.5 trim, total page count
Download the template (PDF), upload to Canva, and design using existing story elements
Build both front and back covers with consistent visual style

🖨️ Preparing for Publication

Before uploading to Amazon:

Use Promptus Upscaler or Canva’s image upscaler to enhance resolution
Replace all low-res images with upscaled versions
Download the final file in flattened PDF + CMYK for print quality

🚀 Publishing Your Book on Amazon KDP

Create a new paperback listing and enter all metadata:

✅ Title, author, description, keywords, age range, categories
Use Amazon’s free ISBN, select premium color interior, and upload your files
Disclose use of AI (Claude for text, DALL·E for images)
Set your price (e.g., $11.99 = ~$2.99 royalty)

Use Amazon’s previewer tool to ensure image placement and margins look correct before final approval.

🧠 Become an Illustrator with Promptus

For an easier, advanced alternative to complex AI workflows, try Promptus — a no-code, browser-based AI platform featuring:

Real-time collaboration
CosyFlows interface for simplified workflow
Access to advanced models like Gemini Flash and HiDream
Discord integration and shareable workflows

This process transforms your story into a professional-grade, print-ready children's book, using cutting-edge AI tools — no drawing skills required ✨.