Coloring books aren’t just for children anymore! You can design coloring books that appeal directly to adults using complex patterns, celebrity illustrations, or pop culture-inspired designs with this DIY coloring book guide.
Here, you’ll find handy tips on how to make a coloring book from scratch, including:
License these images via Anton Vierietin, Oleg Samoylov, and Anton Vierietin.
How to Create a Self-Published Coloring Book
Coloring books are big business! Over the past decade, adult coloring books have become the fastest-growing adult book category, making DIY coloring books a good choice for self-publishers looking to make a commercially successful book.
The process of how to publish a coloring book is made simple when using an online print-on-demand (POD) service, such as Blurb, Printif, BookBaby, or Lulu.
You might need some experience with using publishing software, like Adobe InDesign, but many self-publish services also offer book templates and online editors to help you make your own coloring book.
It’s important to note that if you want to create a DIY color book for self-publishing and selling online, you will need to ensure that the images you use within the coloring book are commercially licensed.
This is easy to do through Shutterstock by checking that the image has a standard license included when you download it. If you’re going to selling a high number of books, you may need an enhanced license for your image, which will cover a high volume of book sales.
Alternatively, you can illustrate your own color-free images for using in the coloring book design, and vectorize your sketches using software like Adobe Illustrator.
License these images via photo-nuke, Gabriella Scherban, and Vlasenko Katy.
How do you bind a coloring book at home?
If you would prefer to create a bespoke DIY coloring book, perhaps for gifting or selling as a one-off product, you can print and bind your coloring books at home.
To do this, you will need paper, a home printer, and some basic binding tools or a book binding kit. There are several different methods of binding a book, such as simple ribbon stitching, saddle stitching, perfect binding, or why not experiment with Japanese binding, which results in beautiful stitched patterns across the spine of your book cover.
Is making a coloring book profitable?
According to the continuing growth of adult coloring book sales over the past few years, learning how to make a coloring book to sell could be well worth your time and creative efforts.
Coloring books for children also continue to be very popular, and while these may require carefully considered designs that cater to a range of ages, kids coloring books are also a worthwhile commercial undertaking for aspiring coloring book authors and publishers.
How much does it cost to publish a coloring book? According to Blurb, the cost of self-publishing a book can vary widely, and largely depends on how much of the work you are willing to take on yourself, rather than outsource.
While Blurb suggests a children’s book can cost anything between $1,500 to $6,000 to self-publish, there are ways of keeping your coloring book costs down.
Coloring books contain little to no text, making editing costs, if anything, very small. Potential expenses will be connected to sourcing images (which can be created by yourself if you’re on a budget), designing the layout of the book, book cover design, and printing the book.
You will also need to likely set aside budget for marketing your coloring book, which might include setting up a website and/or social media advertising.
Where can I create a coloring book for free?
You can make your own coloring book with no or very little cost using a free layout program, such as Scribus, or with online apps that provide template creation tools, such as Shutterstock Create or Canva.
If you’re on a tight budget, consider creating your own vector illustrations or line patterns that can be used throughout the coloring book design.
For a one-off gift book, you can also save money by printing your book using a home printer, and binding the book yourself.
How to Make a Coloring Book for Kids
The process of how to make a children’s coloring book is a little different to that of creating an adult coloring book.
First, you’ll need to do some research into what types of patterns and images will appeal to a young audience, as well as how to make a coloring book to sell to children and parents that is on-trend, fun, and appealing.
You will also need to carefully consider what age group you will design coloring books for, and what level of image complexity is best for your chosen age group.
Very young children may find complicated patterns too difficult to color in, which may impact the child’s enjoyment of the book.
As children develop they require a little more challenge and interest in books to hold their attention, meaning that coloring books for slightly older children might benefit from more detailed drawings or greater variety across the pages of your coloring book design.
A good idea for making a coloring book for kids is to test your market before you self-publish! Create a variety of illustrations and simple patterns that have different levels of complexity, and ask some willing children of different ages to try coloring in the designs!
From this, it will be immediately clear which designs are the best received by different age groups.
License these images via CraftyKittyArt, Oksana Ashurova, and Nadezda Barkova.
How to Make Your Own Coloring Book for Fun and Stress Relief
It certainly took the publishing industry by surprise when sales of adult coloring books surged in the 2010s, and the coloring book sector experienced another revenue boom during the Covid lockdown of 2020.
So, why is it that coloring books are so popular today?
While coloring books were traditionally relegated to the classroom, millennial adults have been rediscovering the joys of coloring, including the therapeutic benefits of this gentle creative exercise.
Coloring books allow the user to enter an almost meditative state by focusing solely on coloring, with a 2020 study reporting that coloring significantly reduced feelings of anxiety and depression in adults.
The benefits of creating your own coloring book, simply for fun or stress relief, is that you can tailor the color book completely to your own desires and tastes.
Adore retro-inspired paisley patterns? Transport yourself to the 1970s with a coloring book of vintage patterns.
Think cats are the next best thing since sliced bread? A feline-themed coloring book will keep you entertained for hours.
You can find hundreds of blank coloring book illustrations, with a whole range of themes, from vacation destinations to exotic animals, on the Shutterstock library.
License these images via Anton Vierietin, ABO PHOTOGRAPHY, and Anton Vierietin.
Where to Find Coloring Book Templates and Images
When starting out with how to make a coloring book, you’ll need both a book layout and images to fill the pages of your DIY coloring book!
A coloring book design can be created using an Adobe InDesign book template or, alternatively, set up a new Adobe InDesign book document with facing pages, and build up new coloring book pages as you go.
For images, you will need to find crisp, high-resolution line illustrations that will fill the space of each of your pages. Vector illustrations are ideal, as these offer you the best resolution, even when scaling up the image.
Make sure your illustrations are rendered in high-contrast black and white, and avoid designs that feature too much detail, too few white gaps, or grayed out areas.
To make your own coloring book and to ensure the best coloring experience for your audience, why not try using some of the vector images below in your coloring book design?
License these images via Sarah Freder, Darcy Doodle, and H Art.
Conclusion: Color Your Way to Self-Publish Success!
In this article, we’ve looked at how to make a coloring book to sell as a self-published book—or to give as gifts—for both adults and kids.
Coloring books offer such a simple, creative pleasure, and are a thoughtful present for stressed-out friends, or children in need of a rainy day activity!
If you’re looking for more book cover design ideas and self-publishing tips, don’t miss the tutorials and articles below:
License the images used in the cover collage via Anton Vierietin, ABO PHOTOGRAPHY, and Anton Vierietin.
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