What you’ll be able to do

By the end of this you’ll have an actual picture book. Not a folder of stray images and a half-written story on your phone, an actual finished thing: a story you wrote (with help), pictures where the main character looks the same from the first page to the last, and a file that’s ready to print or share. You’ll also know, properly, what the rules say about AI-made pictures, because that bit trips people up more than the drawing does.

Honestly, the character staying the same across pages is the hard part. Everything else is fairly forgiving.

Before you start

Get a few things sorted in your head before you open any tool. First, whose world is this for? If it’s a book for a specific child, you need details about them: their favourite jumper, the dog’s name, whether they’re scared of the dark or obsessed with diggers. That stuff is gold. It’s what makes the story theirs and not a generic template with a name swapped in.

Second, you need the shape of the story. Not the whole plot necessarily, just the idea. A child who’s scared of the first day at school. A cat who won’t come down from a tree. You bring the ending too, if you can, because AI is decent at suggesting directions but rubbish at knowing which one will actually land with your child.

Third, pick a rough style. Watercolour, flat cartoon, something like a bedtime storybook. You don’t need to commit forever, but having a word for it (soft watercolour, bold flat colour, whatever) saves you a lot of back-and-forth later.

And fourth, and this matters more than it sounds like it should: what is this book for? A keepsake for one child, printed once or twice? Something to give as a gift? Or are you actually trying to publish and sell it? The rules and the workflow shift depending on the answer, especially around copyright and disclosure, so decide now rather than halfway through.

Get set up

You need two things really: a writing assistant, and an image generator. Both can be free or cheap, and for most people starting out that’s plenty.

For the writing side, ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini all work fine as a co-writer. They’re good at suggesting, trimming, reading back. They are not good at knowing your child, so you have to feed that in.

For images, Gemini’s newer model (branded Nano Banana 2) specifically lists character consistency as a feature, meaning it’s built to keep a character looking the same across separate images. That’s exactly the problem you’re trying to solve, so it’s worth trying first. A few things to know before you touch it: generating images needs you to be 13 or over (or your country’s equivalent age), but editing images, including anything you upload, needs you to be 18+. Downloads come out at 2K resolution if you’re on a paid Google AI plan, 1K if you’re not. Every image gets a visible watermark plus an invisible SynthID one baked in. None of that is a dealbreaker, just know it going in.

There’s also Gemini Storybook, which is a slightly different tool: you describe a story and it builds you a 10-page illustrated book with read-aloud narration, and you can chuck in photos, files or your own drawings. You can share it by public link from a personal account (Workspace and student accounts can’t share), or print it from the browser. Handy, but you can’t edit the text directly, only ask Gemini to change it, which is a bit like editing through a translator. It’s also 18+. And ten pages is short of Amazon KDP’s paperback minimum, so if you’re planning to publish properly, Storybook is more of a fast prototype than your final format.

ChatGPT’s image tool (Images 2.5 now) is on every tier, lets you upload an image and describe a change, lets you select just part of an image to edit, and has an aspect ratio picker. Also worth trying, especially if you’re already living inside ChatGPT for the writing.

Before you upload anything anywhere: don’t put real photos of a child into these tools to turn them into a character. Describe them instead. More on why further down.

Last thing here: decide early where it’s going to be printed, Amazon KDP or Lulu, and what size, because trim size and bleed need to be right from the start, not bolted on at the end. You’ll lay the pages out in Canva or Adobe Express, more on that below.

Try it yourself

Right, the actual workflow. Start with the assistant, not the pictures.

I am writing a picture book for [name/age]. The idea is [one sentence]. The main character is [description]. Ask me five questions about the child's world before you suggest anything, then give me three ways the story could go, each in three sentences. Do not write the story yet.

This does two things. It stops the AI leaping straight to a generic story, and it forces it to actually ask about the child first. Answer honestly, even the small stuff. And a bit of advice rather than a rule: keep it short enough to read aloud in one sitting, a line or two per page, with a repeated phrase the child can join in with. Tell the assistant that up front.

Once you’ve got a direction you like, work through the story page by page in conversation rather than asking for the whole thing in one go. It reads better that way, and you catch the wobbly bits earlier.

Then, before a single illustration, make the character sheet. This is the bit people skip and regret.

Create a character reference sheet for a children's picture book: [character description]. Show the character from the front, the side and the back, plus happy, worried and surprised faces. Plain white background, [style, e.g. soft watercolour], no text.

Keep that image. It’s your anchor for everything else. Now, for every single page:

Using the attached character sheet, illustrate page [n]: [scene]. Keep the character exactly as on the sheet: [repeat description]. Square, [style], leave the top third quiet for text, no words in the picture.

Attach the sheet every time. Repeat the written description every time, word for word if you can. Expect drift anyway, it happens, and you regenerate the pages that slip. One scene per chat helps too, oddly, rather than dumping the whole book into one long thread.

Once the pages are done, get the assistant to sanity-check the text itself:

Here is my story split into pages: [paste]. For each page, check it reads aloud well, flag any line longer than two sentences, and suggest one picture that shows something the words do not say.

That last part is the one people forget, the picture should be adding something, not just repeating the sentence next to it.

Then lay it out. In Canva, turn on File > Settings > Show print bleed before you place anything: it adds 0.125 in (3.175 mm) round every edge, and your pictures should run into it, text should stay well inside. When it’s done, download it with the file type set to PDF Print and tick “Crop marks and bleed”. If you’re printing somewhere other than Canva’s own print service, check that printer’s bleed requirements too, they don’t all trim the same. For the cover, Adobe Express has free children’s book cover templates, no card needed, and it’s fine to use one tool for the cover and another for the inside.

Then print it. Amazon KDP prints on demand: a colour paperback on premium colour ink can be anything from 24 to 828 pages, and there are square trims (8.25 x 8.25 in and 8.5 x 8.5 in) that suit picture books. If a picture goes to the edge of any page, KDP wants 0.125 in (3.2 mm) of bleed, and then the whole file has to be set up with bleed, not just that page. Colour costs more to print than black and white, so check KDP’s print options page for costs before you set a price. Lulu is the other obvious route, especially for one copy for a grandparent: it does children’s book formats including an 8.5 x 8.5 in square paperback and a US Letter hardcover in premium colour, you can print just for yourself or a friend, and it can also send the book to Amazon and other retailers. Check lulu.com/pricing for what your page count costs.

Check the result

Read it aloud. To yourself first, then to the actual child if you can manage it without giving the game away too early. You’ll hear clunky lines your eyes skated past on screen.

Then go through page by page and check the character actually matches the sheet: face, clothes, colours, all of it. This sounds obvious but it’s easy to approve a page on a quick glance and only notice three days later that the jumper’s gone from red to blue.

Check for text inside the pictures too, if you asked for “no words in the picture” and the AI has snuck in a wonky signpost or a misspelt shop name anyway. It happens more than you’d think.

Check the bleed. Nothing important, faces, hands, key details, should sit right at the edge of the page, because that’s exactly where a printer might trim it off.

And then, before you order ten copies or list it for sale: order one proof copy first. Just one. You will find something wrong with it, almost everyone does, and it’s a much cheaper lesson on a single copy than on a box of them.

If it doesn’t work

Character drifts between pages? Re-attach the sheet, repeat the description exactly, and keep to one scene per chat rather than a long running conversation. Hands or faces gone strange, extra fingers, melted expressions? Just regenerate that page. Don’t try to talk the AI out of it, it rarely fixes itself with more instructions.

Print looking soft or a bit blurry? If you downloaded at 1K rather than 2K, that’s a likely reason, it’s simply a smaller file than the page needs. Upscale it or regenerate at a larger size before it goes anywhere near a printer. KDP wants cover images at 300 DPI minimum, so check that before you upload.

If KDP rejects the file outright, it’s almost always trim size, bleed, or page count. A 32-page book, for instance, has to go out as a paperback rather than a hardcover, because KDP hardcovers need at least 75 pages. And on paperback it has to be premium colour, because standard colour needs 72 pages minimum. Check the file against KDP’s trim, bleed and margin page before you resubmit.

Now, the bit people skip. Don’t upload real photos of a child to turn them into a character, describe them instead, hair, favourite jumper, the dog. Storybook invites you to add family photos, and that’s your call, but it’s a call worth making on purpose after reading the terms, not by default. Google says human reviewers read a subset of Gemini chats and that reviewed chats are kept for up to three years, so turn off Keep activity or use a temporary chat for anything about a real child. If the book might ever be published, leave out surnames, schools, home towns, anything that pins the story to a real, findable child.

And on the copyright question, because people ask: UK law (section 9(3) of the CDPA) currently protects computer-generated work with no human author for 50 years, with the “author” being whoever set it up, usually whoever typed the prompt. The government’s own report of 18 March 2026, which followed its copyright and AI consultation, says the section is legally uncertain and proposes removing that protection while copyright keeps protecting work made with AI assistance. That’s a proposal, not law yet. The US Copyright Office takes a firmer line already (its January 2025 report): AI output is protected only where a human determined enough of the actual expression, such as creative arrangement or changes, and prompts alone don’t count. Putting AI material inside a larger human-made work doesn’t stop the human parts being protected. Practically, that means your words and your layout are the strongest part of your claim to the book, not the pictures alone. And if you do publish through KDP, you must disclose AI-generated text or images at the point of publishing, even if you’ve edited them heavily afterwards, and that includes both the cover and the pictures inside. AI-assisted work, where you made it and AI just brainstormed, edited or tidied, doesn’t need declaring. Either way, KDP makes you responsible for making sure nothing in the book breaks anyone else’s intellectual property.

Questions people ask

How do I keep the character looking the same on every page?

Make a character reference sheet first, showing front, side and back plus happy, worried and surprised faces, then attach it to every page prompt and repeat the written description word for word. One scene per chat helps too. Expect some drift anyway and regenerate the pages that slip.

Which AI tools should I use to make a picture book?

You need a writing assistant and an image generator. ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini all work fine as a co-writer, and Gemini's newer model (Nano Banana 2) specifically lists character consistency, so it's worth trying first. ChatGPT's image tool is on every tier and lets you upload and edit parts of an image.

Can I upload a photo of my child to make them a character?

Don't. Describe them instead: hair, favourite jumper, the dog. Google says human reviewers read a subset of Gemini chats and reviewed chats are kept for up to three years, so turn off Keep activity or use a temporary chat for anything about a real child.

Do I have to declare AI images if I publish on Amazon KDP?

Yes. If you publish through KDP you must disclose AI-generated text or images at the point of publishing, even if you've edited them heavily, and that includes the cover and the interior pictures. AI-assisted work, where AI just brainstormed or tidied, doesn't need declaring.

Why did KDP reject my picture book file?

It's almost always trim size, bleed, or page count. A 32-page book has to go out as a paperback, because KDP hardcovers need at least 75 pages, and on paperback it has to be premium colour, since standard colour needs 72 pages minimum.

Keep exploring

If the story side is the bit you want to get better at, have a look at “How to get AI to help me write my book”. If it’s the pictures pulling your interest more than the words, “How to get AI to create an image” goes further into that. And if this whole project started because you wanted to make something for a child in your life to learn from, “How to get AI to help my child learn” picks up that thread properly.

Sources and review notes

Prices are left out on purpose: they change, so check the KDP and Lulu pages above for what your page count and format cost. Nothing on this page is legal advice; if you plan to sell the book, read the copyright pages above yourself.

Review date: 2026-09-26