How StoryPals works, from a name to a printed book
A walkthrough of making a personalised picture book with StoryPals: the brief, the story, the illustrations, editing every page, and printing.
StoryPals turns what you already know about your child into a picture book they will sit through. Here is the whole process.
1. The brief
You tell us who the book is for: their name, age, pronouns, and what they look like. Age sets the reading level, which controls how many words go on each page and how big the type is printed.
Then the important part, what they are obsessed with this week. Rockets, Paddington, diggers, the ocean. This is the engine of the story, not decoration.
Finally, what you would like the book to teach. Being brave, sharing, brushing teeth, the planets. It is optional, and it stays hidden inside the adventure so the child never feels taught.
2. The story
The story is written to your brief at the right reading level, with a shape that works out loud: a warm opening at home, a call to adventure built from your child's interest, a couple of escalating beats, a wobble where the lesson matters, a triumph, and a cosy return.
Every page gets a word budget based on the child's age and the page layout, so no page ends up crowded and no page ends up empty.
3. The illustrations
You choose from eight art styles, each with its own lettering and paper colours. Optionally you upload up to four photos so the hero resembles your child, translated into the chosen style.
Illustrations are generated with no text in them. Words are set afterwards in real type, either on a soft gradient over the picture or on the book's paper colour, so they are always sharp and always readable.
4. Editing
Nothing is final. You can rewrite any page by hand or ask for a rewrite ("make it rhyme", "add the dog"), change a page's layout, redraw a picture, pick an earlier version, reorder pages, add pages, and change the art style or colour palette for the whole book.
5. Reading and printing
Read it on screen straight away as two-page spreads. When you are happy, order a printed copy as a stapled softcover or, for the longer adventures, a hardcover.
The print files are built to real specification: 0.125 inch bleed, a safety margin so nothing important is trimmed, extra margin near the spine, a page count padded to what the binding requires, and a wraparound cover with a correctly calculated spine.
Languages
Books can be written in English, Spanish or French. Every word inside the book follows the choice, including the title, the dedication and the back cover.
What it costs
The story, the cover and the first two pages are free. Unlocking every illustration is $4.99, and printed books are $29.99 for a softcover or $59.99 for a hardcover with free US delivery.
Make a book about the thing they love
Free to write and read on screen. Printed hardcovers from $59.99.
Keep reading
- Short bedtime stories: what to do on the nights you have nothing leftA three-minute book that both of you enjoy beats a twenty-minute one nobody finishes. How to make short reading time count, from a parent who often only has short reading time.
- Why your toddler skips pages (and what to do about it)Toddlers do not skip pages because they dislike reading. They skip pages because nothing on that page belongs to them yet. Here is how to fix it.
- What to look for in a personalised book, age by ageWord counts, story shapes and formats that suit children at 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 and 7-9, so the book you order actually gets read.