How to plan a 24-page coloring book, page by page

Twenty-four pages sounds small until you sit down to fill them. The books that hold together are the ones that were planned as a whole first: one idea, one look, and a list of pages that each earn their place. This guide walks through the plan we use for our own built-in templates. Treat every number in it as a starting point you can change.

Start with one sentence

Before you think about pages, write the idea in one sentence that names who the book is for and what ties it together. "A baby dragon's cozy day, from breakfast to bed" is a book. "Cute animals" is a folder of pictures. The sentence gives you a test for every page later: does this picture belong in that sentence?

If the book has a main character, decide now what they look like and write it down: species, size, body shape and one signature item, such as a knitted scarf. That short description is what keeps page 3 and page 19 looking like the same character. Our guide to keeping a character consistent covers this in more detail.

Decide the page mix

Not every page has to be a finished picture. Our built-in coloring templates use a mix of roughly 70% coloring pages, 20% "finish the picture" pages, where half the drawing is given, and 10% "draw your own" pages with a single prompt inside a big empty frame. For 24 pages that works out like this:

The open pages give a child somewhere to make the book their own, and they break up a long run of similar pictures. If the book is for very young children, you may prefer all coloring pages. That is a fine choice; the mix is a habit of ours, not something research has settled.

Write the page list

Now list every page, one line each, before anything is drawn. A line should describe one scene a child could recognise at a glance: "dragon eating pancakes at a small round table" rather than "breakfast". Then read the list from top to bottom and look for these problems:

• Two pages that would produce nearly the same picture. Change the pose, the place or the framing of one of them.
• A page that does not fit the one-sentence idea. Cut it or swap it.
• Scenes with lots of tiny things in them. Small objects become small regions, which are hard to color.
• Anything that needs words, numbers or logos inside the picture. Keep text out of the artwork.

A gentle order helps too. Many of our templates move through a day or a night, so the book has a shape even without a story. Another approach is to start with the simplest pictures and let the scenes grow slightly busier towards the end.

Plan the pages around the pictures

A finished book usually has a little front and back matter. Our layout library puts a title page first and a "This book belongs to" page second, and ends with a "meet the characters" or draw-your-own page. These pages count towards your total, so decide early whether they are part of the 24 or added on top.

Home printing

For a book printed at home, single-sided printing is the simple answer to markers soaking through: each picture gets its own sheet and the back stays blank. The page count and the sheet count are then the same. Our home printing guide covers paper size and scale.

A paperback on Amazon KDP

A printed paperback has pages on both sides of every sheet, so many coloring book makers put a blank page behind each picture. That doubles the picture pages. With 24 pictures, 2 front matter pages and 1 back matter page, our page count planner gives 51 pages, rounded to 52 because KDP needs an even count. KDP's minimum for 8.5 x 11 in on white paper is 24 pages.

Review before you print

Once the pictures exist, look at every page at its real printed size, not zoomed on a screen. Lines that look crisp on a monitor can merge on paper, and a region that seems roomy can turn out to be a sliver. Our own production checklist asks for exactly this: test prints with the crayons, pencils or markers the book will actually meet.

1. Print three or four representative pages at 100% scale.
2. Color part of each one with the tools a child will use.
3. Note any region that was too small, any line that broke, and any picture that was hard to recognise.
4. Fix those pages, then print the whole book once before you share or sell it.

If you want a ready-made start, borrow one of the starter ideas on our kids book ideas page. In Kids Books Maker you can start a coloring book from your idea, edit the page plan, check each page and redraw the ones that miss.