Q&A for How to Publish a Children's Book

The sections were probably written by different people with different perspectives. Illustrations are definitely a must for children's books, the disagreement is just on whether you should take care of them yourself or have the publisher take care of them. If you're self-publishing, you'll need to take care of it yourself, probably by hiring a professional illustrator (unless you're capable of doing it well yourself). If you're doing traditional publishing, it's up to you, but know that the publisher might want to have some say and could reject the illustrations you submit and prefer to hire an illustrator for the book themselves.

For manuscripts, you should stick to something basic, like arial or courier.

If you are concerned that the content of your story is inappropriate for children, consult friends or family members with children for their opinion. If you want to know if the writing is suitable for children, test it on some children and see how they react. Ask them for their opinions on your story.

The manuscript is just the text of the novel. A manuscript is a text that has not yet been published.

Most publishers will have websites with contact information. A Google search is a good place to start.

Typing a children's book is usually the best way to go, unless the book is heavy in illustrations. If your book is picture-heavy, with not a lot of text, you most likely want to map out where the text would go. In many children's books, that leans towards the ideal of "a picture is worth a thousand words," any words that still survive can be arranged in an eye-pleasing manner, so it is better to write your story. However, if your book errs on the side of "reading exercises the mind more than looking at pictures," you most probably want to type your work so that it will be easier to edit, and will be faster in general to make.

Most publishers have a specific format. Consult their guidelines before submitting your work to them.

If you use other's work, you must clear it through them because of copyright laws. If you use your own, and they include identifiable people in them, you must also clear it through them.

Send the book to a publisher. There are lots of publishers you can send your book to. Look online to find one that suits you.

Submit it with illustrations.

Go ahead, it's a great idea. However, children identify with the characters they read about, and most children really aren't concerned yet with love and sex and relationships, let alone with these gender roles and sexual/romantic preferences. But since it's a very normal and natural thing, so treat it as such. Write about a princess and all her adventures; make her love a girl, but don't make it the entire focus of the story. If you shine less of a light on it, it will be considered no big deal. And that's the overall goal, after all.