So I've been telling my kids a series of stories that I made up. One thing has lead to another and I've now actually created a whole world full of characters who go on adventures. It's really neat and my kids love them.  Anyway anyone who ever has heard me tell one has advised me to write one down and get published. I've never even considered this  before but if I could turn this  into a little side income that would be awesome.    I've asked my art skilled brother in law if he'd be willing to illustrate but that's as far as I've gotten.  What do I need to do? Do I need to take any steps before I start writing? I literally have no idea how to get started others than write and illustrate the stories.

The Googles is your friend.

Sounds like you may be on to something, even if it just funds your kids collage that would be really cool. I think it is one of the hardest markets though.Wish I could help but just writing this response taxes my brain. Good Luck!

It's been a good few years since I worked with children's book publishing, but they'd get flooded with ideas and manuscripts. They'd have a fictional employee respond with "thanks for your submission, but...".

Also, unless you're really established, most publishers prefer to match the story with the illustrator of their choosing. Additionally you're unlikely to make bank with kids books even if they do publish your work.

You might very well be the next J K Rowling, but it's not an easy business to get into and harder to make decent money from it.

I'd try to connect with an editor (preferably one who had worked with children's book) and go over it with them. Publishing is a very well-connected world, they might be able to put you in touch with someone willing to consider your work.

There's also self-publishing, but then the marketing and promoting is up to you, and that's obviously critical and no small feat.

I don't want to piss on any parades, but it's not as easy to get into as one might think. Again, this is my own (rapidly aging) experience. Good luck!

My sister is an illustrator for children's books.

Having a finished book is half the work. The other half is connecting with industry people online and in person at conferences. They also want to see your social media following.

There's some Facebook groups for the illustrators and I imagine for writers as well. I'd start there.

If you want an excellent quick read on taking on a project like this, get a copy of Do the Work by Steven Pressfield. (The audio version is awesome and performed by Pressfield)

The book has a cult following with writers and artists.

I appreciate the replies guys. If I was able to turn it into something great but I'm not expecting anything really. My kids are going to love it one way or another but like a poster said I'm not opposed to the stories paying for collage or even a few textbooks when they got older.

I have almost no creative writing experience so this could be painful but I think it going to give it a shot and see how it translates to paper. I've got no skin in the game so to speak save  domain name.

Let's see where this goes. How cool would it be to show my girls a copy of one of their childhood stories on a bookstore shelf someday?

Im planning to publish my book through createspace.com im about 75 pages into my 100 page book, should have it done by the end of summer and hope to have it published by this fall. Im not an author or a writer, just writing a how to guide for one of my hobbies.

You have to do all of the work yourself, ie writing, editing, uploading, creating a cover, selecting page sizes, paper, color vs black and white, etc... but it doesn't cost you anything so if you only sell one copy to yourself its no loss other than your time. They are a print on demand company so will print  just one book or can print tens of thousands.  They offer them for sale on their website or through amazon, you can ad B&N and a handful of other places but that extra service will cost you money.

Obviously you are responsible for advertising and marketing your book. But if you're only looking to sell a couple hundred copies you can easily do that via facebook and some posts on social media.

For reference my 100 page, 6"x9" black and white book with color cover, if sold for $12 on amazon would net me $4 of profit. I can also buy the books directly from them as the author for $2.50 a piece. Goal is to sell 100 copies!