Getting Started

Start with an idea

Every book starts the same way, something you're curious about, passionate about, or simply want to learn by writing. There's no limit to where that idea can come from or where it can go: a fajita recipe collection is just as valid a starting point as a sci-fi thriller set in California. If you can describe it, Inkfluence can help you write it.

Turn your idea into a prompt

Your prompt shapes the entire book, it's the brief you're handing the AI. A few rules of thumb make a real difference to the result:

Generate your book

On the Inkfluence home page, type your prompt into the box and click `Create my book`. From there, Inkfluence takes over.

Explore the editor

Click `Edit` and everything you need lives in the left sidebar:

Check your story bible

Alongside your book sits its story bible, a living summary of everything that defines it: the plot, a synopsis, your characters, key objects, and any non-negotiables you set. It's all pulled directly from your original prompt, so it's worth a glance to make sure the details line up with what you had in mind.

Publish, if you're ready to share

Three ways to put your book in front of readers, no need to pick just one:

Export your finished book

Happy with the text, the cover, and your settings? Click `Export` in the top right. Choose PDF, KDP, EPUB, DOCX, or Audio. The window lists what your book will contain; click any line to change it before you download:

1. Page size and contents: the size best suited to your book, the table of contents, chapter numbering, and more.
2. Design: drop caps, page borders, numbered step badges, and more.
3. Branding: add your own credit text and a link to your website.
4. Header & footer: running header and footer, page numbers, and your copyright text.
5. About the author: your name, bio, and website, so readers know you.

Four ways to start

Click the purple `New Book` button at the top right, then pick whichever path matches where you are:

Writing a good AI prompt

The prompt shapes the entire book. A few rules of thumb:

• Be specific about the topic and the angle: "A beginner's guide to sourdough for busy parents" beats "a cookbook".
• Name the audience: who is this for? Their experience level changes the voice and depth.
• Skip the structure: AI handles the chapter outline. Just describe the book you want to read.

Steps

The `Chapters` panel is the first tab in the editor's left sidebar.

1. Open the book in the editor.
2. Click `Chapters` in the left sidebar (it is the first tab).
3. Click `+ Add` at the top right of the chapter list.
4. The new empty chapter opens with a "Start Your Chapter" prompt.
5. Click `AI Assist` for a first draft, or `Write manually` to type your own.

Reorder or rename

Delete a chapter

Hover over a chapter in the sidebar and click the `trash icon`. The chapter moves to the `Bin`, it is not gone forever.

Restore a deleted chapter

At the bottom of the chapter sidebar, expand the `Bin` section. Find the chapter you deleted and click `Restore`. It drops back into its original position.

Steps

On your Home tab, find the book you want to change.

1. Click the `⋯ menu` on the book card.
2. Pick `Duplicate` for a full, editable copy (useful before big experiments).
3. Or pick `Delete` to remove the book.

Steps

Choose `Picture book` in the format grid (under Illustrated books), or type a prompt that asks for one, e.g. "a picture book about a shy dragon learning to share, for ages 4 to 8".

In the idea box, describe the story and your main character's LOOK, not just their personality: hair, glasses, clothes, a pet and its colours. This description drives the character reference sheet that keeps your hero identical on every page. There is no separate age picker: write the age in the same box, e.g. "for ages 6 to 9".

Pick an `Art style` under the page count: Storybook (the default), Watercolour, Coloured pencil, Crayon, Ink and wash, Vintage, Comic or Felt and clay. The character sheet, every page and the cover are painted in it.

The AI writes the story as about 14 short spreads (set the number with `Page count`): a few read-aloud lines per page, sized to the age you wrote: a line or two a page for toddlers, up to a short paragraph from age 6.

Illustration runs alongside the writing: a character sheet is painted first, then a matching cover, then every page is illustrated from that sheet. Thumbnails appear as each page finishes, and both sides usually finish within a few minutes of each other. Illustrations are a paid feature (see Cost and limits below): on the free plan the story is written but the pages are not painted.

You land in the editor with an image on every page. Click `Preview` in the editor to open the `Book` view: your book as facing pages, the way a child will see it.

From your own images

Already have the finished pages, with the words drawn into the art? Make the book from them; nothing is generated and no illustration allowance is used.

Each image becomes one page, printed edge to edge in the PDF and the Amazon KDP paperback, with no chapter titles, running headers or page numbers on it. The book gets a title page and a copyright page like any picture book.

1. Start a picture book as usual: click `New Book` at the top of the app (in the menu on a phone) and choose `Make a picture book`, or pick the `Picture book` tile (under Illustrated books). At the top of the Picture book step, switch from `Write and illustrate it for me` to `I already have my pages`. The upload form takes the place of the idea box; switch back at any time and anything you typed is still there.
2. Type the title and, if you like, the author name.
3. Pick the page size, or let your images pick it: once you add them, the size follows their shape (square images get Square 8.5 x 8.5 in). The sizes are Square 8.5 x 8.5 in, Portrait 8 x 10 in and Large portrait 8.5 x 11 in. If you choose a size that does not match your images, their edges are cropped to fill the page; the step says so and offers the size that fits.
4. Drop in your images (PNG, JPG or WebP). A file that cannot be used (an iPhone HEIC photo, a damaged file, one over 50 MB) is listed by name with the reason, and the rest go in. They go in file-name order, so name them page-01, page-02 and so on. Drag a picture, or use its arrows, to change the order, and the cross to take one out.
5. Press `Create picture book`. The images upload at print quality and the book opens in the editor, one page per image.
6. The cover starts with your first page as its picture and your title on top. Change it, or add a back cover, in the cover designer (`Cover` in the editor), the same as any picture book.

Editing pages and re-illustrating

Each spread is a chapter in the editor: edit the text like any chapter. To redo one page's illustration, use `Image → Generate Illustration` in that chapter; it reuses the same character sheet, so the redrawn page still matches the rest of the book.

To use your own picture on a page instead (a photo, your own artwork, a scanned drawing), click the page's illustration in the editor and choose `Swap image` from the toolbar that appears, then pick the file. The new picture shows in the Book preview and the export, and no illustration allowance is used.

A swapped picture starts on `Whole`: shown uncropped with the text in its own band, which suits photos and any picture that is not square. Click `Fill` in the same toolbar to run it edge to edge with the text over it, the way AI art is painted (the edges are trimmed to fit the page).

If you have already added your own picture into a page (with `Image` in the sidebar, or an AI image), click that picture and choose `Use as page picture`. It becomes the page's artwork, replacing the old illustration in the Book preview and the export.

Cost and limits

On Creator and Premium, illustrating a book uses your monthly AI illustration allowance: one image per page, with the cover and character sheet included. On the free plan and for AppSumo lifetime members, picture books run on chapter credits instead: the whole book, text and paintings, at 2 credits per page, with the cover and character sheet included. The start screen shows the exact number for the page count you pick before you generate.

• Creator: 20 illustrations per month.
• Premium: 50 illustrations per month.
• Beyond your allowance: chapter credits cover extras (1 credit per image).
• AppSumo Tier 3: 50 illustrations per month; Tier 4: 100 per month, then 1 credit per image.
• Free plan and AppSumo Tier 1 and 2: 2 credits per page (one for the words, one for the picture); the cover and character sheet are included. A 14-page book is 28 credits; 12 pages fit in 25.

Exporting

Picture books print on the square 8.5" x 8.5" trim, the standard for printed picture books, including Amazon KDP paperbacks. Each page exports as a full page: the illustration with your text above or below it.

The `Amazon KDP` export prints edge to edge: every picture runs past the trim, and the words stay inside Amazon's margins. When you set up the paperback in KDP, under Print Options > Bleed Settings choose `Bleed (PDF only)`; the READ ME FIRST file in the download says the same. A short book is padded with blank pages to Amazon's 24-page minimum, and the export window tells you how many before you download. Amazon allows only a few blank pages, so a book of fewer than about 10 pages needs more pages before it can be printed; the export window says how many.

A page with no words (a book made from your own images) prints as the picture alone: no text band over it. Type words on a page in the editor and they print over the picture like any picture book.

The styles

Each tile shows the same scene painted in that style. Storybook is selected unless you choose another.

• Storybook: bright, soft and rounded. The classic picture book look.
• Watercolour: loose washes of colour on textured paper.
• Coloured pencil: hand-drawn pencil strokes with soft layered colour.
• Crayon: bold, textured crayon and pastel with a childlike charm.
• Ink and wash: lively pen lines with a light wash of colour.
• Vintage: a 1950s picture book with a faded print look.
• Comic: black outlines, bright flat colour and halftone dots.
• Felt and clay: handmade miniature figures, like a stop-motion film.

How the style is chosen

If your idea already names a style, for example "watercolour illustrations" or "drawn in crayon", the matching tile is selected for you. Click any tile to change it. Styles that are not on the list, such as realistic photos or anime, are painted in the Storybook style.

The style is set when the book is created, because the character sheet is painted in it and every page follows the sheet. To try a different style, create the book again with another tile selected.

Redoing one page

In the editor, `Image → Generate Illustration` opens with your book's style already selected, so a redrawn page matches the rest of the book. You can pick another style there for a single picture, but the page will be painted from the same character sheet.

Creating your coloring book

1. Click New Book and choose Coloring book (or describe one in the prompt box, like "a dinosaur coloring book for kids aged 4 to 8").
2. Give it a theme, who it is for, and optionally a recurring character so the pages feel like a set.
3. Choose a coloring style: Children's (bold smooth outlines and big open shapes), Bold and easy (extra-thick lines and a few large areas per page, good for large print and seniors) or Detailed (fine, intricate line art for adults and teens). It is picked from your idea to start with, so check it before you generate; every page, and any page you redraw later, uses it.
4. Inkfluence plans around 20 distinct scenes and draws each one as clean black-and-white line art in your chosen style.
5. Each page gets a short caption in the editor so you can tell pages apart. It stays off the printed page unless you choose to print your words (below).

Adding words under a design

Open any page in the editor and replace its caption under the artwork with your own words: a title for the scene, a short affirmation, a fact about the animal, a line for a child to trace. Delete the caption on any page you want to stay art only.

Then open Export and turn on "Print the words under each design" (under the page size). The words print centred under each design, inside the page margins and never on top of the line art. Pages with no text print as art only. The choice is saved with the book.

The words show in the book preview and in every export: PDF, KDP interior, EPUB and Word. Keep them short so they stay on the page with the design; a line or two reads best.

Printing and selling it

Coloring books export at a square 8.5" x 8.5" trim by default, and US Letter (8.5" x 11"), the common size for Amazon KDP coloring paperbacks, is in the page size list. Nothing sits on top of the line art; words you choose to print sit beneath it. Black-and-white interiors are the cheapest kind to print, which is why coloring books are a favorite first product for KDP and Etsy sellers.

After the title and copyright pages, the book has a "This book belongs to" page: a small circle of your first design, the words, and a line to write a name on, handy when the book is a gift. In the paperback it is a right-hand page with a blank back, so your first design still starts on a right-hand page. To leave it out, open Export, then `Page size & contents`, and switch `Belongs-to page` off. The choice is saved with the book.

Cost and limits

• Creator: 20 illustrations per month.
• Premium: 50 illustrations per month.
• Beyond your allowance: chapter credits cover extras (1 credit per image).

Creating your ABC or counting book

1. Click New Book and choose ABC & counting (or describe one in the prompt box, like "an ABC book of animals for toddlers").
2. Pick a theme. Say "alphabet" for a full A to Z, or "counting to 10" for a numbers book.
3. Every page gets its own hero subject from your theme and a short read-aloud line ("B is for Bear"), with the letter or number shown large on the page.
4. The sequence is guaranteed: an alphabet book always runs A to Z with no letter skipped, so it is always 26 pages. A counting book runs 1 upward and can be 5 to 20 pages; say the number in your idea ("counting to 15") or set it on the slider.
5. On the plan screen you can change the subject and wording of any page. The order stays fixed, because each page belongs to its letter or number.

Cost and limits

A full alphabet book is 26 pages plus a cover, so it uses more of your illustration allowance than most books; chapter credits cover anything beyond it (1 credit per image).

• Creator: 20 illustrations per month.
• Premium: 50 illustrations per month.