Before you even start your first draft, there’s an opportunity to think bigger. Your story isn’t just a standalone product—it’s a launchpad for something much greater.
The Secret to Monetizing Your Children’s Book Without Selling More Copies
Most authors think making money from a book means selling more copies—but that’s only part of the story. In this post, we explore how to monetize your children’s book beyond sales by turning your ideas, skills, and creative assets into new income streams.
Hidden Quest: Bringing Story Text into a Children’s Book App
Learn how to add clear, readable story text to a children’s book app using Unity and TextMesh Pro. This post supports the Hidden Quest video tutorial and walks through the core ideas behind positioning, styling, and managing narrative text across multiple pages.
From Subscribers to Sales: How Doreen Pena Earned Her First $500 With a Children’s Book App
Less than a month after turning her children’s book into an interactive app for iOS and Android, Doreen Pena made her first $500. Not through ads. Not through luck. And not through Amazon’s algorithm. This post is a continuation of Doreen’s journey, which began with a simple experiment: what if a children’s book didn’t stop […]
From Paperback to Interactive App: How Doreen Pena Grew 300+ Subscribers Using Her Book
Doreen, a self-published children’s book author, transformed her Amazon KDP book into an interactive story app using Unity and MailerLite — no ads, just free tools and smart strategy. Within weeks, her simple MVP app attracted over 300 new subscribers, proving what’s possible…
Hidden Quest: Speed Up Your Development with Prefabs in Unity
Updating your navigation buttons across dozens of scenes can be frustrating — especially when you have to change them one by one. Imagine having to update the same button across 30 pages of your interactive story app! That’s where Unity Prefabs come in. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to use Prefabs to save time, […]
Step-by-Step: Capture Emails in Your Children’s Story App with Free Tools
In this previous post – How Children’s Book Authors Can Build an Email List Using Unity and MailerLite; No Coding Needed -, I shared a simple way to build your audience using a free tool – MailingListSignUp for Unity Game Engine – I created. Following a recent update, I’ve now put together this step-by-step guide […]
Hidden Quest: From Picture Book to Playable Story – Adding Page Navigation in Unity
Learn how to create an interactive children’s storybook app in Unity by adding simple page navigation with C# scripting. This step-by-step Unity tutorial shows authors, illustrators, and beginners how to wire up buttons, use a lightweight script, and transform a traditional picture book into a playable story app. With just 10 lines of code, you’ll unlock seamless page-turning and bring your digital storybook to life.
Hidden Quest: From Picture Book to Playable Story – Animating a Children’s Tale in Unity
Hidden Quest is a short, original children’s story brought to life through 2D animation in Unity. In this step-by-step tutorial, I show how to transform a static picture book into an interactive experience – complete with animated characters, moving scenes, and simple UI effects. Whether you’re an author, illustrator, or creative storyteller, this guide will help you start turning your own stories into playful, story-based game apps.
From Storybook to Screen: The “Hidden Quest” Interactive Unity Project
What if your children’s book could respond, speak, sparkle – and let readers interact with your story in a whole new way?
That’s the idea behind Hidden Quest, a story I created and developed as a fully animated, interactive Unity project. Designed like a picture book but brought to life with voiceovers, read-along text, animated characters, and touchable scenes, it’s a complete demo of what a story-based game app can look like.
And here’s the exciting part: this project will be the foundation for a brand-new tutorial series I’m launching – designed especially for children’s book authors and illustrators who want to learn Unity and turn their stories into playable, interactive experiences.