How I Used AI to Make My Grandson a Children’s Book for Less Than $200

A facts-only brief, written by a local AI model from this article in The Wall Street Journal, November 14, 2026. It may contain mistakes, and it is not the article: the full story is at wsj.com.

A hobbyist used Adobe’s Firefly to generate illustrations for a 32-page children’s book, paying $99 to BookBaby for printing and proof shipping. The author noted that hiring a professional artist for similar work can cost up to $20,000, excluding printing fees. This project utilized a $70 monthly Adobe subscription that provides 6,000 credits, with the user spending 3,600 credits on initial experiments and purchasing an additional 2,000 credits for $11.49 to finish the cover designs.

Background

• The creator previously paid an artist $3,600 to produce a dozen illustrations for a self-published Christmas book.
• Other AI platforms like Neolemon, OpenArt, and ChatGPT offer similar image generation capabilities, with consumer subscriptions ranging from $10 to $70 per month.
• The author reported that the software occasionally failed to follow specific instructions, such as correcting character heights or removing unwanted text, requiring multiple attempts and additional credit usage.
• The book features a story about a boy and a giant loon, with illustrations generated using reference photos of the author’s family and their cabin.

Read the full article at wsj.com

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