Welcome to your Story Studio

Welcome. Your Story Studio is where you create personalized storybooks for the families at your organization. You author a book once, and every family who visits your page makes their own child the star of it. This page walks you through what that means and what to expect, no experience needed.

What the Story Studio is

The Story Studio (the studio, for short) is the tool you use to build storybooks for your families. It lives at your organization's own web address, and you sign in with your email, no password to remember. You'll spend most of your time on the Dashboard, which the studio's header labels Studio. The Dashboard is your home base: it lists your storybooks and links to everything else.

Who uses the studio

The studio is for you and your teammates, teachers, directors, and staff at your organization. Families never see it. They see a separate, friendly page (your storefront) where they pick a storybook and personalize it for their own child. You do the authoring; families do the personalizing.

You may not be the only author. Anyone you invite can create and publish storybooks too. Team members come in two roles: an owner and an editor. Both can author books and send invitations. The one difference is that owners can add story credits (the funds that pay for creating your books); editors ask an owner to top up when the balance runs low.

What a "storybook" is

A storybook is the reusable book you author once. Think of it as a master version that every family personalizes. You write the story, plan the characters and places, and confirm the art, then each family who visits your page creates their own copy, with their own child written in and drawn into every page.

A finished storybook is a cover plus ten illustrated story pages, eleven full-page, square pictures in all. The books are printed as square hardcover or softcover books and delivered to the family's door.

The stand-in child

While you author, the main character is played by a placeholder called the stand-in child. This surprises new authors, so it's worth saying plainly: the stand-in always appears as a boy in a bright, signature-colored shirt, even if your story is about a girl. That's completely fine. The stand-in is never in the finished family book. Every family replaces it with their own child.

So when you review the art, you're confirming the art STYLE, the look and feel of the illustrations, not the child's face. In the studio you'll see the stand-in marked with a purple READER pill and a reminder that it's a stand-in only, and to confirm the art style, not the child.

The journey ahead

Creating a storybook moves through a handful of steps, shown across the top of the studio as a progress strip. You describe what you want, then a draft of the writing and the art is ready for you to review at each stage. You're always in control: nothing moves forward until you approve it.

1. Describe your idea. You start from the Dashboard, the button reads ＋ Create your first storybook for your first book, and ＋ Create a storybook after that, then answer a few friendly questions in the studio to shape the story.
2. Approve the plan. You review and approve the Story world (the book's plan, its summary, cast, and settings), then pick your story's voice, then approve the Outline (the page-by-page beats) and the Page text (the finished words families will read).
3. Approve the art. You confirm the Cast art (the style guide for your characters and places), then the Page art (the finished illustrations).
4. Publish. Once everything checks out, you publish the storybook and it appears on your page for families to personalize.

One step to expect: right after you approve the Story world, a step called 🎙 Pick your story's voice appears. It's quick, but it isn't skippable, you'll pick a voice before you can open the Outline review or the page text. It sets how the story reads aloud.

Where to go next

• How storybooks work, a closer look at storybooks, the stand-in child, and how a family personalizes your book.
• Studio overview, a tour of the Dashboard, the progress strip, and the tools you'll use along the way.

When you're ready, head to your Dashboard and press ＋ Create your first storybook (it becomes ＋ Create a storybook once you've made one). You've got this, and every step guides you as you go.