Want to publish your book? Here is some quick advice.
HERE ARE THE ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONS IN THE MOST RECENT EMAIL INQUIRY:
A good way to test a story line is to determine who your target audience is and read it to them. Often elementary schools will welcome a budding artist into classrooms to get feedback.
Go to a bookstore and envision where your book would be shelved and look through your competition.
A standard picture book is 32 pages, including one for copyright, one for title page, so in essence truly 30 pages of "story".
Self publishing is only good if you are a hustler and can get out and sell your own book.
Absolutely spend the money on an editor and a good designer so your book looks like it came from a big New York publishing house.
Traditional publishing is generally done by getting an agent.
Getting an agent who sells can be tricky. Follow agents who sell in your proposed genre on twitter and see what they are tweeting for. Many times they let on to what they want to represent.
Go to writing conferences where those agents are presenting and reserve a spot to pitch. Face to face is often the best.
Crowd funding can be tricky. If you have a large online social media presence people can find out that way. It can seem spammy if you constantly tell your friends to donate.
