Our mission
At Three Paws Publishing, we believe a good children's book can change the way a child sees the world, and the way the world sees that child.
Our mission is to help authors and illustrators bring stories to life that teach children inclusiveness, kindness, compassion, courage, understanding, forgiveness, gratitude, resilience, and service, along with empathy, belonging, acceptance, respect, honesty, friendship, hope, and the joy of being exactly who you are.
Our work began with Daisy, a happy, curious, loving puppy who just happens to have three legs instead of four. Her stories reflect what we have learned through decades of work in health care, schools, and therapy settings: differences are not deficits, every child deserves to see themselves in a story, and the helpers are always there if we know where to look.
We commit to:
Partnering with creators. We support authors and illustrators from first idea to finished book, honoring their voice and vision while helping them shape stories that are honest, warm, and meaningful to young readers.
Telling stories with purpose. Every book we publish carries a message that helps children understand themselves and others, face hard things with courage, and treat every living being with dignity.
Celebrating every kind of child. We seek out stories that reflect children of all abilities, backgrounds, and families, so that no child feels left out of the pages.
Going beyond the book. We extend each story with teacher guides, games, drawing activities, and classroom resources, so the lessons on the page become lessons for life.
Bringing stories to the community. Through school visits, book readings, hospital and senior community visits, and appearances with Daisy, our therapy dog, we carry our message of kindness and connection directly to the people who need it most.
Serving with heart. We measure our success not only in books sold, but in the children who feel seen, the families who feel supported, and the communities that grow a little kinder.
Services for authors
Three Paws helps authors take a picture book from idea to finished series, and then past the last page.
The story
Shaping the manuscript itself, page by page.
Story development
Work the idea into a picture book arc, from the first draft through the final spread.
Character development
Build characters with clear looks, voices and histories that hold steady across a book.
Story continuity
Check that names, details and events line up from page to page and from book to book.
Readability and read-aloud checks
Test every spread for how it sounds out loud, so the words are easy to read to a child.
In-house illustrator
Our own illustrator brings your characters and spreads to life, working alongside the story as it takes shape.
The series
Growing one book into a world readers come back to.
Book and series development and branding
Plan a series and give it a consistent look, voice and identity across every title.
Web design
A home on the web for the book or series, with the books, characters and team in one place.
Beyond the book
Companions that carry the story into classrooms and homes.
Book and character games
Games built around the story and its characters for children to play.
Educator guides and apps
Classroom guides and interactive apps that help teachers use the book with students.
Coloring pages
Printable pages featuring the book's characters and scenes.
Book trailers
Short videos that introduce the book to readers, families and schools.
Theme songs
Original songs based on the book and its characters.
See it:Big Storm, Brave Heart(opens in a new tab)All songs(opens in a new tab)
Have a picture book in mind?
Tell us about your story and what you need help with.
Three steps, three paws
The studio follows a book from first draft to finished read-through. Here is what it does at each step.
Step 1: Write
Draft the book the way a reader meets it: one page at a time.
Page-by-page manuscript
Each page holds its text and its art direction side by side, so the words and the picture are planned together.
Cast
Keep every character in one place, so names, looks and voices stay consistent from the first page to the last.
Teacher's guide beats
Mark the moments a classroom guide will build on while you write, not after the book is finished.
A shelf for every title
Start a new book, change its settings, and archive or restore titles without losing any work.
Step 2: Check
Picture books are read out loud. The studio checks for that.
Read-aloud meter
Scores each spread for rhythm, syllables and stress, with a rubric and common fixes when a line trips the tongue.
Story checks
Page count, word budget, story arc, the refrain, style flags and find-and-replace, all in one panel.
Cold reads and open decisions
Track what first-time readers said and every choice still waiting on the team, so nothing gets lost.
Step 3: Share
Bring the whole team into the same book.
Read it aloud
A full-screen reading view that turns the pages like the finished book, for read-throughs together.
Team and invites
Email a teammate a link to set their password. Roles, logins and an activity log show who changed what.
Take the manuscript with you
Copy the whole manuscript or download it as a text file to send to an editor or agent.
In the works
What we're building next, so a book can go from the studio straight to print and to the screen.
Print-ready PDF for KDP
Export a finished book at the right trim size with bleed, ready to upload to Amazon KDP.
On-screen read-along
Turn a finished book into a read-along that families and classrooms can follow on a screen.