Your first book is where everything comes together, so here is some gentle, practical advice to make it a pleasure rather than a puzzle. None of this is a rule. It is just what tends to work.
Invest in your cast first
The time you spend on your characters' reference pictures is the best time you will spend anywhere in Storybench. Strong, clear references make every later page easier and more consistent. Get your hero right before you write a single page, and the rest flows. Start with build your cast.
Start small
Your first book does not need to be forty pages. A short story of a handful of pages lets you feel the whole loop, writing, illustrating, designing, exporting, without a mountain of work. You will learn more from finishing a small book than from starting a big one.
Pick the page shape thoughtfully
The page shape stays fixed for the whole book, so it is worth a moment at the start. Picture the finished book in a child's hands, and choose the shape that fits. Square and portrait are safe, friendly defaults. See choosing your page shape.
Illustrate, look, and adjust
Do not expect the first picture on every page to be perfect. Illustrate a page, look at it, and if it is not quite right, illustrate again or tweak the art instruction. Re-illustrating is free to try as often as you like within your credits, and small adjustments add up to a book that feels truly yours.
Use templates when the page feels blank
If a page's layout is not coming to you, start from a ready-made template and adjust it. It is much easier to tweak a good starting point than to build from nothing. See designing a page.
Save the spreads for the big moments
A two-page spread is dramatic and costs no more than a single page. Use one for your story's biggest beat, the reveal, the wide-open landscape, so it lands with extra weight. See two-page spreads.
Enjoy the reward
When you flip through your finished book and see the same character smiling back on every page, in a look you chose once, that is the whole point. You built the cast once, and the story carried it the rest of the way. Take a breath, enjoy it, and then start your next book: your World is already waiting.