Build Your Village - Part 3 - Publishing

I hope you are enjoying this peek into the creative process!  This has all come about very organically and serendipitously with someone who knows someone who knows someone lending a hand and it’s been magical.  The typical timeline to get a children’s book published is at least one to two years.  I’m making it happen in about 7 months, and it’s my first book.  Pigs really can fly!    

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Publishing 

Starting out, this was the area I was least confident in.  I knew about the “Big 6” - Random House, Penguin, HarperCollins, Simon & Schsuter, Hachette, and Holtzbrink - but you need an agent to get into those, and I don’t have one of those (yet!).  That left the option of self-publishing.  The “Big 2” for that are Amazon KDP and IngramSpark, but neither of those have super great reviews regarding the colors in their picture book printing, and the illustrations are a large part of ABC, Run With Me: Flying Pig Marathon. 

As I researched and learned as much as I could about self-publishing, my brother happened to run into a former colleague who had written a book, chatted to her about my latest venture, and connected us.  It was a pretty great, pretty helpful phone call!  My brother has continued to be out there hustling for me, helping me with research, and acting as a sounding board for ideas and plans.  He’s very good at finding details others may have overlooked!    

Some of the research I have done is to find local publishing companies, in an attempt to keep the whole process very “Cincinnati.”  It has been a fascinating world to explore!  Everyone I have talked to and met with has been incredibly kind, open to answering questions, and easy to communicate with.  Unfortunately, with the quick timeline, my stubborn insistence on hardcover, and current astronomical printing costs, local is not an option for this first book.  However, I have found some other printers in the United States that are able to print on the much abbreviated timeline and at a more reasonable cost.  

Things I have been surprised to learn about book printing: 

• Board books are INSANELY expensive to print, but due the mass quantity the big publishers can print them in and the large overhead these big publishers can afford, are often able to be sold for less than self-published books. 

• How many different kinds of paper there are.  Luckily, many of the publishers I have talked with have very kindly sent me examples of books they have printed so that I can see and feel the difference.  

• The things you have to think about - font size, font color, line spacing, glossy or matte, paper weight, type of printer used, dust jacket or no dust jacket, ISBN numbers, barcode placement, price point vs. cost to print, image pixel size, page numbers or no page numbers, the dedication, the spine design, should the cover image wrap around to the back or should each be standalone, the number of pages need to be a multiple of 4 and ideally at least 36, shipping cost, shipping time, number of books to order, timing of release vs. printing schedule, there is a Christmas rush for book printers (who knew?!)....

• This list continues to grow!

Keep running with me,

❤Kelsey