My adventures in self-publishing a tactile children's book. Advice given, advice, questions, thoughts and comments welcome!

If anyone is thinking more "Pat the Bunny" or "Tails" than "Goodnight Moon" then this is your discussion group. The only books my two girls wanted me to read to them on a consistent basis were these two books. Don't get me wrong, "Goodnight Moon" and "Madeline" were favorites, but they always seemed to be second choice to the ones that they could participate in. Since I do not have the skills to compete with these two titans, I chose to the touchy-feely route. Material and moving parts can speak more and better to a child than I can.

The biggest problem that I encountered along the way was finding a printer. Forget finding a publisher for this stuff until you have come out with several books by yourself and shown that they are a sell-able product. I chose to self-publish after wasting 3 years chasing publishers. I worked with several printers in China, but the saying, "lost in translation" didn't come close. I lost at least a year trying to find someone I trusted and that understood what I was trying to create. I finally found a guy from the UK that was a half owner of a company in China. He has been very helpful and most importantly, responsive.

Next, I had to find a paper engineer. Who knew that was even a profession! Luckily, the printer knew a great one, and it has been fantastic. This guy has designed pop-up cards that are sold by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We send him the art work, he tweeks it, then builds a mock-up, complete with materials and working parts and sends it back to us for approval. Then he meets with printer and it is sent off to China to have a proof made and sent back to us. He is not cheap, but you get what you pay for. Should my first batch of book sell out, then his cost is defrayed on the second printing.

All my materials have to go through independent test labs to make sure I am not poisoning any little children. Very important aspect to all this and not cheap either.
The printer and importer sent all the pages, inks, materials and more off to these labs for me.

You need an importer when you get your books printed overseas. The printer put me in touch with a solid company in California. So far so good, but our books are stuck in customs at this point, so I can’t give rave reviews as of yet. I will know more in a few days.

While all this is going on I took the 10 samples the printer sent me and started mailing them out to different online retailers that might have an interest in carrying them. I got several takers and the rest I have never heard back from, despite phone calls and emails. Their loss! (Always stay positive). I went on a road trip up to stores in Virginia with my sample and found quite a number of different stores that agreed to carry it. A tactile baby book covers several categories, gift stores, book stores and team stores. (My books are a niche, being based on mascots of individual schools).


More in the next post...