Journey from Idea to Print #4
by admin on November 15th, 2010
filed under Author, Books, Illustrator, News, Publishing
Who would have thought that a bedtime story that was made up on the fly for a little girl who wouldn’t go to sleep would become a lovely story to be shared with other children and families and quite possibly with other little girls and boys who would not go to sleep? Anastasia Valentine quite literally made the story up and when her daughter fell asleep, went to write it down on the computer. After a few hours of writing and some tired fingers, the first draft of Crocodiles and Crumpets was born.
Crocs (as we affectionately call it) waited a year or so before we decided it was ready to be shared with the public. We started the editorial and illustration process and went through a several iterations of the story to further define the characters, tweek the story line and bring the beautiful illustrations together with the text. This is how our books start to take shape. You can see our written and scribbled on (and more than likely a beverage or two spilled on) manuscript that made its way into the hands of our editor Melanie Pagé and Jo-Anne Guindon to get the process started.
A year later and with Anastasia about to give birth any day the book was finally done! Jo-Anne provided all of the illustrations in digital format including the cover and inside cover designs and Anastasia completed the layout of the actual story using her text combined with Jo-Anne’s illustrations. 
We receive a proof of the book prior to the volume print which allowed us to make some minor changes. In this case we tested the book on some local families and there was a demand to increase the font to improve late night readings so we increased the font and changed the cover slightly. Anastasia and Jo-Anne signed off on the proof and requested changes and sent it off to print again. Then we waited…and we waited…
We choose to get our books printed overseas using eco-friendly soy based ink. This keeps the costs down as well as providing us with a product that is not only extremely high quality but environmentally safe. The downside to this is that it takes an awfully long time for the end product to travel to our office here in Canada.
And then it arrives! It is not quite as glamorous as you may think. The books arrive on a skid all packaged up and looking quite nondescript. Despite the look of the shipment, it is quite exhilarating to finally see the final product! The books are unpacked, inventoried and quickly shipped out to reviewers and to those who placed pre-orders to get their copy ASAP!
We are now counting down the days to our launch event and gearing up to expand our distribution, and partner with some great companies to increase awareness of our book and also encourage and promote literacy amongst young people in the local and greater community. This is the truly exciting part and its only the beginning!
Stay tuned for more as the My Pempek Publishing adventure continues!
