Mike Motz - Children's Book Illustration Services

The information contained on this page will give you the information that you'll require to make an educated decision on the publishing method for your book and could possibly save you thousands of dollars in the process. It will also save you hours of time and anxiety trying to decide which publisher's services and publishing packages are better than others. I have no affiliations with any publisher using any of these publishing methods, the only thing that I have to gain from offering this information here is to possibly spend less time repeating the exact same information to each new client. The production of a book is virtually the same in each publishing method, the major differences are how much you pay to publish your book and at what point you are expected to pay.

1. Print-On-Demand publishing Type 1 (recommended)

Pros:
- Second lowest initial publishing setup fee at approximately $250.00US (you have to create the print-ready artwork yourself to get the lowest price of $0.00)
- your books are printed quickly
- very low print cost per copy, even at low print volumes
- you can sell your books from the new bookstore that I'm developing, or from your very own website if you have one, or both. Here's a sample page of one of my client's books for sale.

How It Works:
One of my client's recently introduced me to a publisher that had printed quite a few of her books. I contacted the publisher for some children's book print samples that they had done (which nicely included one of the books we had illustrated for her) and was very pleased in the quality of the samples. Usually with a price per printed book as low as they offer, the author has to purchase in volumes of 500-1000 copies. This publisher offers low prices on as little as 25 books printed with even greater savings on larger print orders.

How it works is that once the illustrations have been completed and you have received them from me, you would then mail the CD of illustrations, your manuscript, and your ISBN to the publisher. The publisher would then take the illustrations and text from your manuscript and create the design of the book and the print-ready artwork. The price for this service is approximately $250.00US and is determined in a specific quote for your book from the publisher by the amount of work involved (the amount of $250.00US was derived from the work required to design and create the print-ready artwork for a 28 page 8.5" x 8.5" book). Once your book has been designed the publisher will send you a proof (layout) of how the book will look before it goes to print. From this proof you will be able to suggest changes if required.

After your books are printed and shipped to you, you can sell them locally, nationally or internationally through my website (or your own website, or both). Each customer pays for your book through a PayPal link on your webpage and PayPal places the funds in your PayPal account and then notifies you of the purchase. You then mail a copy of your book to the customer to the address that they have supplied PayPal. It's very simple, especially to those of you that have used the PayPal system previously.

There is a strong desire by authors to get their books listed in the Amazon or Barnes and Noble databases. Please remember that a book being listed in these databases (along with hundreds of thousands of other books) is NOT being promoted and that a book buyer will not be able to find your book unless they know the name of your book to type into the database's search engines. In which case it makes as much (if not more) sense to promote and sell your books through my website or your own website.

Last Word on Print-On-Demand publishing Type 1:

To me this way of publishing makes the most sense because:

- you are getting your books printed at a low price which means that you'll have more flexible on the price that you list your book at.
- No large inventory required. You only print the amount of books that you need.
- the setup fee (approximately $250.00 compared to $1,000+) to create the print-ready artwork for your book is the lowest (that I've heard of) in the Print On Demand industry.

2. Print-On-Demand publishing

Pros:
- the publisher does all of the production (print-ready artwork and printing) work while offering optional add-ons like posters and business cards. Books are also allocated an ISBN and entered into the Amazon and Barnes and Noble online bookseller databases, and the author is hand-held through the entire publishing process. The author just has to send a package to the Print-On-Demand publisher containing the book's illustrations and manuscript and then is required to approve an electronic file of the print-ready artwork before publishing.
- while an upfront pre-publishing fee (around $1,000) costs you money it partially subsidizes the printing costs of your book , which means the book buyer can purchase your book at a lower price (a good thing) or you can increase your royalty figure per book.

Cons:
- expensive pre-publishing fees on some "premium" publishing packages that have features that you may not require or may not be worth the additional cost. You should scrutinize the features of publishing packages before purchasing one.
- can take months to get your book published (compared to do-it-yourself) because of backlog of books waiting to get published with the publisher.

How It Works:
This is the most highly promoted method of Print-On-Demand publishing that self-publishing authors see today. It's appeal stems from the fact that the author can use one of these "one-stop-shop" publishers, and without having to do much other than look at an electronic "proof" (to approve the final look of their book), come away with a nice-looking children's picture book. The author doesn't have to find a graphic designer to create print-ready artwork or compare the quotes of different book printers, because those things are all under one roof with a Print-On-Demand publisher, but, like everything nowadays, there is an additional cost for this convenience.

With this publishing process, the author begins by searching on the web through the various Print-On-Demand publishers (referred to as "PODs" from now on) and their publishing packages. In most cases the least expensive publishing packages have all the features required to result in a good-looking childrens book. In my opinion, the majority of PODs make quite a bit of their money from upselling uneducated authors on their "premium" packages, so it is up to the author to review and compare the features of each publishing package so that they make the most cost-effective choice. By no means am I saying that PODs are crooks, because just about every business uses the "upsell" business practice to make money, just be aware (as an example) that 50 posters of your book, 50 business cards, and 50 "free" copies of your book may not be the best way to spend $400 of your money for a "premium" publishing package. The publishing packages of the majority of PODs are written in plain English so you'll be able to easily see the differences in features.

From a book production point-of-view, the author's next step should be notify the illustrator of their book as to the size their book will be. The author knows this size because the POD that they've chosen has listed the book sizes that they are able to print, and the illustrator should know the size that the printed book will be before they begin sketching so that the resulting artwork is the absolute best that it can be. It will also be helpful for the illustrator to contact the publisher in order to learn of any unique artwork specifications that the publisher may have. While the book illustrations are being created the author can then choose to go about the process of signing a contract with the POD.

Once the book illustrations have been completed, the illustrator sends the illustrations to the author (most often on CDs by regular mail) and the author packages up the artwork along with their manuscript and sends it to the POD for publishing. Your POD will inform you as to how they want to receive your manuscript (hard copy, digital file, etc.) while the artwork is always acceptable received on CD, but in some case can be emailed depending on the size of the artwork file.

From here, the POD's graphic designer creates the print-ready artwork (see Glossary) for your book and sends you an electronic "proof" (again, see Glossary) so that you can get a very good idea as to how the printed book will look. At this point you can request changes if you like or approve the artwork and it will be printed. Make sure that you scrutinize the proof so that any mistakes are caught, failure to do so will cost you to fix the mistake after it has been been approved and printed. Once the proof has been approved by you, your book is published and shipped to you. Your POD should have a "marketplace" (online bookstore) from which your book can be purchased by the general public and normally your book will be listed in the databases of Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, etc. where it will be available for purchase as well.

Last Word on Print-On-Demand publishing:
By using this publishing method you'll should be getting a good quality book (obviously it depends on the publisher you choose), and because you have paid an upfront pre-publishing fee you have now subsidized the print cost of your book to help make it more affordable for book buyers in the general public. You can also try to approach specialty book stores to sell your book.

3. Self-Publishing using Volume Printing

Pros:
- the lowest print cost per printed book, which means that you can sell your book at a lower price than books produced with the other printing methods while still maintaining a healthy profit. Lower price has a better chance to translate into greater sales as well.

Cons:
- if your book does not sell you're left holding a lot of books and a large printing bill.

How It Works:
This is the original form of self-publishing that has been in use for over a hundred years and long before Print-On-Demand publishing technologies came to be. It's the highest risk/reward form of publishing and it is the preferred printing method of large, well established publishers. These publishers print their books in the tens of thousands, which in turn lowers their price per book to the point where they can easily compete with the lowest priced books on the market. Again, low book prices help in creating greater sales.

The production of your book is the same as the last two methods of publishing. A graphic designer/illustrator (or yourself, if you're a do-it-yourselfer) takes the finished illustrations and combines them with the text of your story to create print-ready artwork files. The designer then sends you a proof of the entire book for you to review and approve. As in all methods of publishing you have the right to make reasonable text changes at this stage, or completely unreasonable if you're willing to pay extra for it. Once approved, the book is printed and is ready for purchase/distribution. You'll have to find a method of distribution like Amazon's Advantage system or create (or have created) your own website from which to sell your books.

Last Word on Self-Publishing using Volume Printing:
This is a bold method of publishing that would appeal to someone that likes to gamble and is extremely sure of their target market and the appeal of their book. It would be the best publishing method if the author had a signed book order contract from a reputable company.

To request a
Quote For Artwork For Your Children's Book
please contact Mike at