Proofs are here! So exciting! :-) Here is a sneak peek:

I’m using “Books on Demand“, a german self-publishing company, to print my books. I have had really good experiences with them for my first book — I like the quality of the finished product, turn-around is fairly quick (and the one time I really really really needed a book to give it to someone on a deadline, I emailed and they made it happen). But still the process is a little daunting, because you have to take so many different decisions!

For example the size of the book. For both my books, I knew I wanted them to be quite small, so they could easily be packed into beach bags or wherever busy families pack the books that have to come on every excursion. Or the quality of the paper. Since both my books are aimed at kids, I wanted the pages to be of really good quality paper, and also I wanted the quality of the print to be really high for print. Then the binding. Hardcover? Paperback? Booklet? Ring binding? I went with hardcover for my first book, and then with booklet for the second. I really like hardcover books, but they are a lot more expensive and while for my first book, I felt like a price on the high side would maybe protect me from too much exposure*, this time round I feel like this is something that I want a lot of kids to have access to, so I went with the least expensive binding.

And yes, I messed up the cover AGAIN. Good thing I had a test copy printed…

The book was originally written in German and has already been translated to English. Any volunteers to translate it to more languages? ;-)

*stupid insecurities! But at least I got over that specific one, I guess?