How Board Books are Made
When I first had the idea for the My Little Greek Book series, there was one part of the process I already knew how to do—and that was how to design a book for print.
As a graphic designer with 15 years of experience, the majority of my professional career had involved some type of publication design.
I started my career right out of undergrad as the graphic designer/layout editor for Greek Circle Magazine & KPHTH Magazine, and the rest of my career involved freelance & in-house work that was heavy on catalogs, brochures, CSR reports, newsletters, and other multi-page documents.
So while I didn’t know much about the publishing world, the design & printing world was fully in my wheelhouse.
Most of my career had been spent in CMYK and I was practically setting up margins and bleeds, selecting the right paper stock, and printing and reviewing proofs in my sleep. And even though the subject matter was very different from what I was used to, I knew the process of bringing these books to life would be very similar.
Even though I’m highlighting how our first board book, My Little Greek Book of Vehicles, came to life, the process would be very similar to create a paperback or hardcover book. So if you’re looking to create your own book in one of those formats, most of this will apply to you too!
Step 1: Planning & Illustration
It’s no surprise that the first step is planning the topic of the book, and actually writing it. In my case, our books are Bilingual English-Greek first-word books, so the “writing” phase was curating the list of words to include. It’s a pretty straightforward process, but when I curate the list, I try to think of the words in pairs as well as individually and part of the larger set so make sure there’s a good flow and cohesion between the pages.
Once I have my final list, then I get started on sketching simple line drawings for each word, figuring out the best way to bring each word to life in a simple way that little ones are sure to recognize.
Step 2: Adding Color & Texture
After the simple illustrations are done, I go through each one to add in all of the color, texture, and effects. This is one of my favorite parts of the early process because it’s where my vision really starts to come to life.
I make sure to tweak the illustrations as I go to make sure that there’s some level of cohesion between all of the different images so even though they all look different, they all still feel like part of a set.
Step 3: Design & Layout
Now this is the step that I was most familiar with, and what, for me, is the easiest part of the whole process.
While I did some illustration work in my past roles, generally I was working with text-heavy documents and photography, so by comparison, the layout for My Little Greek Book of Vehicles was simple!
I set up my design files according to the specs that my printer required and included all the brand styles including fonts & colors.
The process of figuring out the flow and which images & colors looks best together is so fun, it’s like a puzzle! I usually print out a bunch of mini mockups to test out the colors & flow.
This part of the process is pretty special because I actually recruit my toddler to help out during this phase!
I have him look at each image and guess what it’s a picture of to make sure that the illustrations are clear enough for small kids to recognize. He loves watching the books come to life and actually likes to give some creative direction of his own! (In the early stages of My Little Greek Book of Food, he requested that I get rid the carrot page because he was going through an “I don’t like carrots” phase 😆)
Step 4: Editing
Once the layout is complete, I send the files off to the editor that I work with.
She primarily double checks the spelling and translations, but she’ll also point out any formatting or other minor details that might need a little tweaking.
I incorporate any edits she sends over into the next draft and we may go back and forth another round, depending on what needs to be reviewed.
Step 5: Printing
After all the edits have been updated, the files move into production.
This is the most involved step, but the least hands on for me! I send my finalized files to my printer, and they print, trim, assemble, and package all of the books.
All of this plus the delivery time to ship to me can take up to 8 weeks!
Step 6: Distribution
When the books finally arrive, I work on the back-end setup to get the listing live online, adding the description, photos, and other information. Once the listing is set up, I set up my shipment to send the first batch of inventory to the fulfillment center.
This step can take up to a month for the books to start showing up as “Available” to purchase!
Always Looking Ahead
What I’ve found to be the hardest part about this process is the lead time required for the production and distribution phases.
I’m so excited to bring these books to life, but the time between when the files leave my hands and when the book can be in yours is around 3 months, so I always feel like I’m living in the future—moving on to the next book before the previous one is even finished.
And speaking of looking ahead…we’re excited to announce that we have a new board book coming out soon(ish)!
My Little Greek Book of Shapes will be ready to join your libraries this summer!
To celebrate the launch, we’ve created a little freebie for you to download.
Click here to check out our My Little Greek Book of Shapes coloring pages.