Fixing a sizing goof
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Hello picture book people*! Back in late October I wrote a kid's story and decided to illustrate it as a picture book. Before I started the thumbnail and creation process I did a quick google search to find typical picture book sizes, saw 10"x8" listed, and decided to go with that. I now have over 1000 hours into this 32 page book and it is nearly finished. Yesterday, I went to the websites of Ingram Spark and KDP to get a glimpse of what the process would be like to get it published and they both list 8"x10" as an option but do not list landscape 10"x8." It turns out that while 10"x8" is a common size for picture books the 2 largest self publishers do not seem to print in this size. Eek!
I could resize everything to 8"x8" but each page was designed with the 10"x8" aspect ratio in mind so it could be a long, laborious chore that might not payoff design wise. I also thought I could shrink the pages down to fit 8"x8" and move the words in the newly created white space at the bottom instead of within the picture as they are now but thought that might look unprofessional.
Admittedly, this is an embarrassing oversight on my part but I was wondering if anyone knew of another route to get it printed affordably at 10"x8". A google search shows several sites that will do it but I don't if any of them are reputable or affordable. As you might expect, I've never done this before!
Thank you for any help!
*from the Picturebooking podcast (I've always enjoyed that salutation.)
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@Jeremiahbrown What about their landscape format options, what do they offer? If they have 9x7 for instance, it might be easier to resize for that rather than trying to make a landscape format fit into a square.
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Thank you, that's a great idea but I don't see any landscape format options on either site except for an 11x 8.5 on Ingram Spark which is quite pricey. Does that sound possible? KDP will let you do a custom size but that makes it ineligible for Expanded Distribution. It's very possible I'm missing something.
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Hi Jeremiah! Your work is amazing btw. I saw your post here and I've just started working on a children's book as well. Long story short, I did a bunch of research ahead of time because I wanted to find a POD publisher with good reviews and low minimums. I opted to do 11" x 8.5" and they do have a landscape version it that size (not too far off what you've created). The company is called Lulu xPress (https://xpress.lulu.com/pricing), I haven't seen the quality in person but they had pretty good reviews from what I could find.
Hope this helps! -
Thank you so much for the info! I started the laborious task of converting all of the pics into acceptable 9X9 compositions because I thought it was kind of hopeless so I will definitely check this out.
Thanks for the praise too! Your art (and website!) are fantastic, be sure to let the SVS community know when it is ready! -
@Jeremiahbrown thank you so much!!! I'll definitely let you know once it's complete, it's in the very early stages now. Please let me know when yours is out and if you end up testing out Lulu xPress. I figure when I'm ready I'll just order a copy or two to proof (in a couple different binding options), their pricing seems pretty good for print-on-demand.
