I had decided on my book size awhile ago at 210 x 280 mm, just slightly taller than the Russian Folktale book I mentioned in a previous post, as I liked it as a size. Also I had considered doing a dust jacket then but hadn’t fully decided. I think I want to do one and have looked at the practical side of getting it printed with mixam, same with the book itself, and the outcome would be printing on A2 sized poster. I wanted the jacket to be slightly longer but realised that the price jumps massively to A1, so A2 is the likely size to go for as I want the soft touch lamination they offer for the jacket, as it is a small detail that I think ups the value of the book.

With the book itself I want it to be hardback and with the end papers inside I want them to be coloured. Initially I wanted the end papers to be with a repeat pattern but that isn’t possible with mixam so instead I want the colour options they have for it. It does bring up the price however, but it would be an extra £1 - 3 depending on the number of books ordered, and I don’t feel the black/white cheaper options suit the book.

So at stands with the technicalities:

Hardback book - 210 x 280, Paper (silk, 170gsm), pages 32 - 40, cover Matt laminate.

Dust Jacket - Using the poster product, A2 (Jacket itself 594 x height would have a bleed on top of 280 to be trimmed down by myself), front (silk, 200 gsm, soft touch lamination), back (blank, maybe gloss lamination though it ups price further by £20) 

Taking this project to the next level is by actually making the project and selling it. Kickstarter is a platform that allows you to show/promote your project and raise funds to get it printed/ produced into the final form. If you don’t reach the goal you set no one loses their money and the project simply doesn’t happen, yet. I do think it is a good way of being able to get your work into a final outcome and it allows you to get the funds to do so. My doubts are in whether my project would actually interest people, or even be seen, and if it would reach a small goal that I set. However I think I would regret not even giving it a go more, so I am going to look into how I can use Kickstarter and set the project up on there. I haven’t ever sold anything online before so I need to understand that aspect of shipping/packaging etc, as well.

At this point I have a general idea for each page, I just need to make some pages more interesting with the layout and composition, as well as play around with the text placement.

Here are some more illustrators I am inspired by, as well as some having used elements of Scottish history in the books they have illustrated for.