For the past weeks, I’ve shared the journey to creating a coloring book from my book covers – from the idea’s origins to the legal aspects to how April created the illustrations and laid out the book. This blog is about the final product.

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After all the initial work, the coloring book still had to be printed and assembled. So?  Do I have a printer do all the work?  OR Do I run the copies and assemble it myself?  This is totally a matter of personal choice and I don’t mind repetitive collation and stapling for the final 100 coloring books.

Just to give you a ballpark idea of what it would’ve cost me to have OfficeMax’s printing facility to run the copies and then collate and staple them — 100 finished coloring books would’ve cost around $500.  That included using card stock with double-sided color printing for the front and back cover, single-sided B&W interior pages on a 24# paper, collation and stapling.

I decided to eliminate the collation and stapling labor costs and ended up paying 45% less for the covers and interior pages printing.  I then assembled them while watching the Food Network — my best mindless activity time. Below, you can see the materials for assembly.  Would I do this project again?  Sure. The fans who have received the coloring books so far said they liked them and thought it was a cool idea.  I’ll be bringing some with me to Lori Foster’s Reader Author Get-Together in June and will be handing them out at the book signing on Friday, June 10th from 3-5 pm.  The book signing is open to the public and is at the Cincinnati Marriott — North in West Chester.  Come see me and get a copy.