Unboxing a Print Run of Children’s Books

Why I ordered a print run (and why it matters for wholesale)

This week I’m prepping for the New England Made wholesale show, and that meant making a real production decision: I placed a print run of two of my books so my per-book cost is lower than the inventory I currently have on hand.

When I’m selling direct-to-reader, I can sometimes absorb higher unit costs. But wholesale is different. Wholesale needs margin. If the unit cost is too high, the pricing structure stops working—fast. So the purpose of this print run was practical: support a sustainable wholesale model.

Unboxing day: what I look for first

I had multiple boxes waiting, and I opened them one format at a time so I could really see what changed.

Here’s what I check immediately when I unbox a print run:

• Cover quality: color, finish, and overall “feel”

• Back cover details: branding, logos, and readability

• Interior placement: alignment and cropping across spreads

• Crispness: especially around detailed illustrations

• Paper feel and consistency: how it handles in-hand

• Hardcover extras: end leaves and overall durability

Shrink wrap: inconvenient for signing, great for protection

Every book arrived shrink wrapped. If you’re a creator who signs books, you already know the downside: you have to remove wrap to sign, and it adds extra waste.

But in real life, shrink wrap also does something valuable: it keeps books pristine in transit and helps them stay clean at events. I’ve done outdoor shows in a tent where moisture in the air can be a real factor—especially on multi-day weekends. For that scenario, protective wrap becomes a practical tool.

The updates I added in this print run

This print run wasn’t just “more inventory.” I also used it as an opportunity to update parts of the books that support my business.

Stronger calls to action (CTAs)

I added clear CTAs in the back matter—inviting readers to explore featured felts (ready to hang) and felting kits. I want the book to lead naturally into the rest of the Binding Tales world.

A gratitude page that credits the wool sources

Because my illustrations are needle felted, the wool matters. I source responsibly from Maine farms and fiber producers, and I added a gratitude page that gives those sources a visible thank-you inside the book.

A direct Google review request

I included a simple line asking for a five-star Google review for Binding Tales. It’s straightforward, but that’s the point: readers often love supporting small businesses—they just need a clear prompt.

POD vs print run: what changed for quality

I’ve used print-on-demand formats before, and I still think POD has a place—especially when you’re testing a title or avoiding inventory risk.

But for children’s books, the color print challenge is real. When your illustrations are highly detailed and texture-based, you need reproduction that holds those details. In this unboxing, the print-run paperback quality felt instantly higher—crisper color and clearer visibility of the tiny fibers that make the artwork what it is.

Real indie publisher moment: the shipment arrived in pieces

One format didn’t arrive with the initial boxes, which was surprising. I expected it to be shipped together, so I checked tracking and kept an eye out. The good news: the remaining boxes arrived later the same day, and I was able to complete the unboxing and confirm the final format looked great.

Prefer the transcription? Here you go!
February 19, 2026

Hello, my name is Hillary Dow. I am the author, owner and illustrator of Binding Tales. I make children’s books that I illustrate with fiber art. I source my wool responsibly from main farms and fiber producers. And I have published four books with my fifth one underway right now. And as I prep for the upcoming New England made wholesale show, I placed an order for a print run of two of my books. So what I had in mind was getting a print run done that has a smaller per book price point so that my cost is less than the books that I currently have on hand. And that way the business model and pricing structure actually works for me to sell these books to a wholesale market. So today I’m gonna do a little unboxing. I have three boxes here that I’ve untaped but I haven’t yet looked at how this print run has come out. As they landed, I was expecting four paperback and hardcover copy of fairy spells and strawberry elves, as well as a paperback and hardcover copy of the Sun Fairy. The paperback copy of the Sun Fairy hasn’t landed yet. So I’m surprised that it wasn’t shipped together and would anticipate that it should be here today. If it’s not here today, I will look at the tracking number and see what I can find out. But that’s odd and a little surprising that the order was broken up in transit. So the first one that I have over here is I wanna say the hardcover of fairy spells and strawberry elves. And I’ve got my scissors here. Each one of these books comes shrink wrapped, which when I’m signing books is a little tricky because I have to undo the shrink wrap in order to sign them. However, for shipping purposes it is much better because books arrive in much better condition. And this looks absolutely beautiful. So here’s the cover, super high quality. The back looks great. I added the made in main logo this time around since I’m now a member of that community. I changed up the logo that I had printed on the back since the first print run that I did. This was the first book. Oh, the end leaves look beautiful. Paper quality is fantastic. Everything looks great. Oh, this looks beautiful. Oh, I’m thrilled. Yes. This looks awesome. Everything is super crisp. The placement on every page is beautiful. And then I have some calls to action at the back. This is the feature of felt. This was not in the first print run of the book. This is a new edition. And then the gratitude page at the end where I give a shout out to the farms where the wool was sourced from, as well as this is a new edition too. Will you please give Binding Tales a five-star Google review? So I put that right in the book. And then the end leaves cover those last few pages. This looks awesome. Okay, so there’s one. So now let’s take a peek at the paperback of that book. So the shrink wrapping on these is a little different. It’s a plastic sleeve, which when I’m at an event and it’s an outdoor event in my tent, my booth, this is really helpful because it helps protect the books from the moisture in the air, especially if it’s a multi-day event and it’s raining.

So this looks and feels awesome. Same thing on the back. I added the made in main logo and I changed the logo. It’s evolved since I first started Binding Tales. So that’s been updated. It looks perfect. This looks so great. Yep, just like the hardcover. All the pictures are nice and crisp. Placement on the page is awesome. Thank you. fantastic so so far two out of four I am thrilled this looks great same thing I updated the back of the paperback version as well to include information about buying a featured felt either ready to hang or as a felting kit and then also I added the gratitude page to the back as well which was not in the other book so that I am super thrilled with excellent right here and then for fairy spells I have not yet seen and have never printed this in a hardcover before so yay oh this looks so good oh okay let’s get this one open so I love that I was on the fence about the needing to sign books and having them be shrink wrapped it’s on the fence at first but now I really appreciate it because it does serve a lot of useful purposes it’s wasteful I don’t like that I have all this extra plastic to throw away but if I’m going to invest in these books I want them to be as as pristine as they can be when someone is purchasing them so this looks awesome it feels good it looks good and this also has and leaves on it which is great for a hardcover book oh this looks great so the cropping on this book is a little different than a I’ve not yet done a hardcover book that has been this small and I do like I like the way it fits and feels in my hand the weight of it is good the size for for small hands especially is good this all looks awesome and the pictures are really crisp and clean you see all the details of the fiber it’s a saddle stitch binding so it’s gonna hold up really well over time and then there’s my author page and another call to action on this book as well to either buy your own sundrop already made or a felting kit that came out so great so like I said now I’m just waiting for the paperback boxes of this book before we reach the end of the day I’ll definitely I might go do this quickly before I head off to work for the day check out the tracking number and see if they’re still part of the shipment in transit I hope because one of the books is missing so thanks for joining me in my unboxing I’m super thrilled and now I feel very very prepared for the wholesale show because I have all the formats that I need and Tyler’s right behind my camera giving me a great big grin now with the dimple mr.

birthday boy you turned 11 yesterday yep have a great day everyone thanks for joining me along this fantastic fun adventurous and always evolving journey as an indie author hello I’m back and I’m very happy to report that the remaining boxes of books arrived today while I was at work so I’m going to unbox the very last format so far we’ve done the hard cover and the paperback of fairy spells and strawberry elves and the hardcover of the Sun fairy which is a new format for me never had this before so I’m super excited about that and now this will be the first large print run of the Sun fairy in paperback I’ve only done this book so far as a print-on-demand print format so This is also new. It is instantly such a higher quality than print on demand and everything looks awesome. I changed up the the logo on the back, added the main made America’s Best logo and changed my branding logo on the back and it just feels and looks awesome. Fantastic. Everything looks super crisp. You can see all the little fibers. The paper quality is great. So much better than print on demand. That’s the tricky thing for a children’s book artist. Author-illustrator is the quality of that color print for print on demand is very difficult to get a high quality print. So this looks fantastic. Very, very happy with this. Awesome. All right, so I wanted to do that update. Yay!

In Week 6 of my Author-Illustrator Journey vlog I share what it actually looks like to self-publish at the “inventory + wholesale” stage: I unbox a fresh print run, explain why I moved beyond print-on-demand for this batch, and walk through the quality checks I do before a wholesale show. I also cover practical indie-publisher moves—lowering unit cost, choosing hardcover vs paperback, protecting books for events, and using end pages for clear CTAs like reviews and next steps.

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