London Calling!

We’re excited to take you Behind-the-Scenes for the Making of KeeKee’s Big Adventures in London, England, the fifth book in the award-winning picture book series!

Storyboarding

We like to start the KeeKee Book creation process with a storyboard. Here we are working on London and laying out the series of activities and scenes we see happening.

Writing the Manuscript

The manuscript is the book’s story the Author creates. Shannon puts all the scenes and pages of the storyboard onto paper and then goes to work on the dialogue and action.

She continues to work on it, for about 4 months, and then once happy with it, sends to her Editor Lisa for feedback and revisions.

They then share edits back and forth until they’re happy with where the story is. You can see a sample of the editing here.

Casey’s Brilliant Art

Once Author Shannon has finished the book’s story, she gives it to Casey to start sketching out each scene of the book and the characters.

Scene Sketching

With the story and storyboard in hand, Art Director Paul provides Casey with thoughts on what the scenes could look like. He and Casey start collaborating on each page and spread.

You can see here, Casey starting to sketch out the scenes.

Character Development

We LOVE this part, where Casey begins the development of the characters in the adventure!!

We came up with the clever name Williamb Sheepspeare as KeeKee lands her balloon in Shakespeare’s Globe Theater. :)

Casey’s creation is perfect!!

Scene Development

Casey gets more and more detailed. Here is her sketch of KeeKee’s arrival at the Theater.

From Sketch to Final

Here’s an example going from Casey’s drawing to her final gorgeous opening spread for the book.

Book Layout

As Casey’s drawings are complete, Paul works on laying out the book combining the story and the pictures.

So many fine details have to be considered. Here Paul does a study of text treatments to use throughout the book.

Files off to the Printer

Once Paul has finished laying out and designing every page of the book and the cover, he uploads the final files to the printer, Phoenix Color.

Proofs

Once Phoenix Color receives the files, they print out proofs of the whole book and cover to send to us for review. We look at every page many times to ensure everything looks perfect.

If anything needs to be changed, this is the time adjustments can be made prior to the actual printing of the book.

At the Printer

On August 28, the interior pages of London went to print at our printer, Phoenix Color, in Hagerstown, Maryland.

We were there to approve the proofs AND capture lots of great photos to share with you!

Printing the Pages

THIS is the HUGE printer that prints all the pages!

The book files are uploaded to the printer’s computer and sample pages are printed.

Those pages are inspected for color correctness and more.

Adjustments are made using all the buttons you see down below.

Then the pages are printed!

 

The Signatures

The printer produces the pages of the book in what looks like a double-sided poster called the Signatures.

It typically takes two signatures to make a full picture book like KeeKee’s Big Adventures.

These are THE pages of the first 5,000 London books.

Trimming

Once the Signatures are printed, they are taken to Trimming.

The edges are trimmed off in this machine creating the smooth-edged pages you see in the book.

Folding

The Signatures are then fed into this machine to make the perfect folds for the book pages.

Sewing

Once all the pages are trimmed and folded, the Signatures are sewn together to make the full pages of the book. There’s an actual sewing machine that stitches the pages together.

Cover Creation

The book covers are printed separately on a special high power color printer.

We love this stack of KeeKee covers next to Fancy Nancy covers. >^..^<

Then the Covers are trimmed and glued onto book-sized pieces of cardboard to create the actual Cover!

The Final Stage

With the Covers made, the Signatures can now be glued into the Cover to create the final product.

This machine does all the work!

The Final Product

Book Delivery

And last but not least, the cases of KeeKee’s Big Adventures in London books are delivered to our warehouse.

 

Next stop…the distributor, bookstores, and YOU! >^..^<

Thank you for following along for the Making of KeeKee’s Big Adventures in London! 🎉🇬🇧

And don’t miss the fun Book Trailer! 😻