Clattertron

[dc]T[/dc]he many, MANY hours of hard work are at an end. I finished making my coloring books, and they are ready for sale this Saturday at my Free Comic Book Day events.

Run and Gun

I started work on my coloring books on April 1^st, with figuring out how to make the physical book, and finished stapling the completed coloring books on April 26^th. No wonder I am tired.

But, I met my deadline: finished coloring books to sell on Free Comic Book Day. Next time though, I won’t try to make something like this in under a month. I just about went crazy a few times.¹

Piece by Piece

The coloring books came in two parts. ASAP Printing in Okemos handled the color covers (which turned out great), and I printed the interior pages myself.

Yes, ASAP could have handled the entire project, but I wanted to keep things easy.² (Next time though, I will at least ask about them handling the entire book)

This meant I assembled all the pages of the coloring books, folded them, added the cover, and stapled them together myself.

My new long reach stapler did the job. It took a few tires to get the hang of assembling, but by the end I churned them out at a reasonable pace.

Step by Step

I assembled all 64 coloring books myself. It really wasn’t too difficult, as the book is only three sheets of paper (12 pages, double-sided), plus the cover. Tedious, yes, but not difficult.

I came up with a system and powered through.

• First, I put all the interior pages in different piles, facing the correct way.
• Then, I grabbed the pages in the correct order (easy thanks to the piles).
• Next, I folded the sheets, ran a pen along the edge to get a crisp fold, and set them aside in a pile. 

Sixty-three times later, a stack of folded interior pages sat before me, ready to be stapled. 

After all the interior pages were ready, I got to work on stapling.

• I placed the book on the table, folded open, and smoothed the bend in the middle.
  
• I laid the cover on top and checked the alignment.
• Stapled!
  

A task like this seems daunting, but I broke everything into small steps and worked in batches. Finish a batch, take a break, start another batch, repeat. Listening to podcasts helped too.³

Once I got into a rhythm, the work went fast.

Buy a Coloring Book Starting This Weekend

I’m selling my coloring books in person at my Free Comic Book Day events this Saturday, and Sunday at Capital City Comic Con. Bonus deal this weekend: with each purchase of a coloring book, I’m including a free 24-pack of crayons(while supplies last—I only have 11).

The rest of the coloring books will come with me to Appleseed and Cherry Capital Comic Con later in the month.

Regarding online sales, I will get a few coloring books on Etsy, but after this weekend. I still have a lot to do before Free Comic Book Day and I probably won’t have the time at the moment. Maybe. I could catch a second wind and get them on Etsy sooner.

I’m probably not going to offer digital versions (like a PDF) any time soon, if at all. I like having a physical  item only available at shows (or via something like Etsy).

I’m gonna go pass out now, OK?

–

¹ Well. Crazier.

² Which is what I kept telling myself.

³ Marek vs. Wyshynski and Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast.