Printer's Dummy

Remember I was rushing to get my Baby Can Bounce! artwork done in time for Egmont to show it at the Frankfurt Book Fair? 

Well, the other rush was for them to get the scanned and 'digitally finished' work from the first book Baby Goes Baaaaa! mocked up, so that too was looking its best. The idea is that the pair presented together will more effectively attract all those lovely (and essential!) co-editions at Frankfurt. 

On Saturday morning, a jiffy-bag popped through the letterbox (you know how I love them...). Inside was what they call a 'printer's dummy': a one-off mock-up of the book, using the actual paper and the proper digital artwork (rather than the publisher's print-outs). 

This gives me a very accurate idea of how the final book will look, and this is what the Sales team at Egmont will flashing around at Frankfurt as we speak! I love the shiny stock we've used throughout the book and the curved page edges.

One thing which we hope will help to sell the book, is my research into how essential it is for language development to practise phonics with very young children. We've included some great quotes on the back to point this up and have even created a spread at the beginning with advice on how to get the best from the book, by enjoying exaggerating the sounds and getting baby to join in. Hopefully this will also make it a very useful tool for the Early-Learning library services.


Baby Goes Baaaaa! is scheduled for publication in April 2012 and can already be pre-ordered from Amazon.