Not every book needs an edition. Nicholas Buer wrote and illustrated The Winter Kid, a 32-page picture book in verse about a boy, an old man and "a sledge with chipped black paint", and what he wanted from us was a handful of copies made as beautifully as a bookshop hardback. Eight, to be exact. So that is what we printed in March 2026: a 210×210mm case-bound hardback with a matt-laminated printed case and printed navy endpapers. Then, for reasons that are entirely to his credit, a second edition followed.
People assume hardbacks only make sense in the hundreds. They do not. Nick had printed a softback of his first book with us the previous autumn, and for The Winter Kid he wanted boards: something to give, to keep and to put in front of people who matter. A 32-page text block is enough for a case binding, and we told him so when he asked about upgrading the earlier book as well: 32 inside pages will make a hardback, with the option of extra sides at the start and end for the endpapers. The result is a proper square picture book, its grey, snow-flecked cover wrapping right round the boards, the title and Nick's name reading on the spine, the small boy in his cap standing alone in the middle of the front.
Open the cover and the mood drops to night. The endpapers were supplied as their own artwork, front and back, and printed separately from the text block: deep navy, a single bare tree on a curve of snow, the title in small white type. A tree echoes on the back cover beneath the blurb, and that repetition is what makes the book feel designed rather than assembled. Printed endpapers are the detail that separates a hardback from the pack, and on a run this small they add very little to the cost. If your book has a colour, a texture or a motif, this is where to put it.
We sent Nick three PDF proofs in four days. He fixed artefacts in the corners of the text pages, realigned the verse, took a weekend to look again with fresh eyes, then approved: "Yes, this looks great! Let's go for it." The books were printed, bound and due out of the door when he opened his own file and found a missing letter in one line of verse and a stray double full stop. The moral for every self-publisher: read the proof aloud, on a computer rather than a phone, and read it once more than you think you need to.
Mike's verdict on the finished copy was "lovely lovely children's book on all levels", with one expert caveat we would rather share than hide. At 32 pages the spine is as slim as a hardback spine gets: enough to carry a title, but only just. For a future edition we would suggest two things. First, more pages, or a heavier text stock, to give the spine some presence on a shelf. Second, section sewing, the costlier binding in which the pages are stitched in folded sections before casing-in, which lets a picture book open flatter and shrug off years of bedtimes. Neither was wrong to skip on a small print run. Both are worth knowing about before you print hundreds or thousands.
Nick's own verdict arrived on delivery: "Thanks Mike, I've got them! They're lovely :)".
If you have a picture book and a small number of people you want to give it to, our single book printing page starts at one copy, and children's book printing covers paperback and hardback at every page count. Get a price on our Printed Project Builder, or ask Harriet and Mike whether your story needs a few more pages.
