Hello. I need some help. My 10-year old daughter has been obsessed with the Titanic since she was about 7. Not the Titanic movie, but the history of it all. She's seen all the documentaries, reads all the Titanic websites and has written numerous reports for school on it. She knows every single detail about that ship. She is totally all about the Titanic. Anyway, for like the past 6 months or so, she has been writing what she calls "a book" on the Titanic. She says this book is written for kids around her age to understand what happened to the Titanic more on an exciting level with facts. Anyway, she just recently finished it and wants to know how to get it to other kids to read. She does understand the process of having someone to publish it, but she more wants it in an actual book form to give to kids she knows, our family and to keep for herself. So, now my question is does anyone know where I could possibly get her Word Document put into an actual book form with a cover and everything? I'm not sure if Kinko's or Staples or any place else can do this.
She's worked so hard on this and is so proud of herself and I just want to help her with this as much as I can. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks!
I work for a educational company. Maybe this is something you're looking for? It's a hardcover bookbinding kit.
https://educationalinsights.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Scr...
That's wonderful that she's so driven at such a young age! www.Picaboo.com also is another option for creating your own book. You download the software for free and design the book yourself. They have thicker pages than Shutterfly or some of the cheaper photo book companies. A 20 page book costs between $20-30. There are different templates for the page layouts, so you'd choose the template that allows you to type text on the page. Maybe you could even insert some archival pictures, if you get permission, and add a bit of visual interest!
That's so cool! Check out this link to amazon. They have a product where the kids make their own book, send it in, and get a real book back. I haven't used it, but it has good reviews. I don't know if there are limits to words/pictures/etc. But it might be worth checking into:)
http://www.amazon.com/IlluStory-Make-Your-Own-Story/dp/09...
Hi S.-
You can make books on the snapfish website. My husband's aunt made a family tree book. It has lots of pictures, but also lots of text. They are very nice bound books, and have several ways for you to decorate it. Maybe if she had one made she should ask her school library to put it on display. Good luck to her, she sounds like a very motivated, bright kid!!
I am not sure about the book publishing...but your daughter can join the Titanic Historical Society. My brother was the same way when he was that age - totally fascinated by the Titanic and other similar ocean liners. He still is! THS gave him a group of others who shared his passion.
Hi S.,
This is a bit more on the professional level, and is up to you and your daughter on whether you want to pursue it, but iUniverse.com is a great self-publisher. They just published my fourth book for me and the product is amazing. She would have a very professional product, and from someone who has been writing since they were 5 years old, I know that having a professional-looking book can be very important even when you are young.
Hi,
Just search the web for self published books.
My friend did this with a book she wrote, so I know it exists.
otherwise, I bet Kinko's could help. But, it might get costly.
Good Luck!
I know my daughter had a kit for that, but I can't remember the company. I looked at Amazon under make my own book. There were a few things but not what I was looking for. However under sponsored links there were companies that print books/booklets. Maybe if you google it you will find some companies. The scrapbook/photobook sites online would be the able to do it as well, just shop around for one that will allow you to format it your way, or have a template that will work. Good luck!
Hi S.,
Creative Memories has a great program to create your own hard cover books. It is designed for easy scrapbooking purposes with cool background pages and to add pictures. Or, for your daughter, she may like it with a plain white background and she can add her own drawings or snapshots if she chooses. I created one of these books for my daughters first b-day. It is high quality and comes in different sizes - 8 x 11, 8 x8, 12 x 12. Plus, once you have created the book, you can purchase as many copies that you would like. I have a friend who is a Creative Memories consultant and I would be happy to give you her info. so you can order the software.
B.
I know kinko's can do all that stuff. Even if she is not wanting to publish it, I would still copyright it. Just google copyrighting a book and find out how to do it (it shouldn't be a major process). I would hate to see someone else take her hard work and publish it.
Congratulations on such a bright girl! I'm not sure about how to do what you want, but I was just going to mention that she might also enjoy the old movie, "The Unsinkable Molly Brown"....She was the survivor of the Titantic and the movie is really good. If you ever get to Denver, there is a tour of the Molly Brown house. (The movie takes place in Colorado...Leadville I believe) but her house which is historical is in Denver.
I had a nice book printed at Shutterfly.com. She could type up her text, make illustrations, take pictures of them and upload the photos. The formatted books are very easy to work with, and you can customize it quite a bit.
They can get expensive. I suggest making you project, saving it, then wait for a coupon through your email. I got one that was 25 pages free, I ended up making a book about 35 pages for around $10.
What comes to mind for me is using Shutterfly.com. They make these beautiful bound photo books. They're meant to be used for photos but you can arrange the pages anyway you want, you can add text and there are many size options too. You will have to look into it but I would bet that instead of using mostly pictures, you could copy and paste her text into the boxes plus find cool pictures to use in addition. I think it would look really nice. Here's their site:
http://www.shutterfly.com/photo-books
Fedex/Kinkos will type it in any form you like for a fee. They could also put a binding on the side, but I think it's more like a spiral one. I did see a kit at Teachers Toolbox for making your own book, that might be something else to check out.
