Making the very first book

I published (self-published) my first book in 2019.

I had two reasons to make this project real:

to make my dream real and create a beautiful book,
to earn some money.

The concept was simple.

I take the content of the online course I previously created and design it into a beautiful cookbook. Then I print it in a small amount and sell it using a "drop" model.

Easy peasy.

"Pralinarium" is a book on praline design based on Andrey Dubovik working techniques. It is about making chocolates, using airbrushes and different spraying techniques for colouring polycarbonate moulds to make them beautiful. Also, it includes chapters on basics, equipment, FAQs, etc. I am responsible for the business model of this project and the full cycle of product design (from the early prototypes to the final product and distribution of it).

Title: Pralinarium (Edition 1). ISBN: 978-8-3954578-0-7. Published: June 2019, 412 pages, 20.7×28.8×2.6 cm, 1529 photos inside, Full-colour printing, Hardcover, English, ISBN 978-8-3954578-0-7, Price: 99 EUR

It took six months to create the final product. Here it is.

Front cover (showing yellow chocolate on black background)

Spine with an icon showing the chocolate

Back cover (showing bottom of chocolate on black background)

Trying to put different chocolates on the cover and choose the best one

First samples received from the typography

Firstly I was planning to print an edition of 110 copies.

Printing the books requires some money to invest. I had no idea if this project would give us any profit. Does anyone need it?

After the very first announcement on Instagram, I understood the answer. We need more. I made ~310.

I found a printing partner. It was difficult to find one who can make fewer books with the same quality as big typography do.

This year I was a young father. I walked with my one-year-old daughter every three hours. Then I designed the book at night/evening/morning/afternoon... As she was never sleeping.

It took a few months to design the finest book I can imagine. I made researched tons of books before making this one. I wanted to find the best solution for everything: spreads with chapter titles spread with "cover" photographs, technical sheets, for step-by-step guides. I invented a tricky but amazingly-working layout for the type of content I need. ~1500 photos are used in this book.

The same size circle as the chocolate on the cover works like a single unique element in the book

Table of contents (1)

Table of contents (2)

Spread with caption

Introduction typographic artwork

Book layout (1)

Book layout (2)

Book layout (3)

Book layout (4)

Book layout (5)

Book layout (6)

Book layout (7, text-only)

In this video made in a coffee shop, I talk about some details of the design of the book. Also, you can see my 1 y.o. daughter in the end :)

Then I received the edition of 310 books at my 70-metres apartment in Warsaw. It looks like that:

Oh my. It is bigger than I thought :)

The pallet with the books dropped on the street in front of our apartment

After I climbed the stairs, in front of our apartment door

I still need to bring it inside :)

I bring all the books to our apartment. By foot. 4th floor, no elevator. The edition took place in the corner of the room. We announced a "drop" date.

The Drop

I also designed the whole product experience: I made a website Shopify+Wordpress to sell, I designed packaging for safe worldwide delivery, and I partnered with DHL Express.

Me choosing the package in the packaging supply store

Planning the shipping zones for the checkout process

Me choosing the packaging film

Me choosing the right color of tape for using in parcels

I bought some packaging materials

So-called "Legal deposit" of the book for ISBN registration

Rubbish after work with initial samples of the book

Production delay announcement

It was risky.

I was planning a high demand, high load on the website. I was checking if we are still up and if everything works well. I was on the phone and in Direct Messages on our Instagram.

I had another crazy model for involving distributors in this process. But it failed so I would tell it in another story.

The edition was sold 20 minutes after the drop. We were celebrating.

We weren't celebrating too long. The next thing we need is to pack and send 310 books worldwide. Our crew is... me, my wife and my 1-yo daughter. Tough task!

We are packing the books while our kid is sleeping next door

The books are prepared for shipping in the room corner

Part of the papers prepared for customs to ship the books worldwide

Friends can help :). We packed 310 parcels and the place taken by the books in our apartment became much bigger...

I generated the parcel labels, printed papers for customs for every parcel and moved 310 books from the fourth floor to the street, so DHL could pick them up.