Pricing
Writing is free. You pay once, to finish it.
Write your whole story, take as long as you like over it, and see your cover and opening pages illustrated before you spend anything. One payment illustrates the rest of the book and gives you the edition you choose.
No card, no deadline, no account needed to begin.
Three ways to have it
Every edition is the same finished book, 28 pages, illustrated throughout. Printed editions are 21 × 28 cm (8 × 11″) portrait. All prices are in New Zealand dollars.
Digital
Page-turning PDF edition for your tablet, plus a link for family anywhere
Softcover
+ shipping
28 pages, 21 × 28 cm (8 × 11″) portrait, soft matte cover
Digital edition included
Hardcover
+ shipping
The keepsake edition, 21 × 28 cm (8 × 11″) portrait, built to be re-read
Digital edition included
Shipping added at checkout.
What you get before you pay
- The whole story, written and edited
- Write your story, work on it with the editor, and change it as many times as you want. There is no trial and nothing expires, so you can start tonight and come back to it when you're ready.
- Your cover and opening pages, illustrated
- We draw your cover and the first spread in the style you picked, so you can see your characters on the page while it still costs nothing.
What the payment is for
- Illustrating the rest of the book
- This is the part you are paying for. Every remaining page is illustrated in the same style, keeping your characters consistent from page to page, and we email you when the full book is ready to look at.
- Room to change illustrations you do not like
- Every book comes with an allowance for changes, which stretches to roughly a dozen small tweaks to a picture, or around six pages redrawn from scratch, or any mix of the two.
- You see the whole book and make your changes before anything is printed. Nothing goes to the printer until you approve it.
- Your edition, and the digital copy with it
- Choose digital, softcover or hardcover. Both printed editions include the digital edition, so family overseas can read the book on the day it is finished rather than waiting for the post.
Shipping is one flat price
US$9.99 for a printed book, to every country we ship to.
We ship to New Zealand, Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Ireland. There is no regional pricing and no surcharge for distance.
Everything is charged in New Zealand dollars, including from overseas, so your bank sets the conversion rate on the day rather than us.
The digital edition has no shipping to pay. It arrives by email.
Why it costs this
A one-off illustrated picture book used to mean commissioning an illustrator, which runs to thousands of dollars and several months, fairly, because it is weeks of skilled work. Most family stories never became books because of it.
Our illustrations are generated rather than commissioned, and that is the whole reason a single copy of your own story can cost what a hardback costs in a shop. We would rather say that plainly here than have you find out later.
Getting it to you
Delivery dates depend on printing and shipping times that we do not control, so we do not promise a date. We suggest allowing about 10 working days from the day you approve your book.
You will get a tracking link by email once it ships.
Write it first, decide about the rest later
The writing is the part that takes time and the part only you can do, and it costs nothing. You can read the whole book back, and see it start to look like one, before you spend anything.
Free to write. Finish your book from US$11.99.