As of this week, the entire Little Launchers book series is available on Amazon.com, the largest online retailer in the world.
Did you know a whopping 43% of all online sales in the U.S. take place through Amazon? That’s right — and now Little Launchers books are joining the action.
For the past month, illustrator Li Zeng and author Erica Swallow have been prepping file types and editing proofs to make sure that all three book types — paperback, hardcover, and Kindle ebook versions — were ready for the Amazon spotlight… or “Prime” time, should we say?
All four books in the Little Launchers series can now be found on Amazon. Here are the product pages for each book:
- “Sebastian Creates a Sock Company“
- “Gabby Invents the Perfect Hair Bow“
- “Jason Saves the Environment with Entrepreneurship“
- “Rachel Turns Her Passion Into a Business“
Swallow and Zeng used Amazon CreateSpace to generate the paperback version; IngramSpark to offer the hardcover; and Amazon Kindle Direct Publisher to put together the Kindle ebook.
The Amazon listing for “Rachel Turns Her Passion Into a Business”
The Amazon offerings come in advance of the team’s special edition Kickstarter hardcover print, which is currently in production in China and expected to arrive in Northern California for distribution in September/October.
“We are very excited for our trade-quality Kickstarter print edition to arrive from China,” says author Erica Swallow. “In the meantime, we couldn’t be more ecstatic that we can offer paperback, hardcover, and ebook versions to readers who want to access these stories now.”
Zeng and Swallow have visited multiple schools in recent months. The Amazon-accessible, print-on-demand paperback and hardcover books make those visits a bit smoother, as they can read high-quality prints, instead of the early prototypes they used for readings earlier this year. Plus, kids and educators who love the books now have a place to buy them.
What’s the Difference Between the Amazon Offerings and the Kickstarter Special Edition?
The short answer here is: Quality, beauty, and durability.
The Amazon offerings are available in three types: Hardcover, paperback, and Kindle version, while the Kickstarter campaign came in hardcover and ebook versions. Because the ebooks are the same files, the difference comes down to the hardcover editions.
If you ordered one or more hardcover books via the Kickstarter campaign, you are in for a gold-standard, trade-quality reading experience! The Kickstarter hardcover is truly a treat — which makes it perfect for our wonderful early adopters! If you are thinking of ordering the print-on-demand hardcover on Amazon, you’ll get a great product, but there are quite a few bells and whistles missing that translate to lower quality in beauty and durability.
Humor us as we geek out for a second… As you may already know, the Kickstarter print is being produced by Jade Productions, one of the top-quality children’s book producers in the world. The book has the following print specs, in line with what you’d see of traditionally published books on the shelves of your nearest bookstore:
- A 3mm board case for sturdiness, particular in a library setting
- A casebound, section-sewn binding for extra durability, again for protection against the battleground that is reading time
- A 128gsm (86 lbs.) glossy dust jacket with matte lamination for extra protection throughout the years
- Intricate spot UV finish on the dust jacket to highlight key design details
- 32 pages of story on 128gsm (86 lbs.) matte artpaper, the highest quality you’ll see in a children’s book
- 8 endpaper pages on 120gsm (81 lbs.) glossy artpaper
- Dust jacket flaps, which tell about the Little Launchers in the book (front flap), as well as the author and illustrator (back flap)
- Premium color quality transferred via press
Now, let’s compare the Jade Productions print with the IngramSpark print-on-demand hardcover version offered on Amazon. It’s still a great product, but it doesn’t come close to the Kickstarter special edition print in terms of quality. First of all, the print-on-demand book doesn’t have a dust jacket. Unfortunately, IngramSpark doesn’t provide dust jacket services for 8.5×8.5″ books. Thus, the print-on-demand version doesn’t have the extra flair and protection that the jacket provides; the inside flaps with helpful information about the Little Launchers, author, and illustrator are not there; and the beautiful spot UV finishes that highlight key aspects of the cover are not possible. IngramSpark can’t offer spot UV finish for print-on-demand anyway, because it is a hand-varnishing process. The print-on-demand is also printed on much lower-quality pager: 70 lbs. matte laminate sheets versus 86 lbs. matte art paper. It uses Standard Color digital printing, which pales in comparison to premium offset printing. Finally, while they don’t offer case specs online, we are estimating that the case board is around 2mm, based on the 6.35mm spine width our book has been is quoted to have.
Why should you care about all of these details? Once the Kickstarter editions arrive in America and are distributed to our early backers, the quality difference will be evident. Until then, it’s tough for consumers to determine differences without the specs!
Furthermore, if you are a teacher or librarian, you are likely used to the trade-quality level that the Kickstarter special edition provides.
We will provide the remaining books from the Kickstarter order on entrepreneurkid.com after all backer orders have been distributed. For educational consumers and readers who need the extra durability or prefer the trade-level reading experience and all of the hard work that we put into this special edition, that will be the edition for you! If you’re simply looking to read the story a couple of times and don’t need the extra binding, the extra spectacular touches, and all of that, then the print-on-demand should suffice for your needs.
We hope this overview of the key differences is helpful for the very curious readers among us!
