. . .Full color children's books must have some kind of minimum page count. . . . Hmmm. Just thought of something. Full color books might be non-fiction reference and coffee table type books, too. Is color the magic word for PA now? . . .
16 pages is typical for illustrated books for very young children.
PA's costs just have to be ridiculously prohibitive for color books of any length.
One acquaintance of mine, Greg Voelm (he writes as Greg Velm) published a marvelous full-color trade paperback titled
True Gold, a popular history of the Sacramento region, with emphasis on the role of gold. It is 183 pages, not counting fold-out maps. Printing cost, in quantity, about $2.00 per copy. Printed in China. (Not giving secrets here--he explained this in a public presentation recently, and the copyright page tells where it was printed.) The local Costco stores have it for sale at eleven dollars and change, while list price is $18.49 (a play on the Forty-Niners of Gold Rush fame). So, what would PA charge for something like that? I hesitate to even guess.
Another acquaintance had a paperback coffee-table-style book printed (oversize, color throughout) overseas, priced for profitable sale at $25. (Local interest book, primarily, and selling like hotcakes:
Carmichael: Americana on the Move). Fewer pages, but larger format than
True Gold. There again, of course, printed in quantity (thousands). I cannot imagine PA being able to produce anything like that at a price anyone could live with.
Trafford does color children's books. They are a bit pricey (POD), and of course require upfront fees, but have to be pricing the books at a fraction of what PA would charge.
FYI FWIW.
--Ken