Any experience with Dragonpencil

Can you provide a link?

Considering a picture book is already a bunch of ready-made illustrations, the typesetting is really already done for a book. Basically, all you need to do is turn those images into .pdfs. Photoshop can do that for you in two seconds. You'd just need to scan your illustrations.

Looks like Dragonpencil wants a big chunk of change up front. I always figure, if you're going to pay money at the get go, you might as well just go for a print run, especially considering you plan to sell them locally. Unfortunately, I know next to nothing about doing that. Zpeteman used to hang out here, and he was a print run guru. Maybe if he's lurking, he'll speak up.

My guess is that a print-on-demand picture book is going to be super, super expensive per copy. $30 or more, probably?

But, my gut feeling is that you don't need a company that has "experience" with picture books for POD. All a POD company does is print your digital content. I'd say you'd be better off with Lulu if you do decide to go POD. You'd spend less money up front and have a quality product.

But if you've got a local audience, you might be even better off by taking preorders and using that money to find a local press and do a print run. But my experience is only with text-only POD books. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable wanders through here to help you better.

Good luck!

Valerie, thanks--that's pretty much what I'd have said.

From DragonPencil's home page:

The world of publishing has changed for the better. If you have the deepee creativity and skill to write a great story, you can publish it and profit from it. If you want to write for newborns, young adults, or anyone in between, we can make it a reality. Please explore our website to learn what we can do for you. Then give us a call.

Click to expand...

My bold. Hmm.

I think Blurb.com offers a POD service for highly illustrated books too.