The Publishing Team for “A Home for Steamboat”

We built a team around the children’s picture book, “A Home for Steamboat” from the very beginning. It takes a long time to create a book like this, starting from the planning stage Zak & Casey. In fact we thought about this book for over 10 years. To get started, it requires having many creative meetings to discuss ideas to build the story.

When Casey has enough ideas and knowledge to bring the story to life, she hits the “writing board” many times and heads back to Zak’s studio for him to read what she has written, only to add a long list of new ideas. So Casey goes back again to write and write and learn more ways to add ideas through research and after she rewrites (this process happens too many times to count), it will finally be ready to pass on to our book publishing company, Book Bridge Press.

When Aimee from Book Bridge Press receives a pdf of our final story, she takes the time to see if it is ready to be made into a book. Zak and I have made many books, so we always get to go ahead by the time it reaches her computer. Contracts are then signed to move forward to make a book and Book Bridge Press involves the art director, Lois, right away.

Lois and Zak break the story down into how many pages the book has and then decides what should be the main illustration ideas. Zak creates stories on notecard size paper, this one had 26 full spreads to be created. Once the story ideas are mutually agreed upon, Zak starts illustrating characters, landscapes and things that are relevant to the story. Once he creates his best character faces & bodies, wildlife and ranch/rodeo items, he puts them on a large canvas. He then spends months painting to make the illustrations come alive. And this is the short version.

Book Bridge Press oversees everything from the time we sign contracts to the time the book is in our hands. In the meantime, after illustrations and words have been put together, the Book Bridge Press team then passes it on to other speciality editors and once it's good to go, it heads to the printing team. Book Bridge Press is always overseeing everyone’s job. Even when distribution of the books happens, which means planes, boats and semi trucks.