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Journal Design

Case Study - Design and Printing of a Wellness Tracker (Journal)

Cheryl and John Parrish, owners of Evergreen Wellness

Creating a wellness tracker (journal) was a personal journey for Cheryl Parrish and her husband, John. Shaped by decades of experience in marketing and a shared passion for empowering active adults to live their best lives, the Parrishes envisioned a simple, holistic tool to help people 50+ improve their fitness and overall wellness without the overwhelm of rigid tracking systems.

In this post, Cheryl shares the story behind the tracker, valuable lessons from the publishing process, and tips for anyone embarking on a similar journey of creating a printed product they hope to print in large quantities overseas.

Some of my favorite clients to work with are marketers and Cheryl was no exception. Marketers are familiar with working with designers but know that for a book project they need someone who has book planning, design and printing experience. I am also familiar with their world, having a keen interest in marketing and loving the convergence of marketing and book-making. Read on to learn about the successful product we created together, and to get a 20% off coupon code for John and Cheryl’s entire online store.

How did you come up with the idea for your fitness tracker?

My husband and I owned a full-service marketing firm from 1996 to 2021, serving clients across multiple industries. A couple of years into our business, and for more than 20 years, we had the incredible opportunity to work very closely with The Villages®—the largest and most vibrant retirement community in the world. In 2016, when my husband and I were in our 50s, we began thinking about the next chapter of our lives. We wanted to transition from the high-pressure world of marketing into something more meaningful—something that could help others and carry us into our own retirement years with purpose.

That’s when we created Evergreen Wellness, built around the theme For a Life Worth Living …Longer™. Our mission is to provide relatable, practical content for women and men ages 50-80+. We produce inspiring articles and videos, including complete fitness programs on DVD and in streaming format, that educate and empower our audience to live healthier, more fulfilling lives. Our Wellness Tracker is a natural extension of that mission. Designed with thoughtful details like large writing spaces, mindfulness prompts, and practical tracking for all forms of activity (not just athletic activities) our Wellness Tracker is a reflection of our commitment to creating a life worth living… longer.


Cheryl's Book Done Timeline

💡 The idea was born: January 2023
✍️ Writing started: March 2023
📨 Files ready for design and layout: May 2023
✔️ Book done (released): October 2023


Cheryl's Book Done Takeaways

Tell me about how you came up with your book's title.

It started as "Exercise & Nutrition Tracker" but evolved to become "Wellness Tracker for Women and Men 50-80+" because it better represents our brand and target audience.

What service providers or partners did you have in creating and producing your book?

My husband and business partner, John, was my biggest supporter and cheerleader (he also created some of the graphics for the interior pages and contributed to some of the writing). Also Julie, our book designer, who was an absolutely wonderful partner and helped guide us in so many ways. And then our printers, of course, which we will share more about.

What part did Julie play in the producing of your tracker?

We provided Julie with our brand guidelines and some visual assets, including licensed images. She did a fabulous job of presenting several cover design concepts that used the images and branding styles we had set out, and we worked collaboratively to tweak and come up with the winner.

Once the cover design was established, she created the interior layout samples and we went through various rounds of tweaks to those before she laid out the full book interior. My husband John provided a few interior graphics as well.

This tracker has a large section of repeated pages for daily tracking and Julie helped us save money by making sure we knew exactly which pages were repeating (full sections of 16 pages must be identical for this to work), communicating this to the printer and setting up the files in such a way that the middle sections of the book could all be printed with the same set of printing plates. This is only possible if the pages are exactly the same—they cannot have unique page numbers on them. Because of Julie’s experience working at a book printer, she was able to guide us through this process.

Julie also connected us with a journal printer in China with whom her clients have worked before. She showed us the pricing and timelines the printer provided and also helped us know what information to give the other printers we were considering. While in the end we worked with a different printer who was a bit more affordable, it was definitely worthwhile to have that initial printer contact as a baseline and to have Julie’s guidance in knowing what to tell the other printers.

Did you self-publish, or work with a traditional publisher? If you self-published, did you use a print on demand printer, and if so, which one and why?

We self-published and chose not to use a print-on-demand service for our book in part because of the high cost per book and desire to have coil binding. From the start, we planned to print a minimum of 1,000 copies to keep costs down, especially since selling on Amazon significantly cuts into profit margins. Printing overseas seemed like the best option to make this feasible.

However, we also wanted to test-market the book before committing to a larger print run. This allowed us the flexibility to gather feedback and make revisions as needed. While researching and vetting printers in China, we simultaneously looked into short-run digital printers in the U.S.

Ultimately, we chose Bookmobile as our U.S. printer for the initial batch, producing 100 digitally printed copies. We shared these copies with friends and family to gather valuable feedback. Based on their input, we made adjustments to the book before moving forward with the larger print run in China.

Initially, we planned to sell the 100 digital copies on Amazon while waiting for the offset-printed copies to be manufactured and shipped. However, due to some challenges with Bookmobile and the faster-than-expected turnaround time from our Chinese printer, we decided to hold off. We only listed the book on Amazon once the offset-printed copies from China were ready.

You told me that you had taken a course on producing a product in China, which course did you take and was it helpful? 

My journey to finding the right printer for our book was a process of extensive research and learning, and a lot of that came from Camron James, a well-known expert in Amazon selling. He offers fantastic insights into sourcing products from China, which was both educational for me and a way for me to engage with his content. Through his guidance, I learned how to navigate Alibaba, a Chinese-owned online marketplace that connects businesses with manufacturers and wholesalers. This platform became a crucial resource as I started my search for a printer.

I used Alibaba to find potential printers and suppliers, and I created a detailed Request for Quote (RFQ) to submit through the platform. The RFQ process helped me gather essential details about each printer’s capabilities, including their proximity to China’s East Coast ports, which was a key factor for me. I knew I needed a printer near major shipping routes to keep costs down, and I found that printers located near ports were often larger, more established companies, which was ideal.

To stay organized, I created a spreadsheet with clear criteria to help me evaluate each option. There are a lot of companies on Alibaba that present themselves as manufacturers, but I had to be cautious—some of them were actually just trading companies that farm out production to printers and add markup. Alibaba helped me distinguish between certified manufacturers and others, which made the decision-making process a little easier.

I also relied on translation software to communicate with the printers, as many of them didn’t speak fluent English, especially over the phone.

In total, I sent RFQs to about 8 to 10 different companies, ensuring I covered all my bases. It was a time-consuming process, but in the end, it was worth it to feel confident in the decision I made for printing our book. I ultimately chose a printer with a customer service rep named Doris. I based my printer decision on a few key factors: responsiveness, communication, price, location, and the quality of samples they sent me. While there were a couple of other printers that were almost just as qualified, the relationship I built with Doris really made the difference for me.

What was the biggest surprise during your book project?

The Chinese manufacturers I spoke with didn't seem to have much experience with shipping directly to Amazon warehouses in the USA, which was a bit of a challenge. Shipping to Amazon involves a lot of specific requirements and intricacies, and I had to explain these details to them. As an Amazon seller, everything has to be done precisely according to Amazon’s guidelines, which can be quite detailed.

I arranged for a partial order to be shipped from China to us and the remaining portion to be sent directly to Amazon’s fulfillment centers in the USA. Fortunately, by the time we were ready to launch the book, we had already been selling other Evergreen Wellness products on Amazon since 2018. This gave us an established brand, a customer base, and an existing product line, which made the process of adding the book to our offerings much smoother than starting from scratch.

What was the timeline from when you approved print files to when you got your physical product in hand from China the first time?

The manufacturing process only took about one week. Granted, the interior of our book is black ink only and some portions of it are repeated. More complex books might take longer. Doris sent videos to keep us updated as to how things were going. We ordered 1,000 copies as our first batch. Four dozen were air-shipped, while the rest were sent to Amazon by sea, which took about seven weeks.

What was the cost difference of printing your tracker in the USA vs. printing it in China?

The cost difference between printing our tracker at Bookmobile and printing it in China was significant. At Bookmobile, it cost $12.84 per copy for a run of 100. However, when printing 1,000 copies in China, the cost dropped to just $1.54 per copy. We didn’t really need 100 samples from Bookmobile, but it allowed us to test the product before committing to a larger order. In the end I was very glad we did this, as we made significant changes to the content after getting great feedback from our users.

Did you find your own shipping company or simply get the printer to take care of shipping for you?

I let the printer arrange shipping for us because it is quite complex if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Which part of your book project was the most fun or rewarding?

The most exciting and rewarding part was receiving videos and photos of the finished product from the Chinese manufacturer before they were shipped. It was such a great feeling to see everything come together! Here is one of the videos that Doris sent me:

Which was the most challenging?

The most challenging aspect, as a first-timer, was navigating the entire process. From writing the content and finding an experienced book designer to sourcing printers both domestically and in China, there was a lot to learn. I also had to familiarize myself with the U.S. copyright system to protect the book and figure out the complexities of shipping from China. It was definitely a steep learning curve.

Which part of your book project took longer than you expected, and why?

The part of the book project that took longer than I expected was getting the first 100 copies from Bookmobile. The initial batch was way off, and it took an extra three weeks to get it right. The final product didn’t match the proof, which was frustrating. By that time, we were already moving forward with printing in China, but I’m still glad I distributed the sample book—50 units in total. I wouldn’t say I would not recommend Bookmobile, but there were definitely challenges. I had better success getting the product I wanted from China than from Minneapolis, which is saying something!

Do you have any marketing tips for journals given your background running a marketing business?

With our background in running a marketing business, we have a love-hate relationship with Amazon. We listed my tracker at $19.99, but it's often on sale for $16.99. Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA), cost us about $6 per book, which means we receive about $11 for each book we sell on Amazon. Navigating Amazon as a seller is definitely not for the faint of heart—it requires a lot of time and effort. On average, it takes about 1 to 1.5 years to go from the very beginning steps of creating a product to actually selling on Amazon.

When you write another book, what will you do the same way? What will you do differently?

I will source the printer overseas again, but will look into India and other countries, in addition to China. I only chose to work with China after many deliberations. As a business owner I am aware that working with China may not be a long-term solution as tariff increases, etc. could quickly make it less profitable.

What is your best advice for marketing a book?

For us, the book is an add-on to an already-established brand and complements our other product offerings really well. So, selling it on Amazon and on our own shop site didn't require as much heavy lifting as if this were our first product. Our marketing machine was already in place and we just kept rolling. Within the first year, we were able to sell almost all of the original 1,000 journals and one year after we released, we ordered 2,000 more trackers.


Book Done Technical Details

Your printer needs these kinds of details to give you a quote for printing a similar book. If you are using a print on demand printer like Amazon KDP or IngramSpark, you can enter your book details on their website to know your printing cost per book.

Initial quantity of books ordered: 1,000

Page count: 176
Dimensions (Page size): 5.5 x 8.5 inches

Interior Details
Ink colors
: Black and white
Bleed: No

Cover Details
Binding
: White metal coil
Ink colors:
 Full color
Laminate: Matte


Thanks to Cheryl for sharing what she learned through her journey.

To follow Evergreen Wellness, visit the company’s website, their community site, or their Amazon store.

Cheryl and John at Evergreen Wellness would like to give you a 20% discount on their wellness tracker or any of their DVDs. Just follow this link and use coupon code JKH20 at checkout!


If you are a marketer and have an established brand but are wanting to produce your first book or planner product, send me a message with any question you have about book planning, design or formatting through my contact form. If you’re still in the planning stages, consider booking a one-hour live consultation. Or fill out this book project questionnaire or journal project questionnaire if you already know the specifics of your project.

Good Things to Know When Printing Journals or Books Overseas

In about 2017, a client of mine asked me to help him figure out how to print a catalog in China because printing in the USA was cost-prohibitive. A few years later, another client asked me to help her figure out how to print a faux leather journal in China. Since that time, more and more of my clients have printed journals or books in China, with me helping them to bridge some knowledge gaps and connect them with known printers. Here are a few “good to know”s about printing in China or overseas that could potentially save you thousands of dollars. Contact me with any more questions, or to work together on designing a book that you want to have printed overseas. And don’t miss previous posts about journal design and printing:

Researching multiple printers can be worthwhile, in particular if you expect to print your journal or book many times.

That said, researching various printers and getting pricing, timelines, shipping costs, etc. from each one takes a lot of time. This is why a lot of my clients appreciate simply being connected with one of the printers that I have worked with before. (While I cannot guarantee that they are the cheapest or fastest, I do know they have proven to be reliable.) One of my clients connected with the printer I recommended but also researched and contacted other printers. She estimated that this additional work took her at least 20 hours—budget that into your project time/costs!

You can ask for a discount to the pricing the printer presents to you.

This does not mean that you will get your discount. But you can ask!

Think about packaging ahead of time.

Do you want your journals to be shipped in sealed plastic bags? Inside a custom cardboard box? Or inside a paper envelope? Do you want the the overseas printer to provide the packaging or will you buy it more locally? Think about this when asking for pricing and design. The printer can often also provide images of boxes or bags they often produce. Here are some example images that one printer sent to me.

Always ask for printed proofs.

In my opinion, it’s too risky to order a journal or book from China after only approving a PDF proof (via email). It may cost about +$200 to get one printed copy of your journal airmailed to you, but it so worth it. I did have one client who found out some pages from his book were missing or out of order, and finding that problem in the printed proof saved him tons of money.

Rounded corners seem to help keep the books from getting as dented. Bags help to keep them from getting scuffed.

One of my clients ordered hardcover journals with square corners and PU (faux leather journals) with rounded corners and noticed that the rounded corner journals had fewer dings and dents. It’s also good to have each individual journal packaged in some kind of bag or wrapper to prevent scuffing during transport.

Ask for a picture of your products before your pay the final fee.

Often the printer will ask for 50% payment before printing begins and 50% after the books have been printed and are being shipped. You can ask for pictures or videos your final books on the pressroom floor or in the shipping area before they ship, just to be sure the final product has really been completed. This is just a small safety measure for you.

Prepare for printing, production and delivery to take longer than you expect.

Printing in China is not for people who are in a hurry. Maybe after the first or second edition of your book, when all the kinks have been worked out, you could place an order in the timeline the printer gives to you. But until then, there will always be some surprises or delays.

Order more books than you think you need.

If you absolutely must have a certain number of journals, order a few extras, or plan on about 10-20% fewer “perfect” copies than what you ordered. 

Learning about shipping options might save you a lot of money.

The printers I have worked with will usually offer an option to ship right to to your door, where they cover the duty and get the books through customs for you. However, if you want to take a more hands-on approach, you can find a shipping service yourself and may save money.

Turn your “problems” into creative marking opportunities.

Printing (whether overseas or locally) presents challenges. One of my clients had a problematic order. While the printer I recommended to her did reimburse her for the damaged books, she was still stuck with a pile of journals with sloppy glue, scuffed covers, etc. She turned this into a marketing opportunity, offering the damaged journals for free or cheap to her online following: a creative way to get her journal out there, make some new connections (who doesn’t want a free journal?) and save wastage.

Plan a lot of lead time for marketing.

While you could ask a digital artist / renderer to mock up images of journals before you receive them, I suggest waiting until the final products arrive to really begin marketing them with actual product photos. You can have all your marketing set up and ready to roll once you can get the photos, ie: book your photographer or have your marketing campaign planned.

Make a plan for distribution ahead of time.

I am often asked about distribution options for journals, for people who don’t want to stock them and ship them themselves. I have heard of Flowspace and Shippo in the USA—maybe this gives you a bit of a head start. Some people send their product to an Amazon warehouse and have it distributed from there.


MORE TO COME…I hope to update this post periodically with more tips and tricks for printing a journal or book overseas.

I am a book and journal designer with 15+ years of experience in book printing and design, including five years working hands-on in the pre-press department at a book printer and experience designing journals for printing overseas. If you are wanting to get a journal designed or printed, I’d love to talk. Book a live consultation or fill out this journal questionnaire or book questionnaire to get started.

Marketing Ideas for Journal Creators

I love meeting passionate content creators, speakers, writers, and professionals who want to launch a journal and need guidance to get from idea or manuscript to a journal-their-clients-can-hold! We usually meet over zoom to discuss cover colors and materials, design and layout process, printing costs...and more! Although journal design is my wheelhouse, we usually end up talking about journal marketing because, what good is a journal if you can’t get it out to your market? I have come across some interesting journal marketing ideas and want to share some of them with you in this article.

Photo copyright Shoal Projects Limited

Photo copyright Shoal Projects Limited

Start establishing your brand or online presence well before you want to release a journal.

I meet a lot of would-be journal creators who love journaling and have an interesting journal idea, but have no audience to whom they can sell their journal. The first step in launching a successful journal doesn’t have much with the actual journal itself. It has to do with the background work of building an online presence (brand, website, social media accounts) and finding the people who are interested in what you’re creating (and finding ways to keep in touch with them, like through an email newsletter, Facebook group, or similar). The cost for creating a professionally designed and printed journal, if you print in Asia, starts at around $5,000 for the first 500 copies. Before you lay out that kind of money, you need to make sure you are creating something people will buy and use.

Give away a free download in exchange for an email address.

I have seen a few different journal creators do this: offer a printable worksheet from your journal in exchange for joining your email list. Or offer people the chance to test your journal pages and give feedback before you get the whole journal designed.

Share your journal creation process.

Create content about your journal creation process: a photo of the person who inspired your journal project; a picture of you writing in the woods; a video of you talking about how you brainstormed ideas for the journal; pictures of sample ribbons, paper and faux leather material you received from the printer; or a video of you unboxing the journals. Anything, everything can be social media content especially with a project so visual as a journal!

Consider making your first journal product a bit generic.

Journal creators can’t really use print-on-demand and just print one journal at a time, so you have the heavy front-end costs of printing hundreds of journals and seeing how they will sell. Avoid anything that might make your first journal feel dated quickly, so that you can create a timeless journal that can be used for many years.

What makes your journal feel out of date?

  • A logo or website that gets changed. If your brand has not been established for long, you may end up with a name change or logo change before you run out of journals. It might be better to create a website just for the journal but not for the overall brand you are building. For example, my journal design client Felix registered an LLC under the same name as his journal, “Live Your Potential”.

  • Dates: A dated journal has to be sold within a very short window of time: who hasn’t seen daytimers on sale for 50% off just a month or two into the new year?

  • An ultra-trendy look or content: If you’re capitalising on a social media trend or popular video game or maybe even a color that is already trendy, by the time your journal arrives on the ship from China, that trend might be long gone. For this reason, it’s probably wise to stick to a more classic look and feel for a journal so that it can be sold long term.

Brand your journal with a belly band, bookmark or bag.

A belly band, bookmark, bag, or other “wrapper” that you can put on your journal can be custom designed for a particular event or time. For example, the belly band on a 365 day journal can make it seem branded for 2022, even though the product itself could be used any year. A bag can be stamped with event information or a bookmark can contain phone numbers of local sponsors. Speaking of which…

Photo copyright Shoal Projects Limited

Photo copyright Shoal Projects Limited

Create partnerships or seek sponsors within your niche.

Brainstorm a list of individuals or organizations who offer complementary services and might be interested to partner with you in promoting your journal. For example, the creator of a journal for adoptive parents can partner with non-profits or government agencies helping adoptive and foster parents. A Christian journal might be given out in event bags at a large Christian event in your area, if you sell the journals to them a reduced rate. A kids’ goals journal could be promoted by a local school or by an online kids’ entrepreneurship company. Approach potential partners asking if you can do anything from a giveaway that they share on their social media pages and website to a sponsorship where they pay for some of your printing costs in exchange for including their logo or contact information on your journal or marketing materials.

Make a journal launch team.

Individuals and agencies who are interested in your journal can help you launch it. Plan the time into your journal launch timeline to give your launch team an advance copy and ask them to promote it during the weeks before the full release. Who doesn’t want a free journal in exchange for a post or two about it?

Hire professionals to help you.

Too many journals fail to fly because they look or sound unpolished. If your journal has a lot of text, you need a professional editor to help you. If your journal has any text at all, you should hire a professional proofreader. If you are not a journal designer or have never ordered a book before, I offer journal design and print ordering services, and will talk to the printer for you if you run into any snags. There are people out there who will help you with marketing and distribution of your journal if you want that. There’s no sense saving $400 in proofreading costs but having a journal that’s full of typos and gets negative reviews, kapish?


If you landed here first, you may be interested in my other journal articles:

Or, schedule a one-hour brainstorming session with me to get ready to take your journal from an idea in your head or a manuscript on your computer to a journal you—and your target market—can hold!

Case Study - Journal Design for Podcaster and Content Creator

This first case study on my website features a journal design for my client Felix Mack, a podcaster and productivity enthusiast who came to me when he was ready to have his first self-published book designed. Read all about the Live Your Potential Journal in this article, and see what Felix had to say about the process here, in his testimonial video.

professional journal designer for podcasters

Felix is a podcaster who wanted to develop and sell a product based on his podcast. The Live Your Potential Journal was designed as a simple and effective tool for daily self-improvement and goal achievement. The journal is for those seeking to document their personal growth journeys, through goal-setting, gratitude and taking specific actions relevant to their goals. Of course, it also has lots of inspirational quotations!

The title of Felix’s journal came quickly, since he has a podcast with the same name! He just “stole” his own title for the book! 😊 

journal design

Felix’s Book Done timeline:

From concept to done in just 9 months! (Obviously, Felix doesn’t mess around! Must be all that goal-setting!)

🐣 Idea hatched: January 2020
✍️ Writing started: February 2020
🎨 Files ready for editing, design and layout: April 2020
✔️ Book done (released): September 2020

journal images design interior.png

Felix’s Book Done take-aways:

Here I interview Felix about what he learned during the process of getting his journal done!

What was the biggest surprise during your book project? Will you do something differently next time? 

My biggest surprise was the errors I didn't catch when reading my own material! Having your eyes go over my journal content and suggest content changes (edits) definitely improved my final product. Next time I will get more eyes on my content during the initial phases, before I give the content to you.

Which part of your book project was the most fun or rewarding? 

The editing process with you was the most fun and rewarding—seeing how things could be improved in my journal along the way and coming away with an even more valuable product for my followers. 

Did any part of your book project take longer than you expected? 

I didn’t know how long it would take from the time the journal was printed until it reached my doorstep, so I was surprised at the production and delivery timeline. I printed overseas, and it took about two months from the time I placed the printing order until the journals arrived.

Which part of your book project was the most challenging?

The most challenging was the process of physically getting the book on Amazon—likely because it was my first venture selling a physical product through Amazon. 

Screenshot 2021-02-12 at 14.13.49.png

Felix’s Book Done tips:

  • If you’re having trouble coming up with a title, draw inspiration from your own work or other content you have created.

  • Get feedback from your audience before sending your files to Julie, and then get more feedback during the design process (after Julie shows you the sample page design layouts).

  • Work with a good editor and/or proofreader!

  • If you’re printing overseas, expect it to take some time. Start talking to a printer ahead of time and get those timeframes in mind.

  • Do not wait until your book is done to start marketing! Start today.

  • If you're going to be listing on Amazon, get familiar with the process and what it will take to make your book available before your book is actually ready to list.






journal design with belly band.jpg

Felix’s Book Done technical details:

Your printer needs these kinds of details to give you a quote for printing a similar book.

Quantity ordered: 500 
Page count: 236
Dimensions (page size): A5
Binding: Sewn binding

Interior details
Ink colors: Black ink only
Paper: 100gsm uncoated white
Bleed*: Yes 

Cover details
Cover material: Thermo PU leather in Navy Blue
Ink colors: None
Finishing: Debossing

*Bleed refers to whether your book has images or graphics that go off the edge of the paper. This is important for the printer to know, because it determines how big the sheets of paper your book is printed on need to be.

Felix was great to work with, and so kind as to give me the video testimonial above. I helped him with clarifying the concepts in his journal through editingdesigning and laying out the cover, interior, and belly band, as well as making adjustments to the print-ready files when the printer requested them in an unusual format.  (I don’t always offer editing as a service, but on a case-by-case basis, I will consider it. Otherwise, I am happy to recommend an editor or proofreader who can help you!)


What’s next for your book?

I hope Felix’s story has been helpful, no matter where you are on your book journey. What kind of book project are you working on? Book a live consultation with me or sign up to get more of these case studies in your inbox via my newsletter.

Designing and Producing a Journal

Motivational speaker Debra Searle approached me in 2019 to help her design and lay out a journal. Debra is a positive force and adventurer known for her “choose your attitude” message. She has been journaling for years to help herself achieve her goals. She had created journaling pdfs to share with others, and wanted my help to:

  • design and lay out The “Choose Your Attitude” Journal as a product she could sell or include in a goody bag at events where she speaks

  • liaison with a printer in China for production of her “Choose Your Attitude” Journal, helping to make sure the printer understood what she wanted and produced it according to plan.

I was happy to help Debra’s beautiful journal vision come to life. In this post I will talk about the four main parts of the project, sharing a few insights to help others who may also be wanting to design and produce journals.

Photo copyright Shoal Projects Limited

Photo copyright Shoal Projects Limited

Design of the Journal 

Debra has two main audiences: 

  • corporate crowds (for example, when she speaks at an HBBC event), and 

  • females around Debra’s age range (who may follow her on social media or watch her “Choose Your Attitude” show). 

She wanted to produce two journals that were the same inside but had different covers. The general look and feel of the journal needed to suit both audiences, and suit her current branding…which involves a lot of teal!

After I understood her audience and her goals for the journals, the first step was to create cover designs and sample layouts for the interior. She provided Word files with the text and simple layouts showing what she wanted. I designed a few simple covers for each journal, as well as a sample of about 10 pages of the interior. I chose a clean, open san serif for most of the book, and added some interest with a handwritten font called “High Tide” (also a nod to Debra’s background, rowing solo across the Atlantic).  Debra’s team gave me ideas like what you see on the left (below) in their draft, and I created an interior that matched their vision but also matched the overall look of the journals.

Screenshot+2020-03-02+at+20.47.15.jpg
Screenshot 2020-03-02 at 20.50.41.png

For the journal that needed to have a broader appeal, Debra chose a grey color and I designed a straightforward cover without too much “flounce”. For the more feminine journal we used teal and the handwritten font on the front. In the end, this is how the journal covers looked:

Photo copyright Shoal Projects Limited

Photo copyright Shoal Projects Limited

The design aspect of this project also involved designing icons to match the key themes on the journaling pages, and designing a belly band that would wrap around the journals. This was the main design on the belly bands, which were made to suit both journals.

bellyband journal design.jpg

Journal Design Tip: Designing an interior and belly band that matched both covers saved a lot of money at production time.


Full Journal Layout

Once we had established a look for the journals, I created the full interior in the same matching style. It included, in order:

  • Title page

  • Copyright page

  • About the Author

  • Introduction

  • Quick Start Guide - a two-page visual guide to how to use the journal pages

  • How To Guide - a more detailed explanation of how to use the jouranal pages

  • Goal Setting section

  • Journaling pages - The heart of the book, the same journaling page repeated many times

  • A logo and “ad” in the back sharing where the reader could get another copy of the journal

Journal Layout Tip: Be sure to test and re-test your journal contents before your get the journal laid out professionally. Even though Debra an her team were very organized and had done a lot of planning and testing, we still ended up having at least ten rounds of proofs before the journal interior was perfect and ready to print. This kind of back-and-forth on a project like this is not unusual. We were all pleased with the final product that we sent for printing.

Photo copyright Shoal Projects Limited

Photo copyright Shoal Projects Limited


colour comparison.jpg

Journal Production and Printing (in China)

Debra also hired me to liaison with the overseas printer whom I have worked with before. I exchanged over 40 emails with the printer, discussing the details of producing the journal. These emails related to:

  • Pricing - Some back and forth as the project specs changed a few times

  • Samples - Before placing the full order, we asked for two “dummy” journals to be made with a rough version of the cover design and blank sheets inside (the actual final paper). One cover had a grey PU (leather-like) cover (no ink), and one had a hardcover with teal ink. These dummies gave us a feel for the size, weight and look of the final product. We also asked for physical samples of the different PU materials, so that Debra could feel the different materials and see the color swatches in person. With the printer I use, requesting samples like these can cost around $100 to $200 to produce and airmail to my client in about a week, but is worth every cent to be sure that the final product is what we are expecting them to be!

  • Production Details - As I wrote in my article How to Communicate Clearly with your Overseas Printer, it’s really important to be clear and direct in communication with the printer. Because we wanted two journals that were so similar but also different, I knew it could be a confusing project. I created some visuals to help make sure all the production details were clear. For example, they both journals had ribbons bookmarks, pockets in the back, etc. But the grey one had rounded corners and rounded spine, and the teal one had a hard cover with square edges and a squared spine. In the end, both journals had all the detailed finishing work done correctly, with the exception that they had been individually packaged in plastic bags - something we had not wanted!

Journal production details like a back pocket and pen loop required extra attention to detail both in our order and in the production at the factory.Photo copyright Shoal Projects Limited

Journal production details like a back pocket and pen loop required extra attention to detail both in our order and in the production at the factory.

Photo copyright Shoal Projects Limited

Journal Production and Printing Tip 1: Always pay the extra $100-$200 to get proofs or samples sent to you when printing in China. Ask to have samples of the actual final paper or material (ie: PU, ribbon, back pocket, post) as well as a printed proof of the final product, if possible.

Journal Production and Printing Tip 2: If you’re printing a product (journal, book, etc.) overseas, you are likely doing so to get a much more affordable product. Expect that about 10% of the final products will not be sellable; be pleasantly surprised if more of them are! 😉


Journal Shipping (from China)

When shipping a book abroad, there is a lot to be considered. Overseas printers can ship to the client’s door (more expensive) or nearest port (less expensive, but you have to get it through customs, etc. yourself). They can ship by air (much more expensive) or by sea.

Debra used a shipping broker who picked up the journals from the production facility in China and ensured that the journals arrived at her warehouse in England. The warehouse also took care of some shipping / receiving / distribution duties with the final products.

Journal Shipping Tip 1: Before transferring the last 50% payment to the printer in China, we asked to see photos of the final products. This is always a good idea when working with a production house so far away.  We received various photos of the journals that showed that they had indeed been produced — below are the photos we received before Debra sent the final payment.

printing+in+china+ask+for+a+reference

Journal Shipping Tip 2: We learned with this project that soft cover rounded-corner journals shipped much better than hardcover square-corner journals. The squared corners got more beat up in transport.

Journal Shipping Tip 3: It’s pretty complicated dealing with shipping from abroad. It’s usually better to print locally for small quantities or simple products, to save dealing with international shipments.


Photo copyright Shoal Projects Limited

Photo copyright Shoal Projects Limited

I hope this article about designing and producing a journal has been helpful, whether you’re planning to print locally or abroad! Shout out to Debra for the beautiful pictures of her final product!

If you’re considering producing a journal, read this case study by my client Felix, who used his podcasting platform to develop and sell a motivational journal. Or sign up for my Book Done newsletter to get more stories from people who’ve gotten their book projects done!

NEW OFFER: Book a one-hour brainstorming session with me to get a head start on your journal planning and production! I’ll save you a lot of trouble by sharing what I’ve learned through trial and error with my journal design clients, sharing which printer we have used most successfully, and whatever else you want to know!

Planning Content and Preparing Files for a Journal

After writing a post to help those looking into Designing and Producing a Journal, I wrote a follow-up article about how to Produce a Journal in a Small Quantity. I got a response to those posts from an American creator who is planning a journal and needed to know how to prepare his ideas and files for me to format for printing. This post will share with you what I shared with him, so that it’s easy to work with a professional book designer to get your journal into print.

Your book designer needs two or three files from you to begin to design and lay out your journal, and this is what they should contain.

File 1: Main content of the journal - just one copy of each page

Journals are unlike most other books in that they have a lot of repeating pages. In your file, you may have repeated the pages multiple times to see how they look when repeated. But before sending the journal to your designer for design and layout, you should just include one copy of each unique page or each piece of content. For example, maybe you want to have 50 pages with grid lines, or 20 notes pages in the back. Your designer just needs to see one of each kind of page, otherwise it can be unclear if there are differences between different pages.

File 2: Journal outline

Next, prepare a text file with an outline listing all the planned page numbers or page ranges, and what should appear on each page. This is a very simple example, but this gives you the idea:

  • Title page (page 1)

  • Copyright page (page 2)

  • Intro letter (page 3)

  • Background Story (pages 4-5)

  • How to use this Journal (page 6-7)

  • Habit tracking page (page 8)

  • Monthly goals page (pages 9)

  • Daily pages (pages 10-40)

  • REPEAT pages 8-40 five more times (41-200)

  • Summary goals pages (page 201-202)

  • Order page (page 203)

  • Closing page (page 204)

Of course, every journal is different, and your content might be more complex. But an outline like this is invaluable, both in your planning and for your book designer to know which pages should repeat, when and how!

Remember that if your book is printing digitally, the final page count should be a multiple of four, and if it’s printing on a traditional offset press, it should (probably) be a multiple of sixteen — double check with your printer if you’re not sure how your journal will be printed.

File 3: Other filler material

Although many pages in a journal may be similar, they may have different quotations or decorations or something to differentiate each repeated page a tiny bit. If you want, for example, a different quotation on each of the daily pages (in the example above, that would be 30 x 6 = 180 quotations) it’s best to just list these 180 quotations in a separate simple text file in the order in which they should appear.


What else to tell your journal designer

Your book designer also needs to know about your style and/or your brand, to give visual direction to your journal project. For pages that are more complex visually, sharing a picture of a rough sketch you’ve made or a screenshot of a similar page gives your designer a starting point to understand what you’re wanting to achieve! If there are any other journals that you like or want your journal to sell next to, screenshots or links to similar journals are useful for your designer to see the kind of final product you’re picturing. You can share this visual direction in a document file with graphics in it, or through a folder with jpegs in it.


I hope this article has aided you in your journal design journey! I’d be happy to work on more journal cover designs and interior layouts. If you’re my type, let’s talk about your journal and get it into your audience’s hands! Or go ahead and book a one-hour brainstorming session with me to get a head start on your journal planning and production! I’ll save you a lot of trouble by sharing what I’ve learned through trial and error with my journal design clients, sharing which printer we have used most successfully, and whatever else you want to know!

Producing a Journal in a Small Quantity

After my last post about designing and producing a journal in China, I got an e-mail from Alex, who lives in NYC and wants to design and produce a journal locally. She isn’t sure that the quantity she needs is high enough or the demand is great enough that she place a large order or print overseas. She’d like to just make a few journals first and see how it goes. Maybe you can relate. In this follow-up post, I share some of the answers I gave her about producing a small quantity of journals. I hope they help some other entrepreneurial journal-creators, too!

Photo by Hannah Olinger on Unsplash

Pros to producing a journal in a small quantity

You can keep your costs low.

Of course, the main reason you might want to produce just a few journals first is to see if there is indeed a market for them before shelling out a lot of money for a pile of journals that will collect dust in your garage.

You can easily try out different styles or looks.

Not sure if your audience likes yellow or green better, or script or block print? A short run allows you to have the liberty to produce just a few of each style of journal, if you wish, and see how they sell.


Cons to producing a journal in a small quantity

The per journal cost is high.

Set-up costs for printing are high, but once a print shop starts printing and binding, it doesn’t take much longer to make a few more journals — which is why the price usually starts to come down for greater quantities. Your profit margin will be significantly smaller. You will probably pay two to four times as much for each journal as you would pay when printing in a large quantity and/or overseas.

Finishing options will be limited.

Some features that make a journal feel high touch may be unavailable for low quantities (like deboss, emboss, foil, leather or PU / faux leather material, etc.) because the set-up is complicated (read: expensive) enough that it doesn’t make sense to do when you are only printing a small run of journals (ie: 25, 50, 100).


Finding a journal printer or producer locally

As far as finding a local supplier or printer for custom journals, what you need depends on what kind of journal materials, printing and binding that you want. For example, do you want:

  • regular softcover, regular hardcover, PU (faux leather) cover, real leather cover…?

  • black and white interior or full color interior?

  • glued binding, stitched (sewn) binding, spiral binding…?

Or maybe you want to decide these details based on what your local printers can do for you. Try googling phrases like:

  • “full service book printer”

  • “short run book printer”

  • “short run journal printer”.

You can add the name of your city or state / province to your search and see what you find. Hopefully you can get an idea from the printer or journal producer’s website if they are low or high end. However, there are a lot of printers with out-of-date websites who can do perfectly good work, so be careful about judging a book by its cover! More important than their branding or marketing is a printer who understands what you’re asking about, or answers emails or calls quickly and thoroughly. Sometimes I ask for references if I’m having a hard time getting a feel for the printer’s experience/background.

A few good questions to ask a local journal printer are:

“Have you produced journals before?”

It’s always easier to work with someone who has done this exact kind of work before.

“Can I see samples of previous journals you have created? Is it possible for you to create a real mock-up of my final journal product after I give you my digital files and instructions?”

Giving you a real mockup is usually hard to do, at least for an affordable price! But the printer should be able to give you samples of previous books or journals to have or to look at, and swatches of materials or paper or colors. Printers will usually give you samples like this before you commit to working with them.

“Will you produce the entire journal in-house, or will you outsource part of the process?”

Some smaller print shops will tell you they can make journals, but they might be outsourcing to a bigger printer, which means they probably can’t give you as good a price as a company that is doing it all in-house. For example, if you live in a small town with a small print shop, they might tell you they can make journals but actually be getting the journals from a bigger city or from an online provider. There’s nothing wrong with this, but it’s fair for them to tell you their process.

“This is what I am envisioning, but if you can suggest ways to make small adjustments that will either give me a BETTER or MORE AFFORDABLE final product, could you do so?”

Sometimes a few tips from an experienced print representative could save you hundreds of dollars or give your product a more professional finish.


Finding a journal printer or producer online

If you’re finding the price of printing a small quantity of journals locally prohibitive, or simply not finding a local supplier, you might widen your search and just look for any online custom journal source within your country, or look for “print-on-demand” printers (like Blurb or IngramSpark) and maybe even build your journal around their preset sizes and styles to keep the price reasonable. For example, Blurb offers this “notebook journal” product which can be ordered in any quantity. Just a note that lots of online printers say that they offer “custom journal printing”, but by that they only mean that the covers are printed with a custom design, but insides are blank or lined. If this is the case, you might be able to contact them and ask what it would cost to have a custom interior.


Making a journal as a product seemed so easy in your head, right? Let me know if you need any help with design, pre-press checks of your journal files, or finding a printer! Or book a one-hour brainstorming session with me to get a head start on your journal planning and production!