FAQ About Creating the Book

How did you get your book published?

Me! I self-published. You can see much more on how I made my dream a reality on my book process gallery page.

In hindsight, was that a good idea or certifiably insane?

Both. Because I was printing overseas, I had to commit to a large printing run to get a good unit cost. So it wasn’t an “on-demand” situation where I could pay as I go and avoid inventory. That means I still have a whole lot of books to sell. But the upside was complete freedom with my content, schedule, design, and quality control.

Self-publish? Wow. That must have been expensive. How did you finance it?

Cleaned out my savings. As a self-publisher, trying to get anyone else to pay for it seemed a little tacky.

So you have all this inventory and no large publisher behind you. Who sells the books?

I’m lucky to have a great top distributor, Independent Publishers Group (IPG). They handle the selling, managing the accounts, bookkeeping, and shipping. Most larger retailers and institutions will only buy through a distribution channel. But I also just put a stack of books out at events and personally handle individual book inquiries by e-mail and from this website.

Will you ever publish an e-book version?

I doubt it. I’ve always believed the mighty thud of this book is one of its best attributes. It’s a resource book that is meant to be kicked around places where kids and teens linger. But one big reason I overhauled this website is to allow portals for more printable projects, templates, and lessons. I’m all for freebies.

Why don’t we know more about your daughter?

She’s a kid, albeit she was a small kid and now she’s a teen. I’m pretty obsessed with privacy and don’t even have a Facebook account. So you can assume I’m the same way about my daughter. This stealth marketing attitude has probably taken a huge bite out of my book sales but there it is.

Can you tell us a little more? Perhaps about her adoption?

Ok, ok…. she was adopted from a government welfare institution at 14 months. We have no information on her history. She’s my only child and has been the light of my life since day one. We traveled back to China when she was 7 to visit her orphanage along with some touring of other provinces which was pretty magical in a full-circle way.

Will there ever be a Lucky Bamboo Book of Crafts 2?

I would love to publish a book 2. See above about the investment part… I will need to sell through much more of my current inventory before I can take it on. But the book 2 outline with a new project list has been in my back pocket for a long time!