Personalized Books – Just another home business rip-off?
A few years ago I was looking for a way to make money while staying at home with my kids. When you start searching online for easy to start businesses, you’re sure to come across a personalized book business. If you haven’t come across a personalized book, then surely you’ve seen the ads. Each week we get flyers in the mail offering children’s books that will include your child’s name, age, friend’s names and more! The books are often updated and will include stories taken from the latest movie releases. Now your child can be a part of Spiderman or included in the latest Disney cartoon release. Kids do love to see their name in an actual book, but are they as easy to market, make, and sell, as the manufacturer wants you to believe?
I signed up to sell Best Personalized Books. It cost more than I thought it would, in the thousands. You’re given a selling license which gives you the right to purchase all Best materials. Most people who buy into this business think that books will be an easy sell. What child doesn’t want a book where he is included, usually as the hero of the story? But think again, marketing is a real task. Though Best Personalized Books sent me a flyer type newsletter that said they would help me with marketing and getting started, I really never received any help. Emails weren’t answered and calls were not returned. Of course, this was a few years ago and maybe things have changed. If you are thinking of starting your own personalized book business, I would suggest contacting current customers to ask how customer service has improved.
I didn’t have the funds to set up a kiosk in the mall or pay for display space in a local craft shop, but instead I bought pamphlets to hand out. I put many pamphlets in stores, pre-schools and in any brochure display I could find, yet orders trickled in. I learned that I am not much of a sales person. Most people would not send the pamphlet in with their order, but would call and want to come to my home to look at the books. This took more planning and more money. Not one person sent in an order. I lost money on a P.O. Box that never saw an order. What I discovered is that the customer wants to actually see a book already made up. So I had to make a book for every topic I had, using fake names (some had my children’s names) as displays. I also discovered that a few of the books had stories that weren’t too appealing and some customers, after reading the story, did not want the book.
Another big factor when considering a personalized book business will be how the books are put together. There are few to choose from. I chose Best Personalized Books because I thought the covers of the books, the drawings and the printing were done nicely compared to the others. Other personalized books are made by just printing the child’s name on stickers, then placing them throughout the story. This of course is the easiest book to make for customers but in my opinion, does not look as nice as Best Personalized Books which prints directly on the page. When you first receive your Best Personalized Books, you may be surprised at the assembly the books will need.
If you don’t have a laser printer, you will need one. Laser printing will not fade as quickly as jet ink printing. You will receive covers, large stickers, printed pages, brochures, software and more. You will also need to purchase a heavy duty stapler. On your computer, you will select the book chosen then input the child’s information. Load the paper and print. Once it’s printed, you will place the pages in order and staple them together close to the inside of the book pages. Now stickers hold the pages inside the hard cover. These large white stickers cover the front half of the inside cover and the first page of your book. Once you’ve practiced making a few books, it’s really rather simple. I believe if you set up a booth at a crafts fair or county fair, you could sell these books easily.
I had a lot of fun writing my own stories that went with the pictures and printing them on the pages of the books. Just print a practice page on a blank sheet to make sure it lines up well with the graphics. These can make great practical joke books which of course ended up being my best seller. I turned Teacher’s into Spiderman and had adults living with ‘Winnie the Pooh. But still, not being a great salesman and not able to afford a booth, I have boxes and boxes full of my leftover blank books. What surprises me is that many of the books I now own, Best Personalized Books has stopped offering, making my books quite valuable. I may start selling them at a ridiculously high price on eBay to other Best Personalized Book owners. So, is it a rip-off? No. I think if you have a salesman attitude, the money to market and open a booth, you can do well with this business.