The Book Is Being Printed – Here’s How We Got There
It has happened – the latest book packed full of hundreds of dreams, ideas, challenging opinions and calls to action from young people has gone to print!
And in case you’ve been wondering how that happens, here’s a quick rundown of 20 steps to getting our book to print…
Step 1: We reach out to hundreds of schools, organisations and community leaders all around the world to tell them about WriteUnite and our next project, inviting them to take part and get involved.
Step 2: November 2020 sees the very first submission arrives in our inbox. Fred, 18, from Germany wrote about his vision of the future in a world of:
… Dense greenery and healthy deserts,
Lush scenery and stable weather,
The serene backdrop,
To our better future
Step 3: Over the next few months submissions come in from all over the world – 26 different countries to be precise. The countries represented in Visions of the Future are Armenia, Canada, Denmark, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Ghana, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Israel, Jamaica, Kenya, Malta, Monaco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Serbia, Slovakia, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, UK, USA and Venezuela.
Step 4: 22 schools and youth organisations got all their students involved, many running lessons and using our education pack for a little inspiration.
Step 5: As we reach the deadline for submissions, the final one comes in from Montaña, aged 7, from the USA.
Step 6: Making a grand total of 722 submissions. Every single one with a guaranteed place in the book. We knew at this point it was going to be a good one.
Step 7: Next is a lot of organising - making sure that we have everyone's signed submission forms (pretty boring!) and then making sure all the submissions are saved and none are missing.
Step 8: And then it’s the fun part – we spend the summer reviewing all the submissions. Reading them all together left us all with an overwhelming sense of hope from so many clever, informed, brilliant young people.
Step 9: This year, we decided to split the book into chapter themes - something we've never done before. We really wanted to show that no matter where you come from or what your age, there are things we are all passionate about. We’re so different and yet so similar.
Step 10: The most popular themes were…
Earth and the Environment with 115 submissions.
Personal Goals with 100 submissions.
Science and Technology with 66 submissions.
World Views with 64 submissions.
and Kindness, Hope and Positivity with 54 submissions.
Step 11: We also need to translate some submissions because they are coming in from all over the world in lots of different languages. We are lucky to have some multilingual friends of WriteUnite who were happy to help!
Step 12: We now go into design. Our designer Homaira starts working on ideas for how the book will look. This year, we decide to go with a journal/scrapbook feel and found a style we loved. Homaira then starts to pull the first draft together.
Step 13: She works her magic on the first full version of the book - and then we do lots and lots and lots of more drafts! Changing the order, thinking about the themes and if we need to change them, playing with the layout, adding in colour and illustrations – all based on the submissions themselves.
Step 14: The all-important book cover comes next, and again we start with different ideas and then slowly try many versions. Here’s just some to show you the journey of the cover:
Step 15: Final touches then need to be made, such as writing the introduction and the acknowledgements - making sure that we thank the huge number of people who helped us get to this point.
Step 16: And now, we talk to our lovely printers in Turkey. They look at the design and between us we choose the right paper for the book. It’s all getting very real now.
Step 17: Our designer was able to meet the printers in person and see how it would look when done. It’s coming to life.
Step 18: We check over everything, and then check it three more times fixing the typos and mistakes we didn’t see before. And we do a check to be sure that nobody has been left out!
Step 19: The printers print one copy for us to review – and then they hit the print button! At this very moment hundreds of copies are being made.
Step 20: Now we’re getting ready to send them out in the world and make sure young people’s voices have the platform they deserve.
Click here to pre-order Visions of the Future so you get your copy when it comes out in January.