Behind the Scenes at Rookie Roo Journals – I Don’t Crank Out Generic Journals!

Hi there everyone, From time to time people ask me, so what exactly do you do??...

People often assume creating a journal is a simple case of opening a document, typing a few pages and sending it off to the printers. If only! If that were true, I'd have a whole shelf full of new journals by now instead of a notebook full of ideas waiting patiently for their turn.

Much like my days at Quantock Inspiration, my handmade craft business,  my mornings start bright and early. Before I've even thought about journals, there are family members to encourage out of bed (my husband still appears to be under the impression that alarm clocks are merely decorative), horses to feed, chickens to let out, a Border Collie who insists breakfast is urgently required and a short list of daily chores that simply won't wait.

Only then do I sit down with a cup of tea and begin my working day. A surprising amount of my time is spent marketing. I say "spent" — what I really mean is trying to squeeze it into every available gap while convincing myself that I'll definitely get on top of it one day. (Spoiler alert: I won't.) Running a small business means you're the marketing department, customer service team, photographer, accountant, product designer and tea maker, often all before lunch (and lets not forget there’s the other business to squeeze in somewhere!)

Designing a new journal is where the real adventure begins. Every journal starts as an idea inspired by my own experiences. I’ve had a fair few trying times, especially in the last six years Whatever the experience was, the aim is always the same: to create something that genuinely helps people. I design every journal myself using Microsoft Word before bringing everything together in Canva. It sounds straightforward, but creating a journal that feels natural, flows well and is genuinely useful takes time. Lots of it. I take ages over the general look of the journal. The graphics are very important to me as I don’t want my journals to look clinical. I'm also a perfectionist, which doesn't help matters. It actually slows the process right down sometimes as I keep going over designs that I think are ready, only to decide some more tweaking is necessary. I'll happily spend twenty minutes moving a box a couple of millimetres because "it just doesn't look quite right." Whether anyone else would notice is beside the point. I know it's there. Designing and formatting a cover can take just as much planning – you have to get the maths right re sizeing!

A new journal can easily take a solid week's work to design if I had nothing else to do. Unfortunately, I also have another business to run, animals/family to care for and a life that occasionally insists on interrupting my plans. In reality, creating a journal often stretches over several weeks. Once I'm finally happy, I upload my work to the copywriters and obtain a certificate. I add the copyright to the journal and then next stage is publishing through Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). Pressing the publish button isn't quite as exciting as it sounds because the waiting begins as it has to ultimately be accepted by them. If there’s an issue with formatting, it’s back into Canva to redo the entire format. I’m very careful these days as I don’t want to have to repeat the formatting. Once it has been accepted which can take anywhere up to ten days, the first thing I order is a proof copy. There's no way I'd send a journal out into the world without checking every page myself. Those few days waiting for it to arrive always feel much longer than they really are.

Then comes the inspection. I check every page meticulously looking at the margins, colours, paper quality, page numbers, Fonts, Spacing and then the general outlook of the pages. I check for typo’s too although I do that at least twice on the proof-checker in KDP before submission. Once again, if something isn't right, back to the computer I go! (joy) If it passes inspection, I order a batch of author copies through KDP, in order to sell on my own website.

Only then, I can finally move on to preparing all the different versions. I use Doxzoo printers to print my coil bound versions and then I prepare fully editable PDF files for the digital versions. These often have to be compressed too as the selling platforms can’t process the sizes. I have to name all the different files so I can actually remember which version is which.

Just when I think I'm finished......I'm not. The printed journals arrive, along with my author copies from Amazon, and every single one is checked again. Only once I'm completely happy do they earn the right to be listed for sale. Then comes another surprisingly lengthy job; the listing itself. This involves photography, videos, writing keyword-rich titles, crafting descriptions for Shopify, then Etsy, Then eBay. Unfortunately, each platform is different so they have to be altered to fit each one’s algorithm so one listing rarely fits all. By the time I've uploaded photographs, written descriptions, added keywords, set prices and checked everything for the tenth time, another couple of days have quietly disappeared.

And finally...the journal goes live! There’s something rather elating about that!!

People often ask me how long it takes to create a journal. Well, how long is a piece of string?!😁 The honest answer? Around a month of solid work if I could dedicate every day to it. Because I'm juggling two businesses, horses, chickens, family life and the occasional attempt at having a social life, it usually takes considerably longer. Would I change it? Not for a second. I’d rather each journal was perfect than just punch them out without caring whether they were ok or not. Because every journal begins with a hope that somewhere, someone will open it at exactly the moment they need it most. If my journals help just one person feel a little less alone, every late night, every proof copy, every tiny font adjustment and every cup of tea consumed along the way has been worth it.

To view my collection visit  https://rookieroojournals.co.uk/collections/

Thanks for reading!

Much Love E xx