Cutting down production costs on children books

Hello All,
Today I'm not writing a new story but rather an episode in the quest to cut production costs of the children book I am writing and now want to get published.
I would like to publish a book with low costs to make an affordable book at the bookstores. This seams to be a quest on it's own. When I setup this journey for writing a book I did not imagine to find so many little problems that an author most overcome, especially a new author.
This time it's about production costs, which in my belief, for children story books is really of a big impact. From what I have researched, the format of the book has high impact on the costs. It seams the printing industry is optimized for landscape books, which is fine for novels and the majority of the books, but I do not find fitting for children's books.
In my experience, more as a father than an author, the landscape book has a huge advantage for reading a story to little children. You open the book with your child beside you, at the sofa, at bedside getting them to sleep or a long trip in a plane or train. This makes it comfortable if the book is landscape, you can have a one page with the picture or drawing to capture their attention, while having the text on the other page in big letters for you to read.
So I have been betting quite a lot in landscape format for the book. While I was making the mock-ups I did not realize this format problem, basically the mock-up is so expensive that you do not note a difference between 4 euros in a 50 euro book due to format change. Well, for the final mass printing book you don't want to have costs of 50 euros, you should target 4 to 6 euros tops for the production of your book, to be able to have margin for warehousing, distribution and have some royalties left.

I made an attempt at producing a new set of mock-ups reusing the materials I have produced so far in one of the cheaper color production formats. The results can be seen in the picture.
Not counting the fact that I had to crop all the drawings so far to capture the essence of the paragraph, it is not a suited format for telling a story to a kid. It seams OK for a children's book targeting the age from 8 above where the child reads the book on it's own, but definitively not for the sharing experience between a parent reading the book to the child.
The book printers, the distributors and the bookstores  are prepared for several sizes, almost all of them for black and white portrait books. Well, I neither want black and white, it is not appealing for a young child, nor want a portrait book, not suited for the shared reading experience. Therefore I have to limit myself to what is available for mass printing int the color landscape books.
So for you new authors coming into this area I share with you the suitable formats I have found so far. If you want color landscape the only format I have found so far is 8.5x8.5 inches (21.59x21.59 cm), which is not landscape, but being a large square can be suitable for the shared reading experience. There is another format that book printers support which is 8.25x6 inches (20.955x15.24 cm), which is landscape but unfortunately not an industry standard, which limits you the availability of selling in some bookstores. If you can live with that limitation then that would be a good format.

In the mean time I did receive also the mock-ups for the new revised and simplified text with the change in the drawings to get more colorful and cheerful and am quite happy with the results. Nevertheless I believe the text can be further simplified, and the drawings need to be revised to accommodate for the square size. I do not want to have a crop to the image that loses something that we wanted to transmit in the drawing.
But another warning for the new authors, especially for the illustrators, you need to account for something called bleed. This is the margins where they cut the paper, so if you want the picture to be full size of the paper or to not get any borders there, you have to account for the bleed. This means that you have to account for an extra 0.125 inches (0.3175 cm) that will be cut off. If you want a full size page with a picture than you need to account for that extra top, bottom, left and right.
I do believe that if you are a renown author you will not have any of these limitations, but if you are a new author, or intending to be one like me, then you need to account for all this industry optimizations as to avoid incurring into a lot of the extra work I am having because I did not know these things from the early beginning. The curious fact is that this applies mostly to children books!
Well, now back to work, I have many drawing to remake, the good thing is probably they will come out better than the original, so not all is that bad :) And the story is a Christmas story, so we still have time for the correct selling opportunity.
Thanks for all the support all of you have given me, if anyone of you knows a thing or two about the problems I am having and would like to refer to their solutions, I am more than happy to receive your feedback.

Football

Do you play sports with your kids ? Are you keen to have them playing sports ? What do they most like ? Do they play football ? Or other team competitive games ? Do they know the rules or invent as they play ? Do you just have fun passing the ball or try to setup teams ? Are they energetic playing ? What about afterwards ? Do you talk about the fun moments you just had ? Tell me your story, here is mine...

The Little Girl shot the ball in the direction of Papi. Papi received the ball and kicked it back. The Little Girl ran to catch the ball and stopped it. The Little Girl kicked the ball back to Papi. Papi and the Little Girl were laughing, they got the ball rolling between them.
Blue Boy saw them playing and tried to join.
"Hello Little Girl", said the Blue Boy.
"Hello Blue Boy", said the Little Girl.

The Little Girl kicked the ball to Blue Boy. "Pass to my daddy", said the Little Girl. And the Blue boy passed to Papi the ball. Papi kicked back to the Little Girl, and the Little Girl kicked the ball to the Blue Boy. the ball was now rolling in a triangle, and everybody was having fun.
More friends of the Little Girl from kindergarten joined. Papi moved slightly away and watch all the kids playing ball. the kids were now very excited. there was no special team, but many kids dribbled the ball between them and passed to others. There was no goal, but they seemed to kick in the direction of what would be a goal. Some would shout "Goal", others clapped hands.
A simple ball joins the kids in the neighborhood, and many of them are just waiting for somebody to start.

The Puzzle

Do you do puzzles with your kids ? Do they prefer do do them alone ? Do they like puzzles `Do you offer them puzzles ? What about other mind games ? Do they like the challenge of the puzzle or doing it together with you ? Do you make games around the puzzles ? Tell me your story, here is mine...

The Little Girl and Papi sit together to make the new puzzle. it looked very difficult. It had more pieces than any of the previous puzzles. This is going to be a challenge.
"Papi, this puzzle is very difficult, but we can do it, you help me!", said the Little Girl.

The Little Girl started with the borders, those pieces were easy to find. One of the sides was straight."We do it by color Papi, put the yellows and whites here, the blues and greens there, and the other colors put then in this little box.", said the Little Girl.
Anybody seeing the two of them could say that they did this before.
The Little Girl started on the bottom, and piece by piece asked for them from Papi.
"Now the one with the wheel and leg of the fireman." said very decisively the Little Girl.
"I like you Papi!", said the Little Girl very happy to having Papi helping her.
Soon they finished the puzzle.
"It is difficult, but with Papi helping it becomes easy", said the Little Girl, "I like making puzzles with Papi".

The Chuchu Train

Do your kids like trains ? Do you take them to see trains ? Do you take them to ride on trains ? Is the train part of your daily routine ? How about train play-sets ? Wooden trains on rails ? Do you build with them complex train set constructions filled with little house and people ? Do the kids spoil your train set constructions ? Do you prefer old western trains, or vapor ? You prefer the modern electric or diesel trains ? Tell me your story, here is mine...

My name is Ban Daid. I am a train. Everyday is an adventure for me, I never know to where my next trip is going to take me. It all depends on the kids that drive me each day. I like kids, they always come to my tracks and drive me around.
One day a Little Girl came with her daddy. They sat on a chair next to my tracks. The Little Girl was sad and tired. I think the Little Girl was sick. The Little Girl looked at me. I smiled back at the Little Girl. The Little Girl did not smile back, she just moved her head and fell on her daddy's chest.

The nurse called the Little Girl's name, and her daddy took her to see the doctor.
Time passed and they came back.
The Little Girl was no longer on daddy's lap. She looked at me. I smiled back at the Little Girl and she approached. She pick me up and started driving me along the wooden tracks.
"Chuchu", said the Little Girl as she pushed me up the bridge to the train station. Time to pick up more passengers. And other kids joined operating the cranes to put the mail in the train. Other closed the gates for the cars to not go through the tracks while the train passed.
All the kids were now happy.
I am Ban Daid. I am the wooden train that makes sick kids healthy and happy.

Little Sick Bugs

How do you feel when your kids are ill ? How do they feel ? Do you take them immediately to the hospital or doctor ? Do you wait to understand what is going on ? Do you already follow the recommendations from previous experiences ? What do your kids want when they are Ill ? Do they want to watch TV ? Do they want to play games ? Do the want Mommy or Daddy by them ? Do they like going to the doctor ? Tell me your story, here is mine...

"Papi, the tummy is hurting.", said the Little Girl.
"Did you eat chocolate or sodas ?", asked Papi.
"No!".
"Good, you know that chocolate and sodas make you sick, you can't eat them", said Papi.
"Yes Papi!", answered the Little Girl.
"I am going to fetch a thermometer, to see if you have fever, OK?", said Papi.
"OK!".

Papi fetched the thermometer, he checked the temperature of the Little Girl.
"Seams you are OK. Let's just rest a bit here with Papi".
"But the tummy is hurting a lot.", said the Little Girl.
"Let's go to the doctor."
"NO!", shouted the Little Girl, "the doctor gives me an injection, I don't like!".
"But that injection makes you feel better", assured Papi.
"No! I don't want to!", insisted the Little Girl.
"Let's wait a bit and see if you feel better, here take this special drink Papi made, it has some vitamins, you will be stronger."
"OK Papi.", agreed the Little Girl.
When Papi left the room the Little Girl sipped on the vitamin drink. Suddenly she saw two figures behind the sofa. They where her puppets, Fuchs the Fox and nurse Minnie.
"Hello Little Girl, your daddy told me you are sick, I come here to make you better", said nurse Minnie.
"No, you are a bad nurse, you are going to hurt Little Girl, I don't allow you to come close!", said Fuchs the fox.
"Yes, I come to make the Little Girl better, I have a special injection that kills the sick bugs.", said nurse Minnie.
"What are the sick bugs ?", asked Fuchs the fox.
"Are small little bugs that you can't see and get into children to make them sick !", answered nurse Minnie.
"Oh! No! we don't want sick bugs, how do you make them go away ?", asked Fuchs the fox.
"Look here, you see Peter the spider there ? Look what it does when the injection comes close...", said nurse Minnie.
"It is running away in all the 8 legs!", laughed Fuchs the fox.
"Yes! The bugs also ran away from the injection!", said nurse Minnie.
"OK, I am the protector of bad dreams for the Little Girl, you are not a bad dream, you can com and help the Little Girl!", said Fuchs the fox.
Nurse Minnie gave the injection to the Little Girl. At first the Little Girl was feeling bad, but as she listened to Fuchs the fox singing all her favorite songs, she started to get better.
"Hello Little Girl, do you feel better, did the injection make you better sending away the little sick bugs ?", asked Papi.
"Yes Papi, I am better now, I like nurse Minnie".

Send in the Clowns

Do your kids like clowns ? Have they fear of clowns ? Do you like clowns ? Where do you see them ? Do you go to circus ? Or street festivals ? Do you invite clowns for the birthday party ? Do the kids like the tricks clowns do with balloons ? Do they have a clown toy ? Tell me your story, here is mine...

"Papi, why are the clowns always laughing ?" asked the Little Girl.
"They laugh whenever they see a small kid.", answered Papi.
"Always ? they see a kid and they laugh ?"
"Yes Little Girl, but there are also sad clowns, not many"
"When they do not see a kid they stop laughing ?", asked the Little Girl.
"I do not know, never been with a clown without a small kid." answered Papi.

The Little Girl was marveled with the clown. The clown pinched the Little Girl's nose, the Little Girl pressed the big red nose of the clown and it honked. The clown blew a balloon and made it like a dog, the Little Girl grabbed the balloon and barked. The clown grabbed 3 balls from his big pockets and juggled the balls. the Little Girl took a jumping ball from her pocket, threw it in the air and caught it.
The Little Girl was amazed with the clown, she was watching him performed all the nice tricks to all the kids that came by.
But the clown needed to rest, so he stopped, and moved away saying he would come back.
"Papi, let's follow the clown, let's look if he smiles when he is far away from the kids.", said the Little Girl.
The clown went to the back of the tent. in the back of the tent was a sick dog, and the clown gave water to the dog, and spoke nice calm words. The clown was sad.
"Papi, the clown is sad", said the girl.
The clown heard her and turned around, but he still had the big smile on his face.
"Papi, the dog is sick but the clown is happy!", said the Little Girl.
"The clowns are always happy!", said Papi.
"Papi ?", asked the Little Girl.
"Yes ?"
"Are you a clown ?"

Jumping Jack Flash

Don't you feel your kids are always jumping around ? Do you like them to jump ? Do you discipline them to know when they can or cannot jump ? Do you simply secret wish they would stop jumping ? Do they like to jump anywhere ? Or do they prefer trampolines and inflatable castles ? Do they jump anywhere ? Tell me your story, here is mine...

The dragon had been chasing the Little Girl. The dragon had the Little Girl for three times in it's big mouth. But the Little Girl managed to get out. She always jumped in the right moment just as the dragon opened the mouth to start chewing.
This time was no different. The dragon flew over the Little Girl and caught her with it's big mouth wide open. the Little Girl jumped out again through the space between two big teeth.
And jumped into the air.

The Little Girl landed on some soft leaves, and she continued jumping from leaf to leaf using the lift off of the leaf. And there goes the Little Girl, another jump.
The dragon was confused and flying left and right, up and down, he could not catch the Little Girl. The Little Girl jumped from giant leaf to giant leaf.
The leaves came close to a waterfall, and the Little Girl jumped right into the waterfall.
The dragon flew by one time and did not see the Little Girl hidden in the waterfall.
The dragon flew by two times and did not see the Little Girl.
The dragon flew by three times and did not see the Little Girl. The dragon flew away.
The Little Girl jumped once more from the waterfall onto the leaves. With each jump the Little Girl jumped higher and higher.
She jumped all the way home, and told Papi the story of the hungry dragon.