When you order a book from Kidibook, something a little unusual happens: that book doesn’t exist yet. It isn’t waiting in a warehouse, stacked on a pallet between two cardboard boxes. It is printed, bound, and packaged for you, in France, the moment you click "Order." This is called print-on-demand, and it is a choice we made from the very beginning. We’ll explain why, without beating around the bush — including the small drawbacks.
A book that is born from your order
In traditional publishing, a book is printed by the thousands at once, often far from where you live. Then it travels, it is stored, it waits. If it sells, great. If it doesn't sell… we’ll come back to that, and it isn't pretty.
With us, the mechanism is reversed. Your order triggers the printing. A French printer receives the file for your holiday workbook or textbook, prints it, binds it, and ships it. Every copy that comes off the machine already has a child waiting for it somewhere. We honestly think that’s rather beautiful.
Zero dead stock, zero pulping
The word "pulping" is not well known to parents, which is a shame because it says a lot about traditional publishing. Pulping is the destruction of unsold books. Books that were printed, transported, stored… then shredded because they didn't find their reader. It is a mundane reality of the sector, and it is exactly what print-on-demand makes impossible.
- No unsold copies: we never print a book "just in case." Every copy corresponds to an actual order.
- No dead stock: no warehouses filled with boxes waiting for months, no overproduction to "generate volume."
- No destroyed books: a Kidibook that is printed is a book that gets read, doodled in, dog-eared — in short, lived in.
Printed in France, for every order
Every copy is manufactured in France. This is not just a decorative claim: in practical terms, it means your book doesn't travel halfway around the world in a container before arriving in your mailbox. It is printed near you, within our own country, and it takes the shortest possible route between the machine and your child.
It also means we support French printers, with real expertise in paper, binding, and color. When you open one of our workbooks, you can feel that quality under your fingertips.
Yes, it's a bit more expensive than a warehouse book — let's talk about it
Let’s be completely transparent: printing a book individually costs more than printing ten thousand at once in a distant factory. It’s a mathematical fact, and we aren't going to pretend otherwise. A Kidibook may therefore cost a little more than a mass-produced supermarket workbook.
But here is what that price actually covers:
- French manufacturing, made-to-order, with no waste;
- Free shipping on orders over €25, because we refuse to take back with one hand what we give with the other;
- Content carefully designed, intended to spark interest rather than just fill up pages;
- And the assurance that your money isn't funding a giant warehouse or the destruction of unsold stock.
We prefer to explain what you are paying for rather than hiding it behind a lead-in price.
The environmental impact, honestly
We would love to throw out a spectacular figure like "X tons of CO2 saved," but we don’t manufacture figures just to make things look good. Here is what we can affirm without blushing, because it is structural to our model:
- No overproduction: we only print what is ordered, so nothing is manufactured for no reason.
- No pulping: no Kidibook is ever destroyed, ever.
- Short transport routes: printed in France, shipped in France, without transoceanic containers.
- No warehouses to heat and light to store waiting pallets.
Does that make us a "zero impact" company? No. Printing a book consumes paper and ink, transporting it consumes energy. But between printing exactly what is read and mass-printing in the hope that it sells, the common-sense difference is obvious. That is what we stand by — nothing more, nothing less.
What this allows: a catalog from kindergarten to high school
There is one advantage to print-on-demand that is rarely discussed, yet it is our favorite: editorial freedom. When every printed book has to sell thousands of copies to recoup a print run, a publisher only publishes what appeals to the greatest number of people. More specific needs fall by the wayside.
We can offer a holiday workbook for every grade, a book of mnemonic devices from primary school through high school, all-in-one textbooks for every level of middle school, a collection with a classic feel for learning to read… without wondering if each title will "generate volume." If a single child needs it, their copy will be printed just for them. This is what allows us to have a catalog that covers the entire curriculum, from kindergarten to high school, something almost unthinkable for a small publishing house using a traditional model.
Transparency is how we earn your trust
You entrust our books with something precious: your child's learning time. It seems only right, in return, to tell you exactly how we work — including when it isn't a great selling point. Yes, a print-on-demand book requires a few days of production before shipping. Yes, it costs a little more than a supermarket book. And yes, we own these tradeoffs, because the rest of the model seems profoundly right to us.
If you want to know more about who we are and why we created Kidibook, our About page tells the whole story. And for practical questions — deadlines, formats, paper — our FAQ provides straightforward answers. Every book you order is born from your order: it is our way of making books, and we are happy to share it with you.