Traditional publishing systems are not designed to massively scale up book ownership. Books take a long time to develop, are rarely in African languages, are printed in small volumes, and are too expensive for most families to buy and own.
That’s why we created an alternative open publishing model that cost-effectively and efficiently creates, translates and prints high-quality, African storybooks, to get exponentially more books into children’s hands and homes.
Book Dash produces and distributes books for approximately 80% less than traditional publishing models by:
- Reducing origination costs: Book Dash books are created using an award-winning “hackathon”-style publishing model, where creative professionals volunteer their time to create a brand-new children’s book in just 12 hours.
- Using open licensing: By publishing under a Creative Commons BY 4.0 license, anyone can adapt, translate and use our books for free. Removing royalties keeps costs down – the only cost is printing.
- Printing and delivering at scale: We source funding from donors and partner NGOs to print hundreds of thousands of books at a time and deliver in bulk to partners around the country.
- Designing for efficiencies: Our books are 150×150 millimeters, to maximise how many copies can be printed from the most common dimensions of paper stock with minimal wastage. The print-on-demand model also ensures no wastage in time and logistics between the printers and the end user of the books.
Our award-winning model addresses key barriers that previously prevented all children from owning many books from a young age. It is now possible to get more books into children’s hands and homes than ever before. Scroll down to read more about each step in the process.
1 Book creation
Young children need more books, but they cost too much when purchased from traditional publishers. The Book Dash model condenses the traditional publishing model, which stretches over many months, into a 12-hour day. Creative professionals volunteer their time, skills and passion to create brand-new books, cutting out much of the time and cost of traditional systems – once the books are created, the only cost is printing.
We believe this approach is too good not to share! Our model is carefully documented and available for anyone to download and replicate.
2 Coordination, fundraising and advocacy
The Book Dash team works to ensure effective organisational management, responsible use of funds, mutually-beneficial partnerships and a considered advancement towards our vision of every child owning one hundred books by the age of five.
3 Free online library
We want all children to have access to great books – in South Africa and around the world. All of our books are published on our website under a Creative Commons BY 4.0 license, and people in dozens of countries read them for free with the children in their lives. We have more than 100 content partners who use Book Dash books on their platforms at no cost to support their literacy and development goals.
4 Translations
Young children learn best when read to in their home language. We translate our catalogue of books into eleven of the official South African languages. Anyone around the world can download the source files and create their own translations too.
5 Book printing
Early development outcomes are greatest when children interact with physical books – that’s why we raise money to print books and get them into children’s hands to own. Our donors generate more books for their buck because of low origination costs, the open license, and high-volume printing that drive economies of scale.
6 Funding partners
Our loyal funding partners know that books can change the path of a child’s life – and have seen how Book Dash is transforming the literacy ecosystem. They support our vision by sponsoring events, translations, print runs, distribution and more with their energy, money, products and other resources.
7 Book distribution
Our books are distributed directly to children and families through partners in literacy, early childhood development and health care. An abundance of quality, engaging books enable these organisations to enhance the lives of the children they reach.
To reach more children, anyone around the world can print our books. You just need to credit Book Dash and the original creatives.