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Then what must not happen happened …

Wer_Bin_Ich_German_Kinder_book

One early morning I lay in bed like so many times before and scrolled Instagram. Flipp. Flipp. Beautiful, freshly cut flowers and powder-styled children’s rooms. So soft and nice way to start the day. Going through all the DMs. And there. Ice cold shower.

A German customer, in his kindest way informs us of a possible typing mistake in the German book. Say what?!? It can be our worst. It is in line with ticks and vomiting. Typing mistake. Just the word gives us goosebumps and horror movie belly-ache.

And no, unfortunately, we are not talking about a little extra space or point that has sneaked into one of the spreads. We’re talking about It. The worst. The Cover. A grammatical spelling mistake on the cover. Evil sudden death. Take me away, bury me alive, change address forever. We proofread over and over again. A thousand times, until you know the text by heart and finally do not see a single letter. Of course we use a translation agency which is fantastic.

But … in the original work, the strangest thing happens. A small E with devastating consequences. You think you are the most accurate in the world, but oh no. All German books are printed and on their way to our warehouse. With a big fat bug on the front! What do we do now?!?

Our fine German book. Which is already printed and packed and arrives at the warehouse any second. To publish a book with typing mistake on the front is out of the question, but to throw away a lot of books and reprint. How does it feel in the stomach? That’s probably what any other company would do. But how does it rhyme with our environmental thinking? No, we have to come up with another solution.

We discussed with our printing company which was ready to reprint, which kindly gave us a good deal when everything was already prepared. But still, no, it feels so bad. A new production, a new shipping … No, no, no …

Wer_Bin_Ich_Deutsch_Kinderbuch

Don't mind me. I am just a typing mistake.

Wer_Bin_Ich_Deutsch_Kinderbuch

So, after many cups of tea, some Aspirins and a minor office crisis, we solved it with a sticker. In true mother-style, “… we put on a little band-aid and you will probably see that it feels better ..

A book band-aid on the typing mistake wound. A good solution for the environment and for the gut feeling. So all German books come with a small sticker that we think in retrospect (maybe even post-construction) became like a small piece of jewelry. Looks almost like the books received a swimming badge or a medal of honor.

And you who buy the German book, THANK YOU for also buying our typing mistake solution!