Questions & Answers

A Starringbook is a personalized children's book in which your child plays the leading role. Unlike books that merely swap in a name, we create an original story: with your child's name, appearance, age and personality, and optionally with siblings, parents, grandparents, friends, pets or imaginary creatures as further characters. Text and illustrations are created for this one book, and it does not exist a second time.

Every book has 32 pages: 15 illustrated spreads with the text on the left and the matching picture on the right, plus your personal dedication and a closing page. Printed books are square, 20 × 20 cm (8 × 8 in), on premium 170 gsm paper in full color.

You can choose between the digital PDF, a printed softcover and a printed hardcover. Every printed edition includes the PDF. The PDF is great for reading on a tablet and sharing with family, the softcover is the everyday edition for the nursery, and the hardcover is the gift and keepsake edition.

Inside, both editions are identical: same story, same illustrations, same paper. The hardcover has a firm, sturdy cover, feels weightier in the hand and survives the hundredth bedtime reading. That is why most parents choose the hardcover when the book is a gift or meant to stay on the shelf for years.

For children from 0 to 12 years. You enter your child's age, and vocabulary, sentence length, tone and theme are adapted to it: from a first read-aloud story with short sentences to a book for school children who already read on their own.

You can create your book in English, German, French or Spanish. Handy for multilingual families, or as a gift for relatives abroad.

You choose from 13 illustration styles, for example soft watercolor, vibrant cartoon, a modern 3D look, claymation, anime or a retro print look. The style applies to the whole book, and every page is illustrated individually to match the story. The gallery shows examples of every style.

Up to 5 characters per book. Besides your child, for example siblings, mom and dad, grandma and grandpa, a best friend, the family pet or an invented creature. Each character gets a name, an age, an appearance and a role in the story.

Adventure, animals, magic and fantasy, friendship, nature, space, everyday stories and more. You can also name an occasion, such as a birthday, the first day of school, a christening, Christmas, Easter or the birth of a sibling, and set the narrative tone. If you have a specific idea, add it as a special request.

First, you set up your characters with name, age, gender and appearance. Second, you choose theme, occasion, tone, language and illustration style, and write a dedication. That takes about 3 minutes. Third, you see a free character picture of your characters. Fourth, you decide between PDF, softcover and hardcover. Then your book is created, usually within 15 to 30 minutes, and you review it page by page before anything is printed.

Before you decide on a book, we create a picture of your characters in the chosen style, free of charge and without payment details. You only confirm your email address so we can send you the picture. If something is not right, you can have it adjusted up to two times. That way you see how your child looks as a storybook character before you commit.

No. You can simply describe the appearance: hairstyle, hair and eye color, glasses, favorite clothes. A photo does help make the character recognizable, especially facial features and hairstyle. The result is always an illustration in the chosen style, not a portrait.

The character picks up the key features: hair color and hairstyle, eye color, skin tone, glasses, typical clothing. How strong the likeness is depends on the style: a watercolor looks softer than a 3D look. That is exactly what the free character picture is for, so you see the result before you decide.

Yes. You can change, rephrase or regenerate the text of every page. Even in the finished book you can still adjust individual texts until you approve the print. Text changes are unlimited.

Then you have it recreated. Per book you can regenerate up to 20 illustrations, the cover included. You can describe what should be different. Every new image passes our quality check before it replaces the old one. If you get stuck somewhere, write to us and we will take a look together.

Yes. Your dedication gets its own page right after the title page. If you order several copies, each copy can have its own dedication, for example one for grandma and one for the godmother. Story and pictures stay the same in all copies.

Yes. Besides theme, occasion and tone there is a field for special requests: the favorite place, the cuddly toy that has to be in it, a situation the book should pick up. Such details flow into the story so it truly fits your child.

Yes. Text and illustrations are created with the help of AI, based on what you tell us about characters, theme and style. Every page is automatically checked for quality and child-appropriateness, and you see the complete book before it is printed. Without AI, a book that exists only once would not be possible at this price.

Designing takes about 3 minutes. Then we create your book, usually within 15 to 30 minutes. We email you as soon as it is ready, so you can close the page and come back later.

The digital PDF costs $9.99, the printed softcover $32.99 and the premium hardcover $37.99. Printed books have shipping on top. The character picture beforehand is free.

Printed books ship for $4.99 per order, or $10.99 from 4 copies. The PDF is a download with no shipping cost.

No. You pay once per book. There is no subscription, no membership and no automatic renewal.

Credit card, PayPal and Klarna. Payment is processed securely by Stripe; we never store card details ourselves.

Yes. If you decide on a softcover or hardcover later, the full $9.99 of the PDF is credited against the print price. You only pay the difference.

Yes, up to 5 copies per order, also later from your dashboard. From 2 additional copies you get 10% off the additional books, and each copy can carry its own dedication.

Yes. There is a coupon field in the checkout step. The discount is deducted immediately and shown in the total.

Yes. After payment you find your invoice under "Orders" in your account and can download it as a PDF. You can adjust billing address and invoice email there.

A printed softcover or hardcover reaches you 4 to 9 days after your print approval. Every book is printed individually to order, so the clock only starts with your approval. If you need the book for a fixed date, allow a little extra time.

Before we print, the complete book is in front of you, page by page. Only when you confirm the delivery address and approve the print does the book go into production. Until that moment you can change texts and pictures, and our money-back guarantee applies.

Via starringbooks.com we deliver to the United Kingdom and the United States, priced in pounds and dollars. Germany, Austria and Switzerland are served by our German site mein-kreativbuch.de.

Yes. Delivery address and billing address can differ, so you can send a book straight to grandma, the godmother or the birthday child.

Yes. We email you as soon as your book has shipped. You also find the tracking link under "Orders" in your account.

We work with a print-on-demand partner that produces in a network of print shops, as close to the destination country as possible. That avoids long transport routes and makes the short delivery time possible.

Yes, until print approval. You confirm the address once more right before printing. After that the book goes to print. If you spot a mistake then, write to us immediately and we will try to correct it.

As long as you have not approved the print, you get your money back, no questions asked. Just send us an email. We give this guarantee voluntarily, in addition to the statutory right of withdrawal.

A printed Starringbook is made with your family's characters, names and dedication and is only produced after your print approval. For personalized goods like this there is no statutory right of withdrawal. That is why the complete book is in front of you before printing, and our money-back guarantee applies until approval.

Then get in touch, ideally with a photo of the issue. For transport damage or a printing defect we arrange a reprint at no cost to you.

You review the complete book before printing and can change every text. If you still notice something you need help with, write to us. We look at your book personally.

For the free character picture you only confirm your email address. When you buy, an account is created automatically for that address so you can always find your book again. You do not need a password: you sign in with a login link from the email, or with Google.

We use a photo solely to create the illustration of your character. It is only passed to the AI service that draws the pictures, and it is deleted automatically as soon as the illustration has been created and checked, at the latest 48 hours later. We never use photos for advertising or any other purpose.

Our servers are hosted by Hetzner in Germany. AI services help create the text and illustrations, some of them outside the EU. Which ones, and on what legal basis, is set out transparently in our privacy policy.

No. Your book is seen only by you and the people you share the PDF with. It appears in the public gallery only if you explicitly share it there yourself.

Yes, at any time in your account or by emailing us. We then delete your books, characters, addresses and photos. Only invoices already issued must be kept for 10 years for tax reasons, without any link to your account.

Under "My Books" in your account. There you can read your book, download the PDF, adjust texts and pictures, order further copies and see the status of your print order.

Starringbooks is a young start-up from Hamburg, Germany, founded by two dads. It all started with stories for their own children, who much preferred reading them to any book from the shelf. The company behind the brand is Enanza Ventures GmbH, based in Hamburg.

Easiest by email to info@mein-kreativbuch.de. We read every message ourselves and answer personally.

On our reviews page you find genuine reviews from families who ordered a book, with stars and dates. We only publish reviews whose authors have agreed to it.

Yes. You can download and print our coloring pages for free, and the blog has ideas around reading aloud, gift-giving and inventing stories.

Yes. We support the work of SOS Children's Villages, which give children without a family a safe home.