Recently Printed: Fifteen Feet Tall by Warren Rankine

Here at FolioFox, one of our favourite parts of the job is helping independent authors who are looking to publish on their own terms. Warren Rankine's debut memoir, Fifteen Feet Tall: From Abandonment to Belonging, is exactly the kind of book we love to see being made at our print factory. It’s a deeply personal, unflinchingly honest book written by someone who had a story that simply needed to be told.

We met Warren by coincidence at Book Fair Australia in Melbourne, where Warren told us that he had been looking for a new printer to produce a second run of copies. It's been a genuine privilege to be part of the journey in bringing more copies of Fifteen Feet Tall to life, so we wanted to share more about Warren’s book and his experience with our team.

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The Story Behind the Book

Warren Rankine has spent most of his life building something from nothing. From the western suburbs of Adelaide, he grew an award-winning brand and construction company, raised a family, and quietly carried a childhood that most people would struggle to comprehend. Ten years ago, he decided to start writing it down.

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Fifteen Feet Tall traces Warren's experience of being abandoned at two years old and growing up through Australia's foster care system. As a Ngarrindjeri descendant, his displacement wasn't part of the Stolen Generations, but an experience not uncommon during the era following the White Australia Policy. It meant dealing with that cultural legacy, familial shame, and the particular grief of being given up by your own extended family while your siblings were kept.

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"I thought I could give people an insight into the differences between what's known as Stolen Generation displacement and the displacement that occurred to me," Warren explains, "which was abandonment because of societal and cultural legacy out of the cessation of the White Australia Policy. Familial shame and guilt at having an Aboriginal mixed-race child within a predominantly white family."

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It's a story that took courage to tell, and even more courage to research. Warren says that the writing was actually the enjoyable part, and the challenge was really editing the book as it meant going back through all the details. He revisited the homes he'd lived in and read his state case files thoroughly for the first time in his life. In doing so, he had to come face to face with the procedural language used to document his life as a small boy. He chose to put those files in the book, front and centre, right from the opening pages.

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"It's one thing to recount my own thoughts, emotions and memories of what I endured as a small boy. It's a whole other reality to see those files and understand the formality and procedural reality of how my life was in the hands of authority most children never experience. I also knew that if all these years later I still find those documents confronting, then I'm sure others will be challenged by them."

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That instinct to not look away runs through the entire book, to bring the reader into the full reality of the experience. Warren writes with vulnerability and humour alongside the harder truths, and he's clear that the honesty isn't just for the reader's sake but for his own.

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"Being authentic might be today's catchcry, but it really does reflect the integrity of the finished result and how I feel about the stories I'm telling."

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The Decision to Self-Publish

The same drive that led him to build a successful business is what carried him through a decade of working on this book. Recounting memories, revisiting places, documents and details he had avoided in decades made writing Fifteen Feet Tall hard enough. 

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When the manuscript was finally ready, he decided to self-publish it on his own terms rather than pitching something this raw and personal to traditional publishers. Warren knew how disheartening the process of pitching his life story would be to publishers as they would be evaluating it on its commercial appeal, and didn’t want to be waiting for someone else to decide whether it was worth telling. 

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Through self publishing, he was able to share that story independently and leverage his skills from building businesses over the course of his career to market and promote his book in the community. It allowed him to reach the readers this book was meant for and maintain full control over how it was told and how it looked in print. For many authors like Warren, self publishing isn’t just a practical decision but a protective one, and it's a path more Australian authors are choosing that we're proud to support.

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Bringing the Second Print Run to Life

Despite the steep learning curve of book printing, Warren had managed to get an established first edition in readers' hands for the book’s release. Choosing a different printer for his second print run usually comes with some challenges because authors want to maintain consistency between editions, so we prioritised making sure his printing experience was easier than his last. For us, it was extremely important that the new run stayed faithful to the first edition, while still giving us the chance to make sure the book was looking its absolute best.

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Printing the interior of the book was straightforward, but the cover required more careful attention than we initially anticipated. The print colour configuration was complex, and early proofs showed that certain sections of the cover design, including the young boy on the cover (younger Warren), printed with too much magenta, which caused him to look a bit red in the face.

We were committed to making sure that younger Warren’s skin tone looked more natural and true to the original photograph, so it wasn’t a detail we were going to overlook. We ran multiple printed proofs, dialling in the colour profile and making custom adjustments to the press configuration until the colours were more accurate, giving the cover the warmth and depth it deserved. It was important to get that detail right, especially for a book fundamentally about identity.

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In a happy coincidence, one of our team members even delivered one of those cover proofs in person, when they met Warren while he was manning a stall at the Clunes Booktown Festival. Following adjustments, feedback and approval, Fifteen Feet Tall was finally sent to print and we’re so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with Warren to bring more copies to readers.

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"What a fantastic experience it was to deal with FolioFox in printing the second print run of my memoir, Fifteen Feet Tall. The whole process was professional, easy and a joy to be a part of. I can't recommend FolioFox highly enough and I'm extremely happy with the finished result."

‍_{- Warren Rankine, in a Google review for FolioFox.}

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Warren also very kindly left a positive Google review - and it's reviews and positive feedback from authors like this that truly make our day and solidifies that this is exactly why we do what we do!

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Read Warren's story

Fifteen Feet Tall is available now in paperback (RRP $39.95) through Warren's website at fifteenfeettall.com and at select bookstores in Australia. If you're looking for a book that makes you feel something, this one is certainly a great pick.

As Warren puts it: "More than anything, Fifteen Feet Tall shows that every human being can overcome trauma and grief with resilience, determination and persistence."

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We're proud to support independent Australian authors bringing their stories to print. If you have a book you're ready to publish, get in touch and we'd love to be part of your journey.

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Project Specifications:

• Internal/Text Pages: 120gsm Standard Uncoated
• Cover: 300gsm Standard Silk/Satin + Matt Lamination
• Finish Size: 152mm x 229mm (US Royal)
• Binding: PUR Perfect Binding
• Digital Printing by FolioFox, printed & bound in Melbourne, Australia.