Self-Publishing: A Printing Primer Barbara Piszczek. November 3, 2013

Transcription

1 Self-Publishing: A Printing Primer Barbara Piszczek November 3, 2013

2 Self Publication The primary reason an author self publishes is to maintain all ownership of their work. Traditional publishing houses actually buy most or all the rights to the book, providing the author with an advance. This advance is a loan, and will be paid back first from the author s percentage of royalties (money earned from sales), which is determined as part of the contract negotiation for the sale of the book. Afterwards the advance is paid back, the author receives the royalties agreed upon during the contract directly.

3 Types of Publication Print shops Print houses will fulfill orders placed by the author, but author will have to purchase their order. Authors then manage their inventory and handle their own distribution and marketing. All risk is assumed by the author. Examples include: U Build a Book BookMobile Colorwise Commercial Printing

4 Types of Publication Print on Demand (POD) houses Printing is done for each order so limited or no inventory is maintained by the house. The cost per book for the author is fixed, no matter the size of the order. Additional services, such as marketing and distribution, may be available. In general, these print shops only provide soft cover options. Examples include: CreateSpace Xlibris Outskirts LuLu Mira Digital Printing Fast Pencil

5 Types of Self Publication E-book publishing The company provides the means for the author to generate an electronic copy of their book, suitable for electronic readers or computer programs. No print copies are generated. Examples include: Kindle Direct Publishing SmashWords Booktango Some companies provide both POD and e-book publishing.

6 Types of Self Publication Some companies provide both POD and e-book publishing. Examples include: Amazon (CreateSpace/Kindle Direct Publishing) Infinity Publishing

7 Factors to Consider When Preparing Your Book Print houses can manage color on a page by page basis; most POD houses will have you select black & white or color for your entire book layout, which will affect the overall price of the book. Number of books ordered will affect the price per book with print houses. Sizes outside the standard formats will affect the cost, as well as marketability of the book with POD services. Standard sizes are: 5 x 8, 5.25 x 8, 5.5 x 8.5, or 6 x 9. Custom Sizes are usually10% - 50% more expensive than Standard Sizes, due to the complexity of cutting and binding.

8 Factors to Consider When Preparing Your Book Hard cover books are more durable, but more expensive. As such, they are not always the best option as a starting point for self-publishing. Electronic books are often popular with the young adult audience and allow for hyperlinks to websites with additional information related to your book.

9 Samples of Costs WINDOWS A 235-page book (54 pages in color), sized 5.5 x 8.5, cost $10.50 for soft cover books and $14.50 for hard cover books, not including tax when ordering 300 books. SERENDIPITY A 288-page black and white book, sized 6 x 9, cost $4.42 per soft cover book and $17.85 per hard cover book, not including shipping or tax, when ordering 200 books.

10 U Build A Book Local printing shop that specializes in printing books of all types, specializing in small runs (from 1 to 1000), including hard cover books.

11 U Build a Book PROS The company is based in Camarillo. Local authors can view examples of other work before placing an order, as well as pick up completed printed books rather than pay for shipping. U Build A Book, like many POD houses, provides software to format the layout for books. They also have a staff member to provide layout/design services for an additional fee. Hard cover versions of books are available at an additional cost rare for most POD services. In addition to the soft cover proof, U Build A Book provides free hard copy proof for any order of 50+ books.

12 U Build A Book CONS Author has to pay for the entire order, and half of the total cost will be due before printing begins. Authors will have to handle their own inventory and there is no additional outlet for interested customers to purchase books directly. Marketing and Distribution services are not available.

13 PublishAmerica Print-on-demand publishing company that provides and underwrites traditional publishing services: formatting, custom designing, illustrating the final manuscript into a book, printing, making books available to bookstores, and informing news media upon the release of a new book. Author pays no fee for services and will even receive a small advance for their work. Authors may buy copies of their book to sell themselves; others pay a noticeably higher fee, which may reduce the marketability of the book to outside distributors.

14 SmashWords Independent e-book publisher that allows the author to sell in multiple formats, from Amazon Kindles to Barnes & Nobles Nooks to Apple ipads to Kobos. Authors receive a majority of the sales profit. Publishing is simple, but is best for individual authors. Multiple, FREE guides available on site to help new authors publish, many of which were drafted by authors who went through the process themselves. No hardcopy printing e-book only.

15 CreateSpace Amazon s Print-on-Demand service, which enables the author to take on the role of a traditional publishing house, including establishing book information, layout design and formatting, and printing and binding. They provide a distribution outlet through the Amazon website.

16 CreateSpace PROS No charge if you do not buy inventory. Amazon provides 24-Hour customer service. You can send an instant message to request an or a phone call from a costumer service representative. Consulting service for layout is available for a fee. You are only charged a flat rate cost for books, no matter how many you order, which is great if you only want to have a small inventory on hand.

17 CreateSpace PROS CreateSpace walks you through the process and will warn you if you have not completed a step or have not filled in a mandatory response. CreateSpace will proof your book and highlight any issues with formatting. including some spelling and grammar checks. Your book is available on Amazon, with no additional work!

18 CreateSpace CONS Amazon is a distributer, and will partially control the book s marketability. You will need to pay extra to legally distribute in bricks and mortar stores, as well as other websites. Some users have complained that this service is not worth the rate. Minimal return per sale. Flat rate cost for books, not matter how many you order. CreateSpace will either print black and white pages, or color pages. If you need your 200-page book to have ten pages in color, you will have to pay the color rate for the entire book.

19 CreateSpace CONS Consulting services are pricy, and divided between cover art packages and interior design packages. Interior packages range from $349 to $679 Cover art packages range from $349 to $1,199 While authors can set their own prices, Amazon will adjust them based on the market without consulting the author.

20 Tips for Preparing Documents for Printing Save after every section! Insert page breaks between chapters to separate them. There should also be page breaks after the title page, copyright page, and any preface or introduction. Margins should be set as mirrored and all margins should be set as 0.75-inch margins Your first page of your story should be on an odd page number. For prose, you can use the indent function in Word rather than tabs.

21 Tips for Preparing Documents for Printing Insert page numbers as either headers or footers. Double-check your page numbers to make sure that the numbers remain sequential. If you are including images, use JPEGs (jpg). If you are doing a black & white printing, use your image manager to save it as grayscale. Save MULTIPLE COPIES on a regular basis. a copy to yourself or family, upload a copy to DropBox or Google Drive, save it to a flash drive, and save them to different folders in your computer. If a copy fails, you want to have a few back-ups on hand.

22 Differences in Printing Print House You will need to have your own ISBN if you plan to widely sell your book. Print houses prefer highresolution pdfs. You will be in charge of proofing your book, though your printer may indicate problems. POD Company Some companies may sell you an ISBN or you can use your own. Many prefer Word documents. Proof reviewing software will highlight problems, but you will still need to complete a review.

23 From Print to Digital CreateSpace enables you to move your document for hardcopy printing over to Kindle Direct Publishing for electronic publishing. This transfer is made far easier if you keep in mind the following tips (even when working on your book for print!):

24 DON T FORGET TO APPROVE YOUR WORK! Make sure you have completed all the steps to finalize your approval so the printing can begin!

25 Tips for Preparing Documents for Kindle Insert page breaks between chapters to separate them. There should also be page breaks after the title page, copyright page, and any preface or introduction. Bullet points, special fonts, headers, and footers will not be transferred. Tabs do not work, so use the indent function in Word. Images work best when centered, due to the formatting. Use JPEGs (extension is jpg). Color is fine it will be translated to a 16-scale shades of gray for black and white readers.

26 Tips for Preparing Documents for Kindle Instead of page numbers, you can use bookmarks and hyperlinks within the document, you can create a table of contents that will allow your reader to go directly to a specific chapter, or section. Microsoft Support s website can provide you with step-by-step instructions. By cropping your front cover for your printed book, you can generate a cover page for your book. Because Kindle is a different format, it will require a different ISBN than your print version! KDP can assign a unique ten-digit ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number) for free.

27 Final Thoughts Establish Realistic Deadlines: Always factor in extra time to complete your tasks. If your printer says that they need it by Friday to meet your due date, get it to them by TUESDAY. Mistakes will cost you time, money or BOTH! Doublecheck anything you are sending out and carefully review your proofs. (see Establishing Realistic Deadlines). If you are confused about any part of the process, ASK! Be polite and detail exactly what you are unsure or confused about. Ask for confirmation as to your assertions (see Mistakes ).

28 Final Thoughts, Part Two If you are uncertain about a company, don t be afraid to search for reviews and use the Better Business Bureaus. Lastly, be honest about what you want from your publishing experience. Figure out the goals you want to achieve and keep it in front of you whenever you are making decisions about your book.

29 GOOD LUCK!