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Step 1: Education Step 2: Preparation Step 3: Book Printing Step 4: Distribution & Marketing Frequently Asked Questions
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General Questions: What are some good reasons for self-publishing? Number one, you don’t have to convince anybody but yourself that your book should be published. Making a good case to yourself for publication of a work you have created should not be difficult at all. No one else shares the high degree of enthusiasm you have for your own work. Why give a third party, with intentions, interests, and priorities different from your own, the final say? Self-publishing gives you total control. Number two, if you have filled an existing void with your book and/or are able to create a demand for it, you will make more money than you would make with a standard publishing contract. Instead of a paltry 5 to 15% royalty, you could make 20 to 80% of the purchase price. Once your self-published book is successful, you can negotiate with a larger publisher from a position of experience and strength. Number three, you can see your book in print within a few weeks, or at most a few months, of your manuscript completion. The larger publishers most often work on an 18-month cycle, and that is just too long to wait. Number four, you can get distribution for your book through Amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com just as easily as Dell and Random House can for their books. Number five, you can preserve your own heritage, or that of your community or club or whatever, in an inexpensive, quality format. Not everyone publishes to make a profit. Maybe you just want to leave a legacy with your family or share what you have learned with others. Your offspring and relatives will appreciate a perfect-bound book with a color cover about your childhood or war experiences or travel adventures far more than a musty photo album and loose double-spaced pages of manuscript. And, number six, you can produce your book inexpensively through BooksJustBooks.com. How difficult is it to publish my own book? You can do it easily and do it well with the help provided here. You have probably produced a flyer or handout in your life. If so, you already have some self-publishing experience. Producing your completed book involves more work of course; and, you must overcome the inertia of just sitting there wishing you had a self-published book. To exorcise the demon of the self-publishing doldrums, sing heartily to yourself. A song will spur and whip a lethargic mind to action. I’ll even supply the words to your song: Doubters and pessimists, come take a look! Follow the advice here and before long, your biggest problem just might be fending off the flunkies, flatterers, and parasites who dog the heels of the rich and famous!
What makes self-publishing an attractive option? The old saying “the first copy of your book costs a whole lot, but they’re pretty inexpensive after that” holds as true today as it did a hundred years ago. The setup charges are the same no matter what the quantity. The higher the setup cost, the larger the print run needed to amortize these costs into an acceptable unit cost. Whether you are printing a black-and-white novel or a full-color coffee table book today’s technology has reduced these setup costs. Only a few years ago, typesetting made up a major portion of a book project’s setup costs. Then, a standard 6 x 9 page cost between $6 and $10 to typeset and proofread. A project requiring two or three rounds of galley proofs and a set or two of page proofs could easily run that cost up to $15 or $20 per page. That meant that a 256-page book would cost $4,000 to $5,000 before you even got to the printer, who would then have to shoot and strip negatives at a cost of perhaps $7,500. Today, the $600 computer with basic word processing software has replaced the type houses of old. The laser printer has replaced expensive photo paper and chemicals. New printing techniques bypass film completely. The average savings to the small publisher amount to as much as $6,500 per title. As a result, writers can put their own books into publication cost-effectively in relatively low quantities.
Should I start my own publishing company? Absolutely! By publishing your first book, your activities in that regard are a publishing operation. You might as well name it and get a P.O. box. If you have Mailboxes, or a UPS store nearby, rent one of their boxes and your address will sound better: 1050 Pine Tree Boulevard, Suite 116, for example. Suite 116 at Mailboxes, Etc. is very, very small—but nobody will know that but you. You can even use your home address for your new publishing company. Just add “Suite 102” and the publishing giants will have nothing on you, address-wise. You need a publishing company to get your ISBNs (International Standard Book Numbers) and LCCNs (Library of Congress Catalog Numbers) associated with you. Most of the companies who assist self-publishers will supply the ISBN and LCCN for your book for a small fee usually built into their price. But then, these numbers will always be associated with them, not you! You can get ten ISBNs for $225. Be determined to use most of them if not all. Your first book may be good, but it just might be your fifth or sixth book that becomes a blockbuster! Once you have the experience of publishing your own book under your belt, you can help other writers get published—through your company using one of your ISBNs. Naming your company takes some thought. Don’t be hokey, now! What do I mean by that? Naming my publishing company “Bob Johnson Publishing” would be hokey. Come up with a simple name that is easy to remember, descriptive, and will not limit you in the future. If your first book is a children’s book and you name your company “Child’s Play Publishing,” for example, you won’t be able to add teenage and adult books to your list without changing the name. Once you have narrowed your choices, check these resources in the library to avoid company name duplication: Small Press Record of Books, Publishers Directory by Gale Research, and Books in Print. The basic business structures are sole proprietorship, partnership, and corporation. Most first-time publishers choose sole proprietorship because it’s the easiest to form. You’re a taxpayer, so get any business help you may need from the Small Business Administration (SBA). You can reach the SBA Web site through BooksJustBooks.com. Have a simple logo designed for yourself, order letterhead paper, envelopes, and business cards, and you’re really in business.
What is the difference between a vanity press, a subsidy press, and a packager? Linda and Jim Salisbury, the authors of Smart Self-Publishing define subsidy press as “a publishing company that applies its ISBN to a book and charges the author for the cost of production. The author receives only a few copies of the book, and is promised royalties on those copies that might be sold by the subsidy press.” They define vanity press as “another term for a subsidy press. It implies that the published book has no value other than to stroke the author’s ego.” So a vanity press and a subsidy press are basically the same. I responded to the ads for two subsidy presses in a national magazine and a week later received their introductory packets. Both of them were very slick and impressive—on the surface. I must commend the first one for its “Word of caution about financial returns.” They write: “No one can predict how a book will sell and, consequently, how much of your fee you are likely to regain by publishing your work with us. Some authors have received satisfactory returns. Others, however, did not find the market receptive and their financial rewards have been negligible. On the other hand, if financial success is not your prime concern, and if personal satisfaction ranks high in your desire for publication, then by all means consider [our subsidy publishing program].” If you have money to burn and only want a few books, this may be the way to go. If you don’t have money to burn, the subsidy process will work something like this: step one, send in your manuscript for evaluation; step two, sign a contract for between $5,000 and $10,000; step three, go to the bank to get a second mortgage or use your 18% credit card to make the payment; step four, get a few copies of your finished book; step five, experience acute attacks of buyer’s remorse, while continuing to make payments on your mortgage or credit card for the next five or ten years. The second subsidy publisher was less up-front, but pretty much the same story as the first. Book packaging is different than subsidy or vanity publishing. Some companies specialize in it. A book packager acts as an independent contractor to bring a predetermined number of your books into being. All the books belong to you. Book packagers work for a pre-set fee, and all the profits are yours. When I showed off my self-published books at a writers’ group meeting, one of the members asked me how I did it. She hired me to produce her book because she didn’t want to be bothered with the details. Just like that, I was a book packager! You can do the same with your book(s). The people at BooksJustBooks.com make it easy for you to become your own packager and publisher, saving thousands of dollars in the process.
What is a cooperative publisher? Recently, a hybrid of a book packager and a subsidy publisher, called a cooperative publisher, has emerged in the marketplace. Like the book packager, the author enters into a publishing agreement with the cooperative publisher to produce a fixed number of books for a fixed amount of dollars. When the printing is complete, a certain number of these books are the sole property of the author and the rest are used for joint marketing and sales. This agreement is for a fixed period of time during which, if the book sells out, the cooperative publisher will reprint the book at his expense. Royalties of 50% of net revenue on the initial printing are paid twice a year. As with the subsidy press, the author uses the cooperative publisher’s ISBN number. An example of this type of publisher is Rutledge Press, Inc. in Connecticut. NOTE: We can use remodeling your kitchen as an example to compare the BooksJustBooks method with the cooperative press. The easiest (and most expensive) method is to hire a general contractor to purchase materials and coordinate all the components that go into the new kitchen (i.e. cooperative press). The BookJustBooks.com method is much like the “do it yourself” way where the individual (author) coordinates all the phases of production. This method takes more time and dedication but is significantly less expensive and to most, who have tried, more rewarding.
What is “on-demand” book printing? On-demand publishers set up your digital manuscript to be printed one book at a time using a Docu-tech. You pay a set fee of between $350 and $1,250 and receive in return one hardback copy of your book and one softback copy. If they set the retail price of the softback at $18, say, then each additional book you order from them costs you $10.80 (40% off the retail price). If a bookstore, wholesaler, or on-line bookseller orders your book, you receive a royalty ranging from $1 to $2.30 per book. Think about it from a strictly business point of view. Every time you sell a book that you’ve paid for and published through BooksJustBooks.com, you recoup the cost of that book and more—perhaps double or even triple the cost. The sale of a book through an on-demand publisher recoups only a small percentage of that book’s cost for you. If you don’t think you can sell any more than five or ten or twenty books of a new title, on-demand is the way to go. If you think you can sell at least a hundred books, you want to stick with BooksJustBooks.com. On-demand printing also allows publishers to economically keep a book in print that may sell only a handful of copies per month after the book has run its course in the marketplace.
Since e-books first came out, most of the hype has died down, the venture capital money has dried up, many places are out of business and the whole e-book “ industry” has taken on the appearance of a corner 3-card-Monte game. The trade publications don’t seem to be pumping out any more glowing accounts of the “e-book revolution” any more probably because the advertising dollars have dried up - so why bother! I visited Book Expo America in Chicago in June. During those three days I had the opportunity to talk to many of the remaining players in the e-book arena. The company that I bought the original Stephen King e-novel from was still in business but was not selling to the consumer any more. They were only marketing their product to libraries. The people from Amazon.com’s advantage program, who have always been good friends of the self-publisher, told me that they were only selling technical e-books. After a little prodding as to why, I managed to get the most honest answer of the day concerning consumer e-books. “They just aren’t selling.” The race is not over and it’s hard to say exactly how it will turn out but for now my advice to you is to save your money. It’s less clear than ever whether the e-book will be the next CD or just another 8-track.
If you have an image that you want to print to the edge of the book, then that image “bleeds”. This is often done on book covers. For the printer to be able to trim the books so that the image is at the edge there must be some part of the image that gets trimmed off (or else you will have a white stripe of the paper showing). The amount that gets trimmed off is the “bleed”, and printers require a minimum of 1/8” (¼” is preferable). So, be sure that you set up your files so that you have enough image to go beyond your trim. In other words, a 6 x 9” cover that bleeds all 3 sides on the front will really be a minimum of 6-1/8 x 9-1/4”.
Turn to page 1 of any book. Then turn the page. The back of page 1 is page 2. Then comes page 3, and the back of page 3 is page 4, and so on. Odd-numbered pages are always on the right, and even-numbered pages are always on the left. I know this seems so obvious, but counting pages is one of the single most misunderstood simple things in printing. BooksJustBooks.com has received its share of manuscripts with the pages numbered 1F and 1B (1Front and 1Back), 2F and 2B, and so on—instead of 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. And yet, have any of us ever seen a book in print with pages numbered 1F, 1B, 2F, 2B, 3F, 3B, etc.? Could it be mind-numbing x-rays emanating from the copy machines at Kinko’s which are causing this confusion? Remember that every page counts as a page whether it is blank or part of the text—numbered or not.
What is the difference between a cover, a jacket and a casewrap? These are related in that they all print and wrap around the text pages of your book. A cover is the term we use to describe what wraps around a paperback book. Jackets and casewraps are on hard cover books. The difference here is that a jacket is loose (i.e. it can be removed from the book) and has flaps. Casewraps are more like a “cover” in that they wrap the binder board, which is what wrap your text pages. Casewraps are typically used on children’s books, field guides, cookbooks and short run hard cover guides.
Should I opt to have a jacket on my children’s book, or is a casewrap enough? All of the books in the BooksJustBooks children’s book program will have a printed casewrap. Casewraps are what “wrap” the boards used in the hardcover binding and they go underneath the endpapers. Typically, a jacket is visually the same as the casewrap, but it is loose (i.e. it can be removed from the book, just the way we can take off a jacket). The advantage of having a jacket is that it allows you to have flaps, which are the parts that turn in at the front and the back of the book. Flaps are used to tell a bit about the book (front flap) and the author and illustrator (back flap). In other words the flaps are real estate that you use to sell your book. Many readers feel that the perceived value of a book is greater if there is a jacket. On the other hand, many parents tell me that their children just rip the jackets anyway, so they remove them as soon as they buy a book. The choice is yours. The bottom line is that the jackets do add a bit to the cost, but the choice is yours.
Is white considered a color in printing? No. The white of the paper never counts as a color. A one-color cover is one ink-color on white paper, so unless you fill up the whole cover with that ink—it could be black or red or green or any other color—you’ll have contrast. You start with blank cover stock, you add one ink to it, and you have a one-color cover. A two-color cover is two colors on white, and a three-color cover is three colors on white. Designers often use screens to get other tints or colors without having to pay for them. For example, a 50% screen used with black will yield a gray in the area screened, and a 50% screen of red will yield a pink, and so on. In addition, the combination of two screens gives you the effect of a third color. (I.e. blue plus yellow equals green, yellow plus red equals brown and so forth.) Once you get to four-color the rules change. Sometimes people new to publishing make the mistake of not thinking of black as a color. It surely is. The confusion comes in because we contrast black-and-white movies with those that are “in color.” A book cover printed in black and red is a two-color job. What color ink will you be using for the text of your book? Black!
Trim size relates to subject matter and perceived value. There are five basic trim sizes. The mass market paperback size is 4-1/4 x 7”. This size is associated with both fiction and nonfiction, and it represents the low end of the retail price range. Short-run methods do not efficiently produce this size. You need a press run of about 3,000 books to obtain a unit cost that works with a standard pricing formula. The trade paperback size can be either 5-1/2 x 8-1/2 or 6 x 9. For quantities under 500, the actual trim size is closer to 5-1/4 x 8-1/4 due to short run equipment limitations. The 6 x 9 size does not work efficiently on most of the short-run processes. A standard Docu-tech is limited to printing only four 6 x 9 pages at a time, versus eight pages at a time using a trim size of 5-1/4 x 8-1/4. The short-run offset presses, printing on a sheet measuring 11 x 17, are subject to the same limitations. The longer-run presses are different. If you are running at least 500 copies the 6 x 9 trim size costs only about 5% more than the 5-1/2 x 8-1/2. Trade paperback books carry a higher retail price than mass-market books. Trade paperbacks are also sometimes called “quality paperbacks.” Generally, the “quality” refers to the offset paper usually used in trade paperbacks versus the groundwood sheets used in mass-market paperbacks. The textbook size is 7 x 10. Many software manuals and cookbooks are also printed in this size. The workbook size is 8-1/2 x 11. This size is a standard size for both short-run and long-run equipment. “How to” books and other nonfiction subjects fit well with this trim size. You would never consider this size for a novel. For short runs, there’s no price difference between this size and the 7 x 10.
Why can’t I just go to a local printer? I believe a personal anecdote can best answer this question. Several years ago I produced a monthly ad-supported comedy magazine called the “Broadneck Baloney”. It was thirty-two 8-1/2 x 11 self-covered pages, printed in two colors on 50# offset paper, and the circulation was 10,000. Although I live in Maryland, I got the lowest price from a firm in Dover, Delaware, that used a huge web press that printed all 32 pages at the same time. It took them less than two hours to strip, print, fold, and staple my publication. Of course, they were very busy and I had to schedule my time on their press in advance if I wanted to meet my first-of-the-month publication date. During this period, a local printer did my letterhead, business cards, and flyers. He also distributed about a hundred of my Broadneck Baloneys to his other customers each month. He wanted to give me a price on the Baloney. Without telling him the price I was getting in Dover, I told him he couldn’t possibly beat it. He insisted. I said okay. Several days later, he sent me a written bid. It read that he would be so kind as to print 10,000 copies of Broadneck Baloney for a mere $8,260. I was paying $1,240 in Dover. Yes, I could have just gone to my local printer to have my comedy magazine manufactured on his one-color press that printed two pages at a time—if it weren’t for that $7,020 I’d be throwing out the window! What is true of magazines in this regard is true of books. One of the many advantages of working with BooksJustBooks.com is that their experts will make certain that the printer with the right press for your specifications prints your book.
Should I be looking outside the U.S. to print my black-and-white book? Generally the answer is no. Paper, plates, and ink—the main materials in the printing process—cost the same here as they do anywhere else in the world. Printing presses and other related equipment cost the same no matter where you go and must be maintained the same way worldwide. We in the United States actually pay less for uncoated book paper than foreign consumers because the paper mills are right here. Many foreign countries do have an advantage in labor rates, but it is a small one. Let’s say that the unit cost of a book is $4, and $3 of that represents the cost of materials. That leaves only $1 that can be discounted. If the foreign labor rate is one-fourth that of the U.S., there is a savings of 75 cents per book, but they still must be shipped. In the end, the total savings amounts to pennies, if that. When you factor in the time needed for your books to reach the U.S. by boat, foreign printing looks even less attractive.
How many books should I print? Not counting books used for promotion, you shouldn’t print a single book more than you can sell. If your book size is 4-1/4 x 7, 5-1/2 x 8-1/2, 6 x 9, 7 x 10 or 8-1/2 x 11, you can get instant prices at BooksJustBooks.com. Quantities for 5-1/2 x 8-1/2, 6 x 9, and 8-1/2 x 11 start as low as a hundred. The mass market size (4-1/4 x 7) starts at 1,000. You know what your budget is. Get prices on 100, 500, 1,000 or other appropriate amounts and think it through. The larger the quantity, the lower the unit cost. But what good is the lowest unit cost if most of the books stay stacked up in the garage? When you are analyzing your unit cost, keep in mind that you will have to offer large distributors like Amazon.com something like a 60% discount off the retail price for them to sell your book. Short run digital technology for black and white printing has been around for quite some time now. The original “docu-tech” technology was designed for one purpose: to produce short run black and white books economically. On the other hand, while there have been digital color presses on the market for some time now, their original intent was more of a commercial nature like ad sheets, postcards, etc. and not book printing. Thus the “per impression” cost is OK for single sheet items, but it is very cost restrictive for multi-page items like books. Digital presses are now in widespread use for printing book covers but a cover is a single sheet item. Eventually you will probably be able to run short run color books economically but not now. All books in the BooksJustBooks.com children’s book program are printed on traditional sheetfed printing presses.
What costs are not included in the BooksJustBooks.com estimate? The costs to return your proofs to our printer (typically an overnight courier charge) and the actual freight charges to ship the books to their final destination are not on your original quotation or purchase order. Also, the final count can vary by 5%, so you may be charged for “extras” or credited should we be “under”.
Do I need my own Web site to help sell my book? Yes, you do. The Internet is what puts the independent self-publisher on an even footing with the big guys. It’s an inexpensive way to put your book in front of millions of potential customers. Have you noticed a single movie nowadays that does not have a Web site with the same name? There’s a good reason. Advertising is expensive; a Web site is not. The idea is to use small, well-placed ads to attract traffic to your Web site, and then do the rest of the selling from there. You can go into as much detail about your book as you want, and that includes allowing an interested party to download a sample chapter. On your Web site, customers can order directly from you—you’re most profitable scenario. You should also promote your retail outlets by listing them with their phone numbers. Domain name registration is cheap and easy. Go to any search engine and enter the words “domain registration.” You will get dozens of listings of organizations to register your name. They all have free name-search functions at their sites so you can take your time and keep entering names until you get the one you want. The final decision on the title of the Publishing Basics book was based on our being able to obtain the name PublishingBasics.com for our Web site. The same kind of consideration may influence the choice of your book title. Once you have secured your name, you may need help building the actual site. Remember, you don’t need to spend a lot of money to develop a decent Web presence, but like anything else worthwhile, it requires concentration and hard work on your part.
Are there ways to be sure I make money on my book? I believe you can find ways if you put your mind to it. I have been fortunate enough to do it with one of my self-published books, Soups and Stories from the Realm of Queen Arnold. First, let me tell you how that book came about. Dick Elms, a retired printer and proofreader, and a neighbor of mine, had fifty fabulous soup recipes he wanted to publish. That didn’t seem like enough for a book. As Penrod Waterman, I had published eight short stories over the years, but that was not enough to carry a book either. So we invented the great queen and her mythical realm. Queen Arnold, as it turns out, arrived on Broadneck (a peninsula just north of Annapolis, Maryland, on the Chesapeake Bay) from England on the seventh day of the seventh month of the 777th year with her party of 777 men, women, and children. Known for her enthralling sensual magnetism, her exuberant mirth, her extraordinary vivacity, her flawless beauty, her blunt rusticity, and her kiss-provoking lips, Queen Arnold ruled over an ideal realm for 77 years. Back then, the Arnoldites ate soup just before darkness oozed around the forest; then, as delicately emerging stars and small campfires magnified the subduing charm of the woods, peerless raconteurs began to amuse and enchant young and old alike with fabulous stories. I made sure the book made money by pre-selling 800 of them. In exchange for suggesting their wines as appropriate accompaniments with each of the fifty soup recipes, a group of affiliated wineries bought 400 of the books at just below the retail price. We dedicated the book to the memory of a great soup-making grandmother whose family still owned a local wine and spirits shop. They bought 200 to sell in their store. Then in the acknowledgments, we touted a local tree service as the most environmentally concerned and historically sensitive in the world. They bought 200 from us to give as gifts to their preferred customers in the Arnold area. Not every book lends itself to these kinds of sales, but perhaps this example will inspire you to think of some pre-publication connections you can make.
How do I get my books distributed by Amazon or Barnes & Noble? Amazon is the easier. Go to the BooksJustBooks.com Web site and click on Amazon.com in the Distribution section of the Publishing Related Sites. That will take you right to the page for independent publishers and authors. Follow the instructions from there. It’s easy. Barnes & Noble (BN.com) will e-mail you an application for you to submit titles. The e-mail link is also at BooksJustBooks.com. You shouldn’t be surprised that these distributors want up to 60% of your retail price, and you have to pay to ship your books to them. It’s well worth it. Just think, if anyone wants your book anywhere in the world, you just send them to Amazon.com. Publicity for your book doesn’t help that much unless people know where they can get it.
Will I be able to get my book on Oprah? Yes, it’s possible but there are five conditions. First, you have to catch a weasel when it’s asleep. The point: stay realistic. Work hard at marketing day by day. Wasn’t it Edison who said, “Success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration”? How do you suggest I market my book?
When my book sells out, does a reprint cost less than the first printing? No, and the reason for this is because we are using direct-to-plate technology with your PDF files, so we do all of the same steps all over again. You may be able to skip seeing a proof though and that could save you a bit of time, but there is no monetary savings for reprinting.
EDITORIAL QUESTIONS All you have to do is search the BooksJustBooks.com Web site for connections. There you will find all kinds of writing clubs and societies eager to help members improve their skills. I especially recommend these nine books: “On Writing Well” by William Zinsser. An informal guide to writing nonfiction.
“If You Want to Write” by Brenda Ueland. A book about art, independence and spirit. “The Writer’s Chapbook” edited from the Paris Review interviews and with an introduction by George Plimpton. A compendium of fact, opinion, wit, and advice from the 20th century’s preeminent writers. “The Elements of Editing” by Arthur Plotnik. A modern guide for editors and journalists. Editing is writing. “Woe Is I” by Patricia T. O’Conner. The grammar-phobe’s guide to better English in plain English. “12 Keys to Writing Books That Sell” by Kathleen Krull. A mirror that will help you see the strengths and weaknesses in your writing. “Technique in Fiction” by Robie Macauley and George Lanning. An imaginative rather than a mechanical approach to a complicated subject, featuring a splendid variety of examples. “The Writer’s Digest Handbook of Novel Writing” from the editors of Writer’s Digest. Practical advice and instruction for creating the novel.
“100,000 Plus Power Phrases for Students, Writers, Speakers, and Business People” by Robert Bowie Johnson Jr. A study of ideas and a stimulant to deep and original thinking. You can find these and other excellent books on writing at, or through, the BooksJustBooks.com on-line bookstore. Whether you think you need writing help or not, I highly recommend that you subscribe to Writer’s Digest magazine. They call their classifieds the “Writer’s Mart,” and it’s worth the price of the subscription just to have access to that. There you can find writing classes, conferences, and contests; editing, critiquing, and ghostwriting services; and much more. When you get your Writer’s Digest each month in the mail, you’ll remember that you subscribe to it because you are a writer! It’s easy to forget that sometimes, believe me. You can reach the Writer’s Digest Web site through BooksJustBooks.com (see Trade Publications in Publishing Related Sites section.)
Where should I go for critiquing help? If you want to save money, try to get a qualified friend to help you. Perhaps you can find an English teacher or graduate student at a nearby college who would be willing to help in exchange for acknowledgement in your book. Members of local writers’ groups often help each other with editing. I’ve taken the same creative writing course three times at the local community college in order to get wide-ranging feedback on my work. If there are night and day courses offered, take the night course because there you will find, as a rule, the more experienced writers. And make sure that critiquing each others’ work is part of the course. If you want professional editing—that is, if you are willing to pay for it—check the “Writer’s Mart” in Writer’s Digest magazine. Many editors offer their services there. The Editorial Freelancer’s Association (the-efa.org) is also an excellent resource for all kinds of editing.
What about copy-editing and proofreading? Finding errors after a work is published torments the soul of a writer in much the same way as malevolent phantoms agonize a paranoid imagination. It’s a problem you can avoid by taking the time, and spending the money if necessary, to be sure your work is correct. Copy-editors check written material to correct errors in grammar, spelling, usage, and style, usually as the next-to-last step before it is sent to the printer. Here again I recommend the Editorial Freelancers Association (the-efa.org). Once you have made the corrections suggested by the copy-editor, you’ve arrived at the proofreading stage, the final step before sending your text to the printer. Proofread your final manuscript with the utmost care yourself, and try to get four or five literate friends to read it also. If you’ve spent a year writing your book, give yourself at least a month to go over it. Make sure it’s exactly what you want to see in print.
What word processing program should I use? Stick with the big two: MS Word or Word Perfect. Both of these check your spelling and grammar, and offer an excellent thesaurus. These are now the standard word processors in the e-world. Using a different software program for word processing is something like typing a manuscript on colored paper. There is no advantage or point to it. Try to avoid the abbreviated versions of the real thing like MS Works, which comes loaded for free with many computers. There is a reason why it’s free! Remember: Book manufacturers do not print from word processing files. All files must be converted into an acceptable format. (See the Pre-Press Requirements section on the Web site).
The title, the author, the publisher, and the city like so: Publishing Basics – A Guide for the Small Press and Independent Self-Publisher Robert Bowie Johnson, Jr. RJ Communications LLC New York How is a title page different in a children’s book? The title page is still where you list your title, author, publisher, the city of the publisher, and usually your first picture. Children’s books are different from other books in that the role of the illustrator may be more important than that of the author. You’ll want to keep this in mind as you design this page.
Where does the copyright page appear, and what’s on it? The copyright page is usually found on the back of the title page. Our copyright notice below, includes the word “copyright,” the symbol, the year, and the author’s name. You don’t need both the word “copyright” and the symbol. Either will do, however just about every publisher uses both. We have the publisher’s name and address. We have the Library of Congress Catalog Number (LCCN), and the International Standard Book Number (ISBN). We tell you where this book was printed. And if there is room it is not uncommon to list the designer as well. Copyright ©2001 RJ Communications. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Published by RJ Communications LLC Design and layout Library of Congress Catalog Number: 00-190819 International Standard Book Number (ISBN) Printed in the United States of America Note: In some children’s books you will find the copyright information on the last page of the book.
Do I have to say in which country the book was printed? No, not if it is printed in the United States of America. That is optional but it is often stated because so many children’s books are printed overseas. And, if you are printing overseas, the answer is yes. You not only have to say what country it was printed in, but the size of the type that tells the country of origin (printing) cannot be in a size any smaller than the name of the publisher as it appears on the copyright page. If you do not do this, you could have serious trouble getting your books imported into this country. Also, if you have a jacket, the same “printed in” line must appear on it.
How do I get my work copyrighted? The law grants you copyright protection automatically upon the creation of your work. Your work need not be completed to be protected! You own the copyright on your work as you create it. No publication or registration or other action in the U.S. Copyright Office is required to secure copyright. There are, however, definite advantages to registration. Among these are the following:
The copyright notice, which appears on your published books should include the name of the copyright owner, the year of first publication, and the word copyright or the symbol ©. When the copyright notice appears, an infringer cannot claim that he or she did not realize the work was protected. You, as author and copyright owner, are wise to place a copyright notice on any unpublished copies of your work, or portions there of, that leave your control. The use of the copyright notice is your responsibility and does not require advance permission from, or registration with, the Copyright Office. Your copyright lasts from the moment of your work’s creation (when it first appears in tangible form) until 70 years after your death. The copyright for a work prepared jointly by two or more authors lasts for 70 years after the last surviving author’s death. The current copyright registration fee is $30 (price effective July 1, 2002). For more details and specific instructions on registration, click on the “Copyright” link in the Publishing Related Sites section of BooksJustBooks.com.
How do I find the copyright symbol on my computer? Every good word processor today gives you access to important characters that do not appear on the keyboard. They are called ANSI and ASCII character sets. To get the © character make sure the “Num Lock” key on the right-hand side of your PC is on, and use those numbers (the numbers at the top of the keyboard will not work). Now, hold down the “Alt” key and press 0169. When you release the “Alt” key, © will appear where your cursor is. From one writer to another, I am happy to present the universal access numbers to the following very useful set of characters hiding in your computer: ^ 094 ‰ 0137 ~ 0126 • 0149 ™ 0153 œ 0156 ¢ 0162 © 0169 § 0167 £ 0163 ® 0174 µ 0181 ¶ 0182 ± 0177 ° 0176 1/4 0188 1/2 0189 3/4 0190 ¿ 0191 À 0192 Á 0193  0194 à 0195 Ä 0196 Å 0197 Æ 0198 Ç 0199 È 0200 É 0201 Ê 0202 Ë 0203 Ì 0204 Í 0205 Î 0206 Ï 0207 x 0208 Ñ 0209 Ò 0210 Ó 0211
Ô 0212 Õ 0213 Ö 0214 Ø 0216 Ù 0217 Ú 0218 Û 0219 Ü 0220 x 0221 x 0222 ß 0223 à 0224 á 0225 â 0226 ã 0227 ä 0228 å 0229 æ 0230 ç 0231 è 0232 é 0233 ê 0234 ë 0235 ì 0236 í 0237 î 0238 ï 0239 x 0240 ñ 0241 ò 0242 ó 0243 ô 0244 õ 0245 ö 0246 ÷ 0247 ø 0248 ù 0249 ú 0250 û 0251 ü 0252 x 0253 x 0254 and my favorites: – (en dash) 0150 and — (em dash) 0151. Since I’ve been using these symbols, I don’t know how I ever got along without them. I’d feel especially lost without the em dash—I really would. And what a pleasure, instead of writing, “resume,” to be really cool and write “résumé.” On a Mac it’s even easier. Use key caps (under the apple) and press the option key, the command key, and the shift key to find the character you want. (That’s if you’re not using one of the excellent font utility programs available—Font Reserve™ or Suitcase™.)
What is an International Standard Book Number (ISBN)? The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a ten-digit number (and will be going to a thirteen-digit number in the near future) that uniquely identifies books and book like products published internationally. The purpose of the ISBN is to establish and identify one title or edition of a title from one specific publisher and is unique to that edition, allowing for more efficient marketing of products by booksellers, libraries, universities, wholesalers, and distributors. If you have established your own publishing company—basically a name and an address to begin with—you can purchase ISBN numbers from R. R. Bowker, the U.S. agency licensed to sell them. They cost $225 for a minimum of ten numbers. Usual turn-around time is ten business days for non-priority processing. For an additional fee, your application can be processed in three business days. If you are producing a softback and hardback version of your book, you will need two different ISBN numbers to identify them. To get all the details directly from R. R. Bowker, including the required forms, go to BooksJustBooks.com and click on Obtain an ISBN in the Publishing Related Sites section. The ISBN is printed on the copyright page of hardback and softback books, and on the lower portion of the back cover of softback books above the bar code. Some major publishers place the ISBN on the back of hardback books, and some don’t, it really doesn’t matter. Let’s say you have started a publishing company and published your first book, assigning to it the first of your ten ISBNs you purchased. Be sure that when you have finished copies of your book, that you go back to R. R. Bowker, the database of record of the ISBN Agency and do what is required to be listed in Books in Print. This is a very important directory used by many bookstores. And always be sure to put your ISBN on all your promotional literature.
What about a Library of Congress Catalog Number (LCCN)? It’s a good idea to get one if you plan to sell your book to libraries. All you have to do is apply for a Library of Congress (LC) Pre-Assigned Card Catalog Number (PCN). It doesn’t cost anything and it can be ordered for any book over fifty pages (genealogies and children’s books fewer than fifty pages are an exception to this rule). You can reach the Web site of the Cataloging in Publication Division of the Library of Congress through BooksJustBooks.com and make your request electronically.
What is the acknowledgments page? While you are writing your book, keep a special folder or electronic file to make note all of the people and organizations that help you. If you don’t do that, you will most likely forget some very important people. You can never go wrong giving credit where credit is due. The people who help you write your books are your allies in the promotion of them. I want to thank everyone who has asked a question about self-publishing, and all those who have helped me frame answers to those questions. DESIGN QUESTIONS What typeface should I use for my text? You need to use a serif typeface, or font, if you want your text to be easy to read. Serifs are small extensions or “ticks” on the bases and tops of letters. They lead the eye from one letter to the next making the type easier to read. Times New Roman is probably the most widely used serif typeface. If you want something different I suggest Century Schoolbook, Baskerville, Garamond, Goudy Old Style or another easily readable serif font. Avoid any sans serif font—“sans” from the French meaning “without.” This sentence is written in Arial, a sans serif typeface, and reading several pages of it will tire your eyes.
What margins do you recommend? Probably the single thing that amateurs do most often is not allow enough space for margins. The printer needs to have white space all around the page and that includes your heads and folios. We suggest a minimum of ¾” in the gutter (center of the book) and ½” on the other three sides. You should never have anything closer than ¼” to the edge of your trim size.
How do I prepare my text for my one color trade book for the printer? One of the most significant changes to have taken place recently is the file format most requested by book printers. Adobe PDF appears to have won the race when it comes to preferred text format. It works with virtually all imagesetters, platesetters and digital output devises. Most popular file formats, including MS Word, Word Perfect, and MS Publisher are easily converted to PDF. Like postscript, PDF is a “locked” format so there is no problem with reflow when the files are opened on different computers. Unlike postscript, which can only be viewed on a postscript viewer (which most people do not have), PDF can be read on any PDF reader. PDF readers are free either at the Adobe Web site, the BooksJustBooks.com Web site or through half the Web sites on the Internet. Adobe has made working with Acrobat even easier by removing any pricing obstacles by offering a file conversion service at adobe.com for $9.95 per month (which can be canceled at any time). Like everything else in the electronic world, the word “easy” is relative. It may take a little time and patience but for all you “word” users, it’s certainly easier and cheaper than purchasing and learning how to use PageMaker or Quark. Of course, if you’d like, you can hire Jonathan Gullery at Budget Book Design who, for a reasonable fee, will lay out your book in the proper format for you. Since our computers save us thousands of dollars on typesetting costs, we should be able to afford several hundred dollars for the services of someone who specializes in making sure our books make it from PC to press smoothly and efficiently.
How do I prepare my text for my full-color children’s book? Text and art are two different things. Text typically prints in black (and black only, not black made up of four-colors). And art typically prints in four-color. So, when creating your artwork remember to leave space where your text is going to be placed. This can be either an area with no artwork or an area that is light in color, and an area that is not too busy. Remember, you want to be able to read your type, and that won’t be possible if type is in with your artwork. All files submitted to BooksJustBooks.com, need to be hi-res single page PDF files. We need a file for your text, a file for your casewrap and a file for your book jacket (if you have opted to have one). Printouts of all files submitted are also required.
I have a children’s book with only 18 pages, what should I do? The minimum number of pages required to do a hard cover book is 32 (and that can include the endpapers), so you will have to “add” a few pages. Usually that’s easy to do with tricks such as having a “half-title” page, and a full title page spread (2 pages) and you can often “open up” some other pages to give you what you need. Remember, many children’s books have text on one page and a picture facing it, so not every page is “full”.
How do I convert a file to PDF? See “Tips on Scans and PDFs” in the Production Center at BooksJustBooks.com
Five years ago I would have answered, “Of course! It costs about $10 per page for camera work, film and layout.” Two years ago I would have answered, “Sure, but it will cost you $5 per page to scan your laser proofs into a digital format.” Today the answer is just “Sure!” Most printers today have scanners that will scan in excess of 30 pages per minute. A 320-page book takes about 10 minutes to scan. In short… it’s no big deal. Some printers still have slower scanners and need to charge a couple dollars per page but the marketplace is going to force these printers into line with the ones that are not charging at all. Remember though, scanning your laser copy puts the final printing another generation away from the original in a quality manner. But for straight text with no halftones (pictures) or screened graphics, few people will know the difference. I suggest that if you are leaning in that direction, you go out and buy a ream of good paper, (you know the kind I mean) and set your printer to as high a dpi as possible and give it a whirl. For books with screens or halftones you still need to figure out how to get your files converted to a PDF format. You’ll be happy you did!
What types of originals are used for illustrations? The answer to this question has changed in the last few years, because of advances in technology. Illustrations can either be original artwork, photographs, transparencies (35mm and larger), computer generated graphics (in Illustrator, Photoshop, etc.), digital photos (photos taken with a digital camera) or photo CDs (traditional film scanned to CD at time of processing). Certainly the current trend is for more and more of the artwork to be computer generated. If you do have physical artwork, keep in mind that it must be able to lie flat and the largest size that can be efficiently handled is 11" x 17". Art any larger than that needs to have a “picture” taken of it so that it can be scanned. This used to mean that a transparency was made, but now as digital cameras have improved, that is another option. If it is a transparency, that is then scanned. The last option is for the oversize artwork to be scanned on the more expensive drum scanner. Note that in making a transparency you are a generation away from your original from a quality standpoint, but the cost can run several hundred dollars per transparency which could ruin the budget on a 32-page book. So, sometimes, large artwork costs you more.
Is there one medium for illustrations that’s better than another? No, not really, but keep in mind that scanners “see” everything. So if you have layers of watercolor, or if you erased anything, those things will get picked up. If you are in doubt about how your artwork will scan, we suggest you send us an image to test.
How about if my illustrations are computer generated? Is that OK?
Yes, computer generated artwork is very good as long as the resolution of the images is OK. This is the way more and more artwork is produced today and highly recommended to the self- publisher.
What size should my original art be? Always keep in mind the trim size of your book and work proportionally with that size. In other words, if your book is going to be an 8" x 8" (square) book, the artwork should be square. If it isn’t, when you reduce or enlarge your artwork, something will be lost in order to have what you use be square. Also, ALWAYS ALLOW FOR BLEED if you indeed want the illustrations to bleed. Bleed is when your color goes to the edge of the book. In order to do that, the printer needs a minimum of 1/8" “extra art” at each edge. So, don’t have a character’s head at the edge of your artwork unless you intend to crop the head on the page.
Simply put, a scan takes a continuous tone picture and separates it into dots that a press can print from. These dots are not always visible to the naked eye. All scanners are capable of producing adequate scans for use on the Internet. Not many canners used by the average consumer are capable of producing a scan that can be used for quality printing.
Should I provide my own scans? Yes, if you are confident that your scanner is a good quality scanner (can scan 1200 x 1200 dpi or higher) and that whoever scanned your artwork knows a bit about what they are doing. If that is not the case, then we recommend you use the services of Budget Book Design. They can scan your images and create files ready for the printer for a very reasonable cost.
Do I need to use four colors to create an effective cover/casewrap/jacket? No. Look at the books in your own library. Many of them, I’m sure, have very attractive two-color covers. The designer really has three colors to work with since the white of the paper is already there. Then, he or she has a whole variety of color shades to work with. You can save a little money using a well-designed one- or two-color cover. A well-designed one- or two-color cover is more effective than a poorly designed four-color cover. I am not suggesting that you forget about your four-color cover idea. Four-color covers are nice, but sometimes they’re just not necessary. Remember that if you are using a bar code, it must be black or a color dark enough to be scanned. Keep this in mind when counting the number of colors on your cover.
Should I have my book cover/casewrap/jacket professionally designed? Yes. It is worth every penny. The next time you’re in the bookstore, take the time to examine the cover designs. I can write with confidence that ninety-nine out of every hundred of those book covers were professionally designed. If there are exceptions to this rule, they will be found in the bookstore section featuring local authors, and nine out of ten of those books will have covers designed by people who knew what they were doing. Normally you are attracted to a person because of his or her face. The cover is your book’s face. Acne, bed-head, and snarled lips discourage interest in your book, if you get the analogy.
How do I know how wide the spine will be? There’s a simple formula which determines that width. Just take the number of pages in your book and divide that figure by your text paper’s PPI (Pages Per Inch). Where do you get the PPI? It depends on what kind of paper you’re using and it usually appears on the printer’s estimate or quote. If for some reason it doesn’t appear there, ask the printer for it. Let’s say your book has 200 pages and you are printing it on a web press using novel news, which has a PPI of 400. Then the width of your book’s spine will be 200 ÷ 400 or half an inch. That’s for a paperback. For a hard cover book, you have to add the thickness of the boards. The easiest way to do this accurately is to have your printer provide you with a template. At BooksJustBooks.com you can download templates from the Production Center.
How do I prepare my cover/jacket/casewrap for the printer? Let’s deal with the front, the spine, and the back of the cover in that order. On the front, put the book title, the subtitle, and the author. Place any graphics you want here. On the spine, the author’s last name is usually at the top, the book title center, and the publisher at the bottom. On the back put a four-sentence description of your book. You can put endorsements here, too. Leave space for a very short bio on the author, a photograph of the author (if appropriate) and the ISBN and bar code. Remember that if you are using a bar code, it must be black or a color dark enough to be scanned. If you are doing a hardcover book with a jacket, then you can use your flaps for some of these items that would be on the back of a cover. The front flap is typically a bit about the book, and the back flap will have some copy about the author. That means that the back of the jacket may have graphics (or an illustration) or more space for selling copy. These are the traditional places to put all these things, but, of course, you can break any or all of the rules whenever you want! Remember, however, that you do want to sell your book, so people have to know very quickly why they should buy it. If you are designing your cover, make sure you have some “bleed.” If your artwork goes all the way to the edge, it must extend at least one-eighth of an inch more, so when the book is trimmed there will be no white showing. Budget Book Design usually provides about a quarter inch bleed to be safer. Cut out the cover and wrap it around a book on your shelf. How does it look now? When you put your cover on disc, you must include all the fonts and graphics you have used. It’s even a good idea to include any items which have been embedded in other programs during the design process. Then, if there’s something wrong, it will be easier to fix. If you are having a designer create the cover, explain clearly what you would like to see. You can also just give a designer an idea of what’s in your book and let the expert go for it! If you have covers you really like, copy them and send them along. Remember though, you are hiring a designer, not commissioning an artist to create an original work for you. Budget Book Design told me a story about one customer who wanted a cover showing a cave halfway up a mountain, a bear and a donkey sitting on the nearby ledge, symbols from the I Ching surrounding the door of the cave, and the moon setting behind the mountain! What the author needed in this case, they concluded, was not a cover designer but an expensive artist! A good designer will take your concept and give you something that will work. Remember, despite what you have heard, you can sometimes judge a book by its cover.
The ISBN for your book is easily translated into a worldwide compatible bar code format called a Bookland EAN (European Article Number). Every bookstore chain and most smaller bookshops use bar code scanning at the checkout register. If you didn’t know that, you haven’t been to a bookstore in the last ten years, and I’d say it’s time for you to visit one. Putting the bar code on your book is part of the book cover designer’s job, and it’s a simple one. Using a software program, the designer types in your ISBN and out pops the bar code in just the right place on your back cover. You can put your book’s retail price near the bar code on the back cover if you want to. That doesn’t mean that retailers will always have to charge the full amount. Using their computers, they can tie your Bookland EAN code to a sale price, and that’s what will appear on the register when your book is scanned. If you are using a bar code, it must be black or a color dark enough to be scanned. Keep this in mind when counting the number of colors on your cover. For more details, click on UPC/EAN in the Publishing Related Sites section on the BooksJustBooks.com Web site. MANUFACTURING QUESTIONS End leaves (also called endpapers or “ends”) are actually four pages. Page “one” is glued down, pages “two and three” face you when you open the book and page “four” is the back of page “three”. End leaves are necessary to hold your printed pages into the hardcover binding. Typically they are different paper than the rest of the book. In the BooksJustBooks programs, the one color trade books have plain (white) ends and the full-color children’s books are printed in a single color (most people pick a PMS color). These pages are not counted into the total page count. Not all hard cover books have end leaves. A book without ends is called “self-ended.” In a self-ended book, the eight pages of end leaves are counted into the page count. For example, a thirty-two page self-ended book has thirty-two pages out of which eight pages are end leaves and twenty-four pages are the story. In a self-ended book, there is a visible difference in the way the book looks as you open it, too. As you shop around for printing prices it is important that you watch out for whether you are being quoted a “plus end leaves” or “self-ended” product.
The BooksJustBooks full-color children’s book program is based on one side of the endpapers printing in one color. So you need to choose a color. Many book designers will have a “Pantone Book”. This is a book filled with chips of colors, and printers typically purchase inks to match these Pantone colors. (Sometimes a printer will mix process inks to create these colors.) We ask you to give us a “PMS color” for your endpapers. If you do not have a Pantone book, give us a swatch (in color) that you want us to match, or tell us to match a particular color in your file (the little girl’s dress on page 3 for example). We will select a PMS color for you. PMS stands for Pantone Matching System. This system came about so that printers could match colors selected by designers with the four process inks printers use, C, M, Y, and K. It works two ways- one, a printer actually mixes percentages of process inks (CMYK) to achieve a color and that actually adds another color (so a four color process job becomes a five color job, which requires a different kind of printing press.) If you want to keep your job economical, or a four color job, then to create a PMS color, screens of the process colors are created. In many software programs (Quark for instance) in the list of colors you can select, there are “PMS” colors, and that is what you see on your monitor- the PMS colors are created as screens of process colors. Because our proofing system is digital, and your endpapers will print in a color that is not process (remember it is one ink color we will use), the proof will be created out of four color process. This means that your endpaper proof will not be an exact match to what the finished endpaper will be once printed. No big deal, but we want you to understand what you are looking at when you see your proof.
What kind of text proof will I receive for my one color trade book? Let me answer that by first going back thirty-five years or so in the printing industry. Then, writers used manual typewriters to create their manuscripts and Linotype operators set type in hot metal. There were several different proof stages before a book got to the printer. The first stage was the galleys. Individual lines of type were keyed in and molded in metal on a Linotype machine. A line of type was as thick as the point size, as long as the specified column width, and about half-an-inch high. That was the “line of type.” Compositors placed these lines of type in long trays called galleys, line by line, and locked them together to keep them from falling apart. The term leading came from the slivers of lead put between each line of type to space them out on the page. With an order to “increase the leading” a compositor physically added additional strips of lead in between the lines. Once all the type was in place in the galleys, an ink impression of them was taken on long paper sheets, and these were called the galley proofs. They were then proofread, and had corrections made to them. If a line of type contained an error, the old slug of type for that line was removed and a new line was created and inserted. Corrections at this stage were fairly inexpensive; it was not uncommon to go through two or three sets of galley proofs before going to the next step. Once the writer or editor approved the final galley proofs, a designer pasted them into page layouts. Based on those layouts, the compositor took the galleys of metal type and composed them into page trays, leaving spaces for the placement of halftones (pictures), maps, charts, pen-and-ink drawings, etc., which were dropped in later at the printer. Once these pages were locked, the page proof was printed from the composed pages of type. Changes at this stage of the process were much more expensive. After the page proof was approved, a camera-ready reproduction proof, or repro proof, was made from the same metal page type. Repro proofs were printed on better paper, and special attention was given to print quality because the approved repro proof was sent to the printer to make negatives for offset printing. Once the printer received the camera-ready repro proof, he photographed it on a litho camera making film negatives. These negatives were then taped, or stripped, onto large imposition sheets called film flats. Their layout corresponded to the position of the pages on the press sheet. (A 6 x 9 book with sixty-four pages was typically printed as two 32-page sections, or signatures, on a 38 x 50 sheet of paper.) At this stage, the printer made another proof by exposing the film flats on photographic paper that was developed in a chemical solution, and then hung on a clothesline to dry. When the photosensitive paper developed, the type appeared as dark blue on a white background. Thus the term “blueline” came into existence. The proof paper could only be developed on one side, so the pages were glued together, back-to-back, to show the actual layout of the book. A folded and trimmed book of glued-together bluelines functioned as the final proof before going to press. Printers referred to this book of bluelines as the “bookblue”. Making corrections at the bookblue stage of production was quite expensive. If an editor caught a minor typographical error, the typesetter had to set a new line of type to replace the flawed one in the page tray. He then had to make another repro proof before the printer shot another negative and stripped that correction into the film flats. Why am I telling you all this when the only Linotype machines remaining are either in museums or perhaps somewhere in the New York Times or Chicago Tribune building waiting for the last union Linotype operator to retire? The reason I’ve gone into such detail is that we cling to many of the terms from that bygone era, and, out of habit, we sometimes expect to see certain proofs that are not only unnecessary, but no longer exist! Today, you, as the writer, create the equivalent of galleys as you type away at your word processor. Back in the old days, you didn’t dare change the column width because it meant resetting the entire manuscript. Today, you can change the column width in a few seconds, and make any other changes you want right there on the screen in front of you. Hit your print button and you’ve got a galley proof that you can read on the train, or in bed, or carry around in your briefcase to show your friends. Format your type into actual pages and print them, and you’ve got your page proofs. You can even use your laser printer to print them front and back, just as they will appear in your book. You’re in charge now! You and your computer have replaced the old prepress process. The final proofs that printers offer today vary depending on the printing method. BooksJustBooks.com makes sure each customer gets a final proof compatible with the printing technology used for his or her book. Don’t worry about the printer putting the pages in the wrong order—that’s his problem. If you’re a little extra paranoid, ask for a set of F & G’s (Folded and Gathered signatures) before the books are bound—understanding that you will be charged for the shipping cost of the F & G’s, and publication of your book will be delayed accordingly.
Can I make corrections to my proofs? The final proof stage is not the time to make editorial changes. The idea of these proofs is to make sure that page 2 follows page 1 and so on. If you are looking at those proofs as one more editorial pass, don’t. If you wan |