Practical Advice to Help Self-Publishers Build Better Books
From the category archives:
Yesterday I wrote about using 48HrBooks for advance print runs. Some clients prefer printing their advance copies at other vendors, like Lulu.com. But the article also brought up some questions about why self-publishers need these advance print runs at all:
What are they good for?
Once the book is ready, shouldn’t I just go to press [...]
In a perfect world all our carpools would run on time, no backpacks would be left on the back seat, construction zones would open as we approached them, and our children would be grateful and respectful at all times.
Of course, in a perfect world all our work would come in right on schedule. Editors would [...]
I’m working on a lovely book of inspirational verse and color photographs, and in order to proof the book and get some Advance Reader Copies, I’m using Blurb.com, who specializes in color books just like this.
I’ve seen books from Blurb before, and they look quite good considering they are digital. They can’t compare directly with [...]
We’ve all heard about it, we talk about it, we call it by the wrong name, but do you really know how print-on-demand book distribution works? You will by the end of this article.
I’ve written in an earlier post about the confusion over the terminology commonly used to describe print on demand book distribution, but [...]
So you’ve written your masterpiece, had a friend look it over for errors, run it through your word processor’s spell check and created a cover with a “cover program” on your publishing company’s website. You are ready to do battle in the marketplace.
Hey, you should be able to go head-to-head with any other book, right? [...]
The phone rang, and for some reason Jill started talking very loudly into the receiver, like she was in a construction zone.
“Yes! Yes! Where? Are you serious?” Was all I could here. I waited until she hung up a minute later.
“Who or what was that?” I wanted to know.
“Morrie, calling from Melbourne. And guess what? [...]
Last time I described how I check the status of all my linked graphics with the Link Palette, and how I re-link any missing files. The last check I make of my InDesign CS4 file before beginning the export process is to look at the book’s fonts. This is a key step in making a [...]
Lightning Source (LSI) is my preferred vendor for print-on-demand services. Their quality is good, distribution options good for most books, and a technical staff that actually knows what they’re doing. Combined with responsive customer service, it’s easy to see why it’s the default in its field.
LSI provides pretty adequate documentation but, as you might expect [...]
Podcast: Self-Publisher’s 5-Minute Guide to Book Printing Processes
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
With all the talk about print on demand, digital printing and the future of the publishing industry, it’s easy to forget that we’ve got books to produce in the here and now, and we need to know the best way to produce [...]
