Ed: Here are links to the other articles in this series: What Does Self-Publishing Cost: DIY What Does Self-Publishing Cost: Online Self-Publisher What Does Self-Publishing Cost: Competitive Self-Publisher One of the first questions people ask when they think they may want to self-publish is: What’s it going to cost? It doesn’t matter if the author […]
Book Printing
Preparing Black & White Photos for Your Book
One of the biggest challenges for book printers is reproducing photographs in books that are otherwise mostly text. One of the tasks of a book designer is preparing these photos so they reproduce as well as possible. Before you can understand what goes into this preparation, you need to know a little about how photographs […]
Book Production On the Edge: How Lisette Model Got Made
It started off innocently enough. In fact there was a fair amount of excitement in the offices over East 51st Street. In photography books, Aperture was the place to be, and we were going to publish, after many years of trying to get a commitment, the “big book” of photograps by Lisette Model. Most people […]
How Self-Publishers Get The Most from Pre-publication Printings
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 […]
Book Running Late? Working With 48HrBooks.com
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 […]
Working With Blurb.com for Color Books
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 […]
Self-Publishing to Go, With A Grande Frappuccino, Please!
In the past couple of weeks, both Thomas Nelson, the large Christian publisher, and Harlequin, the leading romance publisher, have announced new divisions to cater to authors who decide to publish their own books. There has been a lot of talk, some impassioned, about these initiatives, and what they mean for publishing. The partner in […]
How Print-on-Demand Book Distribution Works
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, […]
Turn The Tables on Self-Publishing Disadvantages
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, […]
The 2.5-Pound Cell Phone and the Future of Book Publishing
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. […]