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Self-Publication Without Pretense
by Teresa Neilsen Hayden
(reprinted by permission)
It seems inevitable that some writers will decide
they want to
self-publish their work. If so, they might as well
do it without going through vanity publishers, subsidy publishers,
"professional editorial services",
and other sharks and scammers.
How? By going to a plain ordinary book manufacturing firm. Many of them
have been in business for decades, making
perfectly good books at wholesale prices. They may not offer book
design and typesetting services, but the world
is full of underemployed type designers.
The great thing about book manufacturers is, they'll only charge you
for printing and binding your book, and you'll
get all the copies you've paid for. Scammers will gouge you on the
price, most likely while getting your book printed
by those very same printers, and add charges for a host of other
dubious services. Some of them won't even send
you all the books you've paid to print.
In short, if you're going to self-publish, do it yourself. Go to a
printer. Below is as much arcane knowledge as
you need to get started.
1. Some identifying signs and marks of real book manufacturers:
- They tend to belong to dowdy-sounding
organizations like the Book
Manufacturers' Institute.
- One of the addresses they give is identified as the plant.
- The copy on their websites emphasizes stuff like their
broad
range of services, reliable turnaround times, and competitive pricing
-- after which they dive into a small ocean of terms like pre-press,
bluelines, halftones, negatives, positives, endleaves, stripping, trim
size, 1- to 6-color printing, jacket stock, cromalins, soft or hard
case bindings, shrink-wrapping options, etc. etc. etc. (Note: you don't
have to understand all those bits.) In general, they give off that
familiar reassuring whiff of "techie".
- They talk about the newness of their technical
capabilities, not
their publishing paradigms. They never tell you that self-publication
is a way around the dreary logjam of conventional publishing. They
likewise don't mention sales, distribution, or promotion arrangements.
They don't care about any of that stuff. They just make books. Their
job ends when they ship you the cartons of finished copies. (If you run
across an outfit that simultaneously offers to handle sales and
distribution and marketing, and is into heavy tech, what you
have is a combination packager and book manufacturer, and all bets are
off. Let me know if you find any.)
2. How to deal with a book manufacturer:
- Know what you have and what you want: how
many words are in your
book, how long you think it should be, how much you want to spend, what
kind of a cover you have in mind, whether you have cover or interior
art, etc.
- Phone the manufacturer and ask to speak to a sales rep.
Don't be
scared. The sales rep's job is to mediate between printers and normal
people.
- If you have an unsatisfactory experience, hang up and call
another book manufacturer.
- If three or four reps tell you that you can't get what you
have
in mind for the price you have in mind, believe them. They're working
in a competitive industry that has tight profit margins.
3. Getting quotes:
Some book manufacturers have very helpfully put up web pages where you
can input your production specs and get
a manufacturing quote. If you don't like your quote, you can try a
different set of specs and see what happens.
If you can't tell what they're asking about, go back to your previous
option and talk to a sales rep.
Doing your research first never hurts.
Here are three websites that will generate a quote:
Here are a couple of websites that list lots of
book manufacturers
and related trades. I don't endorse everyone
they list.
4. What you'll get:
When everything's finished, your book manufacturer will ship you
howevermany cartons of books you've contracted
for, plus your original materials. What you do with them after that is
up to you.
Does that sound bleak? Maybe it is. Printing isn't publishing. If all
you want is to see your book in print, this
may well be the cheapest and most direct route. But if you wanted to be
published -- reviews in the papers, copies
in the bookstores -- this method won't do it. But then, working with a
subsidy publisher wouldn't do it either.
Copyright 1999 by Teresa
Nielsen
Hayden
Note from Writer Beware:
Additionally, these two services have
been recommended to
us.
Both will put you in touch with a variety
of printers willing to generate a free quote:
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