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how about having your morning cup of coffee in one of these....(bigger mug means more COFFEE)! coffee never looked so good! ;)
{tons of other cool products over at S6 and i'm really loving the whole artist community over there. kind of has en etsy type feel to it...a friendly, welcoming, close knit kind of vibe. perfect for the little introvert artist here.}
A little while back, Brian Hibbs wrote a piece involving the place of Kickstarters in the comics world that still seems to be making the rounds online. It comes at it from the retailer angle, and as somebody who’s run a few Kickstarters, I have a few different thoughts about how crowdfunding fits into the […]
5 Comments on How To Make Crowdfunding Sustainable For Comics, last added: 8/19/2015
We Kickstarted the BAD KARMA hardcover and later offered it through Diamond (selling copies we had overprinted) via Dynamite.
My guess is we sold more copies through Diamond thanks to awareness of and response to the Kickstarter than we would have had we just offered it cold to the marketplace.
JIMMY PALMIOTTI said, on 8/18/2015 3:51:00 PM
Kickstarters are a ton of work…I had to actually slow down on them a bit but picking back up in fall with a new one. The thing is you always have to look at your kickstarter as a store and try to offer the best product you can and show as much of it as you possibly can on your page. I love doing them because it creates a real connection with me and my audience and a certain kind of relationship that is just impossible to have anywhere else…but my point is that it is not an easy thing and you will judged by how well you communicate, and deliver a solid product. Like Todd says in this excellent piece, a lot of the after kickstarter income is made after the book is released and keeping digital as well as some of the books in stock like I do on the Paperfilms.com site is very important to those that might have missed the chance to become part of the kickstarter. As pictured, we have ABBADON now featured in the diamond catalogue under our partners Adaptive imprint and we are hoping word of mouth from the kickstarter helps its sales to a brand new audience.
How To Get Your Money Back From A Bad Contractor | said, on 8/19/2015 3:40:00 AM
[…] How To Make Crowdfunding Sustainable For Comics – A little while back … to your customer list each time. If you’re doing a series and you have some copies of the previous volume(s) in hand, offer a bundle of the whole series as an upsell. It can help you raise more … […]
Comics A.M. | First Comics co-founder Rick Obadiah said, on 8/19/2015 8:10:00 AM
[…] Crowdfunding | Todd Allen, author of The Economics of Digital Comics and veteran of several Kickstarter campaigns, discusses how crowdfunding fits in with the larger comics market — and how it could work better. [The Beat] […]
Jesse Post said, on 8/19/2015 9:24:00 AM
Standard 70 ain’t half bad. I use it for advance review copies and it’s noticeably less premium, but only if you’re comparing the book to offset-printed ones on your bookshelf. The print quality is nice and crisp, on bright white paper, and most people who look at them think they’re finished books until I tell them they aren’t.
Join Leslie Helakoski and Darcy Pattison in Honesdale PA for a spring workshop, April 23-26, 2015. Full info here.
COMMENTS FROM THE 2014 WORKSHOP:
"This conference was great! A perfect mix of learning and practicing our craft."�Peggy Campbell-Rush, 2014 attendee, Washington, NJ
"Darcy and Leslie were extremely accessible for advice, critique and casual conversation."�Perri Hogan, 2014 attendee, Syracuse,NY
I recently watch Miss Potter, the movie based on the life of children’s book author and illustrator Beatrix Potter. It’s a fascinating look at the life of one of the all-time best selling authors of children’s books. When my children were small, I read The Tale of Peter Rabbit to them so many times that I’ve memorized it.
One line in the movie caught my interest, though. When the publishing company was first discussing her book, Beatrix had definite opinions on how it should be published: black and white illustrations so that the price could be kept low. However, the publisher had another idea on how to keep the price low. If the book’s interior pages could all be printed on a single sheet of paper, it would be economical and the price could be kept at an attractive low price.
That decision–to design the book for an economical printing model–was genius and partly responsible for its huge popularity. That model is so popular that today, children’s picture books that are offset printed are still designed for printing the whole book on one sheet of paper. That means 32-pages.
Standard offset printing places a children’s 32-page picture book on a single sheet. 32 page books are the standard in the industry, not because it’s the best length for a story, but because the printing was economical.
However, because that length became a standard, there’s now, more or less, a standard type story told in children’s picture books.
If you have a title page, half-title page, copyright page and dedication page, that takes up 3-5 pages of “front matter,” leaving 27-29 pages for the story itself. Stories usually start on page 5 (though it could be page 3 or 4). Then illustrations are laid out in double-page spreads. That gives you about 14 double-page spreads (give or take). When I write a children’s picture book, I divide my story into 14 sections. Each section must 1) advance the story, 2) make the reader want to turn the page, and 3) give visual possibilities to the illustrator. For more on writing a children’s book, see How to Write a Children’s Picture Book.
Many conventions have grown up around the 32-page picture book: the page 32 twist, the character opening, the use of double-page spreads, and so on. All that is good. Writers and illustrators took the restricted format and made it into a thing of beauty.
Print on Demand and eBooks: How Many Pages in a Children’s Book?
But the question for today is this: what is the most economical way to produce a children’s illustrated story today? That answer varies because of print-on-demand and eBook technologies.
Print-on-demand (POD) means that your book is stored on a printing company’s computers. When a book is ordered, the book is printed, bound and delivered. This eliminates the need for warehousing, and has the advantage of bundling the fulfillment (mailing the book) with the printing. Instead of buying 1000 copies of a book, publishers/authors/self-publishers can set up a book with a POD company with very little up-front investment. It’s perfect for the self-publisher or small publisher who don’t want to invest a lot in stock.
However, POD’s biggest disadvantage is price. Because you print one book at a time, the until cost is often two or three times that of offset printing. This is usually fine, because selling online eliminates the extra cost of wholesaling to a bookstore.
POD also means that the 32-page picture book is no longer mandatory! For example, Createspace.com requires a minimum of 24-pages, but after that you can add as many or as few pages as you like. 26 pages? That’s fine for a POD printer.
Likewise, digital books can be any length you want. 2 pages? Well, most of us wouldn’t all that a BOOK! But if can make the case for it, it is possible.
The 32-page illustrated picture book made sense for years because the offset printing presses could accommodate huge sheets of paper that would hold 32 pages EXACTLY. The process made sense economically.
The options are open. Offset printing: Much lower unit cost are possible if you stick to the 32-page standard book.
POD printing: You accept higher per-unit costs because you don’t have to warehouse. The length is up to you.
eBook: You accept that this is only delivered and read digitally. Page length is variable.
I still design my books for 32-pages because I do both print and eBooks and because I’ve learned to write to that length. But also, it leave me open to short-run offset printing for special orders where it makes sense to go for a smaller per unit cost. By sticking with the industry standards, I have even more options.
Picture Books by Darcy Pattison
Here are some of my picture books.
2015 NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Book.
The story of the oldest known wild bird in the world.
My instructional book of Dos and Dont's is now available as a paperback. Unfortunately only available from Amazon.com in the USA. It has been published through Createspace, Amazon's Print On Demand operation.DO rush and buy this book. DON'T forget to take a look.
0 Comments on Don't Juggle Bees now available in paperback! as of 3/30/2012 4:55:00 AM
I’m using yesterday’s topic of borrowing and lending to another level today. For those who’ve worked their way into the publishing business in the past few years, the preconceptions of what it means to be a writer have learned the new definition. They’ve also learned about the new work ethic of writers.
Writers shamelessly promote their work, and the work of others, everywhere they can because their careers’ futures depend on that promotion. Also, the big publishing houses today simply don’t have the promotion budgets they had in the past.
Other writers encourage us to guest blog on their sites, whether for self-promotion to a new audience or for a new book recently released. Guest blogging can also be used to promote a new voice/viewpoint about a specific topic being discussed. Either way, both the borrower of the audience and the lender of said viewers come away with something needed.
For the first time in centuries, writers are taking charge of their own livelihoods in the business. Many independent-thinking writers, who created their own presses, have turned their backs on the major publishing houses. They no longer consider it wrong to go without an agent. These career-oriented writers have changed the face of the industry in the past decade.
Small presses, POD’s and eBooks are making profits harder to come by for the big boys right now.
Future Possibilities
Whether I give information out for free, or I receive such information for free is irrelevant to the overall picture. The reason I can say that is because it’s beginning to look like the industry will soon be owned by the writers themselves in some respects.
Blogs and newsletters written by and for writers are created every day. They cover all the genres, and they take no prisoners. Whatever a writer wants to know is out there. Surfing and search engines make it impossible to overlook much that’s available.
When you consider that writers, editors, bloggers, along with magazines are ranking websites, newsletters, etc. on a regular basis, the built-in watchdogs guarantee that a careful user is safer from publishing scams than they used to be.
As encouragement, universities across the country are making free writing courses available by the dozen. Paid courses are also easily found and evaluated as to viability to the particular writer and well and skill set desired. And if a writer is determined, she can take an MFA degree online, or as a low-residency program from numerous colleges across the nation.
Advertising and promotion is easy to come by. Small, writer-controlled, publishing houses are moving in to entice new writers and secure established ones. A combo house—one which publishes both eBooks and POD simultaneously can take a well-written manuscript and turn it out to the public in a matter of only a few weeks/months instead of one to two years as happens with the big publishers. The lead time depends on the editing necessary for the manuscript and the dedication of the publishing staff.
Many of these same small presses use talented editors, promotion—including trailers and online, and help with marketing after the release of the book.
This site was… how do you say it? Relevant!! Finally I have found something which helped me. Thanks!
claudsy said, on 3/7/2012 5:24:00 PM
Thanks.
Carrie Anne said, on 3/8/2012 5:08:00 AM
It’s scary for someone like me who just wants to write and doesn’t like the whole other side of the coin… as in, what would I have to do to get it out there once it’s finished. *gulp* There’s a guy who wrote a book on being an introvert who said the seven years it took him to write the book were the best years of his life, but the two years following, with self promotion and all that entails, were the worst. That would be me!
claudsy said, on 3/8/2012 8:10:00 AM
I do know what you mean, Carrie. Although, as with all things in this life, each pleasure has a down side. The pleasure of writing is increased with knowing that someone else has read your work and enjoyed it or gained something from it. The downside is knowing and doing all of those tasks that make it possible to have it in the hands of the public.
You’re right. It is a coin. I guess it’s the one we flip each day to decide our task for the day–write or market, promote or write more. It never ends.
So glad to hear from you. Take care and God bless.
I’m using yesterday’s topic of borrowing and lending to another level today. For those who’ve worked their way into the publishing business in the past few years, the preconceptions of what it means to be a writer have learned the new definition. They’ve also learned about the new work ethic of writers.
Writers shamelessly promote their work, and the work of others, everywhere they can because their careers’ futures depend on that promotion. Also, the big publishing houses today simply don’t have the promotion budgets they had in the past.
Other writers encourage us to guest blog on their sites, whether for self-promotion to a new audience or for a new book recently released. Guest blogging can also be used to promote a new voice/viewpoint about a specific topic being discussed. Either way, both the borrower of the audience and the lender of said viewers come away with something needed.
For the first time in centuries, writers are taking charge of their own livelihoods in the business. Many independent-thinking writers, who created their own presses, have turned their backs on the major publishing houses. They no longer consider it wrong to go without an agent. These career-oriented writers have changed the face of the industry in the past decade.
Small presses, POD’s and eBooks are making profits harder to come by for the big boys right now.
Future Possibilities
Whether I give information out for free, or I receive such information for free is irrelevant to the overall picture. The reason I can say that is because it’s beginning to look like the industry will soon be owned by the writers themselves in some respects.
Blogs and newsletters written by and for writers are created every day. They cover all the genres, and they take no prisoners. Whatever a writer wants to know is out there. Surfing and search engines make it impossible to overlook much that’s available.
When you consider that writers, editors, bloggers, along with magazines are ranking websites, newsletters, etc. on a regular basis, the built-in watchdogs guarantee that a careful user is safer from publishing scams than they used to be.
As encouragement, universities across the country are making free writing courses available by the dozen. Paid courses are also easily found and evaluated as to viability to the particular writer and well and skill set desired. And if a writer is determined, she can take an MFA degree online, or as a low-residency program from numerous colleges across the nation.
Advertising and promotion is easy to come by. Small, writer-controlled, publishing houses are moving in to entice new writers and secure established ones. A combo house—one which publishes both eBooks and POD simultaneously can take a well-written manuscript and turn it out to the public in a matter of only a few weeks/months instead of one to two years as happens with the big publishers. The lead time depends on the editing necessary for the manuscript and the dedication of the publishing staff.
Many of these same small presses use talented editors, promotion—including trailers and online, and help with marketing after the release of the book.
The parents of Madeleine McCann are writing a book about their daughter’s disappearance and their so-far unsuccessful efforts to trace her.
A deal has been signed with book publishers Transworld which is an imprint of Random House UK. Few details have been revealed but Kate and Gerry McCann are receiving a “substantial” advance and “enhanced royalties” which gives the couple a bigger than normal share of the profits from sales.
The book is already part-written. Kate McCann said it had been a difficult decision but the money it raised would go directly to the McCanns’ official fund to look for Madeleine.
“My reason for writing is simple – to give an account of the truth,” she said. “With the depletion of Madeleine’s Fund, it is a decision that has virtually been taken out of our hands.”
Hopeful
Gerry McCann said he was hopeful the publication would help the ongoing efforts to find out what had happened to their daughter, who went missing from their holiday apartment in the Portugese resort of Praia da Luz on 3 May 2007, as her parents dined with friends nearby.
“Our hope is that it may prompt those who have relevant information – knowingly or not – to come forward and share it with our team. Somebody holds that key piece of the jigsaw.”
The book publisher, Bill Scott-Kerr of Transworld, is more than happy with the deal and sees the book – expected to retail at £20 – as a big seller.
“It is an enormous privilege to be publishing this book” he said. “We are so pleased to be joining Kate and Gerry McCann in the Find Madeleine campaign.”
There are also expected to be newspaper serialisations around the publication date, believed to be 28 April 2011 which would coincide with the fourth anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance.
The official Portuguese inquiry was formally shelved in July 2008, although private detectives employed by the McCanns have continued the search.
A quickly assembled home team in the Canadian book publishers industry has claimed victory over the so-called “Toronto multinational book factories” with a deal to bring out another 40,000 copies of The Sentimentalists, Johanna Skibsrud’s largely unavailable, Giller Prize-winning novel.
Under the terms negotiated between tiny Gaspereau Press of Nova Scotia and Vancouver-based publisher Douglas & McIntyre, the Friesens Corp. of Altona, Man., has agreed to print a new paperback edition by this Friday. “Because of the urgency of the situation, we will pull out all the stops,” Friesens sales manager Doug Symington said.
The deal brings “three proudly independent Canadian entities” together to solve the crisis that emerged when Skibsrud’s unheralded debut novel won Canada’s most prestigious literary award, according to publisher Scott McIntyre. “With our sales, marketing and distribution system onside, an exceptional novel will quickly reach the wide audience it deserves,” he added.
The books should be available for sale early next week, according to McIntyre. Printed in paperback with a pumped-up cover image and the signature red sticker of a Giller Prize winner (as well as the Douglas & MacIntyre Book Publisher imprint on the spine), they will sell for $19.95 compared with the original edition’s $27.95 cover price.
Booksellers snapped up the entire new edition within hours of its being announced, according to McIntyre, and Friesens is reserving paper stock to print another 20,000.
Gaspereau Press made headlines across the country last week when it turned away Toronto publishers eager to bring out more copies of the award-winning book, which it had hand-printed in an edition of 800 copies and was reproducing at a rate of 1,000 copies a week even after it won the award. But even as the company attempted to justify the go-slow approach, calling the Giller win “an interesting opportunity to slow the world down a hair and let people realize that good books don’t go stale,” Gaspereau co-publisher Andrew Steeves was negotiating a new deal with Douglas & McIntyre.
“D&M had always been my back-pocket doomsday scenario,” Steeves said yesterday, adding, “I was as surprised as anyone when we actually won.” He added that the company will continue producing its deluxe edition with a wrapper printed on a hand-cranked letterpress.
Both publishers emphasized the advantage of the new deal to Skibsrud, who had remained quiet last week while her publisher vowed not to compromise its principles by selling large quantities of her novel to an eager public.
It was patience well rewarded, the author wrote yesterday in an e-mail to The Globe and Mail from Istanbul, where she is vacationing. Admitting that she “doesn’t have much knowledge or interest in the business end of things,” Skibsrud said she was “so glad that a solution has been arrived at that allows the books to be distributed widely without sacrificing any of Gaspereau Press’s practices and ideals, which make them so unique and special to work with.”
Even Friesens, a $70-million, can-do book manufacturer, is sympathetic with the Nova Scotians. “I get where they’re coming from and I can also somewhat understand the Toronto-versus-the-rest-of-the-world mentality that they’re showing,” Symington said, adding that Friesens and Gaspereau are a good philosophical fit.
“We’ve been around for 103 years, we’re employee-owned, we’re a privately held company, so all the staff out here has a high concern and a high regard for books,” he said. “We’re big, but we’re not so big, so to speak.”
The book is such a “cause célèbre it will just shoot out of the gate,” McIntyre predicted, saying that opinion on the matter
Beginning in the first quarter of 2011, Xerox will move into print-on-demand book publishing in a bigger way through an expanded relationship with On Demand Books, creator of the Espresso Book Machine (EBM), which has been described as an ‘ATM’ for books, allowing readers to wait for books they buy to be printed in a bookstore thereby transforming how books will be bought in the future.
The EBM channel is currently available to indepedent authors through Schiel & Denver Book Publishers. Learn more about the Espresso Book Machine (includes video footage):
While the Xerox 4112 will continue to serve as printer for the EBM, the Fortune 500 company will now market, sell, lease, and service the rechristened machine, co-branded as the Espresso Book Machine, a Xerox Solution. The “solution” includes both hardware and On Demand’s EspressNet software that connects to the machine and enables it to print a library-quality paperback book at point of sale in a few minutes.
With its 4,000-person sales force, Xerox could significantly extend On Demand’s reach and its vision of making any book ever written available as a printed book for consumers. “Certainly they are going to take us to the next level,” said On Demand CEO Dane Neller, who is looking to Xerox to help On Demand overcome the chicken-and-egg problem faced by many startups.
Currently there are close to 50 EBMs in bookstores and libraries worldwide. McNally Jackson in New York City and Flintbridge Bookstore & Coffeehouse in La Cañada Flintbridge, Calif., are among the bookstores slated to add machines later this year. Schiel and Denver UK Book Publishers also offer access to the technology for authors.
“For independent bookstores, the EBM is an extraordinary technology,” said Jeff Mayersohn, owner of Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Mass. “And now the added value Xerox brings will help us secure new business while satisfying book enthusiasts instantly.”
In other news, On Demand is in the midst of readying a new edition, version 2.2. The fundamental self-publishing a book footprint will remain the same as that of its predecessor. But rather than being raised up, the printer will sit on the floor next to the machine.
Revision update: Two chapters done yesterday. None today. Work too hectic.
A lot of print-on-demand options have popped up over the last few years, making self-publishing more of an option for writers. I recently tried one, Blurb.com, not for self-publishing, but for my mother’s 60th birthday gift.
Mum wrote a bunch of poems a few years ago, so for her birthday, I gathered the ones I like the best, matched them with various photos my husband and I have taken over the years as well as old family shots, put them into a cool page design and uploaded them to the Blurb website.
Blurb offers to print books in a variety of shapes of sizes and provides templates for InDesign, but it will also take PDF files made in other design programs, as long as they match up with Blurb’s page size specifications. I had a little problem with this — and I was using Blurb’s InDesign templates — but it turned out, after a conversation with customer service, that I also needed Blurb’s PDF-making template. That wasn’t entirely clear in the instructions, and I found a few bugs in the site’s customer service — there’s no phone number, just email by forms, and if they’re not working, you’re stuck — but I finally got everything uploaded and my mum’s book on the way.
The final product arrived in the mail about a week later, and I must admit, I was impressed. I ordered an image-wrap hardcover book, and the picture on the cover was a bit muddy, but that’s my fault. It looked muddy on my print out but I went ahead with it anyway. The inside pages, though, looked wonderful. Even my old family pictures, which I had scanned into the computer, kept their quality. And the newer pictures, taken with our good camera, printed wonderfully.
Like other print-on-demand services, Blurb will list your book for sale to the public and you share the sale price, but you can order just one or a few copies for your personal use and keep the book off the site for public sales, which is what I did for my mother’s gift.
My mother opened her book last week and, once she got over the fact that her name was on the cover, she lifted it up proudly and said, “I’m published!”
Dreams can come true.
Write On!
3 Comments on Building a book with Blurb, last added: 12/12/2009
Isn’t it wonderful what you can do these days. All you need is the Internet, google and imagination. I hope you took a photo of your Mom’s surprised face.
Sometimes the future comes sooner than you think, Print on demand is entering the mainstream. It was just last week when I wrote about authors personalizing POD novels as a marketing tactic and how it could help bring print on demand into mainstream aplication.
This week brings the anouncement of The Obama Time Capsule, a custom, 200 page, print on demand picture book which allows the customer to incorporate their own images and text into the body of the work.
According to this USA Today article, when you order the book you are given 10 days to customize it to your liking.
After ordering the book at Amazon, you'll receive an e-mail
with a link that takes you to the Time Capsule website. You'll have 10
days to customize the book there or it will get shipped as is. You get to write
a dedication, and your name appears on the cover (and an inside page) as one of
the authors, next to Smolan and co-project director Jennifer Erwitt.
You can upload one image to appear on the back cover and
another that will appear on a page next to pictures of Sean Penn, George
Clooney, Oprah Winfrey and other celebrities. There's also a place-holder
for your kid's Obama-related artwork.
At this point the personalization is pretty basic, but I see the options in the future as nearly limitless.
Imagine a kiosk outside the Superbowl where after you have watched the game you can upload your personal photos from your digital camera and mix them in with pro shots taken by photographers that day at the game and have a finished book mailed to you a week later.... Or better yet, have something like the Espresso Book Machine on hand and print the copy right there so you have something to look over while you fight your way out of the parking lot.
Publishers Weekly made the announcement earlier this week that the number of Print on Demand titles on offer overtook the number of titles published in the traditional way last year. The vast (and I mean VAST) majority of these POD titles were super short run books on the extreme end of the long tail, but with the creators of The Obama Time Capsule alerady boasting that they might have the first NY Times bestselling POD in history, its becoming harder to deny that POD really is hitting the mainstream whether we like it or not.
Print on demand technology is getting better and better by the day, and while it evokes the ire of book collectors, POD has opened a lot of doors.
The most commonly realized beneficiaries are academics and graduate students who are now more easily able to order affordable copies of highly specialized reports and research projects. The other groups to benefit are emerging novelists and poets who can offer their work to a large number of readers for a limited financial investment giving them a chance to build up their fan base potentially increasing their chances of picking up a publisher.
However one aspect of print on demand which I think is still in its relative infancy is the use of POD technology as a marketing tool for mainstream publishing.
I got thinking about this while reading my morning blogroll and seeing that romance novelist Brenda Novak is setting up an online charity auction for diabetes research where the winning bidder will be flown to a romance convention, have her photo taken with a cover model and get 10 copies of the book with "her" cover.
The winner will have to provide me with their name, a photo of themselves, a
description of their personality and mannerisms, a bio (background info and
such). I will write the novel and guarantee publication within one year of the
end of the auction. Then they will also receive a free copy of the book.
So my question is how long will it be before we see this kind of marketing translated into POD.
Just say a regular copy of the new Stephen King book will cost you $15, but for $35 you can have the personalized copy where your name is substituted in place for that of the beat cop who catches the telekinetic werewolf serial killer goes for $30. The same could be done with Novak’s cover scheme, have a premium option with a personalized cover. Depending on the author, I could see it being popular.
Wow! Where has the year gone? It's already January 3 and I meant to add this post bright and early on January 1. I had this thought of getting something meaningful said on the first day of the new year. I mean, the first day only happens once a year. So, it's not something you can replay. Could this be a harbinger of other assaults on my writing focus? Let's not go there just yet.
What was it I felt so compelled to say on the first day of the year anyway? It all started with our trip to Borders Books on the last day of 2008. It was kind of a lazy day in anticipation of a quiet evening at home with Dick Clark and a visit to a bookstore seemed like the right thing to do. Many others seemed to have the same idea as the store we visited was busy with browsers. And the checkout line was sufficiently long for the waiting time to be noticeable--both of which are good signs for those of us in the book writing biz, right?
As it turned out that day, the flurry of activity in the aisles and around the cash registers was at least partly related to the New Years Eve sale. The discounts were deep, even on the newer stocks in the store, and the sale table bordered on a "give-away". There were beautiful photographic books on Italy and on the architectural wonders of the world that originally would have sold for $75 - $100 or more. That day they were stacked and stickered at $15. And a $25 book published in 2006 about Michael Phelps' pre-Olympics days was marked down to $3.
There was also the headline in the days before Christmas that one of our area's Borders Books stores was closing its doors in January. I suppose at a certain point, the cost of the brick and mortar is too much for the books to bear. Which brings me to what got me to thinking.
While we were in the store, I drifted past the stacks and rows of books on virtually every topic imaginable. There, next to one of the support pillars was a small, flat-screen monitor with a mouse and keyboard. On the screen was an invitation to "Just Click The Mouse To Get Started".
A search window with fields for title, author or publisher came up. Choosing "publisher", in seconds every book in the Borders Books inventory was displayed in publication order by year, also sortable by author. Each book had a brief synopsis with the target age and price. Although leaving the store with the book in hand was not an option, the screen announced the book would arrive within two weeks.
That got me to wondering, where are all these books coming from? Were they in a large, dusty warehouse someplace in Kansas City, in boxes or shrink-wrapped and waiting to be shipped? Well there is a bit of that still going on. But as it turns out, more and more publishers are catching on to the fact that keeping inventory is expensive, from the printing cost to the storage costs to the recycling cost for books not sold. What to do? What to do?
What if the books weren't printed ahead of time--at least not in large numbers requiring storage? What if printers could turn a publisher's order around in days, including the binding and shipping? What if the book sellers were connected directly to the printers? And what if the printers could respond to buyer demand as if the books had already been printed, inventoried and warehoused? Print On Demand (POD) by any other name would smell as sweet.
Well, printing technology has advanced to the point that a book can be printed and leave the printer bound for the buyer as fast as or even faster than a book can be retrieved from a warehouse, processed for shipping and sent to the customer (either a bookstore or the buying public). The downside is that brick and mortar bookstores will find it more and more difficult to stay profitable as they shift from being a desirable customer destination shopping point to simply being a middle man adding unnecessary time to service delivery.
In point of fact, bookstores have evolved to quasi-libraries, although a bit glitzier with coffee shops and music. Lots of people go to bookstores these days to just hang out and browse. And bookstores have taken note of this shift, creating comfort zones for shoppers to get out of the cold or heat or rain, take their time checking out the merchandise, have a cup of gourmet joe and a designer muffin. It's a great way to spend a couple hours.
Maybe the next evolution will be that bookstores will only keep enough books in stock to meet "hit and run" demand, while expanding the network with printers who can print on demand. Then, again, maybe we're already there. But why has it taken so long? Could this be the equivalent of the automakers' shift to green? It should have, could have, occurred long ago but it appears vested interests got in the way.
Stay tuned. Just as public libraries have installed banks of computers to replace their card catalogs, you may soon see more computer terminals appearing in your local bookstores to give customers instant access to book lists and ordering. It's all quite amazing actually.
Repeat after me: Print On Demand. Print On Demand. Next up? E-Books....
0 Comments on Print On Demand: It's Here! It's Now! as of 1/1/1900
When you look at the title of this article you probably wonder what these three things have in common. Not much in reality. Okay, the plague and the pestilence are pretty nasty, but what about POD? For some reason, a large portion of the book industry considers the latter to be as bad as the two former. What does POD stand for? Let’s be clear on this.
POD = PRINT ON DEMAND
This is a form of printing where a specific company utilizes digital printing machinery to actually print books one at a time, when the demand necessitates action. Will it give you a rash? Will it kill you? Will it even hurt you? No to all of those questions.
PRINT ON DEMAND is simply a term used for a type of printing and not a type of publishing. There are many extremely reputable publishing houses that utilize PRINT ON DEMAND printing for a number of reasons.
POD technology allows publishers who prefer to put there $$ into marketing as opposed to printing books that may or may not sell. It allows printers to save money on purchasing materials that might ultimately be wasted when a print run doesn’t sell as well as a publisher hopes. It allows the paper producers to destroy fewer trees to produce materials that are again wasted.
There seems to be some misunderstanding in the book industry that POD books are substandard. Booksellers and librarians have been mislead to believe that books printed one at a time are not as good as “real books.” Okay, here is a news flash; some books that are printed on demand are actually better quality than books printed by offset printing companies.
Let’s consider why I say that. Say you are a bookseller and you order one book from Publisher A who uses print on demand technology. You can be assured that the POD book you will receive will have been thoroughly reviewed by the quality control staff member and is of the highest possible quality.
Now, say you buy one books from Publisher B who uses an offset printer (or as some in the industry insist on calling them, a traditional printer.) These books were printed in a set of, say, 25,000. How many of those books do you think were specifically checked for quality control? Probably 10%. You increase your chances considerably of getting a book that might not be properly bound or glued, or perhaps a section of the book got crimped in the binding process. That is a book you cannot sell and must go through the hassle of returning for credit. What a pain.
I hope that this brief explanation will make you stop and think about the options available to you as a bookseller or librarian next time an author or publisher comes to you.
As readers, I hope you will ignore all the hoopla about POD books and allow yourself the pleasure of reading an author who just might become a favorite author. It truly is of no concern to you as a reader how the book is printed, as long as the author has written an incredibly entertaining book.
Are you looking for a new favorite author? I would highly recommend you give Echelon Press authors a try. I am not at all embarrassed to say that Echelon has published some of the best writers currently available in the market. You can get more information on our authors by visiting www.echelonpress.com/directory.htm
Print on Demand companies Lightning Source (owned by Ingram Book Company-largest Book distributor in US) BookSurge (Owned by Amazon.com-need I say more?) Lulu
I used to work for a well-known printing retailer, in their closed door facility. We did mostly POD work for corporations and some very small publishers. In any case, I can attest to the fact that small run POD gets way more QC than large run jobs, and we did everything from one or two books, to a few thousdand for one order. Though, my manager and I were consistently at odds, because I thought every book should be of the highest quality possible regardless of the size of the order.
Thanks for clarifying that. POD publishing will soon be mainstream as midsize and large publishers rethink their business models to stay in business. At that point, there will be less pressure on everyone to sell out a print run.
Karen, I have used POD printing for most of the books I published. And I can testify that I had many more problems with offset-printed books. One batch of offset books actually had so many errors and flaws that I couldn't sell almost 15% of them. All I could do was get a refund for those.
A trio of happy booksellers—Gayle Shanks from Changing Hands in Tempe, Arizona, Elisabeth Grant-Gibson from Windows a bookshop in Monroe, Louisiana, and Betsy Burton from The King’s English in Salt Lake City, Utah
Authors Andre Dubus III and Mary Roach sign galleys of their upcoming books
Back at the end of January, I attended Winter Institute 3, hosted by the American Booksellers Association. This event has become one of the premiere bookseller education and networking opportunities of the year.
This year we were in Louisville, Kentucky, home of Churchill Downs, which seemed like a perfectly appropriate place for 500 booksellers to gather. After all, no one knows risk, chance, and the dream of a big pay-off like an independent bookseller.
One of the most interesting sessions I attended was the one on Print on Demand. I have to admit that I chose that session with great reluctance and a foreboding sense that whether I had any interest in the topic or not, this was something I needed to know more about. In fact, I learned a great deal and it was among the most valuable panels I heard.
Let me pass along a few statistics that I found—well, stunning, to be honest. In December 2007, Ingram’s Lightning Source printed 1.2 million units. Yes, that’s million. The average print run was 1.8 copies. The average turnaround time was 12 hours. Now, I know that lots of us have gripes about Ingram, particularly when an order doesn’t happen quite the way we think it should. But come on. They printed 1.2 million books with an average turnaround of 12 hours. That’s. . .impossible. But they did it.
So what does POD have to do with you, as an independent bookseller? Other than getting cranked over the fact that such books are hard to order, cost too much, and often have a short discount, what meaning is there for you in this whole area of publishing? That was my question. That’s why I went to the session.
The applicability to those of us who are booksellers was twofold. Partly, there were suggestions for bookstores becoming the route for those local people who have a book they want to publish. In addition, there were possibilities for bookstores to publish or republish books of local interest. We all know of those books that we could sell over and over again if we could just get them or if somebody would just reprint them. Well, for those books which are old enough to be in the public domain, there’s an opportunity knocking on our bookshop doors.
The presentation included a case study featuring Kelly Estep, manager of the Bardstown Road branch of Carmichael’s Bookstore right there in Louisville. The example she discussed was a reprint that her store undertook of a book on the architecture of Louisville, published in the early 20th century. The project began with one battered copy of the book, which Ingram scanned in, set up, and reproduced. The photograph reproductions were decent, and a long unavailable treasure is now available again. Kelly Estep also mentioned that there was an upcoming architecture organization meeting in Louisville this year, and that it would be easy to create a custom cover for a minimal additional fee (about $50 if my notes are right) that would be specific to that conference, in the event she could broker a deal for the organization to purchase copies for all attendees.
The costs for such projects vary depending on whether the “publisher” can provide the book on disc or whether scanning is necessary. But for a few hundred dollars, bookstores can become publishers and greatly increase their markup on certain books that can be local bestsellers. Ingram also offers a distribution agreement, which then makes it possible for that local book to be available through Ingram’s entire distribution system, and in these days of the world at your fingertips, that can help sell books as well. And I kind of like the idea of Ingram having to write a check to us for once.
Print on Demand won’t be for everyone, and there are certainly other sources to go to for this service. But the argument made at this session was compelling, and I would recommend that anyone this strikes a chord with visit Lightning Source to learn more.
A trio of happy booksellers—Gayle Shanks from Changing Hands in Tempe, Arizona, Elisabeth Grant-Gibson from Windows a bookshop in Monroe, Louisiana, and Betsy Burton from The King’s English in Salt Lake City, Utah
Authors Andre Dubus III and Mary Roach sign galleys of their upcoming books
Back at the end of January, I attended Winter Institute 3, hosted by the American Booksellers Association. This event has become one of the premiere bookseller education and networking opportunities of the year.
This year we were in Louisville, Kentucky, home of Churchill Downs, which seemed like a perfectly appropriate place for 500 booksellers to gather. After all, no one knows risk, chance, and the dream of a big pay-off like an independent bookseller.
One of the most interesting sessions I attended was the one on Print on Demand. I have to admit that I chose that session with great reluctance and a foreboding sense that whether I had any interest in the topic or not, this was something I needed to know more about. In fact, I learned a great deal and it was among the most valuable panels I heard.
Let me pass along a few statistics that I found—well, stunning, to be honest. In December 2007, Ingram’s Lightning Source printed 1.2 million units. Yes, that’s million. The average print run was 1.8 copies. The average turnaround time was 12 hours. Now, I know that lots of us have gripes about Ingram, particularly when an order doesn’t happen quite the way we think it should. But come on. They printed 1.2 million books with an average turnaround of 12 hours. That’s. . .impossible. But they did it.
So what does POD have to do with you, as an independent bookseller? Other than getting cranked over the fact that such books are hard to order, cost too much, and often have a short discount, what meaning is there for you in this whole area of publishing? That was my question. That’s why I went to the session.
The applicability to those of us who are booksellers was twofold. Partly, there were suggestions for bookstores becoming the route for those local people who have a book they want to publish. In addition, there were possibilities for bookstores to publish or republish books of local interest. We all know of those books that we could sell over and over again if we could just get them or if somebody would just reprint them. Well, for those books which are old enough to be in the public domain, there’s an opportunity knocking on our bookshop doors.
The presentation included a case study featuring Kelly Estep, manager of the Bardstown Road branch of Carmichael’s Bookstore right there in Louisville. The example she discussed was a reprint that her store undertook of a book on the architecture of Louisville, published in the early 20th century. The project began with one battered copy of the book, which Ingram scanned in, set up, and reproduced. The photograph reproductions were decent, and a long unavailable treasure is now available again. Kelly Estep also mentioned that there was an upcoming architecture organization meeting in Louisville this year, and that it would be easy to create a custom cover for a minimal additional fee (about $50 if my notes are right) that would be specific to that conference, in the event she could broker a deal for the organization to purchase copies for all attendees.
The costs for such projects vary depending on whether the “publisher” can provide the book on disc or whether scanning is necessary. But for a few hundred dollars, bookstores can become publishers and greatly increase their markup on certain books that can be local bestsellers. Ingram also offers a distribution agreement, which then makes it possible for that local book to be available through Ingram’s entire distribution system, and in these days of the world at your fingertips, that can help sell books as well. And I kind of like the idea of Ingram having to write a check to us for once.
Print on Demand won’t be for everyone, and there are certainly other sources to go to for this service. But the argument made at this session was compelling, and I would recommend that anyone this strikes a chord with visit Lightning Source to learn more.
One of the things I don't think authors get is the concept of segregation in publishing. Let's go back to basics.
Segregation:[as defined by Merriam-Webster]
1: the act or process of segregating : the state of being segregated
2 a: the separation or isolation of a race, class, or ethnic group by enforced or voluntary residence in a restricted area, by barriers to social intercourse, by separate educational facilities, or by other discriminatory means b: the separation for special treatment or observation of individuals or items from a larger group
Now, let's skip ahead to understanding the production of one's books [with regard to segregation]. As a writer/author you probably hear a number of classifications for how books are published/produced.
Vanity: when you pay someone else to publish your work Self: when you pay to publish your own work eBook: when your book is only published electronically POD: when your book is printed one book at a time as ordered Traditional: when your book is published by a house in NY
I have placed these in the order in which I generally hear most people rate them, with vanity being the least valuable and traditional being the most. Okay, my question to you is who cares? Next question. Why?
Vanity. I will admit that I do not encourage authors who are seriously seeking a career in this industry to go out and pay someone to publish their work. Generally, you pay a lot of money and get very little in return. I understand there are exceptions, but still. If being an author is what you want to make a living at, then you must carefully consider how you present yourself, as well as the value of your peers' perception of you and your work.
Self-publishing is not looked down upon as harshly, but darn close. Most other people in the industry do not feel that someone who cannot get published by a traditional publisher as being worthy of publication. I would strongly disagree with this. It is a matter of pride in one's work. Should you decide to self publish, say you only want to see a small group of people have access to your work, then I think this is quite acceptable, provided you take the same care a traditional publishing house would when developing and producing the work. Presentation is key!
eBook publishing is no longer a "fad" or a "thing of the future." It is here, it is viable, and it is widely accepted and universally embraced by some of the most prestigious publishing entities in the world, including nearly all traditional publishing houses. It is not a venue intended to replace traditionally printed books; it is an additional opportunity for readers to consider. There are no shots or vaccinations required for those who embrace eBooks, simply an understanding and appreciation for technology. Even readers are growing increasingly savvy and accepting of electronic books.
POD [Print on Demand]. This, my friend, is considered a dirty word--but only by those who know nothing about it. This is also one of the most misunderstood terms in the industry. Those who do not take the time to understand the opportunities available in the industry put entirely too much focus on this particular venue. POD is simply a type of technology used to print books. When utilizing POD, a publisher or author can submit a book digitally, where it is stored for future use. When an order is placed for a number of copies ranging from one up, the file is then digitally printed, bound, and generally drop-shipped to the purchaser, be it a bookstore or individual. Over the years, this type of printing has been twisted to cover vanity press. Many vanity publishers utilize POD technology to print their books, so they have become known as POD publishers. This is misleading and in many cases wrong as there are vanity presses that do not use POD technology. In the same regard, there are other houses, traditional, if you will, that use POD technology to print, but in no way are vanity presses. POD is simply what is says, PRINT on DEMAND. There are many aspects of POD that people don't understand. They tend to focus on the negative and not so much the positive aspects. The biggest bonus for those using POD technology is the ability to save money on storage fees. The down side is that they pay more per unit than if they were to print in a larger run. However, while the clients of off-set/traditional printers deal with the extreme fluctuation of paper pricing from job to job, POD pricing has remained nearly constant for at least 5 years [this is from my personal experience]. It's all in the terms.
Traditional publishing is considered by some to be the only way to go for an author. This is where you enter into a contract with a large publishing house, generally one based in NY--though this is rapidly changing. For some it has proven to be very lucrative, but many others have been lured into the spotlight, only to find that they could not flourish or even maintain any form of success. There are more one book wonders in the publishing world than one hit wonders in the music scene of the 80s. With hundreds of thousands of books published each year, the competition for the limited number of slots in the traditional market is becoming increasingly more difficult. Established authors are supplying publishers with multiple books per year, writing anthologies, and building readerships that continue to crave their backlist. This decreases the odds for a new author to get into a slot considerably. Impossible? Absolutely not, but definitely a challenge that could have them graying way before their time.
How does this all go back to segregation? With a better understanding of the industry and how it functions, authors can utilize whatever form of publishing is best for them and still find some level of success. Our industry has been overrun with genres, sub-genres, etc. The industry professionals have taken the focus off of the craft and the author's ability to tell a story, and put it all on the "production." Do your kids care what company made "Tickle Me Elmo?" Of course not, only that it giggles.
Publishing is publishing. It matters very little to the readers who publishes your books or how, as long as (1) the book is produced well, (2) the story is engaging and entertaining, and (3) the story is well written. I can guarantee you that if you put your offset book next to a well-produced POD book; they would not be able to tell the difference, unless you told them.
STOP TELLING THEM! The point is, once your book has been beautifully written, exquisitely crafted, and effectively promoted, you don't need to tell the reader anything else. Get the book into their hands and let them focus on the story. That is what they are paying for. Authors need to understand that by putting classifications on their own work they are segregating themselves from the rest of the pack. It does your career no good, in fact it is harmful, not only to you, but to the industry overall.
Stop giving readers a reason to question your value, let them read your work and decide from there. This holds true for booksellers as well. There are many misconceptions in the retail world; POD is among the greatest, sad but true. It doesn't have to be that way. If your publishing house, or you if you self-publish, are serious about succeeding in the industry you have to play the game. It's all about terms. Know what is acceptable in the marketplace and abide by those terms. Pricing, discounts, and above all returnability. These are the three things that booksellers will look for first. How much will their customers have to pay, how much of a discount will the retailer get, and can they be returned if they don't sell. These are all basic, but the easiest way to segregate yourself in this venue is to put your own needs before those of the purchaser. You want to make more money yourself, so you make your 150 page paperback $20.00 with a mere 20% discount, and it cannot be returned. It also will not be sold, at least not in many stores. You have to consider that a similar book from another house may be $9.99 with a 45% discount and can be returned. You do the math. This may be out of your control if you are working with a publisher, but this is part of the research you should do before going into a partnership with anyone else. Know what you are getting into. This is your career, do what is best for you.
That is truly the bottom line. Don't say or do anything negative to set yourself apart from your competition, and there is plenty of that in the publishing industry. Focus on what is positive and important to the advancement and success of your career. Understand what segregation is and how it can harm your potential for success.
This is your career and if you are serious about it, you deserve the very best.
The Heat of the Moment Benefits San Diego Fire Survivors
0 Comments on Segregation in Publishing as of 1/1/1900
Stephe said, on 2/18/2008 1:45:00 AM
WOW. Well-put advice. I hear an awful lot of writers/authors complain about being segregated by The Powers That Be... but how many of them realize that most of the time they're successfully segregating themselves?
When I was in 2nd grade I lived in Scotland and it seems I had to memorize a Burns poem a week. In fact, I remember Halloween and actually having to recite a Burns poem to earn a treat. So, in honor of Scotland and Edinburgh, here's a stanza from Robert Burns' 1786 "Address to Edinburgh":
Edina! Scotia's darling seat! All hail thy palaces and tow'rs, Where once, beneath a Monarch's feet, Sat Legislation's sov'reign pow'rs: From marking wildly scatt'red flow'rs, As on the banks of Ayr I stray'd, And singing, lone, the lingering hours, I shelter in they honour'd shade.
Is the Scotch Whisky Heritage Centre still there, just down the hill from the castle gate?
Erin said, on 6/22/2007 5:36:00 PM
Wow! Have fun!!
Christine M said, on 6/22/2007 6:37:00 PM
When I was in Edinburgh, it was a misty foggy weekend in November and we kept hearing bagpipes playing (it was Remembrance Weekend) but never saw them. We went into Edinburgh Castle and they told us there was a great view. The fog was so thick we couldn't see past the wall of the castle. Have a great time!
Kelly said, on 6/23/2007 9:27:00 AM
Sorry rm(1)ss! The whisky museum is still there. I saw it this morning. Don't touch the stuff, though :)
So far, so good, Erin!
Chris...isn't that the way? The fog was so thick when we drove in, we couldn't see much either.
RM1(SS) (ret) said, on 6/23/2007 1:43:00 PM
Glasgow was easy to get to - just a matter of taking the ferry across to Gourock, and then catching a train into downtown Glasgow, so I used to go there all the time to visit the big bookstores. Edinburgh, however, was (ahem) clear across the country, so I only got over there twice, once to visit the castle and once to do some shopping and general sightseeing; the latter trip is when I visited the Scotch Whisky Heritage Centre (and discovered my favourite brand, Lagavulin).
Bri said, on 6/29/2007 11:31:00 PM
Ooh lucky girl! Head on over to Loudoun castle. It was my ancestors and now it's a theme park (lovely).
That would be me!
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We Kickstarted the BAD KARMA hardcover and later offered it through Diamond (selling copies we had overprinted) via Dynamite.
My guess is we sold more copies through Diamond thanks to awareness of and response to the Kickstarter than we would have had we just offered it cold to the marketplace.
Kickstarters are a ton of work…I had to actually slow down on them a bit but picking back up in fall with a new one. The thing is you always have to look at your kickstarter as a store and try to offer the best product you can and show as much of it as you possibly can on your page. I love doing them because it creates a real connection with me and my audience and a certain kind of relationship that is just impossible to have anywhere else…but my point is that it is not an easy thing and you will judged by how well you communicate, and deliver a solid product. Like Todd says in this excellent piece, a lot of the after kickstarter income is made after the book is released and keeping digital as well as some of the books in stock like I do on the Paperfilms.com site is very important to those that might have missed the chance to become part of the kickstarter. As pictured, we have ABBADON now featured in the diamond catalogue under our partners Adaptive imprint and we are hoping word of mouth from the kickstarter helps its sales to a brand new audience.
[…] How To Make Crowdfunding Sustainable For Comics – A little while back … to your customer list each time. If you’re doing a series and you have some copies of the previous volume(s) in hand, offer a bundle of the whole series as an upsell. It can help you raise more … […]
[…] Crowdfunding | Todd Allen, author of The Economics of Digital Comics and veteran of several Kickstarter campaigns, discusses how crowdfunding fits in with the larger comics market — and how it could work better. [The Beat] […]
Standard 70 ain’t half bad. I use it for advance review copies and it’s noticeably less premium, but only if you’re comparing the book to offset-printed ones on your bookshelf. The print quality is nice and crisp, on bright white paper, and most people who look at them think they’re finished books until I tell them they aren’t.