Info on printing books and copyrights?

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What is the best way to go about printing, selling, distributing a book?

-- Bob Frohmader (buksnort@mwt.net), February 26, 2001

Answers

Contact the Government Printig Office for a copy of the packet on applying for a copyright for starters. You can then desktop publish and bind in $1 loose leaf binders ( by the way, books "bound" this way in 3 ring binders generally sell for 30% to 40% more than paperback and are easier to produce on a small scale and can easily accept updates if you choose to provide them). Advertise and fill orders as they come in, being prompt to comply with FTC mailorder regulations (You can recieve info from them on mailorder compliance also). Keep good records and maintain a liability bond and your a publisher.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), February 26, 2001.

If you want to get a book professionally printed and bound, on a small scale, produce stuff (probably on A4 or quarto or whatever is your standard paper size there), using a good word processor and at least a 600 dots per inch printer - preferably 1200 dpi. You can probably do drafts on a lower-definition printer if you need to, then find a friend with higher-definition when it comes time to produce the final copy. If you are going to insert pictures, initially just use "frames" to hold their places in the word-processing document - you can decide later whether you'll print scanned-in pictures, or get a printer to insert the pictures. In the meantime pictures in the document would bloat the size of the file enormously. Use the spell- checker on your word processor, and if it has a grammar checker use that as well. Have several people proof-read it - it's disturbing how often you see or assume what should be there rather than what really is there when you've been working on something for a long time.

Get several different opinions and quotes from different possible printers/publishers. University or college presses are one good option. There are also publishers who specialise in small runs for private authors - they may be called "vanity" publishers, but they do the job, and if you find the right one then they'll be set up to do it right at a reasonable price. The best answer we found when publishing my mother's family history, though, was a printer who published the newspaper in a neighbouring town. He printed and bound the book in A4 format, and inserted copies of photos by hand on photo- offset masters. All black-and-white - colour would have been much more. Get several quotes - let your fingers do the walking through the yellow pages or whatever your commercial phone directory is. Also don't waste the phone call - if the printer you're talking to can't do the job, ask them if they can suggest someone who can. Maybe you can simply use estimates over the phone at first rather than full quotes, to get an idea of the most feasible printers for you: that's easier and faster for them, but quotes need to be in writing and they have to spend time and effort on them. Also remember to ask about prices for various print volumes - setup is what costs the big money - the difference between one hundred copies and four hundred may be only 10% per copy of what the first 100 copies cost. Always get the quote in writing before you commit, though.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), February 26, 2001.


There are several websites that will help you self-publish. One of the guys I work with just printed his own paperback and it cost him $300. They make the copies available for sale on their website and he refers people he knows to the website when they want to buy his book. He has been happy with it. It is the same website that Stephen King has published his book on. Their web address is www.1stbooks.com. Give it a try and let us know how you make out. Also, I have written a book but haven't tried to get it published yet but I have gotten it copyrighted. It only cost $20 and I had to fill out a pretty simple form. I highly recommend you do that before you send the book to anyone. Good luck and congratulations for writing.

-- Colleen (pyramidgreatdanes@erols.com), February 28, 2001.

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