Article by Sam at Edition One Books

Self-publishing can be a fun and rewarding endeavor, as well as a smart choice for photographers, designers and writers to express creativity. It’s allows for much more freedom, cost-effective, fast, and can be more lucrative than the standard royalty contracts. It also allows you to maintain control over the publishing process. However, there are some details you should know about printing, especially since you will be in control of every aspect of publishing your book.

Decide what your book will be about. You can to make as many or few copies as you wish. For the first run, you may just want to make a few copies for your colleagues and friends as an exploratory campaign. Once you’ve tested interest and made necessary corrections, you can produce more books for a larger audience. Short-run printing allows for flexibility, printing only a handful, then ramping up to thousands.

Decide on the format of the book: hardcover, softcover, or opaque softcover. Opaque softcover is an option that is exclusive to Edition One Books, a semi-hardcover that provides the substantial feel and weight of hardcover books while maintaining the flexibility of a softcover. For more information on opaque softcover, visit Edition One Book’s materials and options page.

Decide on the paper type for your project. As paper makes up the major part of your book, paper type is very important in determining the look and feel of your book. Paper can be measure in either English units, pounds, or metric units, as gsm. Units in English can be a bit confusing as they are divided into different groups of paper type. For example, 100# text is lighter than 60# cover. This is because text stock is lighter than cover stock. This difference in weight is clearer in metric, as 100# text is 148gsm and 60# cover is 162gsm. 162gsm is the standard paper used by Edition One Books. Blurb and many other printers use 135gsm as their standard paper, and 148gsm as ‘premium’.

Check out print-on-demand and short run printers. On-demand usually denotes creating one book at a time. This type of printing is more useful for consumers creating family albums or scrap-booking. Short-run printing is for prints ranging from as few as five copies to thousands. Short-run printing is more appropriate for professional self-publishers, designers, photographers, writers, galleries, and event coordinators. In larger runs, short-run printing is much more price-efficient. Every short-run printer has a different minimum order. Edition One has a minimum order of five copies.

Make sure your file is formatted correctly so that it prints correctly. Most book printers accept/requires a PDF file of your book to print. By self-publishing with a PDF, you can kill two birds with one stone by publishing your PDF as an e-book, which can be an additional source of revenue. By self-publishing, you are not restricted in publishing your book in any manner.

Ask the printers to see samples. Some may offer free test prints for you to examine their print quality. Some may even allow for you to see books they have made in the past.

Call the printers. It’s always a good indication whether they will be responsive if you have any questions or problems with your project. A good printer is one that communicates frequently and promptly. If you can’t reach them by phone or even email, you are most likely better off printing elsewhere.

Familiarize yourself with the cost of printing. This can vary, depending on the quality of the material and time/detailing of your the binding. If you are not familiar with designing a book and require help, you may also be charged extra for layout, editing, and design time. You can eliminate all editing cost by providing a print-ready file to the printer. Support is often available online and on printer websites. Prices can also vary substantially depending on the volume of books printed. Much of printing is fixed-setup cost. Therefore, the more you print, the more cost effective it will be. Some printers provide discount for reruns of the same book, should you decide to print a few at first, then more later.

Determine how you will distribute your books. As a self-publisher, you will need to think about how to sell and stock your books. Visit bookstores and bookstore chains to inquire about stocking your books. You can also individually handle mail orders. In the age of the web, you can easily setup shop on Amazon and other online retailers. You will require an ISBN (International Standard Book Number). You can grab 10 ISBNs for 0, plus a minimum processing fee at isbn.org