Date: Tue, 08 Nov 2011 14:41:56 -0600 From: sara m steele <smsteele@wisc.edu> Subject: Re: Question re Book Printing Message-id: <4EB99414.9030606@wisc.edu>
Hi
I second what Nancy said about looking at your market carefully as you
make your decisions about hard or soft cover and number of copies..
*Number of copies *
Also, look at your storage space. Do you have space to store a large
quantity of books which will slowly sell over the next twenty years? Or
are you going to aim for a shorter market time and smaller number of
copies? Guess at how many will sell now and at what price people will
be interested in paying. Then consider the cost of that number vs the
cost of ordering and storing more. Also check on the costs and
procedures of doing reruns before you make a decision.
Think, too, of the number of courtesy copies you will need to budget
for--school IMC's, your library, WHS, other library archives, people
who worked on the book, or supplied much of the material. In strict
accounting those courtesy copies lower the amount from sales and raise
the cost per book sold. That raises a question of your society's
purpose in printing the book. Is it to raise money or is it to make
information available in a print form now and for later generations and
you will be happy if you break even?
You may want to look for sponsors who will pick up part or all of the
printing costs.
*Consider your market potential*
Be prepared that the market may be very small. There are a few true
history buffs in most communities who will purchase a local history
book. And a few people who are willing and able to buy to support your
society regardless of whether or not they ever get around to reading it
. The number and type of photos and the amount of interesting items
about people, places,and events currently living in your community or
the relatives of those who have lived in your community will attract
some people just because of their memories,. Proud as we may be of a
local history book, there often is not a huge market. Often the more
comprehensive and remote the content is the fewer people will buy it.
I think some Societies have asked for advance orders to help gauge the
market.
*Publisher or printer?*
Also consider the difference between a publisher and a printer. We send
our specific topic reports to an excellent _printer_ who simply prints
the copy ready PDF file. They do a proof if we want it, print, and then
will deliver the finished product. They take no responsibility for the
content other than they did ask me to change a table in the Civil War
report when a table was so large it got into the margins.
However, we have never tried to run 150 pages. We do specific topic
reports of about 50 pages which can be center stapled. I don't know
whether printers do the professional bind and book size you will want
for 150 pages.. However, contact me (smsteele@wisv.edu) if you like and
I will give you the email address of the man I work with at Coakly Tech.
Our first report was done at a routine print shop (Fed Ex, Office Depot,
Kinkos, etc.) with the spiral binding, but the slick cover, center
staple from a printing company is more professional looking and
surprisingly inexpensive.
Depending on the publisher, the _publisher_ may provide some additional
services at cost. Before the days of desk top
printing and the ease of inserting photos, one almost had to go through
a book publisher.
By the way, if you decide to check out printers, be sure to to include
who ever does the printing of your local newspaper. They may not be
able to take on the job, but by contacting the editor and inquiring you
might be paving the way for publicity later.
*Making the book available for sale*
The getting the book into the hands of readers sometimes requires as
much thought as the actual writing of a book. Hopefully your Society
have a member who will do the marketing and handle sales. Will you only
have it available at your museum or heritage house? Will you have a
booth at a festival, pan cake breakfast or other places the community
gathers? will you have sales outlets? Will you have someone monitoring
to be sure that no books other than the courtesy copies go out without
dollars coming in?
Sorry, as you have noticed, when I get thinking about a topic, my
fingers fly.
Sara Steele
Cottage Grove Area Historical Society
On 11/7/2011 8:02 PM, Arlene Leppin wrote:
> Any tips or suggestions on printing a book for our Historical
> Society? It will be about 150 pages, and was wondering what
> publishers other societies used. Any tips, and things to beware of,
> please let me know. Also, what format would you recommend? A soft
> cover 8x11 or a hard covered book? How many copies should we order
> with the first printing? Any ideas would help.
> Arlene Leppin
> Fairwater Historical Society
> haleppin@centurytel.net <mailto:haleppin@centurytel.net>