#Maybe I could have chosen a better printer for a price?

[trigunbookclub]

I don't think it's okay to use nightow's artwork to make yourself some money selling stickers of it.

While funny edits and memes of official content are commonly made and sold by creators and I understand it is a topic of debate for many reasons, as I say in the post and on the page, it isn't about the money and I think I'd have to sell hundreds to even make much profit! I did a lot of calculations and the price is close to the supplies/costs/the size of the small print run/etc., and while I'm not the best at math, the cents leftover per sticker aren't adding up to much and--again, like I said in the post--will be spent getting leftovers in case of errors if it's enough. If someone chooses to leave a tip for running bookclub, I'm grateful, but a vast majority of people don't and that's fine and what I expect. The point is having fun and celebrating bookclub! The amount of people who wanted a sticker/badge of completion was enough that I really wanted to do something for you guys.

TL;DR: As I said in the original post, this was designed for fun, not money. Transparency is personally very important to me and I try to be as honest as I can whenever possible. Of course, I'm a stranger on the internet, you should take that with a grain of salt, but I do try to be clear about my intentions.

[ecotone99]

[SP] The Great Easter Egg Crisis of 2020

The old woman sat at a high-rise bar, looking out over the sprawling city below. A fat cigar hung from her lips. She took a deep drag, the smart smoke working into her lungs, repairing damage from a lifetime of breathing polluted air.

Her unwanted companion stood silently. Just another rich kid. But one waiting expectantly for an answer.

“That was a long time ago, and I’ve done my time. How’d you track me down anyway?”

The kid skirted the question. “It’s a school project. I’m trying to put together a story. Something gritty yet intimate.”

She inhaled again. “It’s all in the archives somewhere. Go digging.”

The kid slowly shook his head. “Without the personal details, it’s just old history.”

She looked the kid over. Why not. If she could get something out of it, anyway.

“Buy me a drink. Top shelf.”

The kid nodded reluctantly.

May as well go all out. She gestured over a robot bartender and ordered the most expensive thing on the menu. The robot dispensed it on the spot, ice cold in a tall glass.

She savoured a mouthful. It was excellent. She could feel the virotherapy agents working almost immediately, massaging at decades of DNA damage. It wouldn’t last, but sure as hell felt good.

The kid looked at her expectantly.

She sighed. “You know about the outbreak in 2020? Covid-19. For some it was the end. For others, a new beginning. I saw it as a chance to make money. A lot of money.”

She took another drag on the cigar, and washed it down with more of the drink. “SARS. Swine Flu. Ebola. We’d heard it all before, and the threat of a pandemic seemed almost routine. Life was calm at first, but slowly the hysteria crept in. People hoarding food. Stockpiling toilet paper. Ridiculous stuff. Each little crisis fueled by social media. It’s different these days, but back then people didn’t understand the risks of living your life online. Mob mentality took over. It quickly became chaos.”

She paused, trying to remember the exact wording. “A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals.”

The kid looked at her, impassive. Too young to understand by about a century.

“It’s a quote. Look it up.” The kids eyes went a little dimmer as he accessed the ‘net in his head. She interrupted and the kid snapped back to reality. “Do it later.”

She continued on. “So we got an idea. I suppose I should say I got an idea, but it took a team of us to pull off. Most were in it for the money. Some just wanted to cause trouble. That was a thing, back then. Coronavirus was our tinder, and fear of missing out was our spark. Little ripples of panic were already in effect. Shortages would come and go, stock prices jumped up and down. But how could we make it work in our favour?”

She stared, waiting until the kid answered. “Easter Eggs. I know that bit.”

She growled back. “You really don’t. There’s nothing like it anymore. It was a cluster fuck of corporations bastardising ancient beliefs for profit. Pointless conspicuous consumption in chocolate form.”

The kid retreated into his head, looking for meaning in the unfamiliar words. “Consumer whores, right?”

The old woman laughed, and coughed, and laughed again. “Exactly.”

She took another swig of the drink, calming her throat. “The only thing more powerful than consumerism was fear. And the world was primed for it. Outbreaks in almost every city. Shortages, both real and imagined. And just a few weeks out from a holiday celebrated by half the world. You’ve never eaten an easter egg, I presume?”

The kid shrugged. “I tried to recreate one with the food printers. I don’t get the appeal.”

She nodded along. “Either do I kid. Always hated Easter. Maybe that’s why I didn’t feel bad about what we did. Those damn eggs. Churned out by the millions in China. Each one trapping a little breath of air inside. We weren't sure the plan would work, but in the end it was easy. A faked video of a sick worker coughing over an easter egg production line. And a single tweet.”

She shook her head, breathing out through her nose. “We thought we’d need to push to get it viral. But no. Society was ready to bubble over. The media ran with it - a precious holiday was under attack. People were angry at Asia, angry at the government, angry at corporations, angry at each other. And we were ready. We seeded counter campaigns supporting businesses of our choosing. ‘Buy safe, buy local’. Anything forgein was boycotted. People tried to stock up on Easter eggs, beating the rush. Production was increased, but prices quickly climbed out of control. The savvy ones looked ahead, wondering about chocolate futures and next year's eggs. They invested, and stock prices grew. As the rest of the market tanked, our stocks were a shining beacon of hope. The fear of missing out kicked in even harder and the prices doubled. Then tripled. Along the way, the supposedly contaminated eggs all tested clean, and the video was declared a fake. But it was too late.”

She smiled at a plan gone even better than expected. “By Easter, the chosen companies were trading at one hundred times our buy in. We’d leveraged every dollar we had on the shares and were filthy rich. We cashed out, ready to disappear before it all came crashing down. We’d defrauded the world, and thought we’d gotten away with it.”

The old woman clenched her jaw, wrinkles deepening. “What happened next was pure bad luck. We couldn’t have known and it sure as hell wasn’t our fault. The chocolate in the ‘safe’ eggs was contaminated. The incubation was slow, but the mortality rate high. They didn’t even know what it was at first. Panic fueled speculation spun a thousand stories. Toxins from manufacturers cutting corners to meet demand. A Coronavirus mutation. Some sinister and ghastly biological weapon. People even looked to the skies, thinking of extraterrestrial horrors.”

She took a deep breath before continuing. “It was the global pandemic everyone had been afraid of, and had a terrifying fatality rate. Containment was impossible, hospitals were overwhelmed, and nothing slowed the spread. The death toll rose staggeringly fast. One hundred thousand. Five hundred thousand. By July there was over a billion dead, with no end in sight. No treatment, no vaccine, no cure. The old and the sick succumbed more easily, but it took young and healthy too. By the time the outbreak worked its way around the globe, two and a half billion people had died.”

She blinked, pushing back tears as she relived the memories. “I know you’ve seen the pictures. Watched the videos. But you can’t understand what it was like. Two and half billion people dead. Everyone lost someone close to them. Everyone.”

She stopped to take a deep breath “Have you experienced death? In your happy, sheltered life, has anyone died?”

The kid looked uncomfortable. “No. I had an aunt who tried to stop her treatments once, but the family wouldn't allow that.”

She looked at the kid with dull envy. “There had never been a tragedy like this. So much fear, so much anger. The world was drawn together, and grieved and raged and howled for blood with one voice. Our little Easter Egg fraud was uncovered, and we were hunted down. We burnt through our fortunes trying to run, trying to hide. But the world was single minded and we had to pay."

She wiped at her cheek. “I don’t know how I was kept alive until the trial. None of my co-conspirators made it. Death was too good for me, it seems. I was at the center of it all. Five billion survivors, cursing my name, demanding I suffer. They called me Patient Zero. That’s almost funny now.”

She looked the kid in the eyes. “I was terrified I would be tortured. Kept alive to feel the world's pain. I prayed for death. In some way what happened next was a miracle. It’s kind of fitting, don’t you think? A God’s honest Easter resurrection.”

She took a long slow drag of her cigar, blowing the spent smoke towards the kid. “Some people called them Angels. Friends and family, returned to the living. Others saw them as demons. That fitted better. The walking undead, climbing out of the ground. We’d spent half our lives obsessing over zombies and here they were. The reality was brutal, and another billion people died before they were stopped. Entire countries fell apart. The world staggered, and it felt like nothing could ever be the same again.”

She looked down at her drink, not sure where to next. “But humans are resilient, and we recovered. It almost seems trivial now. Nearly half the world wiped out, but that only took the population back fifty years. Life continued on, damaged but not broken. What little authority remained kept me in prison, but that was as much for my protection as it was a punishment."

She took one last swig. “I know some people see it as a blessing. Heaven on Earth, they say. I know I wouldn’t be alive today without the medical advances cajoled out of corpses that refuse to stay dead. Eternal youth.” She scowled. “At least for those who can afford it.”

She put down her empty glass, looking into it. “That’s all the memories you get for one drink. What’s this gritty yet intimate story of yours going to be called, anyway?”

The kid was already retreating inside his own head, but focused back momentarily.

“The Great Easter Egg Crisis of 2020”

“Jesus, that’s horrifying.” She turned back to the window, not really seeing the world outside.

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[nurplenurple]

Stickers + Acrylic Charms Info.

I was typing this up to send to someone, but I figured might as well post it here in case anybody is interested. :D

Anyhoo, it kinda depends on what approach you want to take.

But before I get into that, I just want to point out that any and all artwork, no matter what method you choose, has to be saved in CMYK mode, NOT RGB. Reason is that all printers print in CMYK. If you have never done that, when you do you might notice that some of the colors in your artwork might change. If a color changes, it's because it doesn't "exist" in CMYK and cannot be printed, so the software you use will default to the next closest color in CMYK. So you may have to tweak your artwork a bit to get it to look to your satisfaction.

If you have access to a printer, I would HIGHLY suggest to do a test print of your artwork on regular printer paper and with the settings set to the highest quality.

Now that that's out of the way. For both charms and stickers, you can either do the DIY method or the professional printing method.

Both have their pros and cons, but in the end it’s up to you and your personal preferences.

-DIY-

Pros: You control the quality and the amount of the items. Can produce as many or as little as you want. Have that personal, handmade quality, cheaper start up cost. Cons: Overall quality and durability of item is not as good as professionally printed items, more work for yourself, and while it is typically cheaper to start producing items the DIY way, you also have to consider the costs in the long run. Consider the cost of printer ink, paper, materials, etc. It all adds up.

-Professionally Printer/Supplier-

Pros: Overall superior quality and finishes. Less work for you (example: you can choose to have a service cut out your stickers for you vs cutting by hand yourself, or have them add key rings to charms for you vs you doing it yourself). Cons: Typically way more expensive to start producing, most services have a high minimum order (bad  if you only want a a few of one thing) and have a limit to how many different designs you can order (bad if you want to order many different designs to be printed), and for the most part, cutting out the stickers for you/adding key rings to charms/etc are additional services that you would have to pay extra for.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++ There's plenty of resources online, here's some tutorials I thought would be helpful:

DIY Stickers

https://youtu.be/tGngXu3sXAE https://youtu.be/H5KfuVX_714 https://youtu.be/5c2C5aR3QCE

DIY Charms

https://youtu.be/xsgCy0N7dCk https://youtu.be/7RieJq5qN9E https://youtu.be/urVS4E14dKc (note: I see a lot of ppl recommending to glaze with nail polish a cheap varnish, but I would NOT recommend this. I've bought charms before that were glazed with nail polish and THEY REEK OF FUMES!! I would suggest going with resin or some other type of varnish)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Professional Printing Services/Suppliers

There's a plethora out there of printing services out there, I recommend going through these tumblr account for resources and other info. http://howtobeaconartist.tumblr.com/resources http://artistsalleyinfo.tumblr.com/

As for setting up files, each supplier has their own requirements and often their own templates along with instructions and tutorials on how to format your artwork.

For stickers, I've used LordSticksALot.com and CatPrint.com.

I used LordSticksALot to make the holo stickers in my post here: Pros: Really high quality! Die cut so you don't have to cut them by hand yourself! Holo prism is SUPER sparkly and pretty! Minimum order quantity is 1, so you can order as many or as little as you like! Files are easy to set up with their template! Cons: Price per sticker is a bit expensive compared to other methods/suppliers. Service is only available certain times of the month. Maybe not a con per se, depends on personal preference, but the stickers do turn out thicker than most others.

I used CatPrint to print these stickers:

With these I fit as many designs as I could within an 8.5x11" document and had them print them out on holographic label paper. I could have chosen to have them die-cut the stickers, but I chose to hand cut them myself to save money. Pros: Also really high print quality! Customer service is A+++ (they emailed me before printing to double check with me if the files were as I intended them to be, rather than just printing them out and sending them to me as is), cheaper if ordering large quantities. Cons: Shipping cost is a bit high, but the more you order, the more affordable the overall cost is. (Again, better for larger quantities.) Die-cut is more expensive and handcutting is a pain in the ass. The holo prism is BARELY visible, especially compared with LordSticksALot. They do say that it shows up better on darker colors, but even then it's still barely visible. If using CatPrint, paying extra for the holo might not even be worth it tbh.

Acrylic Charms!!

The ones I see most commonly used/recommended are ZapCreatives and InkIt Labs. I've never used either of these but from what I understand...

Zap's are the most widely used. Prices are pretty reasonable, and allow for multiple designs within an order. Files are easy to set up with their templates, you can customize the cut-line/silhouette of the charm, etc. Quality, however, has been slipping recently I've heard.

InkIt Labs are a newer supplier I think, but I've heard their quality is A++++!! They are more expensive, though, and have a higher minimum order quantity.

The one I have USED myself is Vograce. They are a Chinese supplier found on Alibaba.com and are probably the most affordable. They also only have a minimum order quantity of only 1, so you can order as many or as little as you like. They can also add key rings or phone straps for free, so less work for you. They are also reaaally responsive and often respond within a day to inquiries.

Do I recommend them? Ehhh....not really. 

Print quality was pretty bad. Now, it could've been that my design probably wasn't well suited for being made into a charm, but the colors came out waaaay darker than expected. You can't customise the cut-line/silhouette, they don't have a template or ANY instructions whatsoever, you kind of just send them the artwork and they do the outline for you (which works for some ppl, but not for others who had something specific in mind). They also messed up my order. I asked for double acrylic board (meaning the artwork is sandwiched between two layers of acrylic for added durability/protection) and I only got the single board. Also, although the price for charms are waaay cheaper, express shipping is the only option so the shipping from China is pretty expensive.

If anything, I suppose the only thing I would recommend them for is maybe proofs/test runs of single charms before placing a large order with another supplier.

Hope this was helpful to someone! ^^;

[flo-n-flon]

First, thank you so much to everyone who showed interest and answered my question about prints. You are all very, very sweet!

Second, I have taken into account your suggestions and will see what I can put where, since some of my drawings are rather small and printing them on a shirt is not an option.

Third, I wanted to explain that sometimes someone will ask me if they could have a drawing on a shirt and sites like S*ciety6 are the only cheap way for me to provide that easily to other fans.

Which is also why, if you want a print of something and have a good printer at home, you can just message me to ask for the highest res I have of a drawing and I’ll send it to you, no problem!  

I’ve answered everyone under the cut:

tin-can-spaceship a reblogué votre billet et a ajouté:

well hey!!! i’m have none monies but i WANT

love this michael in a sweater, telescope michael, and of course this team

also make shirts with your icon on them i wanna be part of the flo-n-flon fan club

tin-can, I love you and I don’t deserve you. I can send you the big files if you want them in better quality! Thanks! And I will use a site that allow me to lower the prices, so maybe it’ll work.

nomi--sunrider a réagi à votre billet “Quick Question: If I were to sell prints or T-shirts, what kind of...”

I (selfishly) wouldlike a print of the zero grav flashback. will pay cash euros for it.

Haha, thank you! It is very specific and you’ll probably be the only one interested, but why not. I like it a lot too.

now-on-elissastillstands a réagi à votre billet “Quick Question: If I were to sell prints or T-shirts, what kind of...”

I would love the achilles and patroclus picture, as well as the one of Philippa from the shoulders up (I'd love to have a shirt of some milippa lineart, but I'll have to see if I can swing it)

I really have to check if the resolution is big enough for prints with these one. The good news for you is that one of the sites I have chosen for this lets me change the prices. I can’t go below the base cost of production, but I was thinking that for fanart I could set it at the lowest. I am not interested in making money on fanarts, really. Thanks!

starfleetdoesntfirefirst-main

a réagi à votre billet

“Quick Question: If I were to sell prints or T-shirts, what kind of...”

I would love to buy posters of the workout Philippa painting and the Landry-Georgiou-Burnham art (I’d definitely also go for a print or postcard of the Michael and Ash hair parting drawing, and the Michael and Philippa Voyager AU!)

Aww, I should probably colour the Michael/Ash parting drawing, it will be prettier. Thank you. I am not sure of what I can or cannot offer as posters, but the workout one would be nice! I will do the Voyager AU because I can tell it will look nice.

georgiov a reblogué votre billet et a ajouté :

*cracks knuckles*

I’m incredibly biased towards anything with Philippa in it, so i’d love this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, and/or this!

I barely even follow Doctor Who but this is too beautiful not to be a print. And, while i’d love a print of this, tbqh i’d prefer a t-shirt with the design on Michael’s sweater! 💜

Haha, yes, that’s not narrowing it down, but thank you anyway! Especially for liking my Moffat art. I like this Moffat Appreciation series, even if it’s quite different from my usual style. And wow, the shirt design, that’s interesting. I’ll see what I can do about that, since it’s free-hand painting and not exactly vectors... 

[doxampage]

Book Printing: Paper for a Client’s Digital Print Book

A print brokering client came to me recently with a book project. She wants to print 300 or 500 initial copies of her 432-page, 6” X 9”, perfect bound book (potentially with our without such high production values as French flaps and deckle edges on the text pages). She plans to follow this initial press run with a print on demand contract through one of the online POD (print on demand) vendors.

The Paper Specifications for My Client’s Print Book

My client specifically requested 100# gloss text for the interior of the book. I suggested a 12pt cover (rather than a thinner option of 10pt). I noted that with or without the French flaps (an extended cover folded in on the back and front of the book, making the perfect-bound book appear to have a dust cover), the overall feel of the cover paper would be more substantial at 12pt. I said this heavier cover stock would be consistent with the heft of the text block (at 432 pages, as noted above).

So I sent the specifications to six book printers.

The vendors that offered digital printing all limited the paper choices, and some sent me an email restricting these paper choices to just an uncoated 80# cover stock and 50# or 60# uncoated text stock. Based on my knowledge of commercial printing, I believe the printers did so to keep prices down (fewer paper choices allow print suppliers to buy only a few kinds of paper in bulk, at a lower rate, while avoiding specialty stocks that would require costly minimum purchases).

In addition, based on notations on one of the estimates from one book printer (a reference to inkjet compatibility), it seems that paper choices are limited in some cases to ensure that the printer’s digital printing technology will be effective on the specific paper chosen for the job.

So, to summarize, paper limitations seem to reflect two things: the economy of scale in paper purchasing and the desire to choose paper that readily accepts either toner or inkjet inks.

In spite of these paper limitations, two of the printers agreed to bid the text of the job on coated paper: an 80# gloss text, closer to what my client had specified. This drove up the overall price by just under $1,000.00, even for the short press run (300 or 500 copies). Granted, the text was long at 432 pages, so the paper usage was substantial, but still nowhere near as high as for a 1,000-copy run one printer required to move the book from digital technology to offset printing.

One of the vendors who was willing to include an option for 80# coated text came in with exceptionally attractive pricing. So I asked him if he would produce the text blocks digitally, and then print covers with French flaps on an offset press, and marry the digital texts to the offset covers. He said he could not do this because the two printing plants (one digital, one offset, owned by the same printer) were nowhere near each other geographically.

So, in this case I learned that limits on hybrid book printing (marrying offset and digital printing technology), at least in the case of larger book printers, may be based solely on logistics. Since it’s cheaper to separate a large digital press installation from a large offset installation, marrying the output from each may be impossible (or at least financially imprudent).

To complicate matters, once the printers were already in the process of bidding on the print book, my client offered a description of the text. All text ink would be black, but, in addition, there would only be a handful of photos.

This last specification got me thinking. Why had my client specifically requested 100# coated text for the interior of the book? What was the purpose? So I asked. She thought it made for a classier looking book.

In response, I explained the reasons for selecting coated text paper. I said coated stock was ideal for a 4-color text, because the ink would sit on the surface coating of the press sheet rather than seeping into the paper fibers. Especially for 4-color images in the text, this would be essential. Gloss text is good for making photos “pop” (i.e., to appear as crisp as possible), while dull coated text would be better for printed words and other line art. A dull coating is kinder on the eyes than a gloss coating, minimizing reader eye fatigue.

The long and short of it was that my client agreed to a 60# white opaque text sheet. This will bring down the cost somewhat, and it will be thick enough (when compared to 50# white opaque paper) to minimize show-through of the photos. (This is the unwanted ability to see the photos on one side of a page through the back side of the same page.)

The one thing I should probably add at this point is that I did not immediately contact all of the printers and request adjusted estimates. Instead, I will compare all bids on 80# coated text. Then I will choose a few of the estimates I like (maybe two) and request updated estimates on 60# white opaque text paper. The initial bids on 80# coated text will provide a relative price comparison of all of the vendors. Then, by shifting one or two vendors’ bids to 60#, I can bring the price down a little. Any other approach would create chaos in the printers’ estimating departments.

What We Can Learn from This Case Study

This project is still in flux, but here are a few rules of thumb you can use in your own print buying or design work as you narrow down the specifications for a book project:

Consider an uncoated text sheet for a book that is text-heavy. You will save money, and your readers will probably be equally happy. I personally consider coated text sheets to be more appropriate for full color book interiors or photo-heavy texts.

If your print book has a 4-color interior, or a lot of large photos, consider a coated stock. Ink has better “hold out” on coated paper. That is, the ink sits up on the surface coating rather than seeping into the uncoated paper fibers of an uncoated stock (which dulls down the look of the images). If you choose a coated stock, choose gloss coated paper for a photo-heavy book and dull coated paper for a text-heavy book that still includes some photos.

Consider the weight and opacity of a commercial printing paper. A 60# white opaque press sheet is less transparent (less chance of show-through with photos) than a 50# white opaque sheet, and opaque paper in general is less transparent than offset text paper.

Don’t assume an uncoated paper will always be cheaper than a coated one. I have found some premium uncoated papers that are more expensive than lower quality coated sheets. Be safe. Ask your printer.

Start at 10pt (thickness) for a cover stock. For a weightier paper, choose 12pt. These are usually specified as C1S and C2S. The former means there is coating on one side, while the latter means there is coating on two sides. If you’re only printing on the outside covers, consider a C1S sheet. But if you’re printing on the inside covers, too, make sure you specify a C2S sheet. Otherwise the ink will look different on the inside and outside covers (because ink sits on top of the surface of a coated press sheet but seeps into the fibers of an uncoated press sheet).

Some printers will specify cover stocks in pounds rather than points (80# cover rather than 10pt, for instance). I’d encourage you to stick to 80# and 100# cover stock, but, to be safe, ask for samples. You can even request a paper dummy, which is a bound, blank paper book created at your chosen page count with the text stock and cover stock of your choice. (Your printer can have the paper merchant make one for free.) It helps to get a sense of exactly what the book will feel like in your reader’s hands.

Make all of your decisions based on what you see and feel with your hands (printed samples or paper dummies), because it’s all too easy to make a mistake if you only look at the specifications (paper weight, finish, opacity, coating, caliper or thickness, surface formation, brightness, whiteness, etc.). These specs are useful, but they ignore the fact that reading a print book is a physical, tactile experience.

The post Book Printing: Paper for a Client’s Digital Print Book appeared first on Printing Industry Blog.

Book Printing: Paper for a Client’s Digital Print Book published first on https://getyourprintingcompanies.tumblr.com/

[governmentebook-blog]

The New World of Book Publishing

Up front - I believe that the way of the government ebook publishers, fictional agents, editors and brick and mortar book stores are maneuvering the way of the dinosaur. Here's why: First, there is a perilous factor involved with paying an author to publish a publication. The cost could be astronomical to have the manuscript read, then modified, then pawed over by publishers and their bean desks. Then, the edited manuscript has to go to print. Coloring illustrations can't really be a part of the book because they price tag far too much money to process. So , publishers decide on authors who are already published. Does this make sense? If an article writer of a best-seller is unknown, how can his or her best-seller look at the light of day? If that "best-seller" does help it become into the premier placement at the front of the brick and mortar book retail store, it may have a shelf life of only two or three weeks ahead of it is tossed into the back of the store, and ultimately it might end up on the discount table at Joes' Buck-a Reserve Emporium. Then, there's the issue of returns. Publishers currently have agreements with book sellers whereby they get their money-back for "loser books" that were placed incorrectly in stores, or possibly didn't sell briskly enough. It may take three years before your book title and subsequent content - beyond those of the 40-page Submission Package, is reaches the local. I need only to remind you that Borders - the phone number two book store chain, has contemplated bankruptcy. These reasons are partly to blame for the demise of many bookstores to date - including the thousands of "mom 'n pop' is an acronym that used to dot America or any other city of village across this planet. Therefore , my conclusion is that the way forward for book sales will be in the online e-book format. How the very best work is that authors (rookies or published) will create their very own book. They will initiate and control the title of the reserve. They will design their own covers. They will edit their courses using any number of excellent spelling and grammar software programs available nowadays. They will format the book (usually in safe-mode, closed. pdf format), and they will upload the book(s) into a book store. The book store could be their own instructions complete with their very own system of collecting money from credit cards (or using existing PayPal technology). Their books can also be submitted to Google Books, or Amazon, or to any number of internet book stores that will be coming to the Internet - especially seeing that the number two chain has sent the signal in which brick and mortars are on the way to extinction. With the coming of the Internet, and "Kindle" or "nook", or Apple's I-pod, or any laptop computer, any book can now be read.... without ever currently being printed. The publishers of tomorrow will make out a lot better because: Authors will prove themselves by the number of training books they sell. If a book takes off into the stratosphere caused by any number of things that can propel it, the new publisher about tomorrow can be there to generate the contract for that e-book. At that point, the publisher knows that this book can make a ton of cash. This is what was missing before. There was often a risk. Now, with the advent of the online e-book, together with tracking capabilities for sales, there is minimal risk. A author - rookie or not, can become famous by coming out on YouTube and garnering millions of hits. An author is able to do what Justin Beeber did.... hit the YouTube outlet, go "viral", and have millions of hits. Today, Justin Beeber is doing quite well for a "kid".... novice... newbie. Authors could become famous by appearing on TV reality shows, or about the Orpah Winfrey show if they attract a certain audience. Experts can, for example , hit the lottery. One such lottery victorious one hit the lottery over five times... so he chosen to write a book about how he won so many times. The ebook sells globally! The old-fashioned way of clawing your way towards top just by marketing techniques - using Facebook, Bebo, YouTube, Ezine, or Faithwriter's. com - and a number of other article writing sites can get an author found. Faithwriter's. com was the vehicle that Shellye Horowitz "lucked out" on. Here's the blurb form the Faithwriters. com website concerning Ms. Horowitz: - "One associated with my articles posted on your site "Calming the Storms regarding My Heart" has been accepted for publication in the The lord's Way Series - a writing opportunity that I come across through your site.... I am so very thankful. " aid Shellye Horowitz The rookie authors are basically automatically, but the playing field for all is level at this point. Any individual can write a book and take it all the way to the online arrange store - in less than a week after it is written. Gowns about two years, nine months and 24 days a lot quicker than going the publisher/literary agent/editor route! Other reasons precisely why online e-books will dominate the publishing world of another day includes these very valuable attributes: 1 . The online e-book can be edited on the fly. This makes the e-book technically better than the printed version where typos or other errors are found... to late to correct them. It also makes the e book current because the author can edit his or her book when. I have edited my books ongoing, and have even altered the front cover a couple of times. All it took was to edit as well as upload it again. 2 . Color Illustrations can be used. You cannot find any extra cost associated with adding all the color illustrations how the author wishes to incorporate into his book. I have extra color illustrations to every book that I have made into a home-based e-book. My paperback on Amazon is 157 internet pages, sells for $14. 95, and has no color drawings. The newer version - the e-book, has 257 pages and all kinds of color illustrations... no extra cost you to this author, nor to the nonexistent printer... and the public receives a better quality book - and that brings me to your best reason why online e-books will rule. 3. Charge The cost of an online e-book is far less than a paperback or even hardcover book would cost in a brick 'n mortar store because it costs nothing to take the book from strategy to the online book store shelf! My e-books are generally priced at just $9. 95. If my Diary of any Dieter book was a paperback, it would garner $14. 89, and $22. 00 if it was in hardcover. For $9. 95, the reader gets a tremendous deal because they get the similar book- that they can download to their laptop or other "reader device", and they get the added benefit of full color illustrations! How does this be beaten by a brick and mortar book store? some. Profits The profit from my e-books on Amazon is usually $0. 73. Yep - seventy-three pennies! Oh sure, that sells for $14. 95, and people are still buying the idea for that amount. From that, Amazon sends a gross pay attention to $6. 73. Out of that, I have to deduct the $4. 00 it cost to have the book printed, and finally instant I have to deduct the $2. 00 that it cost us to ship it to Amazon in Kentucky or perhaps wherever else they direct me to mail the item. Net $0. 73. By the same token, it cost me not print an online e-book, nothing to ship it, nothing to obtain it to a reader's e-mail in-box, so of the $9. 95 that PayPal collects for me, I net $9. /36 after they take their $0. 59 to do typically the transaction, collect the money from the buyer's credit card, process them, and deposit my $9. 36 directly into my banking accounts set aside for that purpose. How many editors did I need? Actually zero. How many publishers? Zero. How much did I have to pay a good bookstore to showcase my book? Zero. Publishers, publishers and literary agents will have to adapt to this new way of promoting books. Publisher should, in my opinion, lose their cavalier perspective about rejecting authors. I understand that the primary reason that they reject authors out-of-hand is solely financial. They can't take those monetary risk. Now, they will have access to all book web sites... like Google Books, or Amazon (and maybe Boundaries if they are allowed to continue their online book marketing), and also determine - from sales recorded there, which experts they may wish to sign a contract with for the book rights. Since publishers and literary agents will have access to the online guide store's management (no doubt), and can generate far more probable book sales than the author, deals will be struck. At this point - about the way authors now have to go from publication store to book store to promote their books. Let's take a talk about how that might shake out in the world of book income of the future. Rather than going from book store to reserve store (which costs money and time), the author may very well be featured in a video setting on the primary book seller's sites - like Amazon, etc . Next to the e-book title, there could be a small TV screen icon. Readers would enjoy be able to see what their author looks like, and the journalist can have almost a personal "chat" with his reader at that levels. I do it now on my own personal book store internet site. Other benefits of marketing can be that just the book basically the only thing that could be sold. Autographed pictures, or autographed ebook covers could be sold. Tee-shirts could be sold. Contests may just be arranged to where the author of a best-seller (online e-book) can meet with several of the contest winners who ordered her book -at a backstage event or evening meal - or awards show. Not only would the media hype of an awards show for authors be prudent tutorial and profitable, but more books would be sold as the offshoot of that hyped event. I liken that scenario to your new movie coming out on re-release on video. I really believe that my concept of tomorrow's book stores and situations will become reality in the very near future. With technology right now, the Internet is fast becoming tomorrow's everything. It's a "giant brain" containing information on how to do anything. It's a shopping center where I now get most of my stuff - from flash drives intended for my computer (ranging from $3. 95 5o $117. 00 for the same thing), to laptops shipped to this home... to books. In fact , in my opinion, computers will bring about another problem-solver, and that will be online food shopping. The regional Stop and Shop supermarket might end up having a storage facility somewhere that services five towns. From there, they could own virtual shelves where all the food is stored... much like it may be where I shop. I can load my virtual foodstuff list into my virtual wagon and have it shipped to me brick and mortar house the same day or next -- and probably save money. The down side is that employees can be needed for the online store, but not for the brick and mortar stores a whole lot. This is why America should be competing for these types of services. Naturally , jobs could be had my the hundreds of thousands if our flesh pressers would finally get on the American public's side and acquire going on producing natural gas, drilling for oil safely, executive clean coal technology, having automobiles that run on propane. We could become energy self-sufficient. That alone would travel the price of fossil fuels down again. Schools, colleges - deal schools could all hire teachers to teach - on line. Same jobs - different venue. Teachers would certainly always be safer. Kids would not have to worry about guns or drugs with virtual schools. It's all coming anyway, only many of us ought to be the first to recognize it.... and capitalize on it.

[doxampage]

Book Printing: Tips on Preparing Book Cover Art

A book printing client of mine is about to send a 5.5” x 8.5” perfect-bound book to press. She and her husband, a publishing team for literary books of prose and poetry, have circulated “galley-proofs” (lower production quality versions of the book for editors and reviewers to use for commentary), and the reader suggestions will have been introduced into the final-copy art files shortly.

What this means is that the page count is in flux. And that in turn affects the overall price of the book (and the dollar payment my clients will need to send before the production work begins), plus the width of the spine is also in flux, so the cover designer is in a wait-and-see mode at the moment.

Regarding the last comment above, here’s the rub. The designer will need to create a single file with the back cover on the left, then the spine, then the front cover, all side by side. For this particular print book, there will also be French flaps (3.5” extensions on either side of the back and front cover). When folded in, these French flaps will provide a little interior space to print an author bio, reviewers’ quotes, or marketing blurbs. They will also make the paper-bound book look more like it has a dust jacket (like a hardcover book).

So reading from left to right, the final art for the cover will include a 3.5” French flap followed by a 5.5” x 8.5” back cover followed by a spine (indeterminate size at the moment) followed by a 5.5” x 8.5” front cover followed by a 3.5” front cover French flap. To this the cover designer will add bleeds for this four-color printed product (the interior of the book is simpler: black text throughout, with no bleeds).

All of these components need to be stitched together, but more importantly they must be of the correct measurements, or the spine art will end up wrapping onto the front or back cover and looking just plain ugly.

Fortunately the caliper of the interior text paper is known: 400 ppi. For the ease of the math, that means that if my client’s book winds up being 400 pages, the spine will be one inch. In actuality it will probably be 256 pages (it has ranged from about 264 pages down to 250 pages—for the digitally printed “reader’s galleys”). So the spine will be more than half an inch and less than an inch (.64”), but the exact size cannot be finalized until the page count is firm. That means the Photoshop file (the cover designer likes to work in Photoshop rather than InDesign) will need to be fluid, and the final press-ready PDF cannot be distilled until the text pages have been finalized.

In your own print buying work, there are three take-aways from this case study to consider:

Understand the concept of paper thickness or caliper, and get this information from your book printer once you have chosen a paper stock. To be safe, after you have calculated the spine width, have him confirm your math. It’s better to be safe.

Learn how to stitch together the various pieces of a book cover, making sure the overall size is correct, with or without bleeds, and the pages are in the correct order (back cover, spine, front cover).

Send your book printer both the native Photoshop or InDesign file (to his specifications) and a press-ready PDF (to his specifications).

Don’t be surprised, or upset, if your book printer needs you to make some final technical adjustments and resubmit these files. This is complex work.

Further Thoughts

Here are a few more things that I do when I design a print book cover. You might find them useful.

The Color of the Paper

The clients noted above often print the text blocks of their books on a cream stock. That is, the color of the paper is tinted slightly yellow, in contrast to bright white sheets that are tinted slightly blue. (The blue-white is less noticeable. It just looks like a very bright white.)

When my clients add a 12pt C1S cover to this text block, it is usually blue-white rather than natural, cream, or warm white. Usually, my clients print the inside front and back covers as well as the outer front and back covers and spine. The difference between the bright blue-white of the interior covers and the cream white of the text is not visible to the reader at this point because of the ink on the interior covers (it distracts the reader). However, if my clients choose to print a book on cream stock and they have nothing printed on the interior covers, the difference in paper shade between the blue-white interior covers and the cream white text block will be visible.

In cases like these I have often encouraged them to choose a bright white shade for the text as well as the cover.

As an alternative, could my clients print the covers on a cream-white cover sheet? Presumably. However, printing four-color process imagery on a yellowish tinted paper will change the tone of the inks. Remember, process inks are transparent, so the substrate will affect the perceived color of ink printed on an off-white substrate.

So it’s a trade-off. Depending on the colors, my clients may actually either have a bright white cover and cream white text, and live with the difference, or they might print four-color imagery on cream cover stock—depending on the colors in the images. It’s usually not good to print flesh tones on a cream substrate, since facial coloration can look odd (i.e., jaundiced).

Coated One or Two Sides

On a related note, when my clients do print on the interior covers, I always specify a C2S paper (coated two sides). Many coated cover sheets are specified this way: as 80# cover, for instance, rather than 10pt C1S. It can be assumed that cover stock paper has coating on two sides, since this is not specified, whereas C1S paper specified in points (10pt., 12pt.) is coated on only one side because the notation says it is.

I encourage my clients to do this for the following reason. Ink behaves differently on a coated, vs. uncoated, surface. Ink sits up on the top of a coated surface, but it seeps into the paper fibers if there’s no coating. Because of this, four-color imagery printed on the front of a C1S (coated one side) sheet will have a completely different look than four-color imagery printed on the uncoated interior covers (front and back). Ink on the interior covers in this case would seem dull in comparison. If you want that look (a softer, crunchy granola look), it fine if it’s done throughout a book, but it looks odd if it’s done on the inside front and back covers only.

(On a related note, keep in mind that all of the text blocks of this particular client’s books are printed in black ink only on uncoated paper stock. Everything I’m saying would become far more complicated if my clients were to shift to four-color interior text blocks. In fact, at that point, I’d suggest that they either print both the cover and text on coated stock or print the cover and text on uncoated stock, depending on the effect they were seeking.)

Print Out a Hard Copy

One thing I always suggest for my clients’ book covers is that they print out a hard copy on paper with crop marks and printer’s bars. They may need to tile the pages and then tape them together. But the idea is for them to have a full-size physical representation of the cover, ruled out to show the bleeds. This will make it abundantly clear–in ways that often elude the viewer who only looks at the cover on-screen—as to whether everything is correct.

You can see where the type falls on the spine: whether it is centered vertically, or whether it is too high or low. You can see whether the front or back cover art is centered on the page (exclusive of the bleeds, which can be misleading, because once you draw pencil marks–“rule out the cover”–to connect the trim marks, you can see what the cover will look like after it has been printed and trimmed to size).

All of this is visible on a computer screen, granted. Maybe I’m just “old school.” But I do find it easier to see the flaws when the entire front and back cover and spine are before me in actual size (not enlarged or reduced– zoomed in or out). You can always catch the errors at the physical proof stage (and I would encourage you to request a hard-copy cover proof rather than depending on a virtual proof for a print book cover), but why pay to fix errors you can catch by just printing out and taping together a cover mock-up?

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