When self-publishers call and want to leave a message, they never listen to her phone message. Especially the part about giving an ISBN number for their book. The title is not a good way for her to find out if it is in their database.

Listen to the instructions on the phone message! Write them down. If necessary, call back and listen to them again.

If your book isn’t in the Ingram database, the clerk can’t order your book. B&N doesn’t buy directly from authors; they buy from wholesalers. In fact, the stores no longer even have the ability to write checks directly.

If you self-published a book and don’t have it distributed, consider working with an independent bookstore. If there aren’t any in your area, think what kind of store could work with your book: a gift shop? A specialty store? Think outside of the (Big) Box Store!

If your book is in the Ingram database, but only as a Print-On-Demand through Lightning Source, B&N clerks usually decline to work with an author. That’s because so many POD books are non-returnable and short discount (20%). The book must be returnable and at a regular discount (40%) for B&N to work with an author.

So many self-publishers do not understand that a book is a commodity that needs to be substantially discounted to work in the book business. If you don’t want to discount, that’s your business decision. But don’t expect bookstores to carry your book. If you DO want to have bookstores carry your book, select the “standard distribution” option when you set up your LSI account.

She said the single biggest reason they don’t carry self-published books is lack of a professional-looking book.

Have a professional-looking book. Covers DO matter! An amateur-looking one won’t impress. Also, make sure that the book is professionally edited and typeset. Your book should be competitive with any other book on a bookstore’s shelves.

She has stopped booking author signings. They aren’t profitable (studies show most book signings only sell 4 copies), they are a pain to set up, and no one shows up – embarrassing the author and the staff. She IS interested in events – that is, something that brings in customers to interact, like a workshop or mini-seminar. Multiple author events are best.

Do you know other authors you can cross-market with? Or do you have a workshop or seminar you can do based on your book? I once did an all-pirate panel in conjunction with a city’s “All City Reads” of Treasure Island. I got 6 experts on various aspects of piracy (me included, I’m the author of the historical novel Captain Mary, Buccaneer). It was fun, and we all sold books!

I asked her if she would be able to keep her job, since it seems that her job description is being eliminated by the lack of author events. She tells me that most of her job has moved to outside sales/bulk sales of books, and that her job title will soon change to reflect that.

That means you have a very slim chance to have an event in B&Ns in the coming years. Again, think of other places to have a book event.

At our local B&N, the Nook sales area is front and center. She tells me this makes a lot of people mad. They are there to buy a BOOK. A “real book” fan herself, she has recently acquired a Nook and admits she finds it nice to have. She believes there is ample room for both physical and real books.

Do you have your book in both physical and e-book formats? You should.

She admitted she has no idea if Barnes & Noble can survive the changes in the book business. And that worries her a lot!

Keep up on book industry news. People who were “in the know” knew better than to do business with Borders for the last 2 years of their existence. Sign up for industry newsletters and magazines like Publisher’s Lunch and Publisher’s Weekly (yes, they cost money). Also keep up to date with blogs like GalleyCat.

In this lovely little film, Glen Miller gives us a short visual tutorial of what it takes to produce a limited edition book, in this case Suzanne St Alban’s memoir Mango and Mimosa.The film, set in a Leeds, England bookbindery, is here.

In Santa Fe, New Mexico, The Palace Press is printing a few hundred limited edition books concerning Georgia O’Keefe (one of my favorite artists), with the pages printed on an old letter press. The process was filmed and the further explanation is here.

Many thanks to Shelf Awareness for pointing to these movies.

But it was the characters they didn’t choose that interested me. In Adult Literature (Flavorwire’s piece is heavily skewed to the childrne’s/YA books), let’s consider the following:

Madame Bovary
Moll Flanders
Scarlett O’Hara of Gone With the Wind
Scout Finch of To Kill a Mockingbird
Anna Karenina
Lily Bart in The House of Mirth

Children’s literature

Meg Murray of A Wrinkle in Time
Anne of Green Gables
Harriet of Harriet the Spy
Charlotte of Charlotte’s Web (OK, she’s a spider, but she’s also very much a female)
Laura Ingles Wilder, the Little House series
Mary Lennox of The Secret Garden

Who are your favorite female characters in adult or children’s literature? Inquiring minds want to know!

Well, duh.

As a person who has reread many books to the point of falling apart, has watched her movie collection so many times, we’ve had to replace them in each new format (and there’s another argument for hard-copy books over e-books), I can readily attest to the second-time around value.

The second time I read One Hundred Years of Solitude, I actually understood a lot more of what was going on, and how beautiful the writing was (I then went back and re-read every Garcia Marquez book in our collection).

I thought Moby Dick was the dullest damn book ever. Of course, the first time I read it, I was 18. The second time I read it, I was 32. Big difference. If you haven’t tried to read this book since high school or college, give it a try again. An absolutely masterful work.

In films, I find something new to admire every time I watch “Sense and Sensibility.” Ang Lee’s directing is lovely, and his set pieces that are echoes of period paintings (mostly Gainsboroughs) really transfix me.

I disliked both “I, Robot” and “Alice in Wonderland” the first time I saw them – mostly because I was mad that they were only remotely tethered to their respective books. I still wish they’d chosen different titles, but I’ve come to like both.

I would not attempt to re-read Beloved or Satanic Verses (although I re-read Midnight’s Children and The Bluest Eye several times). I appreciated the writing styles (for obviously different reasons), turns of phrase, and narrative arcs. But both rely on a certain sort of surprise in the first reading that one knows one can’t recapture in a second pass.

What are your books and movies that you’ve re-read (and re-read and…)? What are the ones you’d never return to because the experience was too special?

This past weekend, Dan Poynter - a legend in the self-publishing and small press community – was on NPR on a program entitled “The Future of Children’s Books.” He said all children’s publishing will transition over to tablet-based e-readers. I had been pondering a response to his thesis, which I think has some merits, but goes too far, when I was contacted about it by Sheila Ruth, a parent, homeschooler, fellow publisher, co-list Mom at the SPAN Self-Publishing List and distribution client with me at Beagle Bay. Inc. Since Sheila is all over the children’s book community (see her bio), I invited her to write a guest post. Her reply was interesting, well-documented and lengthy. Yesterday, I posted Part I. Here’s Part II.

What digital availability means for children’s book publishers

Ebooks are a increasingly important factor that publishers cannot  afford to ignore. However, it’s not at all clear that publishers should rush to  drop print completely in favor of digital. In fact, current evidence indicates  that, especially in the children’s book market, print is still an important  format, and will continue to be for some time.

Last November, The New York Times interviewed parents and found that many parents, even technophiles and hard core ebook readers, still feel that print books are better for children, and limit children’s access to ebooks. In addition, many books for
children are purchased as gifts, and an ebook just doesn’t make as appealing a
gift as a tangible book.

A recent survey by RR Bowker’s PubTrack Consumer showed that  two-thirds of parents surveyed think it’s better for children to read print  books. The same survey showed that brick and mortar stores are still the top  source of discovery for children’s books, and that more than 85% of children’s  books are bought on impulse, most as a result of a child asking for a book.

What about teens, those media-savvy young people at the front  line of the digital revolution? Sixty-six percent of teens surveyed said that they prefer print books over digital. Although some YA bestsellers show large numbers of ebook sales, it’s important to keep in mind that the numbers for YA  ebooks are inflated by adults who read YA; roughly two thirds of all YA ebook  sales are to adults ages 18-44.

Ebooks currently make up 13% of YA book sales and 11% of children’s book sales, which still means that the 87% of YA books and 89% of children’s books sold are print. And while the proportion of ebooks will certainly increase, the children’s ebook market will probably continue to grow more slowly than its adult counterpart, because of all the factors listed above.

Does that mean that publishers should still be printing books on paper? As always, that depends on your business and marketing plan. Each project is different, and many factors need to be considered, including audience, purpose of the book, goals, and costs. But we can’t completely discount print just yet, and in many cases, print still needs to be considered as a viable and important medium.

BIO
Sheila Ruth has been active in children’s book publishing since
2004. Her publishing company, Imaginator Press, publishes YA fantasy and
science fiction. She is a past president of the MidAtlantic Book Publishers
Association. For over six years she has been writing about children’s books on
her Wands and Worlds book blog and moderating a successful community of teen readers. She is a founding organizer for the Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers
Literary Awards, better known as the Cybils.

SOURCES
Aguirre, Blaise (December 18, 2011). “Dr. Blaise Aguirre: The
myth of multitasking.” Wicked Local Lexington
.http://www.wickedlocal.com/lexington/newsnow/x795101013/Dr-Blaise-Aguirre-The-myth-of-multitasking

David Bornstein (May 16. 2011) A Book in Every Home, and Then Some The New York Times
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/16/a-book-in-every-home-and-then-some/

Hazard Owen, Laura (January 23, 2012). “New Stats: Kids Find
E-Books ‘Fun And Cool,’ But Teens Are Still Reluctant,” PaidContent.org. http://paidcontent.org/article/419-new-stats-kids-find-e-books-fun-and-cool-but-teens-are-still-reluctant/

Susan B. Neuman; Donna Celano (Jan-March 2001), Access to Print in Low-Income and Middle-Income Communities: An Ecological Study of Four Neighborhoods http://www-personal.umich.edu/~sbneuman/pdf/AccessToPrint.pdf

Richtel, Matt (November 20, 2011). “For Their Children, Many
E-Book Fans Insist on Paper”, The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/business/for-their-children-many-e-book-readers-insist-on-paper.html

Sumner, Karen (January 16, 2012). “Multitasking Undermines Deep
and Sustained Learning, Research Shows,” OurKids. http://www.ourkids.net/blog/multitasking-undermines-deep-and-sustained-learning-research-shows-18072/

Walsh, David (July 9, 2011). “Can Kids Multitask?” Psychology Today. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/smart-parenting-smarter-kids/201107/can-kids-multitask

University of California – Los Angeles (2006, July 26).
“Multi-tasking Adversely Affects Brain’s Learning, UCLA Psychologists Report.” ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com­/releases/2006/07/060726083302.htm

This past weekend, Dan Poynter - a legend in the self-publishing and small press community – was on NPR on a program entitled “The Future of Children’s Books.” He said all children’s publishing will transition over to tablet-based e-readers. I had been pondering a response to his thesis, which I think has some merits, but goes too far, when I was contacted about it by Sheila Ruth, a parent, homeschooler, fellow publisher, co-list Mom at the SPAN Self-Publishing List and distribution client with me at Beagle Bay. Inc. Since Sheila is all over the children’s book community (see her bio), I invited her to write a guest post. Her reply was interesting, well-documented and lengthy. So we’re making this Part I. Part II tomorrow.

The king is dead. Long live the king. NPR and Dan Poynter would  have us believe that print books are dead, and ebooks and interactive book apps  are the only path with a future. While no one can deny the growing importance  of digital books, I don’t think that we can yet say a requiem mass for print  books for children.

Let me make it clear that I don’t think that ebooks are evil. Interactive ebooks, in particular, have a lot of potential for helping children learn in new and exciting ways, and for encouraging reading in the digital age. As one of the organizers of the Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers Literary Awards (Cybils Awards), I was involved in the decision this year to add a category for book apps, and to allow “born digital” ebooks in the teen categories. In fact, when winners were announced last week, I was excited to see that the book app I nominated, The Monster at the End of this Book, won the book app category award. Monster is a great example of how interactivity can take an already great book and make it better.

However, I don’t think that we can, or should, write off print books just yet. Both types of books play an important role. With their engaging interactivity and non-linear exploration, ebooks can encourage and enhance a child’s curiosity and learning. However, that interactivity can actually be a barrier to learning the kind of sustained concentration needed to read a non-interactive book. Interactive learning is different than reading in-depth. Both are helpful ways of learning, but the brain reacts differently to the stimuli of interactive learning and the concentration of sustained reading.

For older children and teens, reading on a tablet or computer encourages multitasking as they jump back and forth between reading and social media. Studies have shown (see the links below in ”Sources”) that, not only does multitasking reduce our efficiency and interfere with deep learning, it also gives the brain a “high” which makes us crave more multitasking. Imagine what experiencing that all the time would do to children whose brains are still developing.

Interactive ebooks can also interfere with the development of imagination. As much as I love The Monster at the End of this Book app, the fact that it shows children the  knots breaking and the brick wall falling down means that children don’t have
the opportunity to visualize those things themselves, as I did when reading the
original book as a child. Einstein is famous for saying, “Imagination is more
important than knowledge,” and imagination is an important skill in any field
of endeavor.

Print books also provide a tactile experience that is lacking in interactive ebooks, such as turning the pages, manipulating the book, and in some cases, lifting flaps or patting the bunny. Poynter dismisses that tactile experience with a cavalier, “You’ll get over it,” but what if you won’t? What if the tactile experience is important to a developing brain? I wasn’t able to find any studies that provide hard data one way or the other, but since the areas of the brain that are used develop, and those that aren’t used atrophy, it’s not outside the realm of possibility that a diet too heavy in the digital and too light in the tactile will have a negative effect on brain development.

Interactive ebooks help children develop digital literacy. Non-interactive
books are still better at teaching some traditional literacy skills. Children
of the twenty-first century need both.

Reading “regular” ebooks on dedicated ereaders, such as the black and white Kindle, Nook, or Kobo readers, is more like the experience of reading a print book, and less likely to have some of the issues above. There are still some issues: they still lack tactile experience, and also currently don’t benefit from good design. For now, books displayed on these readers have a visual sameness. While this may not be a huge issue, design does impact the way we read a book — in the print world, children’s books in particular are carefully designed to maximize a child’s reading at different stages of development. But the web started out with that same kind of sameness of design, and advancements in technology and standards have given web designers the ability to create web sites that balance beautiful design with device independence and usability. Developments in ebooks will allow that same kind of balance to develop on
future devices.

The digital divide

A larger social issue with the idea of replacing all books with ebooks is that it will further increase the digital divide.

In some of the poorest areas of the country, it’s hard to find books for sale. A study (pdf) of low-income neighborhoods in Philadelphia, for example, found a ratio of one book for sale for every 300 children. Tens of millions of poor Americans can’t afford to buy books at all. [The study also found fewer libraries over-all, and fewer with staff who could teach children to use computers (let alone e-books)].

For families in poverty, even a $99 black and white ereader may be out of reach. If all books are digital, those who are in greatest need of them will have the least access to them. As long as libraries are available with an abundance of free books, there is at least a possibility for children growing up in poverty to break the cycle. If these children no longer have access to books, what hope do they have? This is an issue that will have a huge impact on us as a society.

Sheila will look at the digital children’s book business tomorrow in Part II tomorrow.

BIO
Sheila Ruth has been active in children’s book publishing since
2004. Her publishing company, Imaginator Press, publishes YA fantasy and
science fiction. She is a past president of the MidAtlantic Book Publishers
Association. For over six years she has been writing about children’s books on
her Wands and Worlds book blog and moderating a successful community of teen readers. She is a founding organizer for the Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers
Literary Awards, better known as the Cybils.

SOURCES
Aguirre, Blaise (December 18, 2011). “Dr. Blaise Aguirre: The
myth of multitasking.” Wicked Local Lexington
.http://www.wickedlocal.com/lexington/newsnow/x795101013/Dr-Blaise-Aguirre-The-myth-of-multitasking

David Bornstein (May 16. 2011) A Book in Every Home, and Then Some The New York Times
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/16/a-book-in-every-home-and-then-some/

Hazard Owen, Laura (January 23, 2012). “New Stats: Kids Find
E-Books ‘Fun And Cool,’ But Teens Are Still Reluctant,” PaidContent.org. http://paidcontent.org/article/419-new-stats-kids-find-e-books-fun-and-cool-but-teens-are-still-reluctant/

Susan B. Neuman; Donna Celano (Jan-March 2001), Access to Print in Low-Income and Middle-Income Communities: An Ecological Study of Four Neighborhoods http://www-personal.umich.edu/~sbneuman/pdf/AccessToPrint.pdf

Richtel, Matt (November 20, 2011). “For Their Children, Many
E-Book Fans Insist on Paper”, The New
York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/business/for-their-children-many-e-book-readers-insist-on-paper.html

Sumner, Karen (January 16, 2012). “Multitasking Undermines Deep
and Sustained Learning, Research Shows,” OurKids. http://www.ourkids.net/blog/multitasking-undermines-deep-and-sustained-learning-research-shows-18072/

Walsh, David (July 9, 2011). “Can Kids Multitask?” Psychology Today. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/smart-parenting-smarter-kids/201107/can-kids-multitask

University of California – Los Angeles (2006, July 26).
“Multi-tasking Adversely Affects Brain’s Learning, UCLA Psychologists Report.” ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com­/releases/2006/07/060726083302.htm

Today, I greet every move with a groan. I have over 18,000 books. I chose the house I live in now because of the large built-in bookcases. But I have 14 other, stand-alone bookcases filled to bursting as well. I know where all the books are – can find whatever title I’m looking for right away. I have an intimate relationship with these THINGS, these ideas bound in paper and (sometimes) leather.

But I also own a Kindle. I have about 20 books on it (I use it when I travel – which hasn’t been much lately). I often contemplate how profoundly e-readers will change our physical spaces. I’m well aware that most homes right now don’t have books at all (or only a few, for show), and most use bookshelves to display tchotchkes. But in an all digital content world, there won’t be any books in any homes. This actually makes me queasy. I cannot imagine a world without books as personal furniture.

Yet, as I understand that feeling, I look at the slideshow I’ve linked to, and think: well, there will always be silly people like me around, with our rooms full of books. And I take some comfort in that.

Right up until I start worrying that I’ll be like a crazy cat lady – collecting old books, no matter how tatty the binding or tacky the content. It’s going to be hard to balance, I bet.

Again, here was our print bid (we’ll use the color RFQ)

Project Title: NEWBIES ARE GREAT
Quantities: Please quote 2000, 3000 and 5000
Pages: 228
Size: 6 x 9 (portrait)
Binding: Trade paperback
Text paper: 80# white offset
Text Ink: 4/4 color
Cover: 80# C1S
Cover Ink: 4/4 CMYK UV Gloss Film Laminate
Prepress: Print-ready PDF files; Digital Proof required
Packing: shrink-wrapped in 4s, packed in cartons of no more than 25 lbs.
Delivery: Business address 89502. Liftgate truck requested. Must call prior to delivery.

Step 2: Evaluating the bid

You’re probably thinking you’ll get back 3 numbers on what the above will be. And you will, sort of. But there will be lots of small print and numbers placed here and there that you’ll need to add up.

Quantity
2000 $3.75
3000 $3.25
5000 $2.10

Well, that looks pretty straightforward. Multiply the amount with the total and there’s you’re price for a run of books. For instance, a run of 3000 will cost $9750.

Um, not so fast. When looking at the bottom line number, first you have to do some reverse math. Say you’ll be charging $19.95 for this book. If you do traditional bookstore sales, wholesalers will want a 55% discount. That means you’ll get $8.98 from a sale; $6.73 if you use a distributor. And don’t forget shipping on top of that. So you’re looking at a profit of somewhere between $5.23 and $2.98 (before shipping).

You may think it would be prudent to ask for a higher price on this book. But will your customer buy a higher priced book? Your marketing research should have told you that. Usually the answer is, you’re stuck with your lower price point.

But that isn’t the only price you’re looking at on this bid. What’s that “Proof charge“? Yup, you want to do that to make sure the book is printing out the way you expect (no missing pages, blank pages or upside down pages). On an all-text book, it can be around $35 to create one of these. On a color book, the price to print a color proof book is so high, it only makes sense to print a few pages. Prices can run $5-10 per page (they used to do proofs called ozylids for free, but the color was not the full ink. I believe most printers have discontinued this. Often a digital proof will be included for “free.”). We suggest doing 8 of your most color-critical pages. Whoops! That was a fast $80!

And if you need to make a correction on a page? That’ll be $35 -50, please. Is the typo on page 45 that bad? If the error is in formatting, you could be looking at correcting several sequential pages – that’s $35 times x-number of pages! Now you know why so many books have errata. It’s too expensive to fix once it gets to the point of printing! (If the error was the printers fault, you will not be charged for the correction.)

Most offshore printers will include the cost of shipping in the print bid. It’s incredibly cheap to put books on a ship and send them across the world. Where the rubber meets the road is shipping from the port to your warehouse (or wherever you’re storing the books). Those fees can range up to $1000, depending on where you live. Look closely at your bid to find these hidden costs.

Didn’t we specify shrink-wrapping? Yup, there it is, and it’s an additional $.18 per package. So divide your quantity by 4 or 6 (whatever you specified), then multiply the number of packages you’ll end up with. Let’s say 3000, divided by 4, gives us 750. Now we have $.18 times 750, which equals $135 to shrink-wrap.

And say, what’s this about 10% over/under printing? Yup, a printer has the right to print hundreds more books, and stick you with the bill because they couldn’t turn off their machine fast enough. You’d best budget for more than you expect, because it always seems to be more, rather than less.

So what’s the lesson here? Read the quote carefully. If 3 bids come in as price per book with shipping and shrink-wrapping prices hidden in the fine print and one has the whole price (all-in), translate all the bids into one format (all price per book with all costs factored in is what I do) so that you are comparing “apples to apples.”

Have questions? Call or  e-mail your customer representative. They want to answer any concerns you have. They don’t mind educating a new publisher, either!

Step 1: the RFQ (Request for Quote)

You’ll discover that there are few color printers in North America. That means you’ll probably deal with a broker who works with a Chinese printer (there are a few printers in India, as well).  For a large listing of printers, see this useful website. Also, ask other publishers for recommendations. Know that problems almost always crop up in printing. It’s how the printer treats you and the problem that can be a determining factor, not just price.

Here’s what you need to send to the printer:

Project Title
This is where you put the title. Let’s call this one NEWBIES ARE GREAT

Quantities
You don’t just have to have 1 amount here. You can see where you’ll get your best price break in different increments. I request 2000, 3000 and 5000. Remember that that as the number printed goes up, the price per book will go down. But you should balance that savings out with knowing that you’ll be making a large up-front investment and have to warehouse those books until they are sold.

Pages
This is not only the body of the book, but the frontmatter and all blank pages fore and aft. This must be divisible by 8 (called a signature), because that’s how they figure the sheet size. For our purposes, let’s say: 228. Note that children’s picture books should not exceed 34 pages.

Size
You can get a lot of different sizes. But offsize books—particularly large ones—get shelved in unexpected places instead of on the shelf with similar titles. If you can, size your book the way all other books in the genre are. For Trade paperbacks and hardback books, that means 5″ x 8″ or 6″ x 9″. For our purposes, let’s say 6″ x 9″ (bind on 9″ side or “portrait”).

Binding
Here’s where you decide if you want paperback or hardback with a dust jacket. Let’s say Trade paperback (a mass market paperback is smaller, and is printed in large quantities, 20,000 and up)

If you are doing a hardback book, you’ll choose between cloth, which is traditional but pricey, or wrapped in Rainbow paper. I advise Rainbow. You can choose what color matches your dustjacket, but the default color is black. You’ll also choose whether you want adhesive bound or Smyth-sewn. Adhesive bound wears just fine – libraries use it to rebind covers. But you may want a nicer fit and finish, which will require spending extra for Smyth-sewn

Text paper
For most books, 80 lbs paper (expressed 80#) is fine. You can down to 100#, but this is often too thin – especially if you are printing lots of pictures. I advise white in all cases

Ink
Four Color interior is usual, although you can have a Duotone book, which is black and white overlayed with a thin wash of color. This is usual in art photography books.

Cover
You can choose cover weights for Trade paperback of 80# or 100#. I like 80#, as it gives just enough weight. 100# seems flimsy to me. You also need to let them know if you will be printing on one or both sides (the latter being rare and pricey). This is expressed as C1S (Coat 1 side) or C2S (Coat 2 sides). If you want embossing, foil stamping for the title or other fancy things, here’s where to put them.

For a dustjacket, you’ll want to specify a 100# C1S,  but just the right weight to allow for the flaps to fold neatly. I order 10% extra dustjackets, as returns often have torn djs. Also, they make nice looking promo pieces.

Cover Ink
You’ll mostly do a full color cover. This is expressed 4/4, since there are 4 colors used to make the full spectrum. The colors Cyan (blue), Magenta (red), Yellow and Key (black) are expressed CMYK. You’ll also want a UV film laminate to keep the cover from fading. I choose gloss, as it scuffs less, but you can choose matte for artistic purposes (NOTE: matte scuffs badly, so have a reason to choose it)

Prepress
Do not offer them anything other than a PDF. Your files should have been created in a typesetting program like InDesign. If it’s in Microsoft Word, there will be trouble in making this into a book. Ask for a digital proof of the book; this is a mock-up of the book with the cover, so that you can check to make sure the cover and book block are fitting together correctly, and that there are no problems with missing pages or weird printing issues. Keep in mind that if the problem was created by the printers, it’s free to fix it. If it’s your issue that you need to fix, it’ll cost you $35 per page (or more). Frequently, a fix on page x will lead to the next 2-10 pages changing. It adds up quickly. Decide if you can live with that typo on page 35.

Packing
I specify shrink-wrapping in 4s (or 2s for a bigger book).  This makes shipping multiple books easy and clean. Yes, this costs extra. You can also specify the container the books are packed in. I ask for the books to be packed in cartons of no more than 25 lbs because I have a bad back, and the number of books per carton is usually in a range wholesalers like when they order in quantity.

Delivery
This is where you tell them where it will be delivered. Keep in mind that prices are higher for residential than for a business address, so you may want to have the pallet delivered to a friend’s business. Did I mention that the books will come stacked in cartons on a pallet 4′ x 4′ and up to 4′ tall? Make sure you have a secure, dry space to put the books and their pallet. I don’t advise putting them in your house, as glues and inks may cause asthmatics or those with breathing difficulties problems. Give your zip code. If necessary, specify that you need a liftgate truck, or if you need to be called prior to delivery.

So your RFQ looks like this:

Project Title: NEWBIES ARE GREAT
Quantities: Please quote 2000, 3000 and 5000
Pages: 228
Size: 6 x 9 (portrait)
Binding: Trade paperback
Text paper: 80# white offset
Text Ink: 4/4 color
Cover: 80# C1S
Cover Ink: 4/4 CMYK UV Gloss Film Laminate
Prepress: Print-ready PDF files; Digital Proof required
Packing: shrink-wrapped in 4s, packed in cartons of no more than 25 lbs.
Delivery: Business address 89502. Liftgate truck requested. Must call prior to delivery.

Send this to at least 4-8 printers. I send these individually, but printers do know that they are competing against other companies. You should have bids within a week.

In Part III we’ll examine how to evaluate the bids you receive.

Called BranchAnywhere, this kiosk aspires to be to library lending what Red Box has become to cheap, on-the-fly-video rentals.  I became aware of the machine when one was installed in a Carson City Boys and Girls Club. Apparently, taking kids to the library is just not done these days.

The machine dispenses books, audio and video material for free. It also accepts returns - although I’m reasonably sure it doesn’t accept books not checked out from the machine.

I’ll bet it doesn’t suggest a great book for your sick Mom, or a good read for a book-phobic 12-year-old.

It appears to be a solution to a problem we don’t have. But maybe I’m wrong. What are your thoughts?