Self Publishing Hints

Although the US book trade is enduring difficult times, self-publishing is more popular than ever. Perhaps that is actually a causal link — declines in traditional publishing lead to increases in non-traditional options. Many self-published books are intended only for a limited audience — the author's family, or a specific group. The Book Designer blogs about options for more ambitious self-publishers. Much of it is US-specific, but there are plenty of ideas that Australian authors can apply to their own promotional campaigns. 

Preparing Material for Us

A few guidelines to assist our clients in supplying material to us. 

• detailed instructions are essential, including design directions, preferred typefaces, corporate style guides if relevant
• dimensions of the job and preferred page extent
• text supplied in finalised form where possible
• image files as large as possible (anything under 200Kb is likely to be too small)
• image files supplied separately, not embedded in a Word document. Instead, place a tag in the text eg. <image no.7 here> and number the image filename to match
• text files supplied clean and using styles (particularly important with long documents). If styles are not used, then make sure the heading and text hierarchies are very clear
• If files for the project are too large to email, try www.yousendit.com or upload directly to our site (and notify us you have done so). Failing all else, snail mail to PO 72, Eltham Vic 3095

Authors doing it for themselves

Self publishing or small press publishing does not have to be a royal road to obscurity and crates of unsold books. Active, savvy authors can drive healthy book sales. Here are a couple of tips from a multi-thousand selling Australian author:

Jacqueline Dinan, author of "A Woman's War", a work of fiction dealing with World War One, has focussed on giving talks about her book to interested groups. She says that:

• The book came about because I married a history buff and realised that other than watching ‘The Sullivans’, my knowledge of Australia’s war history, was very limited. So, we set out to write a book for women like me.
• Writing the book was the history lesson that I never received at either girls’ school that I attended.
• I present to groups – Rotary, Probus, View, U3A, Legacy, War Widows, Educational, Shrine, RACV Club (they are all keen for speakers)
• The power point presentation is about the research I did into Women on the Home Front & Men on The Western Front

In addition, Jacqueline was very active in soliciting reviews for her book prior to print publication. Reviewers included the Herald Sun, the Weekly Times and Dame Elisabeth Murdoch.

Stay tuned for further practical tips for authors.

Barcodes on the Cheap

Most books destined for print need a barcode to facilitate tracking and sales. The barcode is generated from the thirteen digit international standard book number (ISBN). Bookstores prefer that the barcode is placed against a very light or white background, and is approx 36mms across. The width of the barcode is more important than height for scanning purposes. Chameleon Print Design generates barcodes for our clients at no added cost (via a plugin built into the book layout package). Otherwise, the issuer of ISBNs in Australia (DW Thorpe) can supply the electronic barcode file for a fee.

Cataloguing in Publication (CiP)

Cataloguing in Publication (CiP)

Cataloguing in Publication (CiP) is a free service offered to publishers by the National Library of Australia to provide a bibliographic record for a book before it is published. When the book is published the CiP data is printed on the reverse side of the title page. The CiP data is also included in the National Bibliographic Database (NBD) available on Kinetica, Australia’s Library Network. Visit www.nla.gov.au/services/CIP.html for further information.

Libraries are both major purchasers and supporters of books published in Australia, so utilising this service makes a lot sense.