The book is entitled Don’t Give Up, You Can Make it If You Try, You Can Win.  It’s the inspiring rags to riches saga of Joe Simon’s rise to soul stardom, only to eventually abandon the trappings of fame and fortune to devote his life to founding a ministry.

Simon scored his first national hit in 1965 with “Let’s Do It Over” for Vee-Jay Records.  Then he went on to perform hits such as “Teenager’s Prayer,” “Drowning in a Sea of Love,” and “Power of Love,” as well as the theme song from the movie, Cleopatra Jones. Other hits followed in the late 60′s.

After his incredible run of hits, Simon abandoned show business and established his own ministry in the southern suburbs of Chicago.

Author Joe Simon & Dale Lipp from PG

Spickum Publishing was the publisher for this 232 page hardcover book, and Dale Lipp, Project Manager at PG, shephered it through the production process at PG. Graphic Designer Jeff Kulinski also contributed by designing the book cover art.

Overall, it’s a fascinating behind the scenes look at the music business as well as Joe Simon’s life.  And now Joe is well on his way to promoting and marketing his book!

The first step is to let people know where to find and purchase your book.  That might mean creating a website to promote and sell the book.  But what if you don’t want to go to the trouble (and expense) of developing a website?

Publishers’ Graphics offers a virtual bookstore to help you do just that.  PG maintains the website, processes orders and credit card payments, and packs and ships your books. To help you list your book, here’s some FAQs from PG’s bookstore expert, Dale Lipp:

What is the PG Bookstore?  The PG Bookstore is a great resource for authors and publishers to sell their books online.  There is no additional charge to add your book to the store.  You can create a retail listing on the store for selling small quantities, and at the same time we can set up a wholesale listing for any wholesale customers you may have.

What are the advantages of using a third party to sell your book? Using a third party like PG frees you up to do what you do best: write!  No one becomes an author or publisher because they want to spend their time taking orders, processing credit cards, and shipping books.  That’s what we do best!

What are the steps to using this service?  There’s only a few:

1. PG must print at least one copy of the book prior to listing the book.  This ensures that what we are listing on the bookstore meets your quality standards. Printing beforehand also works out any printing issues ahead of time.
2. The next step is to register as a user at Publishersgraphicsbookstore.com
3. Complete and return the listing agreement. This is a brief form that I can email to you.
4. Write a short description of the book and also a short paragraph or two “About the Author.”

That’s it!  Within 48 hours or less, your listing will be live and ready for business.

What tools are available within the site to promote your book?

The site has numerous easy-to-use social media tools to help you showcase and build an audience for your book. Sharing links from Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google + and scores of others lets your friends, family, colleagues and potential customers where to purchase your book. The social media channels are a good starting point to market your book; the rest is up to you!

The author tells her story through the eyes of a young rooster named Change, and follows the clan of chickens through a year of life including dust baths, brooding chicks, and awful territorial battles between families.  It’s a great insider view of everyday life, full of enchanting events and intriguing facts, and beautifully photographed by the author.

In this oversized coffee table book, Claudia answers the essential questions:  Do chickens talk? What does a rooster do all day? Would a mother hen attack a hawk? What happens within a family of chickens?

There are charming illustrations and full bleed photographs in this hardcover book.  It’s a reading joy for children, adults, and everyone who takes animals seriously and a warmhearted inspiration for seasoned and aspiring chicken farmers.

HenschelHAUS is an independent and traditional publishing house that works closely with authors to produce timely, high-quality paperback, hardcovers, e-books and audiobooks.  Located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, HenschelHAUS is under the leadership of president and book maven Kira Henschel.  Along with her team of experts, she has midwifed over 120 books from idea to finished book.  You can read more A Rooster’s Tale here, and visit the HenschelHAUS website as well.

Print Quantity:

Size of the print run is the probably your most important consideration. Conventional offset printing is best suited for producing large print runs of 500 books or more. With relatively long lead-times and high press set up and make-ready costs, larger press runs are generally needed to make conventional offset printing cost-effective.

Smaller press runs of 100 or less are becoming increasingly common as a way to eliminate unused inventory and costly storage. If your quantity ranges between 300-500 books, your best bet is to quote both ways: offset and digital.

Short press runs do have advantages when it comes to testing the waters. Printing one or two books allows publishers to launch targeted, niche books that are generally not economical for conventional printing. Printing a small amount is a great way to test the market without breaking the budget.

Quality:

Most would argue that conventional printing produces a higher quality result. But today’s POD printers are pushing technology to the limit and producing bookstore-quality books. As equipment and technology improve, so too does digital printing.  Digital is closing the gap and now rivals that of offset printing to reproduce consistent tone, contrast, color and brightness, and sharp black text.

Options:

In general, conventional offset printing does offer more choices in terms of paper—color and weight—book sizes, and cover printing techniques such as embossing or foil-stamping. Some techniques such as varnishing or spot varnishing are performed in-line while other processes such as die-cutting and foil embossing have are sent outside, regardless of which type of printer you select.

Book size and format influence the size of the press and which papers options are available for that press. Because of the small size of most digital presses, paper sheet sizes are generally limited to a maximum sheet size of 12 x 18, which limits your book size to 11 x 11 (with some exceptions).

Paper choices are also opening up for digital printing. As paper mills realize the vast potential of digital printing, weights, colors, and sheet sizes have all been expanded in the last few years.

Turn-a-round:

When lead times are critical, it’s hard to compete with digital. With faster set-up and make-ready times, POD books are ordered, printed and bound, and shipped all within a few days. Before choosing a printer, it’s always a good idea to check customer reviews and to contact other writers who used the service.

PG Author Christine Keleny, who just self-published her third book ROSE FROM THE ASHES, offers this advice: “Whatever option you choose, do your research. Read the fine print for issues such as rights and extra fees. But also take into account the time, effort, and money you realistically have to spend on printing your book. There are many small presses out there that are willing to help you if you don’t want to do much on your end, whether they are local or on the internet.”

Christine adds: “Join writers groups online or within your community. You can gain good information about what other people have already figured out. With my first book, I paid someone to tell me the steps to allow me to do it myself (finding an editor, learning how to format the book so it’s ready for the printer, finding a printer…), so now, by book three, it’s a lot easier and my cost is pared down.”

She concludes by saying: “Someone can help you make the outside look pretty, but if the story needs work, then you won’t get good reviews and you’ll lose future customers. So write, write, and rewrite!”

It doesn’t have to be fancy either.  Many cookbooks are printed with a laminated four color cover and plain black text inside, and bound with wiro binding.  To inspire you, here’s a few examples of mouth-watering cookbooks printed recently at PG.

Seven Quick Tips

Photographing food is often the most challenging part of a cookbook project. But with practice, it’s easy to take photographs as tasty as the dishes themselves, especially with these quick tips from photographer, Cindy Roth:

1. Use real food, with the freshest ingredients possible. No special styling techniques.

2. Great lighting is essential. It helps pick up the details.

3. Don’t shoot straight on; angles are more interesting!

4. Add accessories to enhance the photo, such as utensils, napkins, etc.

5. Set your camera ISO speed at 200 for highest quality image.

6. Get close to the food; most beginners shoot from too far away.

7. Don’t try a souffle’ unless you’re quick!

For more info, visit www.pubgraphics.com

For more photography hints, visit www.rothprint.com

To make things even more confusing, every printer uses different terminology and stocks different paper grades, depending on their equipment and preferences.  If you’re quoting your project with PG, here are some terms you’ll likely see:

Covers:  for softcover books, we offer a few standard options for your book covers.   C1s refers to a heavier coated or glossy stock that is coated on one side.  We stock a 10 pt (point) and 12 pt, with a 12 pt slightly heavier and more durable.   Caliper is the measurement of the thickness of the paper. It is now listed on our site next along with the PPI.  PPI is the method used to calculate the spine thickness. 

Although not listed, we can also customize your book with specialty stocks.  The book pictured below has an uncoated 100# cover called Classic Columns, manufactured by Neenah Paper.   If you select your own stock, just be sure it is digitally compatible and guaranteed to work on a digital press.

Uncoated stocks with textured finishes must be digitally compatible.

Text:    50#, 60# or 70# weights are the most common options.  Anything under 50# is generally a newsprint grade and not suitable for digital printing due to its high dust content. If you’re looking to reduce costs, opt for a 50# weight, which will reduce the overall weight of the book and lower shipping costs.

One caution:  If you have imagery or heavy solid ink coverage, be aware of opacity or “show-through” with lighter weight sheets.  When you have image content, be safe and go with a 70# or 80# weight.   Heavier weight paper also offers a tactileness and substance to your book that contributes to its overall aesthetic appeal.

If your project is a textbook or workbook, select the heavier 70# or 80# weight so they stand up to continual wear and page-turning.

Colored papers are good options as well.  In addition to several shades of white, we offer a subtle off-white or natural color that can help warm up your book.  Alternatively, a white coated or glossy sheet has a harder surface which makes color photography pop on the page.

Color, texture, and weight of paper all communicate subtle messages to the reader.  If possible, always try to consider your paper choices early in the design process.  Remember that paper can dramatically affect not only the budget, but the overall aesthetic of your book.  As always, give us a call or “chat” with us online if you have questions.

For more information, visit www.pubgraphics.com

As a company we are always looking for ways to ease the process of ordering online and providing high quality products to our customers.  That’s why we recently added a live chat feature to our website.

This new feature puts our representatives in direct contact with you via a simple email interface.  As you click through our website,  a green Live Chat icon appears on the left side of each page.  Just click and you’ll be instantly connected to the representative who can best assist you.

Live Chat will be operational during our business hours, 8-5 pm, CST.   After office hours, you can also connect by leaving us an email message and we’ll  respond within the next business day.

Visit www.pubgraphics.com and test drive our new Live Chat!

Building on two centuries’ experience, a customer of Publishers’ Graphics grew rapidly over the last two decades to become a leading international academic publisher of more than 1,500 journals and 1,800 new books annually, with a backlist in excess of 20,000 specialist titles.

A company of this size and magnitude needed a solution to help manage their growing global printing demands. For the last six years, they partnered with Publishers’ Graphics to help minimize print runs, inventory levels and eliminate outside freight costs. This was also the beginning of this company’s divide and print or print local model where they issue POs in-house, share files with partners worldwide, and manufacture books in multiple global markets simultaneously, eliminating expensive sea and air freight charges for international shipments.

PG’s In-Plant Services helped this international publisher with short runs, first-run prints and their micro-replenishment system that orders books daily to maintain precise inventory levels. As a result, they have completely eliminated freight costs in their warehouse and are keeping inventory levels at a record low by printing only what’s needed for the immediate future. Also, books deliver to the warehouse instead of customers, which allows them to consolidate books to single customers and save considerably on shipping and billing.

Working with Publishers’ Graphics on an in-plant basis has brought many improvements to this customer’s business. A spokesperson for the company noted that they have fewer out-of-stock situations, plus they can turn on a dime and push specific orders to rush status if necessary. They’re also able to ship fewer books to customers directly from outside sources. Consolidating these orders is much less confusing for customers and much more cost effective for them.

Challenge:

Decrease print runs to micro levels to keep inventory down and eliminate freight from outside sources.

Solution:

Use Publishers’ Graphic’s In-Plant Services for short-run first prints, reprints and micro-replenishment: an automated system that orders books daily to maintain precise inventory levels.

Benefits:

• Eliminated freight cost into the warehouse.
• Inventory levels are at an all-time low, yet there are fewer out-of-stock situations.
• Turnaround time on specific orders is within 24 hours.
• Consolidated customer orders to eliminate confusion, improve service and cut costs.

InfoTrends’ 2010–2015 U.S. Digital Production Printing Application Forecast explored 28 specific application segments and measured digitally printed application volume changes in several key market segments, including book publishing. The book market shows the largest gains of all segments, with an anticipated annual growth rate of 14.2%. 1. This represents more than 45 billion pages by 2015. 

In another August 2011 study, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) and the Book Industry Study Group (BISG) released U.S. BookStats—one of modern publishing’s most comprehensive statistical surveys. It captured size, scope, revenue, and expansion across multi-platform content and sales distribution channels. Net sales for publishers increased to $27.94 billion in 2010, representing a 5.6% increase over 2008.  Publishers sold 2.57 billion net units in 2010, marking a 5.6% increase over 2008. Growth hit all segments. Higher education textbooks were up 18.7%, with sales reaching $4.55 billion in 2010. Sales of trade books grew 5.8% to $13.9 billion.

The growth is evident with all numbers pointing upwards for book publishing with the largest increases in print on demand. Print-on-demand (POD) publishing is destined to grow in volume at the expense of conventional printing. One reason is print quality; digital printing has made great strides within the last decade. By pushing technology to the limits, POD offers a valuable solution over conventional publishing.

Writing is another form of communication.  The voice you speak with is the voice you write with. Approach writing like a conversation.  But the added benefit of writing is that you can review and revise “what you said” before it’s communicated.

When you approach writing, remember the saying “less is more.” If you have to say something and make an impact, you’ll choose your words wisely, right?  Writing is no different.  Rambling on is not only unnecessary; it’s boring to your readers.  Every word has a purpose: to keep your audience’s attention and ultimately educate or inspire action (learn more, call today, buy now, etc.)

So how can you say more with less?  Start by getting all your words and thoughts down.  Don’t worry about misspellings, bad sentence structure, grammar rules, etc…

Once the content is there, think of it as a lump of clay you’re going to shape into something meaningful. Read and re-read, looking for ways to “carve out” extra words, tighten up sentences and get to the point of your key message.  Now re-read your message aloud to see if there are any additional cuts you can make.  Once your message is clear and concise, your masterpiece should be complete.

Your voice in writing is what’s underneath all those layers of extra words.  Peeling back those layers is a skill that develops with practice and time. Don’t get discouraged; writing is an evolving process for novices and experts alike. Remember these wise words I once read: “Writers write; professionals revise.”