| Frequently
Asked Questions Index:
Are
you a publisher? / Will you publish my book?
Are
you a ‘vanity’ publisher?
What
are the benefits of self-publishing?
Why
self-publish with Bookprint?
What
sort of books do you produce?
Do
you print the books yourselves?
Why
shouldn’t I go direct to a printer?
What
is the minimum order quantity?
What
is the minimum number of pages?
How
much will it cost?
How
long will it take?
What
about reprints?
What
editorial help can you give me?
Will
you accept my own finished, typeset
pages
ready to reproduce and print?
May
I supply my own cover photo / illustration / artwork?
What
help can you give me with sales,
marketing
and distribution?
Do I need an ISBN?
Do
I need to visit you at your offices?
Are
you a publisher? / Will you publish my book?
We ourselves are not publishers. Instead we enable authors
to publish their book themselves (‘self-publish’).
We do this by providing a complete book design and production
service, plus editorial assistance and sales, marketing
and distribution if required – all that should
be needed for successful publication, and to a very
high standard. You have to finance our work, but then
we help to turn your manuscript into finished books
that can stand alongside the best from leading publishers,
and at the same time give you the benefits of self-publishing.
(Publishing
Your Book Yourself).
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Are
you a ‘vanity’ publisher?
No! By self-publishing with Bookprint you as the author
will retain all rights to your book and will own all the
copies. You will also receive all profits from sales (after
any commission or fees for sales, marketing and distribution).
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What
are the benefits of self-publishing?
The profits from the sale of your book come to you (after
any commission or fees for sales, marketing and distribution);
You choose the format and decide how many copies are to
be produced; You do not surrender editorial control, but
maintain the purpose and vision of your book from start
to finish; You have control of the cover design as well
as the content of the book; You retain all rights to your
book. (Publishing
Your Book Yourself).
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Why
self-publish with Bookprint?
Read what our customers say! (Customer
Commendations). We provide a complete one-stop service
from receipt of your manuscript to delivery of finished
books, plus editorial assistance and sales, marketing
and distribution if required. Our expertise is based
on 30 years experience working for publishers –
we provide all the help you need to publish your book
as easily and successfully as possible. (Bookprint
– Overview of Our Services).
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What
sort of books do you produce?
Paperbacks and hardbacks in a variety of formats for
a wide range of self-publishing authors and publishing
companies – from books on cricket and health to
mass market paperbacks and theological study books.
Poetry, biography, local church history, teaching books,
novels, children’s stories – all are welcome.
All books are printed in black-only inside, but some
have colour pictures included on ‘plate sections’,
and most have full colour cover/jacket.
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Do
you print the books yourselves?
No. We place the work with a carefully selected range
of suppliers including several of the UK’s largest
book printers, as well as professional typesetters and
designers. We have well-established relationships with
such companies. We choose the best supplier for each
stage of the process according to the requirements of
your book in order to achieve the best possible result.
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Why
shouldn’t I go direct to a printer?
Many book printers will not work directly for individual
authors,
and those that do will offer only some of the services
you need. Bookprint provide far more than any printer
or individual supplier can offer: not just printing,
but a complete integrated service including professional
quality text typesetting and cover design, and co-ordination
of all aspects of the work from start to finish. We
also provide editorial services and sales, marketing
and distribution if required. We save you the trouble
and worry of dealing with printers yourself –
having to understand certain technical aspects, progress
chasing, quality control, problem solving etc –
we look after all of this for you as a matter of course.
Combined with the benefit of our experience, advice
and expertise in bringing books through to publication,
our complete all-in service represents excellent value
– and all the more so when compared to the risks
of employing a printer and other suppliers yourself.
Your book could be the achievement of a lifetime, and
well worth the quality and care that Bookprint will
provide to make it the best it can be.
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What
is the minimum order quantity?
We work with some of the largest book printers in the
country to provide high quality and best value, with
order quantities starting at a minimum of 500 copies.
A key advantage of this production route is low ‘run-on’
costs – the cost per copy decreases the larger
the print run. This can have dramatic benefits from
the lowest order quantity upwards – it costs little
more to produce 1,000 copies instead of 500, and so
on with each additional 500 copies produced at the same
time – the unit cost per copy dropping sharply.
(Printing
and Binding).
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What
is the minimum number of pages?
The minimum for paperback or hardback production is
64 pages in the finished book, including all preliminary
pages and any blanks etc. This is roughly equivalent
to 15,000 words of standard text (or fewer for a children’s
book using a larger typesize). However we can often
use a generous page design, or other devices, in order
to help a ‘short’ text to come up to the
minimum and still look good. So even if your text seems
a little too short, we may still be able to help. (Printing
and Binding).
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How
much will it cost?
Cost obviously varies with format, number of pages and
number of copies. For a typical small paperback the
total cost for a first edition taking in all the aspects
of design and production and including our service throughout,
would start from a few thousand pounds. This is for
books that are professionally typeset, designed and
produced to a standard achieved by leading publishers,
and with the benefit of our care and expertise from
start to finish. We always provide a written estimate
stating clearly what is included, so there are no ‘hidden
extras’. (Quick
Price Guide) (Cost
and Payment).
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How
long will it take?
The standard timescale from the point that the manuscript
is ready for typesetting to delivery of finished books
is about 17 weeks (longer over Christmas and Easter).
This includes 2–3 weeks for proof-reading over
one or two stages. It is sometimes possible to reduce
this overall timescale, so if you have a particular
requirement please let us know at an early stage so
that we have the best chance to try to achieve it. (Timescale).
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What
about reprints?
Once we have produced the first edition, it is quite
simple to come back for more copies (minimum 500). Depending
on any changes required, there is normally a significant
saving on cost compared to the first edition, and the
reprint could be produced within 4 weeks or so of receiving
your order (longer over Christmas and Easter).
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What
editorial help can you give me?
Once you have written your book and are ready to place
your order with us, on receipt of your finished manuscript
we can offer advice and provide professional editorial
services as you may require, such as copy-editing (which
we recommend all authors seriously consider), or substantive
editing. These services cost extra. (Before
We Go to Press).
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Will
you accept my own finished, typeset pages ready to reproduce
and print?
To typeset text to a professional standard for a book
is a complex process requiring considerable expertise,
however clever your computer and its software may be.
For this reason we do not encourage authors to attempt
this themselves (and, in our experience, most of those
that do also regret it because of the extra, unforeseen
trouble and lowering of quality compared to leaving
it to Bookprint). Furthermore we regret that we could
not enter into discussion about the technicalities of
page design etc. If nevertheless you do wish to supply
finished pages typeset as they are to appear when printed,
we will be happy to accept these provided they comply
with our printers’ technical requirements. You
would need to obtain from us details of these in advance
of your generating the pages. Please also note that
our editorial services are only available for texts
to be typeset by Bookprint.
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May
I supply my own cover photo / illustration / artwork?
If you wish to supply a photo or illustration yourself
we will be pleased to work with it provided there are
no technical problems. Any picture supplied for this
purpose should of course be as high quality / high resolution
as possible. We are also happy to work from client’s
own front cover artwork if requested, subject to any
technical requirements. In this case we recommend you
supply your proposed artwork to us in the first instance
as a PDF or colour laser print for our reference so
that we can advise you before proceeding further. (Before
We Go to Press – Cover design).
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What
help can you give me with sales, marketing and distribution?
As a self-publishing author you will no doubt be ready
to undertake a degree of ‘self-marketing’
i.e. promoting and distributing your book yourself to
your own contacts and customers. In addition, you can
choose to make your book as widely available as possible
by using the sales, marketing and distribution service
provided by our partner company Thankful Distribution.
Working with professional sales teams and major wholesalers
and distributors this provides
a fully integrated service into the Christian and mainstream
booktrades, as well as availabilty worldwide via the
Amazon website and overseas sales representation. This
service costs extra. (Sales,
Marketing and Distribution).
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Do
I need an ISBN?
An ISBN (International Standard Book Number) is required
if your book is to be sold effectively through the book
trade at any time in the future, so we always tend to
recommend obtaining one. We make a barcode using your
ISBN and print this on the cover at no extra charge.
If your book is to be published with Thankful Books
you should not obtain an ISBN yourself as they will
give the book one of their own; but otherwise you would
need to obtain an ISBN yourself from the following issuing
authority (unfortunately they will not allow us to obtain
an ISBN on your behalf): ISBN
Agency.
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Do
I need to visit you at your offices?
No, there is no particular need for this; the vast majority
of our clients find that all aspects of the business
are accomplished very efficiently and satisfactorily
without taking this trouble, with any questions being
dealt with easily by telephone, e-mail or letter. Indeed
some clients have not needed to speak to us at all (!)
but have corresponded from start to finish entirely
by e-mail or post. Our service is very comprehensive
and careful, with time taken to offer the best advice
to clients or prospective clients once the manuscript
has been sent to us to see and we have had time
to consider it and any issues before responding. We
do very occasionally receive visits (by appointment)
from clients or prospective clients, perhaps with manuscripts
that are especially complex, but for the great majority
of projects it is not required.
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