How To Make And Publish Your Own Books While Keeping 100% Of The Profits
Some people like to bake cookies, I "bake books". Your eyes aren't deceiving you as you read; I literally create them from scratch. I have successfully published, made and sold the second edition of a guidebook I wrote, and did everything myself. How did I do it? Well a little creative genius aside, editing skills and much trial and error, I found an easy formula for professional looking books, easily sold for top dollar.
Why do it yourself, isn't that too hard? Well it may seem impossible, but if you want to keep all your profits, and are willing to do some hard work, the end result will far out way any negatives that act as a barrier to your success.
Back in 2001, I had a publishing deal with a small regional publisher. That deal fell through after 9/11, when the tourism boom literally stopped. My book appealed to the tourist trade. Remember in the publishing and entertainment business, a deal is only 25 percent done. That other 75 percent is when the finished books are delivered to your door.
I had traveled throughout the year to research my book, spending my own money, and wasn't about to let my hard work go to waste, so after trying to shop my guide around when tourism was at its worst, I published the book myself. Now the book had to be put out in black and white, and I couldn't afford a glossy cover, for that would raise the price up too high as well. I opted for a nice yellow conceal, and trusted the printer to do the design. I decided on a print run of 100 books, and it would cost just under a thousand dollars. If I sold the book for 19.95 I could make a nice profit.
After writing the check, submitting to the staff my final index and graphics, I sat back an waited. A month later, I had my books. At first I was disappointed. The cover stock was good, but the design was something totally different than what was shown to me when given my quote. The pages were cut all the way down to the writing, with hardly any border area, making it witness overly cropped. But I was given about 20 extra books for free, so I didn't complain. Instead I dwelling out to sell my books.
I had a lot of trouble at first. I put them in the local book stores, anywhere I could think, and only a few sold. I even got a local edition of a major newspaper to review it, for the reporter and editor liked it and thought it was worthy of press. I only sold two more copies after the generous page long article they wrote about me was released. So what did I do? I thought about Ebay.
At the time on Ebay, antiques, jewelry and collectibles were an easy sell. What about my book? I tried the book section, but no bites. Almost at the destroy of my rope, I got an thought. I listed the book in an art piece of Ebay where they sold the type of popular art that I had written about in my book. The art tied in with the theme of my book. The rest is history. I have been selling the book for years, and it continues to sell.
So why did I determine to do so much extra work the second time around? Because I knew that I could get the results I wanted, if I used my imagination, and a lot of ingenuity.
How could I get a more professional looking book without spending a fortune, one with a glossy veil and color pictures? I decided to watch online. I found some companies, but I didn't feel correct about it. After all, they seemed like they had conditions, and I didn't know if my copyright would be protected. (This is the first thing any writer of a self- published book needs to do, is secure a copyright of your book. There are many self-publishing books that tell you all the steps needed to do this. Get the most up-to-date one, for they will tell you about the new ISBN numbers, which are now 13 digits. You will also need to send a complete un-bonded copy of your manuscript to be kept on file as well. Go through all the steps carefully; to make sure your work is legit and protected).
I felt like giving up, until I started researching stories about people that actually printed, on their home laser printers, real books. It seemed so impossible, and I tried various methods, with cramped success. Many of their ways were very good, but didn't work for me. I wanted something for the market, a book that would be strong and hold up over time. I researched what types of covers to get, what types of glues, and through much trial and error and by sheer luck found grand glue. I got my cover stock in sheets of 1500 for only around 150.00. All you need is glossy on one side, and feed the matte side into the printer. The glue was bonding pad type glue, sold in the same position where I got the cover stock, Mac paper warehouse. The kind used to bond yellow right pads at the edges is ideal for gluing on covers. I got the obvious color kind. All I needed was the paper. A quality 24 pound bright white paper in sheets of 500 only cost fewer than six dollars, and I could get almost three books out of that.
I took my manuscript saved in Microsoft Word File and loaded it into a 5 by 8 border, and pressed "save". It worked. I now had perfect book sized pages ready to print. What I needed next was a cutter for the manuscript, so I opted for a professional cutter for about $250.00. You need something strong, for the cutter has to be able to cut many sheets in one felt swoop. Get one with a safety handle, professional grade. These are easily found on Ebay.
The glue that I bought was mainly to attach the screen to the proper book. But I needed to find a way to secure the pages together before I made the cover and glued it on. I had tried gluing the finished, cut pages to the paper stock, which is the mature way, but they didn't last or hold up. So my second light bulb went off and I idea, staple the edges.
Now many people think this is a cheesy thing to do, but nothing is cheesy if it works. The 24 pound paper holds astonishingly well, you just have to take a heavy duty, hi-capacity stapler, mine has a 210 sheet capacity. The staples I exercise are 3/4 heavy duty, 1.91 cm. The stapler will run you about 70.00, but the staples are relatively cheap, and you get a thousand per box, and you only need two or three per book.
I printed my book and cut it on the cutter, don't worry about the size at first, because you will have to fit your cover to the book and cut it one more time. This is just to size it down the first time and establish your staples in. (As you progress, you can estimate the size, if it is too big don't worry, as long as it looks like a regular 5x8 sized book, and not a big notebook. Remember, you will be cutting the right, top and bottom edges again after stapling, so it doesn't really matter until you effect the cover on and slice the second time). I made obvious the left side was cut in about two inches, not too noteworthy so that when people read the book and turn the pages, the writing will be in the middle, so leave enough room on the left. Then I simply lined the book up against the stapler (you might want to get a microscopic piece of wood and fit the stapler into it, this way you can easily get a straight line for your book spine) and pushed down. I did this on the top, far enough away from the edge, for you will need to cut your book once again at the top to fit the cover, then I placed a staple in the middle, and one towards the end, again far enough away from the edge where the cover would be slice again.
Now the only problem was what to do once the staples where in place, the back part will poke through the back cover stock. Well, my father, a retired carpenter, came up with an ingenious idea. Bang the staples flat with a hammer. "Wow," I thought...could it work? " Not only did it work, the staples were more securely hooked into the book. I even picked up my first test run by the front cover and swung it all around, not only did the staples stay intact, the page never came off! With your book totally secure, there is nothing else to worry about. This is the main thing, not having your book fall apart!
I printed the cover. This was easily done on a laser printer, I use HP 1315v model. The kind with the scanner, copier and printer all in one. I designed my own cover, and put it on the scanner bed of my printer. You have to take regular 8x11 paper, print it on that, and then fold the top and bottom edges about an inch underneath. You need to be able to fit the picture onto the size of your book, and regular 8x11 size is too broad. So once you ends are folded up, dwelling on your scanner bed, and set your copier to photo. You need to size your covers to fit into your machine, so buy a good cutting knife and cut the covers exactly 19 and 1/4 inches long, by 8 1/3 in height. This size can easily be fed through your printer without getting jammed, and be cut down later once fitted to your stapled book. Put the matte side up, leaving the glossy side to rush through the printer. Press the color copy button, (make sure it's set to photo) and wait and see your glowing cover appear before your eyes!
Once the cover is done, you simply bend the edges onto your book, making sure to leave enough room on the left so that the images on the cover itself are center, then once all bent, simply pick the book up and raze the edge on a unruffled table surface; this will automatically create the spine of your book. Turn it over and reinforce the help side and so on. Then simply cut the book with the cover on it again to your 8x5 or desired size, and you are almost done! Once the book is all cut and looking good, just glue on the cover. Get a medium sized canvas type paint brush at your local art supply store, dip it into your glue, and "paint" the spine crease, the actual inside spine of your cover, and press cover edge firmly onto your actual book spine. Hold book firmly at either end, and rub the spine against flat surface. Then carefully open the front cover and in the left corner, careful not to drip any glue onto the other parts of the page, paint your glue into the inside creases, trying to get a slick, clear line of glue from top to bottom. This will glue the veil onto the front page at the left corner, to mask your staples, and further secure the book. Press firmly up and down. Flip book over, and do same for back left side, again painting the glue up and down to hide your staples. You are done! Now space a clean, heavy object on top of book, and let dry for 6 hours, or ideally, overnight.
One last thing: your ink! How can you keep the cost extreme when ink is so expensive? Refill ink kits! I found a great online ink store where I purchased a mountainous bottle of black ink for my type of printer cartridge for around 50 dollars. My book is 222 pages long. I have printed over 100 books with this ink, and the bottle is not even half empty! It is my estimate that you may possibly be able to print about 200 books if you purchase 1 lb size of bulk ink from cost-effective suppliers. A good one is inksell.com. If you have fewer pages than this, you will print even more copies. Unprejudiced periodically clean your reused ink cartridges, for they can get clogged over time, by taking out all the ink, checking to see if it is thick and frothy, that is a sign it needs to be replaced with fresher ink. You can easily employ the ink needles to suck out the old ink, and then replace with fresh ink.
It may seem like a great amount of work, but once you get the hang of it you will become skilled in no time, and creating your own books will become easy and gratifying. With a laser printer, you can assign all the color pictures inside you want, and can have full artistic control over your work. If you are not artistically inclined, hire a local artist to design your cover for you. You can get a lot done on very little money, and the rewards can be endless! You won't make a fortune, for printing your own book is hard work and time consuming, but if anything, you will become empowered, and not at the mercy of a obsolete publishing house. So if you have a specific book that fits a niche market, self-publishing can be the arrangement to go, and self-printing even better, for your profits come succor to you, and nobody else!
Related Posts
Filed under Laser Cutting Equipment by on Jan 29th, 2012. 
Leave a Comment