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Razorguns
Well-known member
I know someone people on here are into writing books, journals, publications, etc. I thought they'd find this new "way" of printing books interesting:
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Co...716&call_pageid=968350072197&col=969048863851
The frugal self-publisher
ELLEN ROSEMAN
You have a story to tell, an important message to impart. You think it would make a good book.
But you're not a celebrity or well-known outside your immediate circle. Your walls are papered with rejection letters from mainstream publishers.
Here's a secret: Print-on-demand publishing.
Once you submit your manuscript, a print-on-demand publisher will put it between covers. You're responsible for marketing your book, but so are most authors—no matter who publishes them. And unlike what happens with conventional self-publishing, you won't have a basement or office full of unsold copies. You can order as little as one at a time.
Trafford Publishing, with more than 5,000 titles in print, is one of Canada's fastest-growing companies, ranking as fifth on Profit magazine's top 100 list.
A privately-owned firm based in Victoria, B.C., parent Trafford Holdings Ltd. had sales of $6.7 million last year, up from $110,378 in 1998. That's a five-year growth rate of 5,932 per cent.
"We're one of the 10 most prolific publishers in the world," says CEO Bruce Batchelor, an author himself of several books about the Yukon.
This year, the company expects to sell more than 400,000 books on behalf of self-publishing authors and organizations around the world. It releases 10 to 15 new titles a day.
As a consultant in the early 1990s, Batchelor worked with the B.C. and federal governments to cut down their publishing costs. He figured they could save millions of dollars a year if they didn't have to keep inventories of publications in a warehouse.
He followed the business model dreamed up by Dell Computer: You only make the product once the order comes in. When the company opened its doors to the public in late 1995, "people thought we were nuts," he says.
Print-on-demand was an industry term for short runs of 300 to 500 books. Who could make money printing runs of one copy?
Trafford set up an Internet bookstore, accepting credit card orders, an e-commerce vision that was also ahead of its time.
(Why the name? One of the four principals is a soccer nut. He loves Manchester United Football Club, which plays at Old Trafford.)
Suppose you've written a how-to book or training guide you think others might want to buy. Old-style vanity presses charge $10,000 to $20,000 to get your book into print.
But Trafford's publishing packages start as low as $799 (if you do the inside page layout yourself) and go up to $2,549. Most authors opt for the highest-priced deal, which includes distribution to online and traditional bookstores.
How much could you make in royalties? Check out the publishing profit calculator at http://www.trafford.com.
Let's say your book is 100 pages, with no colour inserts, with a 15-centimetre width and 23-centimetre height. The single-copy print cost will be $6.38 each.
Trafford insists that authors put a retail price on their books that's at least 2.5 times the single-copy cost. This allows for standard book-trade discounts and an adequate royalty for you.
So, your 100-page book ends up priced at $15.95. You make $1.91 each on bookstore sales (assuming a standard mark-up) and $3.35 each on sales at Trafford's Web site.
The best bang for the buck comes from selling books yourself (say at seminars), when you clear $9.57 each. If you can sell 1,000 copies through various distribution channels, your royalties will add up to just over $4,000. That helps defray much of the up-front cost.
"Where else do you take one of your obsessions, spend money on it and make something back? If you're in business and you get one new contract from your book, what's that worth?" Batchelor asks.
Go slow, he advises. Print a few copies and get them into the hands of trusted friends and associates. Use their feedback to change the text as you go along.
Self-published books used to have a stigma, but now they're often picked up by mainstream publishers. (About one Trafford author a month makes the move.)
"These books are market-tested," he says. "The publisher knows there's an audience ready for them if the authors can succeed with their limited resources."
What's selling? Health and fitness is hot: books on low-carb cooking; green tea dieting; and counting your steps with a pedometer. Business books are also a staple: guerilla marketing; living wills; becoming a consultant.
But Trafford's all-time top seller is a children's guide to mutual funds, When I Grow Up I'm Going to be a Millionaire, by Ted Lea and Lora Lea. It's aimed at 10 to 15 year olds, but also appeals to adults who want something simple about investing.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Co...716&call_pageid=968350072197&col=969048863851
The frugal self-publisher
ELLEN ROSEMAN
You have a story to tell, an important message to impart. You think it would make a good book.
But you're not a celebrity or well-known outside your immediate circle. Your walls are papered with rejection letters from mainstream publishers.
Here's a secret: Print-on-demand publishing.
Once you submit your manuscript, a print-on-demand publisher will put it between covers. You're responsible for marketing your book, but so are most authors—no matter who publishes them. And unlike what happens with conventional self-publishing, you won't have a basement or office full of unsold copies. You can order as little as one at a time.
Trafford Publishing, with more than 5,000 titles in print, is one of Canada's fastest-growing companies, ranking as fifth on Profit magazine's top 100 list.
A privately-owned firm based in Victoria, B.C., parent Trafford Holdings Ltd. had sales of $6.7 million last year, up from $110,378 in 1998. That's a five-year growth rate of 5,932 per cent.
"We're one of the 10 most prolific publishers in the world," says CEO Bruce Batchelor, an author himself of several books about the Yukon.
This year, the company expects to sell more than 400,000 books on behalf of self-publishing authors and organizations around the world. It releases 10 to 15 new titles a day.
As a consultant in the early 1990s, Batchelor worked with the B.C. and federal governments to cut down their publishing costs. He figured they could save millions of dollars a year if they didn't have to keep inventories of publications in a warehouse.
He followed the business model dreamed up by Dell Computer: You only make the product once the order comes in. When the company opened its doors to the public in late 1995, "people thought we were nuts," he says.
Print-on-demand was an industry term for short runs of 300 to 500 books. Who could make money printing runs of one copy?
Trafford set up an Internet bookstore, accepting credit card orders, an e-commerce vision that was also ahead of its time.
(Why the name? One of the four principals is a soccer nut. He loves Manchester United Football Club, which plays at Old Trafford.)
Suppose you've written a how-to book or training guide you think others might want to buy. Old-style vanity presses charge $10,000 to $20,000 to get your book into print.
But Trafford's publishing packages start as low as $799 (if you do the inside page layout yourself) and go up to $2,549. Most authors opt for the highest-priced deal, which includes distribution to online and traditional bookstores.
How much could you make in royalties? Check out the publishing profit calculator at http://www.trafford.com.
Let's say your book is 100 pages, with no colour inserts, with a 15-centimetre width and 23-centimetre height. The single-copy print cost will be $6.38 each.
Trafford insists that authors put a retail price on their books that's at least 2.5 times the single-copy cost. This allows for standard book-trade discounts and an adequate royalty for you.
So, your 100-page book ends up priced at $15.95. You make $1.91 each on bookstore sales (assuming a standard mark-up) and $3.35 each on sales at Trafford's Web site.
The best bang for the buck comes from selling books yourself (say at seminars), when you clear $9.57 each. If you can sell 1,000 copies through various distribution channels, your royalties will add up to just over $4,000. That helps defray much of the up-front cost.
"Where else do you take one of your obsessions, spend money on it and make something back? If you're in business and you get one new contract from your book, what's that worth?" Batchelor asks.
Go slow, he advises. Print a few copies and get them into the hands of trusted friends and associates. Use their feedback to change the text as you go along.
Self-published books used to have a stigma, but now they're often picked up by mainstream publishers. (About one Trafford author a month makes the move.)
"These books are market-tested," he says. "The publisher knows there's an audience ready for them if the authors can succeed with their limited resources."
What's selling? Health and fitness is hot: books on low-carb cooking; green tea dieting; and counting your steps with a pedometer. Business books are also a staple: guerilla marketing; living wills; becoming a consultant.
But Trafford's all-time top seller is a children's guide to mutual funds, When I Grow Up I'm Going to be a Millionaire, by Ted Lea and Lora Lea. It's aimed at 10 to 15 year olds, but also appeals to adults who want something simple about investing.
why get $1 per book sold from an old school publishing house when you can make $28 out of $29.99 profit on an ebook or do on-demand like this post suggests?
