> I’m interested in hearing any response to this question. I’m looking
> into publishing for myself…going through the research phase for the
> best solution. My question to you: have you looked at multiple
> quotes to compare prices? The price quote below seems really
> expensive for 120 pages (especially since their only using 60 pages
> since it is double-sided). For those of you who have went through
> this process, please give feedback. My head is spinning right now
> because I’m looking into self-publishing…getting everything all
> twisted up since their is so much information out their. Are POD
> services the right way to go? You’re not really self-publishing
> since the POD owns the ISBN and not you!

FYI, there’s a common misconception between POD printers (Print On Demand, the technology) and a POD publishers. Self-publishing through a POD publisher you are essentially publishing using their resources and ISBN number but you’re paying for it. It’s essentially a cousin of subsidy or vanity publishing.

POD printers refer to print houses that utilize POD technology to produce books and offer other services to customers ranging from self-publishers to larger independent publishing houses. Many don’t offer any support as far as ISBN numbers, editorial, or graphic design support — all they want is your finished layout in electronic format, how many you want printed, and your payment for those copies. Once you’ve gotten your book set up with a POD printer, basically you’re always just a phone call away from getting another batch printed and shipped, whether it’s sent directly to you, distributor/wholesaler or a bookseller, usually ranging from between 1 and 1000 copies at a pop. If you’re looking at self-publishing and really want control over your destiny, this is the way to go. Set up your own company, get your own block of 10 ISBN numbers from Bowkers (I think they only sell them in minimums of 10-blocks now), and read up on all the do’s and don’ts of the endeavor. A book you definitely want to read before embarking on this trip is “The Self-Publishing Manual: How to Write, Print, and Sell Your Own Book, 14th Edition” (by Dan Poynter, Para Publishing, ISBN #1568600887). If you’re serious about self-publishing, don’t bother checking it out of a library; the book itself is a must-have. You’ll end up reading and rereading it till the pages begin to curl.

Even though some might disagree with this, but when it comes to looking at self-publishing as a means to get your book in print, approach the entire project as a labor of love versus a strictly money-making venture. Unless you’re someone who is actively touring and can sell your books in the back of the room (e.g. – poet, self-help/motivational speaker, subject expert, etc), you’ll find that the toughest part of the equation is distribution. Although larger distributors like Ingram have special programs set up for small publishers, they still shy away from the one-shot self-publishers because, well, most self-publishers only have one book to sell and many haven’t put their book through the rigorous editorial and quality controls that established publishers tend to. With that in mind, that might contribute to the collection of horror stories that are circulating around. Producing a marketable book (cover design, layout, proofreading/substantive editing, printing) can easily cost a few thousand dollars minimum, not including miscellaneous fees, marketing, promo and shipping expenses. Most people that make the self-publishing trek eventually run into the Distribution Problem; effectively it’s the main Barrier to Entry into the Publishing Game that keeps larger publishing houses and POD publishers (e.g. – Xlibris, etc) in business. Once encountered, the self-publisher will find him/herself at an interesting crossroads where they end up doing one of a few things:

1. Selling copies while doing speaking engagements or readings with varying degrees of success (depends on the subject, the author, newsworthiness, quality of content, etc),
2. Occasionally selling copies online or by word of mouth, sometimes giving them away to friends and family as gifts,
3. Decide to grow a small publishing company (starting out as a side business) by building up enough of a catalog of works by other authors (including themselves), and using this as a means of leveraging their way into some good distribution deals,
4. Luck into a deal to sell the book to a larger publisher after having made the proof of concept work,

- or -

5. They get impatient or completely turned off by the whole publishing idea and walk away from it pissed, never looking back.

I started as #2 and ended up steadfast in slot #3. Again, as a labor of love, the expense just to reach those crossroads isn’t that bad. You love what you do, what you’ve written about, and by taking that self-publishing journey you’ve probably learned alot of things along the way about yourself, the craft, and God knows what else. Now, embarking on self-publishing as a task to serve a strictly as a money-making business venture, it’s a different story.

The Publishing industry isn’t exactly barnstorming CNBC with stories of high yield profits, especially these days with all the shifts between old and new technologies and business practices. Larger publishing houses are running on shoestring budgets to get maximum profits, wholesalers are still getting their books at a fraction of the cost from the publishers, and once technologies such as digital ink and e-paper become stable enough for widespread use in the marketplace, the publishing industry is going to undergo other sweeping transformations as rapid as those that hit the music industry after the invention of MP3s and the iPOD. Hope that helps. Whatever is going to happen over the next 10-20 years, it’s going to be interesting. Enjoy the ride.

Good luck with it.

– Max

When it comes to self-publishing, there are proverbially 1,001 rookie mistakes that can make it all the way to the final print run. Once in print, the problem is that they’re all expensive to fix and any of them are enough to get your book declined for review by major book reviewers, declined by the major chain bookstores, declined by distributors, and then some. Why? Because the various strata of the book publishing industry are FULL of elitists. Most of these people are in positions to review your book or cut a deal to sell/distribute it. When they spot one of those 1,001 amateur mistakes (usually visible between the cover and the first 10 pages) they often toss the book aside, not even bothering to read it.

How does a self-publisher reduce their chances of making those mistakes? Research. Expect to spend at least between $75 and $250 dollars on books to learn the basics. Buy these books and keep them in your library because you’re going to need to review them over and over again from manuscript preparation all the way to the marketplace. If you’re not willing to invest this money into preliminary research, do yourself a favor and forget about self-publishing altogether. Professional quality books just don’t happen by themselves — they come about through production experience, whether your own experience or someone else’s. Buying the following books are the cheapest way to get that experience:

• The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition (this is a MUST have for anyone that’s serious about writing, editing and/or publishing). Costs about $60 dollars. The CMoS contains almost everything you could conceivably need to know about editing, the manuscript preparation process, and how to format every inch of a standard book.
• The Self-Publishing Manual: How to Write, Print, and Sell Your Own Book by Dan Poynter (or some other book on the basics of self-publishing; there are several on the market and there’s no harm in reading more than one).

There are other books you’ll need but these will get you started. After reading the self-publishing stuff you’ll get a better fix on the process and know whether or not it’s truly for you. If after reading those you decide that you still want to pursue publishing your own book, here’s a real rough ballpark of how much you can expect to spend on production:

• Editing: up to $4.00 per page (there are different types of editors and some kinds of books will require more than one editor). Many freelance editors will charge you a flat rate that works out to be roughly $1 or $2 dollars a page. Typically I budget for at least $500 or $600 dollars (including manuscript printing and shipping).
• Cover Design: usually no less than $500 and no more than $3000 for a professional design with custom graphics and photographs and the rights to all of the above.
• Interior Design: around $2.00 per page (more for graphic-heavy pages), can be packaged with the cover design depending on the deal you work out with the graphic designer.
• ISBN numbers: Around $270 dollars. These come in a minimum block of 10. Buying them will also get you into the Bowker’s “Books in Print” database. No ISBN number means your book is not officially published, so don’t even think about skipping this step. Check with R.R. Bowker, the exclusive U.S. ISBN and SAN Agency for current prices.
• Bar code: Around $10 dollars, sometimes free depending on who you know. The bar code will contain the ISBN number and often the price, too. Most bookstores won’t even consider stocking your product without a bar code.
• BISAC Subject Heading: This category designation is usually on the top left of the back of the book or near the price. The official source is the Book Industry Study Group’s “BISAC Subject Heading Package”, sold for $25 dollars from their website. I’ve seen the complete listing online for free so the price is debatable, but you want to have your book’s category noted on the back cover so bookstore clerks know how to stock your title. I’ve had independent bookstore owners tell me if they receive book submission packages that don’t have a BISAC code on the back cover they won’t even open the book.

NOTE: These solely relate to production costs and does NOT cover the costs associated with printing or shipping.

So, all in all, to self-publish a professional-quality 224-page novel if you budget for $6000 you’ll probably cover your initial production costs. If you cut a deal with an experienced graphic designer you can easily cut that cost in half, meaning that the $6000 will also cover printing the first few hundred or so. The beauty is, once it’s paid off, it is paid off, and for every print run after that your major overhead is the cost of printing.

And before all the Author Mill and Lulu champions chime in to recommend those services, by self-publishing this way you have a much greater chance of having your title noticed by a major literary agency and possibly picked up by a major publisher. I know this from personal experience since one of the titles I recently published and packaged, NEXT STOP by Ivan Sanchez, was picked up by Levine Greenberg Literary Agency and recently sold to Touchstone, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. Bohemian Griot Publishing LLC and Ivan Sanchez also made the deal happen WITHOUT selling Touchstone the film/TV rights or the audio book rights, both of which they have joint ownership with in two other production companies. So, yeah, trust me when I say if you’re going to self-publish, this is the way to go.

Hope that helps put things into perspective.

As always, best of luck on your path.

– Max

On some other websites I’ve encountered a great deal of static about my comments on POD Publishing Services like Lulu, PublishAmerica and so forth. Simply put, the debate is whether or not it is possible to profitably grow a title through their services instead of the regular self-publishing method.

The short answer is “No”. The math doesn’t add up.

Here’s some math to uphold the regular self-publishing side. To backup the profitability claims of an author’s title produced by Lulu, Xlibris, PublisherAmerica, or any similar Author Mill or modified Vanity press I welcome and encourage anyone else with spreadsheets to post their numbers.

To start, let’s say we’ve got a basic Title P&L for a 5.5″x8.5″ 144-page, 4-color on 10pt C1S (color cover w/ bleeds), 50# paper (b&w, no bleeds), perfect bound trade paperback that will retail for $12.95. Going through a POD printer like Lightning Source or Bookmobile, we’re going to say that for a print run of 500 units they’ll cost $3.00 per unit (which is high for a book of this type). With $2900 invested ($1300 in book production (which is low), $1500 in printing, and $100 for freight), selling all 500 copies would bring in $6,475 dollars — $3,575 after the COGS is taken out.

Granted, after some provisions and G&A is taken out, there’s only $1,198 left (about 19% to contribute to profit). This means you’ve already got the money to flip for the next print run of 500. The $1,198 you can either pocket or turn around and flip right back into some aspect of the next print run. Since we’re going to assume that there’s no need to recreate anything for the next 500 unit print run I didn’t bother to make up another chart. If you subtract the cost of production and do the rest of the math you’ll see that at the end of selling the next 500 copies you’ll net a 39% profit of $2,498.

Short of any major changes to the book materials, the printer, and other expenses (marketing/advertising, G&A, etc), this is a rough approximate of what a self-publisher could expect to earn on the title with each 500 unit print run.

NOTE: It is in the COGS (production) expenses that can be amortized over time to allow for growth without affecting how much can be invested in the next print run. For the sake of this example, I’m figuring that the production cost will be completely covered with this print run.

*** Both charts focus solely on direct to consumer sales and do not include other sources of income from Trade and Commercial Accounts. For the self-publisher, there are also line items that could have easily been removed but I left them in, mostly to show how these numbers can handle all sorts of expenses and still come out profitable.

Now, the following numbers are on the premise that things have grown to a point where it’s time to jump from POD to offset printing press. Same book, higher print run (10,000 units), lower cost per unit. I’m using $1.50 as a rough average; the only way I could include a set price would be to get quotes from several offset book printers.

Admittedly for this illustration I didn’t bother to recalculate some things like marketing expenses, freight, warehousing and one-time offset setup costs, but there’s still enough data here to more than present the case for self-publishing versus using one of the vanities.

About $16,400 invested into production to roughly yield a 74% profit of $95,960.

NOTE: It is in the COGS (production) expenses that can be amortized over time to allow for growth without affecting how much can be invested in the next print run. For the sake of this example, I left in the production cost (figuring that the layout would have to undergo some modifications for offset printing). I also left it in so the production cost will be completely covered with this print run and unnecessary in following print runs…

Figuring in freight and/or warehousing costs (which weren’t accurately reflected in the spreadsheet), we’re still looking at somewhere between 60-75% profit for a self-publisher / small-publisher, huh?

Like I said from jump regarding my comments about Lulu and the Vanities — it wasn’t my opinion. The Math speaks for itself.

Any questions?

Thank you.

Class is dismissed.

NOTE: The following thread is comprised of bulleted highlights from answering questions about publishing poetry books (real trade paperback or hardcover poetry books, not the saddle-stitch chapbooks you get at Kinko’s or OfficeMax). I didn’t bother quoting the questions.

What I’m about to say may sound pessimistic but it’s coming from a combination of personal experience, observation, and input from some very pragmatic veterans of the industry. Back in 2001, as my first book production project I self-published “Midnight Sketches”, a collection of poems and short stories. I don’t consider myself a poet so it was more a combination of a labor of love and a perfect way to see if I could master the technical/design aspects of book production. Since then, here are a few things I learned:

• These days, poetry tends to be something alot of people like to write but not alot of people like to buy. As a result, outside of the academic presses that usually only publish the works of Literature professors and Poets Laureate there aren’t too many publishers that will take on poetry as book projects.
• If I were you, I would seriously consider starting off by self-publishing your collection — only if you’re willing to dedicate the time (months, sometimes over a year) to learning how to properly produce the book, invest the money into it as a labor of love, AND you are willing to constantly do poetry readings where you’ll sell copies in the back of the room. Might even want to consider putting together an audio CD version of the book, too. If you decide to self-publish, there are plenty of articles in this Guerrilla Publishing section here that can help you get started — take the time to read them all.
• Unless you’re a Maya Angelou, a Diane DiPrima or a Jim Carrol, without the constant poetry readings to sell your books (and maybe even some touring), there’s a good chance your sales won’t go reach beyond friends and family and the occasional Christmas influx. The return of investment is often slow at best, hence the reason many publishers outside of those rare Lawrence Ferlinghetti types won’t take that chance on publishing unknown poets, if any poetry at all.
• There’s a huge difference between “regular” poets (sometimes called “Book Poets”) and Spoken Word poets. Spoken Word poets are basically the revival of Beat Poetry mixed with a strong Hip Hop influence and often lyrical in nature. For some reason these two art forms often don’t mix well to say the least. Spoken Word poets often don’t study classical poets (or disregard it entirely) and Book Poets (especially those in academia) often don’t respect Spoken Word works as having much literary merit. I mention this because you really need to know your market and which way your poetry tends to lean so you’ll know how and where to promote it. A lack of understanding the difference between the two WILL make for some awkward appearances and poetry readings — and it’s not a matter of IF but WHEN. If your style is more like Yeats and the crowd is expecting Sonja Sanchez, don’t expect a standing ovation…
• If your sales pass the 5000 units mark, then you might consider shopping around for either an agent that represents poets (rare) or begin that quest for a publisher again. If you pass the 10,000 units mark, some of those few poetry publishers will probably reach out to you before you contact them. Either way, that’s ALOTTA READINGS…

Hope that helps shed a little light on what to expect. Good luck on the quest…
]]> http://www.bgpublishing.com/bgp/a-word-about-poetry-observations-on-publishing-poetry-books/feed/ 0 http://www.bgpublishing.com/bgp/the-ambitious-authors-press-kit-guerrilla-style-tips-for-starting-your-self-published-book-promotional-campaign-the-right-way/ http://www.bgpublishing.com/bgp/the-ambitious-authors-press-kit-guerrilla-style-tips-for-starting-your-self-published-book-promotional-campaign-the-right-way/#comments Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:19:44 +0000 Max Nomad http://www.bgpublishing.com/bgp/?p=1407

At last your book is finished. It’s edited, the layout is complete, and it’s ready to be sent off to press. You’re so amped to get the first printing back and smell the ink on the first copy. Whether you know it or not, it’s at this crossroads that you’re faced with a crucial part of the self-publishing process that is just as important as the book itself. Many self-publishers merrily move forward without this component only to condemn their book to a fate that can be described as launching a multistage rocket that fails to burn to the second stage. This component isn’t necessarily the Holy Grail to fame and fortune although it’s arguably the next best thing. We’re talking about The Press Kit.

The best time to start putting this together is around the time that you’re nearing the end of editing process, optimally between 3 and 6 months prior to sending the book off to print. A few of the reasons for this:

1. The obvious — you must put your best foot forward. No room for noticeable content changes, grammatical errors or even typos. Past experience has taught me that changes will continue happening right up to the night before the book goes off to print. Again, you’ll want plenty of time to make sure the excerpts from your book are perfect.
2. it’s much easier to pull excerpts from the book to include in the kit. Few things are more annoying than sending out a bunch of Press Kits only to realize that the excerpts you chose would’ve been much better had you waited.
3. when it comes to obtaining book reviews it can take up to three months to get a response. NOTE: Don’t be discouraged if it takes that long to get a ‘No Thank You’ letter — it happens. You’ll want to use blurbs from the reviews for inclusion on the Book Sheet (Synopsis), Sell Sheet and/or Press Release.

When it comes to impressing book reviewers, interviewers and even movie producers, the way to do it (without spending thousands of dollars) is through a world-class press kit. Crisp, clean design without outrageous use of a ton of fonts or sloppy graphics. There’s no way to stress how much neatness counts because this kit is essentially all your countless days of passionate writing wrapped up in a sleek, sexy package. A simple yet effective rule of thumb to work by is this: if any part of your package doesn’t look like a page out of a major newspaper or magazine that’s a sign it should be reworded, redone, or completely omitted.

Your press kit should include the following sheets:

• Press Release: a one page article that explains who you are, what the book is about, and important information about the book’s publication. NOTE: if there are any relevant ties between your book and current events this should be the focal point of your article. The more newsworthy your article, the greater the chance it will get picked up for media distribution — including interviews. This sheet is best printed yourself because it’s subject to change.
• Book Sheet (Synopsis): a one page summary of your book. If it’s fiction it should include the plot and major themes. The key here is to sell the book with an engaging synopsis yet using as little “fluff” as possible. Most writers tend to be oblivious to the fact that the people receiving their press kit see hundreds of them in a week. They catch onto fluff as if it was a baby in need of a diaper change. The more fluff there is, the less they’ll take you (and your book) seriously.
• Author Biography: a one page life history. This should be an engaging summary of who you are; mostly interesting highlights of your life accomplishments with a splash of professional and academic achievements (e.g. — you backpacked across Germany, studied tribal tattoo art from Maori elders in New Zealand, parented three kids and wrote the book while also attending law school, and etc). This should particularly include those experiences you’ve had that make you an expert on your topic. This sheet is best printed yourself because it should be considered a ‘living document’, subject to change as you gain new accolades.
• Promo Photo: This is a bit of a toss-up because ultimately it’s a call best made based on the type of book you’ve written. With some schools of thought, a promo photo of the author isn’t necessary. Still, some publishers will include the promo photo as a 3.5″x2.5″ (or smaller) on the Sell Sheet. Others will say it is imperative, particularly if the author’s image can further perpetuate an appeal that is already part of the book (e.g. – a Playboy playmate writes a tell-all book about her life as a Bunny). If you decide to include a promo photo in your press kit, I would highly recommend paying a professional photographer to take these shots; be sure to get full-size digital copies of the images at 300dpi or higher. You’ll want to get the 8″x10″ so you can resize copies of the file for use of the Sell Sheet, Bio and even a poster (see the Image Processing section for the software necessary to resize images).
• Sell Sheet: a flyer that includes all the important information about your book; title, cover image, publication date, page count, ISBN, retail price, a paragraph book summary, a paragraph (summary) from the Author Biography, and blurbs from at least one or two reviews. If possible, this should be full-color, professionally printed on 100lb Text-Gloss paper.
• Endorsement Sheet: This sheet is definitely optional, mostly because it is only worth making if you’ve got more than four or five “celebrity” endorsements. By celebrity I mean any person whose name has a level of brand awareness to it that lends credibility to the subject of your book. For example, if you’ve written a book about 80s Rock and you manage to get a blurb from a Road Manager that once worked for Motley Crüe, this would definitly be a good celeb endorsement whereas Jimmy, the “80s-Rock-Guru at your local record store” wouldn’t quite be celeb enough. On that same note, someone like a Bret Michaels or Neal Pert would be fantastic. Overall, celeb endorsements are tough to get but if you’re lucky enough to get some, run with them like your life depends on it.

Production Budget:

Here’s the point where things get interesting — production. The software and design part of putting together the Press Kit is where everything can either come together nicely or get hairy real quick.

• Software: This is by far the trickiest part of putting together your Press Kit. These disciplines can be divided into Content Processing, Image Processing, Illustration and Desktop Publishing. All four of disciplines are worthy of their own textbooks, not to mention that each software package has its own learning curve. Each can be handled in one of two main ways — do it yourself or hire a professional. Both would have been potentially costly. This is because you’d either be buying all the software and learning to do it yourself or simply paying for the professional’s labor and letting them do the bulk of the work. Aside from software piracy, the main thing that changed this playing field was the advent of Free Open Source Software (FOSS).

For those of you that don’t know, FOSS packages are generally functional clones of some Commercial software equivalent except developed and supported by “meritocratic teams of individual developers, associations of companies, businesses that provide value-add support and services, non-profit foundations, and research and academic institutions. It is increasingly seen as the global standard and lowest-risk choice for operating systems to applications, helping individuals and organizations reduce costs, increase deployment, improve standards compliance, enhance security, and avoid vendor lock-in, which means long-term software investment protection”. In plain English, FOSS came about as a result of groups of people that got together to create their own versions of commercial software, often because they were fed up with paying outrageous licensing fees, some of which even require annual payments throughout the entire time that package is used. I’ve included this information because the output of these packages is just as good as their commercial counterparts — and although the learning curves tend to be about the same, using the FOSS versions of the commercial packages can save you literally thousands of dollars in software purchases. Regardless of what packages you choose, these are the tools you’ll need to put together a professional-quality press kit.


* NOTE — All price ranges shown are dependent on which software version you purchase and the source.


Content Processing — Microsoft Office (Commercial, from $200 to $800 USD*) or Microsoft Works (Commercial, between $20 and $130 USD*). OpenOffice (Free, download from http://www.openoffice.org ). It’s hard to find any mildly computer literate person who isn’t familiar with what Microsoft Office is, or at least used one of it’s software packages. OpenOffice is a clone of Microsoft Office that is distributed for free. For those writers that aren’t too computer savvy, one of these software packages is what you’ll need to write and edit all the content for your press kit. I had considered omitting this ‘Content Processing’ paragraph until I went to the P.O. Box earlier and pulled out a special pickup slip. After presenting it to the clerk she came back with a manuscript-sized box that contained a handwritten manuscript spread out over two 180-page spiral notebooks. Some writers either prefer to live like the Uni-Bomber or they truly have no idea what tools to use. If this applies to you, don’t bother reading any further — hire a professional.


The next three sections are included just for the sake of continuity, mostly because those who don’t know the basics of graphic design can take a look at what software is involved and make a judgement call as to whether or not to hire a professional. Those who have some experience with digital photo touch-up or graphic design will already know these programs well and will be fluent in what they need to use. For those who lack practical experience, it should be noted that each area also has dual learning curves involved. The first learning curve involves the discipline itself (e.g. – Image Processing requires a basic working knowledge of manipulating graphics). The second learning curve involves the software package you decide to use (e.g. – Although Photoshop and GIMP are functionally similar, gaining mastery over one package will only make it mildly easier to learn the other).

Image Processing — Adobe Photoshop (Commercial, from $160 to $700 USD*). GIMP (Free, download from http://www.gimp.org ). For handling raster images (e.g. – photos, scans, etc.). You’ll need this for resizing book covers, photos, and other related images so they’ll fit well within any of the press kit’s sheets.


Illustration — Adobe Illustrator (Commercial, from $100 to $700 USD*). Inkscape (Free, download from http://www.inkscape.org). For handling vector images (e.g. – scalable line art logos, etc.). If you’re not sure whether or not any of your artwork is vector, you might want to read my other article discussing the difference between raster and vector images.


Desktop Publishing — Adobe InDesign (Commercial, from $200 to $900 USD*). Corel Draw (Commercial, $xxx USD*). Scribus (Free, download from http://www.scribus.net). Somewhere in between those choices (functionally and price-wise) is Microsoft Publisher (which comes with most versions Microsoft Office).

• Commercial Printing: Using online printing services like www.uprinting.com, for an 8.5”x11” slick, 2-sided full color, expect to spend between $160 and $260 for 500 pieces (depending on shipping).
• Home Printing: For the most part this refers to any off-the-shelf printer that prints in color and is a Inkjet, Deskjet, LaserJet, or better. I personally prefer the All-in-One printers, also referred to as the Printer-Scanner-Copiers. Prices start at about $200 dollars USD retail. My general rule of thumb is that if you own a color printer made after 2003 you shouldn’t run into any problems with making quality prints for the press kit.
• Paper: HammerMill 32lb (between $12 and $20 USD for a 500-sheet ream). For photographs, consider HP Premium Plus Photo Paper, Matte, 8 1/2″ x 11″, 11.5 Mil, 90 Brightness, Pack Of 25 Sheets for about $18.00 dollars USD retail. You can probably find something comparable online for a better price. The reasons for this photo paper instead of others are:
• Matte finish reduces reflection, making your photos easy on the eyes — no light “bounce” to detract from the detail and color quality.
• 11.5-mil thickness rivals professional photo stock. Extra-thick paper is designed to accommodate greater ink coverage and stand up to the frequent handling. The weight of the paper will give your photos a professional feel, too.
• Special back coating keeps prints from sticking.
• The acid-free paper won’t yellow or disintegrate over time.
• Labeled Folders (optional): Avery duo-tank folders — roughly $8.75 for 25 folders retail but as low as $117 per 100 wholesale (not including shipping). Labels (or a generic brand knockoff) 5164 — 3.5″ x 4″ Self-Adhesive Laser Mailing Labels. One pack goes a long way with 600 labels (6 to a sheet). Label maker software ranges from free to about $30, depending.

There should be two versions of your press kit. Both should be PDFs:
;

1. A web/email-friendly version between 72dpi and 96dpi, less than 5 megs in total file size, RGB (full-color video) ,
2. and a print-only version — between 150dpi and 300dpi or higher, CMYK (4-color print).

Miscellaneous Tips:

You should create the printed version first because it will have the largest combined file sizes and it’s for printed mailing. Next you create the email-friendly electronic version for emailing to the media. Use the printed materials for the top book reviewers, newspapers, websites, or other promising media, while sendng electronic versions to those sources lower on the list. The other alternative is that you can email out the electronic version if you don’t have money to spend printing and mailing press kits. My advice is to do both as your budget allows.

When it comes to printing out hard copies of the entire kit, I’d only recommend doing so if you’ve got the design skills to make it look professional. Be forwarned that if you decide to use your home printer to print any sheets other than the Author Bio and Press Release, you’ll definitely want to make sure your layout, print quality and paper are top-notch. Doing it yourself might save you some money in the short term but if the average person can tell you printed it all yourself, the reviewers will too. Anything the looks amateur runs the risk of being disregarded as inferior — costing you credibility which will cost you reviews, media coverage and ultimately book sales.

On a last note, at the risk of sounding like a blatant commercial plug I have to say this: You can find many designers, book coaches and book-oriented publicity firms to create some (or all) of the components of your press kit; often saving you time and usually being worth the money. If you’ve got the skills (or the drive to teach yourself) and are willing to do the leg work of contacting media sources yourself, developing your own press kit is the way to go, too. Whichever route you take to make it happen, just remember that attempting a book publicity campaign without any kind of a press kit is almost a sure-fire way to condemn your book to failure.

Good luck on the quest… hope this helps.

– Max Nomad

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