Buy Appeal Marketing

4 Ways to Save Money on Printing Full-Color Marketing Materials

admin — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 21:13:05 +0000

May 2012

4 Ways to Save Money on Printing Full-Color Marketing Materials

New technological advances in computer software and printing equipment have lowered the cost of printing on certain jobs but you’re faced with high-cost decisions on whether to use 4-color printing or not. Here are 4 suggestions you might try.

1. If you need a short full-color run (usually less than 500 sheets), find a printer who offers digital color printing. By using this process, you don’t pay for negatives, make-readies, or plates, and you can print variable data (for example, addresses on post cards). The forerunners were the Xerox DocuColor, a toner-based digital color press and the HP Indigo, an ink-based digital color press. There are many more high tech printing presses now available.

Eye-Popping Tip: The quality of digital printing has improved to the point that sometimes it is difficult to distinguish digitally-printed pieces from traditional offset printing.

2. Find a printing company that does “gang” printing. This printer usually specializes in certain types of 4-color process jobs, such as business cards, postcards, or 8.5″ x 11″ flyers. They can offer cost savings to customers by printing multiple jobs on one large press at the same time. Each customer shares the expensive 4-color “set-up” costs with all the others on the same job, so everyone’s price goes down.

The disadvantage is that your turnaround time is affected if you have to wait for the other orders to arrive. You also lose the opportunity to choose the paper you want—all jobs are printed on the same large sheet, then cut apart.

Similarly, you lose customized control over your job. For example, you cannot ask the printer to adjust the colors on the press to your specifications. Sometimes unexpected color shifts will occur on your printed piece.

3. Pre-print color “shells” of common, repeating elements. If you have a newsletter, promotional campaign, or other multiple issue publication, you’ll then use these shells for several issues. On the shell you would design a newsletter with your logo, masthead, and tag line in color. Print these elements, leaving white space for the custom information that will appear in each issue.

Have your printer do enough shells for a one-year cycle, then store them and pull from them for each issue. New information gets printed on the shell in black ink. With this option, you only have to pay for color printing once.

4. Use full-color pre-printed papers. This option is recommended only for very short runs on a shoestring budget. It
requires weighing the cost savings against the loss of customization and possible loss of quality for your printed piece.

These papers come in a variety of designs for all occasions and in layouts for business cards, trifold brochures, flyers, letterheads, reply-cards, and more. In many cases, matching presentation folders, greeting cards, and thank you notes are also available.

The papers have a graphic “theme” in a frame around each panel, with the center area open for you to add your content. You purchase these papers in packages of 25 to 50 sheets and design your content to fit into the open areas. Put the pre-printed papers in your black and white laser printer or ink jet printer and print the content in black.

A few disadvantages come with this option. You won’t be able to edit or move the color graphics because they’re already printed. The business cards are perforated and may be printed on paper that isn’t as thick as you might like. Be aware that perforated business cards may look “cheap” and the pre-printed designs may look familiar because they come from artwork that is “stock” and not original to you.

The use of color will make your marketing materials more attractive, persuade more prospects and convert more sales. Nowadays you can be creative with your printing solutions without spending a lot of money.

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Karen Saunders is the owner of MacGraphics Services, a unique graphic design firm for today’s entrepreneur. Karen Saunders and her team of award winning designers help authors and small business owners design their books, build their brand, launch their website and market their business. Visit her website to download a free Book Media Checklist and a free eCourse on How to Create a Best-selling Book Design from the Inside Outwww.MacGraphics.net You can also contact her at 888-796-7300, or Karen@macgraphics.net.

Printing Options for Your Self-Published Book

admin — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 16:48:11 +0000

April 2012

Printing Options for Your Self-Published Book

So you’ve finished writing your manuscript. You’ve hired an editor to edit your book and a designer to create the cover and lay out your interior. Great. Now you’re ready to print your book. There are two ways to have your book printed. Your choices are to have it printed conventionally or print on demand (POD).

I’ll explain the differences and provide a price chart for two hypothetical books. But, before you can make your printing choice, you need to decide if you want someone to handle the printing process for you, or to deal directly with the printer.

General Contractor vs Self-Publishing Company or Vanity Press

You can act as a general contractor and work with a book printer directly to get the best prices, or you can work with a self-publishing company or vanity press to handle the printing for you. Since you’re already working with a designer who will prepare print-ready files for you, I suggest consulting with your designer on getting a list of recommended printers, setting up your printing account and uploading your files.

If you work directly with the printer you’ll save money on your printing costs because all self-publishing companies and vanity presses mark up the cost of printing by at least 15% or 20% or as much as 200%. This is how they make much of their profit.

You can have your designer send your book’s high resolution PDF files directly to the same POD printer (Lightning Source, Inc.) that almost all self-publishing companies and vanity presses use and save hundreds or thousands of dollars.

If you work with a self-publishing company or vanity press, they usually have various service packages that may include designing the cover and interior, doing the editing and proofreading, getting your ISBN number, LCCN number, copyright registration and bar code, creating a website, providing marketing services and distribution, all for a portion of your book royalties AND a printing markup.

If you act as a general contractor you’ll need to do these things yourself or hire people or companies to do most of these services, but you’ll have more control over the quality and price.

I’ve put together an award-winning team of experts in all these areas who don’t take a portion of your royalties. Once you’ve paid for the service, you’re done paying. You work directly with the team member or company and not some overseas service agent.

If you act as a general contractor and work directly with your printer, you don’t share any portion of your royalties with any company and you don’t pay a markup on the printing cost. However, you still need to pay a trade discount (the percent you pay to the wholesaler and retailer) for retail sales of your book. You will also pay a fee or a percent to the distributor.

Conventional vs POD Printers

Let’s compare what conventional and POD printers have in common. Both will have customer service reps who can help you set up your account and answer questions about their products and services: (ie: paper stock, bindings, finishes, turnaround, printing and shipping costs, etc.). You can find excellent and poor printing quality and customer service with either type of printer.

How are they different? Conventional printers print a minimum of 500 or 1000 books per one order. POD printers can print as few as one book per order. Conventional printers will have more options for paper stocks, inks, and offer features that POD printers don’t (i.e.: special bindings, embossing, foiling, die cuts, specialty finishes).

The price for printing books conventionally will usually be lower because of the large quantity printed. However there is a sweet spot for soft cover books with lower page counts and B&W interiors. (See Print Comparison Chart below).

Conventional printing usually takes around 5 weeks to turnaround a soft cover book, whereas POD printers can turn it around in 2 weeks. If you need to reorder books, POD printers can turn around a small quantity in 48 hours for a rush charge.

Distributors and Discount Rates

If you choose a conventional printer, you will need to hire a distributor sell your books in bookstores. If you choose POD, the self-publishing company or vanity press will provide distribution to Amazon.com for online sales and with Ingram or Baker and Taylor for brick-and-mortar bookstore sales.

There are only two POD printers you can work directly with that are tied into distribution channels: CreateSpace and Lightning Source. CreateSpace is a self-publishing company owned by Amazon.com and has their own in-house book printing. They will take a 20% trade discount for book sales on CreateSpace, 40% for sales on Amazon.com and 60% for brick-and-mortar bookstores.

Lightning Source is a printer but not a publishing company. You can select a trade discount rate as low as 20% for Amazon.com sales. They recommend setting the discount between 20% to 55% for online sales, and 55% for brick-and- mortar bookstore sales. They work with Ingram and other distribution partners for book sales to brick-and-mortar bookstores.

If you hire a distributor or use a self-publishing company or vanity press, the trade discount rate may be as much as 50-60% for Amazon sales and 40% for brick-and-mortar bookstore sales.

Please note, many brick-and-mortar bookstores won’t list your book if you don’t have at least a 40% to 55% trade discount, however don’t assume they will carry copies of your book in their stores even if you do set it that high. Most self published authors don’t even bother with brick-and-mortar bookstore sales and just concentrate on building good online sales.

Printing Cost Comparisons

The printing price chart shown below is for two hypothetical books with soft and hard cover and two different page counts. The the books have a 6 x 9 trim size with full color cover and B&W interior. The hard cover has a dust jacket. This list does NOT include printing prices from self-publishing companies or vanity presses that mark up their printing costs.

You will notice that I highlighted all 128-page book prices between a low of $1.77 and $2.58. This seems to be the sweet spot where POD print costs are very competitive with conventional prices.

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Karen Saunders is the owner of MacGraphics Services, a unique graphic design firm for today’s entrepreneur. Karen Saunders and her team of award winning designers help authors and small business owners design their books, build their brand, launch their website and market their business. Visit her website to download a free Book Media Checklist and a free eCourse on How to Create a Best-selling Book Design from the Inside Out www.MacGraphics.net You can also contact her at 888-796-7300, or Karen@macgraphics.net.

Spotlight on a Client Project: Featuring Alphabet Denver and Kitty Migaki

admin — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 19:38:21 +0000

Spotlight on a Client Project: Branding, Book Cover, Book Interior and Website Design

Featuring Alphabet Denver by Kitty Migaki

March 2012

As a team leader serving the publishing community, I have the privilege of helping authors publish their books and launch their websites. Every client is so passionate about his or her book, product or service, it’s fun to live vicariously through their work for a few months.

Occasionally a client brings a project that seems to leap heads and shoulders above the rest in regard to the intriguing subject matter, quality of content, scope of work, artistic challenge and affect it has on our community.

One such project was Alphabet Denver, the first in a series of books by Kitty Migaki of Littleton, Colorado. It was so much fun taking her idea through the many phases — branding, cover design, interior layout, website writing, design and development — and sharing the work with multiple team members along the way.

Here’s the front cover of her book. Team member Kerrie Lian created the playful cover and interior design to complement the stunning photos and whimsical poems by Kitty Migaki.

I have a feeling this book will win many awards. It’s already won the Moonbeam Children’s Book Award in the Childen’s ABC Book Awards category.

Kitty and her book were prominently featured in The Denver Post. Here is a link to the story: http://www.denverpost.com/lifestyles/ci_19549379

What is Alphabet Denver?

Alphabet Denver is a 64 page full-color hardback book of the ABCs rendered in photographs of downtown Denver architecture. Accompanied by 10 different styles of tongue-teasing poetry including alliteration, limerick, concrete poems etc. Each letter includes the longitude and latitude of it’s location so readers can go on a GPS Alphabet Hunt! No GPS? No problem — the physical addresses are listed in the back.

For teachers and home schoolers Alphabet Denver is a teaching tool that facilitates learning. However, Alphabet Denver is REALLY about fun for families. Families can take the book downtown and find the letters in the kids’ names, turning the book into a fun game! Kitty has been contacted by several grandparents who found Alphabet Denver one of the few activities that they could share with their grandkids, and that the book commanded their attention whatever their age!

I asked Kitty why she wrote the book and she said she wanted to “create a book that offers multiple learning opportunities, and also provide an activity that generations can share with each other, and build memories. For folks who buy the book from my website or in person I also include a sheet of ABC stickers so readers can put a sticker on the Keep Track Page in the back of the book to record their letter find.”

Here are several of the letters on the double-page spreads designed by team member Kerrie Lian:

As you can see in the pages from the book above, Kerrie Lian was able to take Kitty’s photos and text and make them jump off the page! Kerrie selected the font, the colors, the embellishments, and captured Kitty’s vision for the book perfectly.

Team member and branding expert, Patrice Rhoades-Baum worked with Kitty to clarify her business objectives, identify her various target markets, see the many ways each different buyer can use the book, and create her top benefit message, which we transformed into a tagline.

Then Patrice wrote strategic hard-working website copy that educates the community, offers fun activities and sells books.

Lastly, Lauren Klopfenstein and Matt McKendree of Lauren Graphics Inc. collaborated with Kitty to design and develop the colorful, fun website. I’m proud to have such a talented team who can help my clients realize their dreams!

Shown below is the home page and a link to the site where you can buy her book: www.AlphabetDenver.com

Kitty said, “The website looks very professional and I like the bold colors in keeping with the theme of the book. Lauren and Matt, like Kerrie before them, were very good at listening during our discussions and making sure that what they designed and built was in keeping with the theme and overall look. The website for Alphabet Denver presented some new areas to explore in design and Matt went after it!

“It was a joy to work with both Patrice and Kerrie on the MacGraphics team. Patrice was a font of positive and creative suggestions and went beyond her usual role to provide expertise in more areas of the book. I can’t imagine working with anyone else but Kerrie, the design could not have meet my expectations better if I had done them myself, if only I could do design! I am looking forward to our next project, Alphabet Chicago.”

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Karen Saunders is the owner of MacGraphics Services, a unique graphic design firm for today’s entrepreneur. Get your copy of her free audio: Put the Bling Into Your Brand and free eCourse: 5 Deadly Design Mistakes that Could Kill a Sale and How to Avoid Them by visiting http://www.macgraphics.net/FreeStuff.php You can also contact her at 888-796-7300, or Karen@macgraphics.net.

26 Essential Items for a Professional Speaker’s Carry-On Bag

admin — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 19:32:50 +0000

Be a Prepared Speaker with this List of Must-Have Items

February 2012

Over the years, I’ve done some public speaking, mainly to position myself as an expert in my field. In that time I’ve been exposed to a variety of challenging situations that required on-the-spot creativity and preparedness. Murphy’s Law comes into play with technical difficulties, poor time management by meeting planners and just plain bad luck. At times I wondered how to make the most of a dire situation and still deliver a professional presentation.

Orvel Ray Wilson has put together a list of items a speaker must have to prepare for the inevitable. He has graciously allowed me to share it with you. Orvel has made a name for himself as a speaker with his Guerrilla Selling series and now is coaching speakers. He’s worked with a several of my clients, helping them launch products and keynote speaking careers. Make his list a part of your speaking preparedness routine, and you may save the day for yourself or someone else!

26 Essential Items for a Professional Speaker’s Carry-On Bag

by Orvel Ray Wilson, CSP

After 30 years as a Professional Speaker, I presented a two-day Guerrilla Selling seminar recently in Nairobi, Kenya, where I was reminded of the importance of being self-sufficient on the road. Africa is like a whole other country, and it’s hard to find stuff. The same could be said of Lincoln, Nebraska. Every Professional speaker should take responsibility for their own comfort and equipment, and always be prepared for the inevitable catastrophe.

The Professional Speaker’s Gig bag should contain:

Your laptop computer
A dedicated power supply that stays in your bag. (I recommend the universal Targus AC70U.) Leave the factory version at your desk. That way you’ll never make the mistake of forgetting to pack it. And you won’t be too disappointed when you leave the universal one behind at a venue. You can always get another at Staples.
Your own PowerPoint controller (I highly recommend the Logitech Professional Presenter R800, which includes a green laser and a cool timer that vibrates to tell you when to shut the hell up.)
A small portable mouse (a cheap one works fine; you won’t be using it that much.)
Copy of your install disk for Microsoft Office for when you’re sitting in a FedEx Kinko’s at 2:00 AM and need that obscure printer driver.
A 4 gig flash drive for backing up your presentation, and another for using sneakernet to transport it between platforms. Better still, carry an extra backup in your pocket or purse. It will save your show when your laptop dies or is stolen out of the meeting room while you pee.
Portable travel alarm clock with a display that you can read from across the stage. (Try the free iPhone app NightTime for its big red-number display.)
Portable digital thermometer, to settle the argument between the hotel engineer and the whining guest who insists it’s too cold.
Fully loaded iPod, with royalty-free music that you can play during walk-in and breaks in your program, plus news podcasts, a movie and a favorite TV show or two.
iPod/iPhone USB connector cord and AC adapter/charger
A spare pair of Apple earbuds so you can listen on the plane
A stereo 1/8″ (mini) phone to 2 mono 1/4″ phone send return (insert) cable so you can plug the iPod directly into the sound system (write it down and ask the geek at Radio Shack).
Noise canceling headphones (I highly recommend the Bose Quiet Comfort 15′s. They sound great, and are a great comfort when stuck on a plane next to the inconsolably crying baby.)
Three or four spare AAA batteries to power your remote and headphones.
Package of 2 spare Duracell 12V batteries for the wireless mics, even when the hotel supplies them. When they go dead, it’s always in the middle of your show.
Package of Halls Honey Lemon Cough Drops (the Cherry ones make your tongue look weird)
Pack of chewable Pepto Bismo tablets
Package of Imodium AD (for when the Pepto Bismo doesn’t help)
Melatonin tablets. The absolute best herbal remedy for jet lag. Take two an hour or two before sleepytime.
Blindfold (for airplane sleepytime. Also handy for terminating unwanted conversations with annoying seatmates.) You can buy them in most airport shops, but they hand these out free in first class, so ask the cabin crew for one on your next long haul.
Copy of your room setup instructions. The hotel will have lost the one you sent ahead. Trust me on this. And carry a version in Spanish, for when you’re working in a Latin American city like Los Angeles or Miami.
Copy of your standard introduction, printed in 24 point type. Your introducer will have forgotten the one you sent ahead. Trust me on this too.
Color copy of your passport (and applicable visas)
Color copy of your drivers license (enlarged 2x)
A crisp $100 bill (series 2000 or later; some overseas hotels won’t accept the older ones). Hide it in a zippered pocket of your computer bag. This can bail you out of a lot of trouble almost anywhere in the world.
$100 in 20s for tipping the hotel housemen when you have ask them to reset the whole meeting room classroom style instead of rounds.

All this, and more, fits neatly in my IBM Thinkpad’s little backback. Not only has it saved my skin, but it’s rescued more than my share of other speakers as well.

Orvel Ray Wilson, CSP is a 30 year veteran of the platform, award-winning international speaker, and co-author of the legendary Guerrilla Selling series. Call him at 800-247-9145. Visit his website: The Guerrilla Group.

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How Color Can Add “Zing” to Your Design and “Ka-Ching” to your Sales

admin — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 08:30:55 +0000

How Color Can Add “Zing” to Your Design and “Ka-Ching” to your Sales

January 2012

Vibrant colors add an exciting dimension to your marketing materials, but no one has to tell you 4-color graphics cost a lot more to print than black and white or 2-color graphics. How do you determine when it’s cost effective to go the distance and get full color?

In my experience, items such as book covers and video/audio/CD packages need to sell themselves on appearance alone. Often impulse buys, these items merit vibrant colors and attention-grabbing graphics or they fade away on the sellers’ shelves. By a phenomenally higher percentage, buyers are more likely to purchase books with a professionally designed, full-color cover than with an amateur cover that has only one or two colors.

For author Lin McNeil, I designed the second edition of her 7 Keys book cover using fresh graphics and full-color printing. Notice how the full-color cover jumps off the page compared with the original two-color version.

Before

After

When a portrait makes up the central graphic element in your piece, you want it to evoke a warm, personable feeling from the natural flesh tones of a full-color original photo. Add to that a colorful garment and action pose. Together, these color elements draw attention to the photo, which is what you want!

In Diane Sieg’s flyer, notice how her personality comes alive with the use of full color. As a result, the most important graphic element—her colorful fun portrait—becomes the focal point of the page.

Before

After

I recommend cutting back to 2-color graphics for your printed stationery and newsletters. That way, you can save your money for full-color printing on projects that demand more pizzazz—those have to jump off the sellers’ shelves.

Eye-Popping Tip: Printing full-color graphics on a traditional offset press becomes cost-effective in quantities above 1000. In many cases, a quantity of 500 usually costs only $30 less than a 1000. Why? Because the printer’s set-up charges make up most of the initial cost.

Want an alternative to offset printing? Consider opting for digital printing or color copies for quantities below 500. Color copies are priced per page without an initial set-up charge. Do your research and determine where the price break is for the quantity you want to print. That will help you decide which option to choose.

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Karen Saunders is the owner of MacGraphics Services, a unique graphic design firm for today’s entrepreneur. Get your copy of her free audio: Put the Bling Into Your Brand and free eCourse: 5 Deadly Design Mistakes that Could Kill a Sale and How to Avoid Them by visiting http://www.macgraphics.net/FreeStuff.php You can also contact her at 888-796-7300, or Karen@macgraphics.net.

Do your marketing tools focus on YOU or your PROSPECTS? Take a quick quiz!

admin — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 02:45:12 +0000

December 2011

A client pointed out that the projects my team and I create – websites, one-sheets, and other marketing tools – successfully “encapsulate” what the target audience really wants; they don’t simply describe the product or service being sold. In other words, the copy focuses on the benefits and results the target audience receives. I asked my team member Patrice Rhoades-Baum to address this idea. Patrice is a marketing consultant specializing in branding for solopreneurs and micro-businesses, and she’s an expert copywriter for websites and one-sheets.

Do your marketing tools focus on YOU or your PROSPECTS? Take a quick quiz!

By Patrice Rhoades-Baum

Decades ago, I learned this marketing maxim: Your customers are always listening to radio station WIFM: What’s In it For Me? It’s a well-worn phrase, but it’s right on the money.

Throughout my 30-year marketing career, I’ve held onto this adage like a touchstone in a pocket. Why? Because WIFM reminds me to focus on the prospects and their needs or challenges. WIFM reminds me to look for the top benefit or result that prospects receive, whether I’m branding a client’s business or writing copy for websites and one-sheets.

Remember: It’s about THEM. It’s not about you.

Weirdly, the key messages in your brand, on your website, and in your marketing tools shouldn’t place the emphasis on you, your services, or your products. Instead, the focus should be on the prospects’ needs and how your services and products meet those needs. For many solopreneurs, this is a 180-degree shift in thinking.

Why is benefit-driven copy important?

Copy that clearly states the top, resonating benefit helps prospects quickly connect the dots and answer their key question: “What’s in it for me?”

Example 1: Let’s say a corporate manager seeks a teambuilding expert, visits a consultant’s website, and sees this tagline: “We Are the Teambuilding Experts.” The prospect’s response: “Hmm, I know what this business offers, but can this consultant successfully address my challenge? I need to spend more time at this website – or go to another website.”

Example 2: The manager visits another consultant’s website and sees this tagline: “Create a Dynamic, Inspired Team of Leaders.” The prospect’s response: “I’ve landed at the right place! This consultant gets my immediate need – and my long-term goal. I’d like to learn more.”

Is your marketing copy YOU-focused? Take a quick quiz!

Go to your website and print out your Services page (or your Home page, a landing page, or an article you’ve written). Now follow these two steps:

Circle the words we and our in red, count them, and write down the number.
Circle the words you and your in blue, count them, and write down the number.

How did you do? Ideally, the words you and your appear more frequently than the words we and our. If not, rework sentences to shift the focus to the prospect.

Here’s an example:

WE-focused: We have provided reliable, award-winning products since 2003. Plus, we offer our customers 24×7 customer service.
YOU-focused: Since 2003, customers like you have turned to us for reliable, award-winning products. Plus, if you need assistance, our 24×7 customer-service reps are here to help you.

With benefit-driven marketing tools, your prospects will instantly grasp the top benefit without puzzling out “how does this relate to me?” And they can immediately answer their key question: “What’s in it for me?”

About Patrice Rhoades-Baum, Branding & Website Expert

Specializing in Small-Biz Branding and Expert Copywriting for Websites and One-Sheets

Backed by 30 years of strategic marketing communications, Patrice teams with professional speakers, authors, and consultants to clarify their brand and write copy for their new website and one-sheet. An expert copywriter, Patrice has been published in Fortune magazine. She is creator of the forthcoming product Nail Your Brand: A 5-Step System to Brand Your Business. Learn more at www.BrandingAndWebsites.com.

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Common Acronyms Used in Publishing, Printing, Design and Graphics

admin — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 23:18:33 +0000

November 2011

Common Acronyms Used in Publishing, Printing, Design and Graphics

Are you stumped by new acronyms that have suddenly as popped up and become part of the current lexicon in the publishing, marketing or advertising arenas? I’ve notice new acronyms are born whenever there is a new leap in technology, such as the emerging field of ebook publishing. Here are definitions of some common and newly coined acronyms you’ll be sure to hear about, if you haven’t already.

AI — Adobe Illustrator

A vector-based graphic file format developed by Adobe.

BMP — Bitmap

A raster-based file format.

CMYK— Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black

A four-ink color system used by printers to print full color images. This is “process color” printing.

CTP — Computer to Plate

A technology used in the printing industry. A desktop-published document is imaged directly onto a computer plate, skipping the film negative state.

DPI — Dots Per Inch

A measurement for gauging resolution in printing. In printing it refers to the number of dots placed in a line within one linear inch in a halftone image.

DRM — Digital Rights Management

A proprietary file encryption that helps publishers limit the illegal sale of copyrighted books.

EBOOK — Electronic Book

A book in electronic form. Ebook files have file extensions of .mobi, .prc, .pdf, or .epub.

EPS — Encapsulated PostScript

A graphics file format developed by Adobe.

EPUB — Electronic Publishing

A file format for electronic books and Web publishing. The Apple ipad tablet with the ibookstore app, the Sony Nook, and the Adobe Digital Editions application all use this format to open ebooks.

FTP — File Transfer Protocol

A standard network protocol used to transfer files from one server to another over the Internet. Very efficient and fast.

GIF — Graphics Interchange Format

A file format developed by CompuServe and is used for bitmap images used on the Internet.

HTML — HyperText Markup Language

Standard coding protocol used for formatting and displaying text and graphics on the Internet. This language is used in formatting ebooks now too.

ISBN — International Standard Book Number

A unique 13-digit book identifier. Publishers purchase a separate ISBN number from Bowker.com for each book and every format of that book.

ISSN — International Standard Serial Number

An 8-digit unique identifier for a printed or electronic periodical publication.

JPG — Joint Photographic Experts Group

A file format was developed by the this group to standardize compressed graphics files. Often used for images on the Internet, photos and large graphics.

LCCN — Library of Congress Control Number

A serially based system for numbering catalog records (books) in the Library of Congress.

MOBI — Mobipocket

A file format for ebooks used on the Amazon Kindle, Mobipocket Reader and other ereader devices.

OCR — Optical Character Recognition

Software that scans images of handwritten or typed words and translates them into editable text. It is widely used to convert printed books and other large documents into electronic formats.

PDF — Portable Document Language

A versatile file format allows you to view the document on a variety of platforms (Macintosh, PC, UNIX, etc) using the free Adobe Acrobat reader.

PHP — Hypertext Preprocessor

A scripting language used to create dynamic web pages

PMS — Pantone Matching System

A proprietary color ink system by Pantone. These premixed spot colors are used in the printing industry.

PNG — Portable Network Graphics

A file format for bitmap images that incorporates compression. It was created to replace the GIF format for Internet graphics and photos.

POD — Print on Demand

A printing technology that allows individual books to be printed one at a time, as they are ordered.

PPC — Pay Per Click

An Internet advertising model to direct traffic to websites. The advertisers pay the publisher (i.e. Amazon) each time the ad is clicked.

PPI — Pixels per inch

A measurement for gauging resolution in video or printing. In video it refers to spacing between the red, green and blue dots and in printing, it’s the number of pixels that appear in one inch.

PRC — Palm Resource Code

An alternate file format for ebook documents used on Amazon Kindle, Mobipocket Reader and other ereader devices.

QR Code — Quick Response Code

A square matrix barcode made up of little black and white squares. You’ll see them printed on products, marketing pieces and ads. When you use your smart phone to scan them, you’ll be taken to a website where a video or more information about the product or service is found.

RSS — Resource Description Framework (RDF) Site Summary

A family of web feed formats to publish updated works such as blogs, audios and videos.

SEM — Search Engine Marketing

A form of Internet marketing that promotes web page visibility in search engine results.

SEO — Search engine Optimization

The process of improving a webpage rank with search engines such as Google.

TIF — Tagged Image File

A format for raster-based images such as photos.

URL — Uniform Resource Locator

The address of a particular file or page on the Internet. It usually begins with http://www as in: http://www.macgraphics.net

XTML — Extensible HyperText Markup Language

An update of HTML which works as well or better than HTML, but has certain additional requirements in coding.

FROYO — Frozen Yogurt

Just seeing if you’ve read through the whole list!

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What are Your Options for Binding Books and Other Materials?

admin — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 23:47:42 +0000

October 2011

What are Your Options for Binding Books and Other Materials?

Just as you have many choices for printers, paper, and folding, you’ll find lots of options for binding your projects, too. Each binding method has a specific benefit, whether it’s low cost, durability, or the ability to lie flat when open. Be sure to ask your printer for advice on choosing the appropriate binding for your project.

Here are some of the most common binding methods and applications for each of them.

Case Bound (Hard Cover)

You would likely choose this kind of binding for reference books, archival materials, textbooks, children’s books, and gift books.

With case bound binding, the signatures of paper (usually one signature is 32 pages) are glued together, then glued to a gauze strip. After that, the entire book block is glued with end sheets onto hard covers. For added durability, the signatures can be sewn together first, allowing the book to lie flatter than a perfect bound book (see on the next page) but not as flat as Wire-O® or spiral bound books (see on the following pages). The spine of the book can be squared or rounded depending on the equipment that the case binder has. Notice it has hinges (grooves) along the edges of the cover near the spine.

Some hard covers feature printed artwork laminated to the boards. Others can have dust covers, which are the paper “jackets” you see on books. Those books with dust covers usually have a cloth covering on the boards. Alternatively, they could have paper covers that look like cloth, but are less expensive. The title of the book may be foil stamped onto the spine and/or front cover.

Perfect Bound (Soft Cover)

Most commonly used for paperback books and documents, soft covers are bound in a similar way as hard cover books. Perfect binding is also used to bind novels, annual reports, and self-help books.

With this type, after the signatures are gathered, the spine is ground to create a rough surface and then glued to a paper cover. For added durability, the spine can be notched (cut with v-shaped slits), allowing more surface for glue. This is called notch-perfect binding. While the glue is still hot, the paper cover gets wrapped around the spine. Alternatively, you can ask to have the signatures sewn instead of glued. The sewn option allows the book to open somewhat flat, though not as much as other kinds of bindings.

Otabind or Lay Flat

Otabind or Lay Flat binding is frequently used for technical manuals, directories, cookbooks, and reference books. In this type of binding, the signatures are gathered and glue is applied to the spine, then the book block is capped covering only the glue. The capping is side glued and a cover is applied, adhering only to the side glue and detached from the spine. This particular process was patented, but the patent has expired, which is why you’ll hear the term “Lay Flat” binding more often than Otabind.

Its advantage is in its name; a book with Lay Flat binding opens completely. You’ll find it’s much easier to use a cookbook that lies flat on a counter than one you have to hold in your hands to read.

Spiral Bound

You’ll find that spiral binding is well suited for short prints runs of reports, brochures, presentation materials, workbooks, and manuals.

With this type of binding, the cover and interior pages are punched with holes through which a single plastic or wire spiral is inserted. You’ll find the plastic spirals available in many colors and wire spirals mostly available in black. This versatile, inexpensive binding allows the pages to lie flat, although they may not align exactly. Beware: The ends of the spiral can snag fabric and other things.

Wire-O® Binding

Used for reference manuals, address books, cookbooks, and journals, this type of versatile, durable binding will allow the pages to lie perfectly flat on a counter or table.

With this type, the cover and interior pages are punched with holes through which a double looped wire is inserted. Why a double looped wire? Because it allows for nearly perfect alignment between pages. Ask your designer or printer for additional variations available.

Saddle Stitched

Used on thin booklets, brochures, newsletters, and catalogs, saddle stitching is among the most widely used and inexpensive kinds of binding available.

With this type of binding, the signatures are all gathered and folded together. Then they are placed over a “saddle” and stapled along the spine. The book lies relatively flat, but it doesn’t have a spine and may not last under heavy use. Quick to assemble, saddle stitching can accommodate gate folds and foldouts.

If your document is thicker than a quarter of an inch, you likely won’t be able to use this style of binding.

Side Stitched

Also a fast, easy, and inexpensive type of binding, side stitching requires a minimum of a one-inch margin on the spine side. It’s commonly used for digitally produced documents, manuals, and large brochures.

With this type of binding, the loose pages and cover are stitched together with staples on the outside of the book block. The cover can be two sheets or one sheet wrapped around the spine. It won’t allow the pages to lie flat and thickness of the document is limited.

From these choices, it becomes clear that various applications call for different kinds of bindings. Ask your printer for the kind best recommended for your project.

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What to Consider When Buying a Desktop Scanner

admin — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 20:21:22 +0000

September 2011

What to Consider When Buying a Desktop Scanner

In this digital age most photos are created as electronic jpg files inside our cameras, but sometimes we need to scan old photos, drawings or paintings as digital images for projects. Currently we are designing the cover and interior or a biographical book. Many of the old photos we plan to use in the book were taken decades before the invention of the digital camera.

I would like to share some basic information about scanners so you know what to consider when buying a scanner. Some of our clients prefer to scan the old photos and give us the files.

Scanners are popular tools for doing desktop publishing and web design. You’ll find a wide range of scanners available—from a low-cost black and white hand-held variety to high-quality, professional color devices. For the highest quality, printers and service bureaus use expensive drum scanners. The high-quality scans they produce are required for high-end printing projects such as book and magazine covers, images for coffee table books, and advertisements. A skilled operator using a CCD (charge-coupled device) flatbed scanner can produce similar high-quality scans.

Optical Resolution

When determining which scanner to use for your work, look for optical resolution specifications. These are two numbers that indicate how many pixels per inch (e.g., 600 x 600 PPI) are scanned in each direction. (I suggest you ignore the interpolated resolution numbers—these are measurements made when the scanner inserts new pixels between scanned ones.)

How much resolution your scan needs depends on how you plan to use your scanned images. For example, photos for offset printing are usually scanned at 300 PPI. Line art (such as black and white pen and ink illustrations) for offset printing need to be scanned at 1200 PPI to ensure that the lines are smooth. Images to be printed on desktop laser or color inkjet printers are scanned at 100 to 200 PPI. Photos and line art for the Internet are scanned at 72 PPI while images for PC-PowerPoint presentations are 96 PPI. Text that will be converted to text characters (using OCR technology) are scanned at 300 to 400 PPI.

Eye-Popping Tip. Always scan your images at the final size you plan to use them. Do not enlarge your scans, as they will lose resolution.

Dynamic Range

Most flatbed scanners have a dynamic range of about 2.4. If you need to display better detail in shadow areas or you plan to scan negatives and slides, you may be better off using a top-quality color flatbed or drum scanner that can provide a dynamic range of 2.8 to 3.2.

Bit Depth

Most color scanners are at least 24-bit, which results in near-photographic quality in terms of the range of colors. Scanners that are 30-bit and 36-bit can capture billions of colors. I recommend these for scanning slides and negatives, but beware that few software packages can open these files. Note: Not all monitors can display 24-bit color. If you’re using an 8-bit (256-color) monitor, then a 24-bit image may look blotchy on screen.

Other Considerations

In general, CCD (charge-coupled devices) produce better scans than low profile, less expensive scanners. Make sure the scanning bed is large enough for your documents. Consider the scanner’s speed and determine if you need a slide adapter. Sheetfed scanners take up less room on your desktop, but you can’t scan a 3-D object or book using this kind of scanner.

An option that may come with a scanner and affect its cost is software. Yes, you will need to have photo-editing software (such as Adobe Photoshop) to create quality scans, especially from less-than-perfect originals.

Eye-Popping Tip: OCR (optical character recognition) software allows a scanner to read handwritten or printed text, then convert it into text characters that can be read by any word processing software. OmniPage and Text Bridge are examples of two OCR software programs.

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Karen Saunders is the owner of MacGraphics Services, a unique graphic design firm for today’s entrepreneur. Get your copy of her free audio: Put the Bling Into Your Brand and free eCourse: 5 Deadly Design Mistakes that Could Kill a Sale and How to Avoid Them by visiting http://www.macgraphics.net/FreeStuff.php You can also contact her at 888-796-7300, or Karen@macgraphics.net.

My Journey Converting my Printed Book into an eBook: Lessons Learned

Karen Saunders — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 17:42:47 +0000

August 2011

My Journey Converting my Printed Book into an eBook: Lessons Learned

As an author and independent publisher I’m always looking for ways to leverage my work. Turning my intellectual property into various products is a pretty obvious solution. The emerging popularity of Kindle, ipads and Nooks convinced me now was the time to convert my printed book, Turn Eye Appeal into Buy Appeal into an ebook.

Many Ways to Sell and Distribute eBooks

I discovered there are several routes I could take to sell and distribute my ebooks, depending on how much time and effort I wanted to put into the distribution process. I initially learned that I could use a 3^rd party aggregator to get my books listed on popular ebook sales sites such as Amazon.com’s Kindle department, Apple iBookstore and Barnes & Noble’s Nook’s department.

All About Aggregators

Third party aggregators (such as Smashwords, BiblioCore, LuLu, Book Baby, LibreDigital, DarkFire, InGrooves, and many more) help self-publishers convert their books into ebooks and set up distribution with the popular retailers I’ve already mentioned. But the aggregators also take a cut (sometimes a significant cut) of each sale. Some aggregators also use contracts that are digital rights management (DRM)-free. DRM protects the copyrights of electronic media. DRM as applied to ebooks is a proprietary file encryption that helps publishers limit the illegal sale of copyrighted books. This is very important to me, so it was another reason not to use aggregators.

Direct Portals to Retail Sites

Next, I discovered there are direct portals to each of these retail sites. I set up my own publisher’s account with Apple, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Google. This allowed me to keep a bigger portion of my sales by selecting a discount rate of my choice, (the discount rate is an amount I agree to give to the retailer to sell my book) and keep the middleman (aggregator) out of it.

I filled out an application and contract online with each of the retailers and provided information on how they could make payments to my bank account, as well as metadata (information about the book such as copyright date, book categories, ISBN number, keywords, etc). Then I had to convert my book to the proper format they requested, and upload the ebook file and cover image.

Here is a chart on the most popular ebook formats:

Many ways to convert a book into an ebook

My printed book was originally formatted in Adobe InDesign, and I also had an identical version available in a PDF file format. (I can easily output an identical version of my printed book in a PDF file through Adobe InDesign or Distiller.) But these sites didn’t want a PDF file. They wanted Mobi or ePub format.

My book was two columns and had over 200 illustrations and graphics throughout the interior, so it was a fairly complicated layout. I discovered that complex interior formats don’t easily translate into ebook pages.

Although InDesign has a feature that allows me to convert a document into epub, and I’ve seen websites (including Amazon’s) that claim it is easy and inexpensive to translate a file, they just didn’t result in a clean format. First of all, eBook readers are built to support one long continuous column, so I had to make some major adjustments to my 2-column layout. A proper layout was particularly important to me since my book was about design, layout and marketing! The websites and automated conversion software do convert very simple word documents with pretty good results though.

So I sought out the experts in this area; individuals and companies who specialize in ebook conversion services. Since my book had such a complex layout, the price was quite high. I also got a price from a company overseas. I quickly learned that you get what you pay for. As in any service field, the price of the service usually matches the quality you receive.

Overseas Service

I paid a very low price for the ebook conversion service, but I had to spend many hours proofing layout and formatting errors and checking all the links. The titles, subtitles, lists, body copy and graphics were not formatted in a consistent manner or in a standard book format. Indents and justified formatting were applied to titles and subtitles when they shouldn’t have been. Links were not active or were going to the wrong places, headline text was clipped off, graphics were missing or in the wrong places, and on and on. Eventually after several months of working with the contractor on both the mobi and epub versions of my ebooks, the files were formatted properly and I was able to upload them to the retail sites.

Some things to watch out for:

Make sure you have an active table of contents with live links that go to the correct sections in your book interior
Make sure your epub document passes the epub validation test (a free test is available at www.threepress.org)
Be sure your ebook has it’s own ISBN number (you can buy a block of 10 ISBN numbers from www.Bowker.com). Amazon will assign their own unique identifier to your book, but Apple requires an ISBN number.
Be sure to have an eye-catching cover design with a title that you can read clearly when it is reduced to postage stamp size.
Reformat your front cover to 600 pixels wide by 800 pixels tall at 300 DPI so it maximizes the entire screen on most eReader devices.
Check your files on all the ebook software readers and devices. If you don’t own a Kindle, Nook or iPad, find a friend who does. Download Adobe Digital Editions and Kindle for Mac/PC. Look at your book on each one and make sure everything looks and works properly.
Put your table of contents first, even before your copyright page.
Be careful about your decision on digital rights management and how you answer this question on contracts.
Do the numbers on how to price your book according to the discount rate you pay the distributor/retailer. It sometimes works best to lower your price to get a higher profit margin. For example, Amazon and Apple will pay up to 70% royalty on a book if it is priced between $2.99 and $9.99. They only pay 35% if the book is priced at $10.00 or more!

New Technology and the Lack of Established Standards

As with any new technology, standards need to be established, and ebooks are no exception. There is a lot of debate among developers and publishers regarding a number of issues including whether every ebook format needs a separate ISBN number, the standard order of pages, coding that provides consistent results on every version of each device and software, consistent image size and resolution requirements for cover and interior graphics, formatting that resembles books, navigation, whether the devices supports color imagery, etc. This is where a lot of the labor was spent; trying to make my book look the best on every eReader device out there.

I hope this helps you find your path from printed book to ebook with fewer trials and tribulations. I now work with a local expert on ebook conversions for my clients’ books. Give me a call if you would like an estimate on costs to convert your book: 888-796-7300.

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Karen Saunders and her team of award winning designers help authors and small business owners design their books, build their brand, launch their website and market their business. Visit her website to download a free Book Media Checklist and a free eCourse on How to Create a Best-selling Book Design from the Inside Out www.MacGraphics.net