Thursday, May 18, 2006

Try Google Book Search.

Marketing Tip: Google is testing a new program called "Google Book Search," which uses Google's powerful search engine to help people find the books they are looking for and where they can be purchased. While you should not confuse Google Book Search with marketing, it is a useful marketing tool that you would be well advised to use if you can. There are restrictions. For example, you need to be the rights holder to the book in question, which should not be a problem for self-publishers; have an ISBN number and a bar code; and a way that people can order your books. The Publishing Pro, LLC

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Extremely Small Print Runs Can Be Useful.

Micro-Publishing Is Fast! We've often told people to not let the necessity of doing very small runs stop them from publishing. In fact, we find that our customers can arrange to recover their out-of-pocket costs after selling only 200 copies of an initial press run of 500. However, some customers have good reasons for printing even less--but they still want their book to look like a trade book (that's a book that would look respectable in a bookstore). No matter. Here at the Business of Art Center in Manitou Springs, Colorado, where we call home, we just helped a business executive complete a book--from light edit to finished copies--in a little more than a week. He only needed enough copies to circulate to a corporate board of directors, but he wanted it in a hurry and he wanted it to look like it belonged in Barnes and Noble. We did the prep at warp speed, printed the project on our juiced-up copier, and hustled it over to a local binder for professional (perfect) bookbinding. It looked great. This is not normally the way to go, but it is a useful when you need to impress an important but small group of readers, as he did, to print review copies some weeks in advance of your final press run, or to hedge your bets by testing the waters with a very small press run. The Publishing Pro, LLC.