Principles of Pubishing In The Digital Age: 6th Edition

INTRODUCTION

I wrote the first edition in response to much of the chatter I read in numerous internet forums, where it seemed that there was no end to the number of newbies posting queries about this or that aspect of publishing. Some of the threads overlapped. These people seemed to have no clue even how to write a book and were begging for help. Others expressed the same questions about how to do this or that to publish, from formatting their books to bypassing difficulties with other situations, from marketing to dealing with internet etiquette to engaging in contract affiliations with other publishers. After reading the same lamentations for the thousandth time I decided that it was time to share my own learning experiences in the world of publishing.

I was not new to publishing in the old print process, having participated in writing and illustrating stories for small press publications and fanzines. I was already a writer and artist when I was introduced to mimeographic and dittographic printing. I still love the smell of ditto ink; it reminds me of when we got our notes and tests in school and we used to sniff the freshly printed paper. It smelled so… scholastic. But I digress.

In college I took courses in layout and advertising design. By the time I graduated I knew how to prepare a professional looking flyer, brochure, or whatever was needed on paper. While I was there I prepared flyers announcing events for various campus groups. I learned about transfer lettering and dot screen film (thank the gods for Zipatone™!), ruling lines and spacing, layout and paste up.

I worked inhouse at several printing companies and publishers that shipped out their art to be processed after the paste up of each page was made. The smell of rubber cement  also comes to mind. It used to give me headaches. I learned how to cut rubylith, to mask the negative images, and how to use various typesetting machines to produce copy and headlines. I learned the advantages and the limitations of those processes. Other houses worked in 4-color serigraphic printing and rotogravure, but those processes were expensive for me to use on my own projects so I was forced to stick to black ink applications at the time.

I also worked for a screen printing company and learned how the screens were made, what kind of inks were used and how to clean them. At the time the company only worked the old fashioned way, by providing a screen for each color of ink used. But my job did not last long as I also got headaches from the fumes of ink and cleaners, and my doctor advised me to quit.

At the time the quality and types of small press magazines and fanzines varied. Some consisted of pages of dittoed or mimeographed newsletters, assembled and then stapled together to share among the contributors. We called these zines, which became the output of APAs, short for Amateur Press Associations. They were actually the forerunners of what we now call internt forums, and their articles were blogs in print. They consisted of commentary about this or that genre or subject, an observation, or a review of a book or movie. Others gradually developed into anthologies of short stories written by fans of this or that genre, some illustrated and assembled into large volumes of fiction, and sold only for the cost to print.

This is not what we call fan fiction. These were original stories or articles written whole cloth from the writers’ own imaginations; while fan fiction were original stories written by fans about characters from specific films or television shows. I published two fanzine series of my own during that time, but not having access to an economical binding service I was forced to staple the pages together, then slip a plastic report spine over the edges to make it stable. Each series died out as interest in the specific subject waned, and there was no longevity to their collectible value.

While there is a great deal of controversy about fan fiction from the view of the various television and film producers, which see these imaginative offspring as a violation of copyright and intellectual property appropriation, fan fiction does and continues to persist to this day. That no one makes any real money from these ventures makes no difference. It is the love of the particular subject which propogates the stories, and their writers have done their homework.

Nevertheless, any serious author must acknowledge that there is a vast difference between fan fiction and that which most traditional publishers view as original and created entirely by the author from his own imagination. To that end, the publishers do not accept fan fiction for publication and there is a true and legal danger of liability for copyright infringement.

Lately, the standards have relaxed somewhat when books like Fifty Shades of Grey were published, which originated from fan fiction with the names and place changed to avoid ingringement.

When photocopy processing was developed I embraced it as the up and coming thing. But here there were several limitations as well. Pages processed by thermal imaging had a tendency to fade over time, and the paper was too delicate and easy to destroy. As companies like Xerox and Canon kept tinkering with the process, they improved the quality of reproduction and made it easier to copy documents by developing the photocopy process.

Then one day along came color photocopy. The quality was not up to maximum then, and the colors had a tendency to fade or change color, sometimes with applications of waxy inks. At that time I belonged to a fan club that published their own monthly newsletter and I helped them to prepare their galleys, sometimes creating full color covers for them. I learned what limitations there were in that medium, too.

While I was thus occupied I wanted to do still more, and to streamline the process to make my own writing available to the wider public. But I was not sure which direction to go and there were very few resources. Companies like Microsoft and Apple were working on improving and expanding the storage capacity of their computers, but many people did not own their own desktop computers yet. Google and Yahoo did not yet exist. Netscape was a burbling infant crawling on the floor. BlackBerry and full feature cell phones were a twinkle in someone’s eye, inspired by science fiction and fantasy films.

As I watched all this activity I know that one day the publishing industry would experience a revolution. As personal computers became the powerhouse tools they are today, so did the development of software to enable one to publish a complete book in a variety of sizes and formats.

Then, in 2003, along came print on demand. Okay, I said it. POD. PRINT ON DEMAND.

In 2005, while I was looking on the internet for an economical way to get just one book printed, I discovered Lulu.com. Lulu was the most prolific printer of POD books, art, photo albums and other printed products for the time. I looked at the site, studied the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions), and quickly learned that I could have a book published without spending anything in advance.

Later I discovered that dealing with Lulu was frought with obstacles. Lulu had a black mark against it for not offering a return policy on books ordered through them. No professional bookseller would deal with them, and the authors who signed on to have their books printed and distributed have been met with delays in listings, distribution issues and a slowdown in payouts, all of which have resulted in Lulu’s downward spiral into some obscurity.

Soon afterward Lulu added on a series of distribution channels which included access to Amazon.com’s vast bookselling channel, and/or access to booksellers like Barnes & Noble, Borders, Waterstones and Blackwell. But this cost more money than it was worth, since along with the fee for distribution the retail price of any book soared into the stratosphere.

There is already a stigma attached to the process itself due to propaganda circulated by supporters of the traditional publishers, who view this as a competitive end run around their profit margins. They do not want you to know about POD. They look down their collective noses at the independent publisher because they were looking at the future and they were afraid of it. In their world, many really good writers are ignored, or rejected by agents who are swamped by submissions and like it that way because it reduces the competition. The gateway position they placed themselves in also increased the number of really good books which will never see print. So much for freedom of the press. There is also no guarantee that the books themselves were really that good.

True, many books put out in the POD format are down to outright B.A.D., as there is no quality control for the authors or their work. But the reader’s interest determines the success or failure of any author, so there is no danger that we will be flooded with stinkers; and one either sinks or swims in this business. The bottom line is that the stinkers will go unsold, while the stars will emerge to shine. POD is not the problem. It is a process; a tool like any other. To fault the process is to miss the point.

With print on demand, there is no inventory to keep on hand, no cost except the cost of printing and shipping and a commission paid on the sale price once the book is sold. You can be published in a matter of minutes if you prepare your project right. There is no guarantee that you will become famous this way, but you will be successful as long as you are loyal to your own project. If you have a story to tell, you now have a chance to make it available to readers at a relatively low cost and you also have the option to sell them yourself in whatever manner you choose.

The advent of the ebook (or e-book) has also created a diverse marketplace, as the world begins to find ways to get around the deforestation of the planet by going paperless. Of course, even storage becomes an iffy proposition in a world dependent on electricity to make things work, because there is no guarantee that these devices and products will last forever. But for those who cannot afford to haul a library of books and papers around with them wherever they go, the ebook has proved its worth.

As the technology to make reading ebooks develops and improves, the prevalence of the ereader as a mobile device will make its importance more critical to those seeking to get their books out there in front of their target consumers: people who have purchased ereaders so that they can take their library with them wherever they go. The ebook was developed for ease of use and convenience. It is merely a matter of using the software properly in order to produce economical files which can be stored on these devices. I have devoted a special section to digital books, devices and also that strange new rights clause: DRM, which everyone keeps talking about, but never likes. DRM is basically a lock against copyright infringement, but which already been hacked into several times and has proven to be a hindrance, not a help.

Take heart that the printed book is not likely to be replaced anytime soon. The value of a book on paper is appreciated by those who know that, should the world lose its ability to use electrical power, the hard copy of the human record will still be there in a relatively permanent form, as it has been for centuries.

This, too is an ephemeral concept since paper itself is subject to the ravages of age, damage, and fire. The records of the ancients were kept on more durable materials like iron, bronze, precious metals and stone, but most were not portable. India began keeping records on palm leaves bound in sheaves, and they retain their freshness to this day.

If you are in search of a self-help publisher there is a dozen of them out there, hoping that you will plunk down cash to have them print your books. On any given day I receive a postcard from a subsidy publisher or a large volume printing firm extolling their services for only $1,000 per title, and that is just the set up charge. Printing each book costs more. Some of these services demand a minimum print run per title. Publicity and promotion cost still more. The cumulative effect of these charges is that you can easily spend more than $2,000 or more before you see a single copy roll off the printer.

Today I have published more than 25 books and an equal number of ebooks; several of which have gone out of print. They are sold all over the world online. I achieved this success by feeling my way around and making mistakes just like the rest of you. But I succeeded at producing books that are just as good in quality as those of the big house publishers. All it takes is dedication and the will to learn, and you too can be a successful author or publisher in a matter of a few days.

In this book I will show you what I learned to do so you can start yourself on your way. Here you will find a vast quantity of resources that will help you publish and promote your project. I will also discuss copyright law and registration of your book, as well as accounting, legal and taxation issues you need to pay attention to ensure your continued success; as well as the pitfalls you may encounter.

This information is offered for the publication of a book, but it can be applied to any product you want to sell, whether it is a music file, a video, a toy, or other sundry item. What you do with the knowledge is entirely up to you. —T. L. Carlyle

The History of Books and Printing

Before we begin with the basics I want to acquaint you with a brief history of the publishing industry, which has had a long and glorious run from neolithic times to today.

In The Beginning The first books were scrolls of demotic script written by scribes employed by the pharoahs of Egypt as long ago as 4,000 BC, and are the earliest known records kept on a material other than stone. Before that, many of the earliest records and books were carved into wax and stone by the ancient Sumerians, in what is modern Iraq. The first ancient laws on the books were written there and were used to spread a system of law across the known world.

As the Egyptians and Greeks conquered more and more territory, they brought writing to the early dynasties of Mongols, who in turn gave rise to China. Soon after that, the Chinese developed their own system of writing and record keeping, and are famous for keeping the earliest known astronomical almanacs and horoscopes in the world.

As successive dynasties were born, and the Greeks and Romans began to flourish and broaden their empires, writing and books became necessary to maintain an educated nobility and bureaucracy. Greek slaves knowing how to read and write enjoyed the same privileges as Roman nobles.

While this was going on, successive Persian and Chinese conquerors made good use of these skills. There was no common language yet, so letters exchanged among the kings and emperors were translated. The translations were written down by the scribes to keep a record of what was said and bound into books. Tibetan priests kept records of the history of their region on folded sheets of parchment or palm leaves, bound between two boards and tied with silk.

There was no formal system of education then, so the only people who could read or write were from the upper classes. The peasants were allowed a cursory oral education from the temple priests, who selected only a few to become scribes.

Around 200 AD the Chinese developed the wood block printing method, a technique for printing text, images or patterns on textiles and later paper. The wood block method was to pass ink over a carved plate of wood, then lay down a sheet of rice paper and allow it to absorb the ink. The result speeded up the process of copying. The earliest surviving examples from China date to before 220 BC, and from Egypt to the 4th century AD.

The Middle Ages - When the Roman empire fell in the 4th century AD, there followed a period of darkness, that is: we don’t really know how many books were written or kept during this time. In 415 the archbishop Cyril declared many books of the world to be evil and ordered the Library of Alexandria to be burned, and in the conflagration thousands of scrolls and valuable books kept there were destroyed. It is rumored that many of these scrolls found their way into the hands of men who had more secular views, and who were able to escape into the hinterlands to preserve as much as they could. But I guess we will never know the truth about that.

From the 7th to 13th century AD, the age of religious manuscript book production began. Books in this period are entirely constructed by hand, and were largely religious texts whose creation was meant as an act of worship. Christian monks occupied themselves with creating beautifully illuminated manuscripts and copied what was then a coptic bible for distribution to priests, abbots, kings and their courts. These books were reserved only for the nobles and bureaucracy because the peasants were not considered worthy of receiving a formal education.

Notable among these books are The Book of Kells, and The Book of Durrow, which were hand inscribed and illustrated from scratch each time. One could not really call them copies. Each of these books was meticulously hand lettered and painted, then heavily embellished with thin sheets of gold leaf. And by gold I mean 24 karat, not the cheap stuff in use today. The miniature versions you see now are but pale shadows of the massive volumes which were the originals. There are other books of this type in existence, but many have fallen into disrepair or been destroyed by age, war, and neglect.

There was also little incentive to distribute the books to the general public due to the lack of access to the monastic libraries. Given the amount of time and energy and financial resources that went into their production, books were far too valuable, so there was no way to use them for scholarship. This problem was compounded by the lack of a uniform cataloging system in the monasteries. Even if one did have access, there was no no way of knowing what was in the collection, or where it might be located. And as most monasteries were insular and preoccupied with self-examination before God, they were unwilling to open up their doors and allow free access to laymen.

Screen printing first appeared in a recognizable form in China during the Song Dynasty (960–1279 AD). Japan and other Asian countries adopted this method of printing and advanced the craft by using it in conjunction with block printing and hand applied paints. Screen printing was introduced to Western Europe sometime in the late 18th century, but did not gain large acceptance or use in Europe until silk mesh was more available for trade from the east. Screen printing was first patented in England by Samuel Simon in 1907.

The world’s first known movable type system for printing was created in China around 1040 AD by Bi Sheng (990–1051 AD) during the Song Dynasty. Then the first metal movable type system for printing was made in Korea during the Goryeo Dynasty (around 1230 AD). This led to the printing of the Jikji in 137; today the oldest known movable type print book. The diffusion of both movable type systems were limited They were expensive and required an enormous amount of time and labor to manipulate the thousands of ceramic tablets in use, or in the case of Korea, metal tablets.

Notice I have not even mentioned Gütenberg yet.

From the 13th to 15th centuries there came a secularization of book production. Books were produced that did not serve as aids for worship but which tried to explain the natural world. The difficulty was that production was still taking place via manuscript creation methods. The production of secular books was driven by two things: the rise of universities in Europe as centers of inquiry, spreading from Italy and Rome; and the return of the crusaders from Jerusalem in the 13th century, who brought with them books from Byzantium. These books, written during the Greek and Roman periods in history, focused on real-world concerns and contained works of science, some of which challenged the edicts of the church; but I digress.

Along with these developments, Marco Polo returned from the far East with the knowledge of printing and book making, whom he passed to his sons, along with a colorful tale of the Chinese civilization at full flower. It was soon after his arrival in Italy that the plague began to interrupt the course of European civilization, and he died before many of the inventions he found there were developed. The chief contribution of the Polo household was spaghetti, which was based on the Chinese noodle, and gunpowder. Beyond that, science and astronomy foundered because they flew in the face of church edict.

While the Indians were composing their Upanishads, the Mahabarat, and the Baghavaad Gita, Middle Eastern scholars celebrated poetry, mathematics, and the written word of Mohammed in their own books. The number of texts which began to circulate throughout the known world was staggering. Yet only the courtly privileged and well educated officers of the church had access to the vast wealth of knowledge and science.

When the virulence of the plague finally dissipated in the 15th century, the first printed books began to appear. Among these were traditional works like the Bible, books of hours (prayer books) and the  religious calendars. Books composed of wood block prints were popular, and cartoon art began to appear. The shift in consciousness that occurred with this period of history gave rise to the notion that reality could be accurately represented. Science started to be popular because it was different.

The technology of the printing press, coupled with the surrounding changes in the political/economic system, changed the way Western Europe saw its place in the world. This period saw the advent and expansion of a European-dominated world economy and the beginning of a system of international competition for trade among independent states.

The Renaissance - Things begin to change when, in 1452, Johannes Gütenberg conceived of the idea for a printing press. He brought together the technologies of paper, oil-based ink and the wine press to print books on block print plates, then later with movable type. The printing press was not a single invention. It was the aggregation of several technologies in one place. That cell phone you are holding is an aggregation of technologies. Every element was invented