• Control - You have complete control of your book design and where it is sold without dealing with a third party.
• Sole Ownership - (Keep your copyright) As a self-publisher, you own all rights to the book and are in the position to set your own price with all profits coming to you.
• Big Returns - If a large publishing house contracts to publish your book, you will receive only 10% to 15% royalty on each book sold. As a self-publisher, you can receive 50% to300% profit.
• Publishing Time - Large publishing houses take months (sometimes years) to complete your book for sale in book stores. You can complete a small-scale finished product in only a few days.
• Produce Short runs - Print-on-demand.
• Special Interest Books - Large publishing houses do not have an interest in special interest books. However, in many cases, books dealing with education, special how-to books, or books on morality, ethics, self help, etc. have a great sales appeal to the general public. Large publishing houses are very selective in the manuscripts they choose to finance.
• Local Interest - Large publishers tend to not be interested in local interest books. However, books with interest in a certain region or community sell very well and can raise $10,000's dollars for the author.
• Pan Africanist Audience - Specialize on a target population without care for the majority population's views or opinions.

Book Writing

Planning is the first and most important step. It means asking yourself all the tough questions about the book. The most effective way to plan is by writing a book proposal, which has a dual purpose: to help you think through the book and to provide you with material you will use later in the process.

• Research starts the book creation process. For scientific books, journals should be kept with only scientifically valid conclusions drawn in the process of study-inference. Writing is the heart of producing a book, and it takes blocks of time. This is where all of your planning pays off. The chapters are the heart of the book and, of course, take the most time. They are the reason you are writing.
• Begin with Chapter 1, if each chapter is going to build on the one before it, or with your most familiar topic, if it doesn't matter what order you write them. The first chapter you write will help you find your voice, pace, purpose, passion, and style. If you submit your proposal to a publisher, the chapter you attach must provide a sample of your best writing and of the caliber of the whole book. In addition to the chapters, you will also have to write the introduction, preface, table of contents, and index, glossary, etc.
• Publishing Collectives comprise all the professional people who help make a book come to life. You may not need all of them, but consider different kinds of editors, graphic designers, book reviewers, publicists, agents, and attorneys. If you self-publish, you will definitely need a graphic designer, desktop publisher, editor, and layout person. Purchase Pagemaker 7.0 or get an older version cheaply, then invest in the necessary upgrades. This move will solve most layout and printing issues.
• Production involves the elements needed to turn your manuscript into a book -- your computer and software, design and format, photos and illustrations, video and audio, printers, laminators, paper, coverstock, etc. These are the details you will learn if you decide to become your own publisher. Publishing makes your book real...tangible. You have several options, including self-publishing, print-on-demand, electronic, and conventional. There are pros and cons associated with each option. They include cost, target population, printing capacity. speed of publication, rights, contracts, and profits.
• Promotion is the step many writers skip. It takes work to get your message into the hands of your target audience. No matter how your book is published, promotion is your job. You can send out advance review copies, tour book fairs, make presentations at bookstores and libraries, launch a Web site, or even hire a professional publicist.

Books do not drop from the sky; they are the product of much thought, planning, discipline, and effort.

How To Publish  

Your book should be properly edited before submitting it for printing. Some people choose to have a friend or family member who is qualified do the book editing. A second option is to hire a student from a local community college or university to do the editing. A third option is to hire a professional editor.  We do not offer an editing service. An important rule in editing is as the author of the book, you should never do the final edit. Let a skilled reader proof your work---always.  If there are mistakes, you probably won't catch all your own mistakes, no matter how many times you proofread your manuscript. Be sure to follow this principle.  Nothing is worse than to have great content mixed with misspelled words. 

Page Layout: The next step is to adjust the page layout of your book. Page layout is the term which describes the manner in which text is situated on a page. The page layout of your book should be adjusted to look exactly the way it should for printing. This includes choosing the font for the text and headers, as well as the margin size and location of the page numbers. This is something that you can do yourself using a basic computer and software such as Microsoft Word, or have our experienced book designers design the layout for you in Pagemaker 7.0.

Price Per Book

The price of your book depends on the book size, number of pages, front cover design and binding style. There are additional charges for photographs in your book. At the time you configure your actual order, you will be given a cost based on the options you select. To get a rough idea, to produce 200 copies of a 200 page book 5 ½ x 8 ½ inches your cost would be $6.89 per book because it is such a short run. This price includes a single color cover with a photograph, and perfect bound.   Increase the run, decrease the price of production and thus your cost price per book.

Book Sizes

There are four standard page book sizes: 4¼" x 7"; 5½" x 8½ "; 6" x 9"; and 8 ½" x 11". We specialize in 5½" x 8½" booklets with mini-dvd.   After you select the size of book you want to publish, it is recommended that you print a copy of the template for the book size you plan to publish.

Types of Bindings

You will have several binding options for your book. Perfect Binding; Double Wire; Plastic Wire; Plastic Comb; and 3-ring binding.

Paper Options

Our standard text paper is 65# acid-free Accent Opaque Warm White (also called smooth opaque off-white). Most bookstore quality books are printed on this type of paper. We do offer, however, 60# smooth white paper or basic 32# gloss as an option. Cover stock is 12pt cover stock with 1.5 mil lamination, UV coating at $0.25/Book extra cost as an option for your cover finishing.

Cover Designs

The cover for your book is a very important selling tool. You can have a great story to tell, but if the cover fails to draw attention, the book will not sell. All large book publishers and distributors look for an attractive cover and book title. Good designs are what make buyers reach for the product.

If you elect to have an ISBN number and EAN bar code, the placement of the ISBN bar code should be taken into consideration when your design is submitted. The bar code must be printed in black ink and placed on a white background area measuring 2 3/8 x 1 3/8 inches.

Manuscript Preparation

The best way to produce a book is go to a bookstore and look at as many page designs as possible. Your book should start with a title page, followed by the copyright page.  The title page typically includes the title, subtitle, name of publisher and author. The copyright page must contain Copyright © followed by the year and name of who the copyright is filed under. 

Proof Copies

The proof will be printed on 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper, one page to a sheet. The cost is $30.00 for text and cover. The proof will be mailed within 3 days after the order is received and production will continue when your approval is received. Please keep in mind that the pages are going to appear exactly as submitted, but we are happy to provide the proof feature.

Marketing

We have an active e-mail list of several thousand bookstores, book brokers and large publishing houses that we frequently update. We will not only help you find venues for sale but will help large book publishing houses find talented writers.

Copyright

You must have the copyright information printed on the second page of the book. The area must say Copyright ©2007 Imani Heru. All Rights Reserved. If you have an ISBN or Library of Congress number they must also appear on this page. Just refer to any book in a bookstore and you will see the copyright along with the ISBN number. For more information contact http://www.loc.gov/copyright/

ISBN/EAN Numbers

The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is the 10 digit number on the back of a book. This number identifies the publisher and the book title. Booksellers use this number to order, price and keep track of inventory. An EAN bar code is your ISBN transferred into an OCR scan-able image.