Self Publishing

Our bindery is geared up for medium-to-short run, quick-turnaround work and offers an extensive range of equipment for paperback and hardback binding with different types of binding including:

Slotted

Also known as slot perforated or notched binding this is where a series of slots (or notches) are cut into the spine at the folding stage allowing for more glue penetration into the printed sections. The book is bound as complete sections (typically 16 pages) rather than loose pages and is therefore stronger than perfect (unsewn) binding.

Perfect

Also known as unsewn binding this is where the backs of the printed sections are trimmed off (typically 3mm) and the loose pages are glued at the binding edge straight onto the cover. A lot of mass market paperbacks are bound this way.

Sewn

This the strongest form of binding, and usually most expensive, but not with Print2Demand we have made this an affordable option. The printed sections are run through a sewing machine which inserts threads through the spine of each section and then uses further threads to join each section to the other. Sewn binding is often used when the printed book is very heavy either because it has printed on a coated paper or has a lot of pages.

If you are not sure which is the right binding method for you, please ask us and we will be happy to advise you.

The Benefits of BookPrinting.co.uk

With a team that has over 30 years’ experience, we believe that you should have full control over your book, which is why, unlike other self publishing companies, we don’t dictate to you on how it should be produced, it really is up to you

Is hard or soft back right for Self Publishing book printing

Colour / black and white / mixture (illustrations).
Any size.
Choice of paper.
Can use any font and any font size.
High quality printing.
Entire process can be undertaken online.
Files are stored securely.
Easy to reprint.
Dedicated customer service.
Fast turnaround times.

Even though the entire process can be undertaken easily online, we welcome and encourage authors to visit us, both for a tour of our premises and for face to face advice, and you can contact us to arrange.

Self Publishing Manuscripts

Did you know that Word files tend to look different on each computer, depending on your version and screen resolution? It’s for this reason that we discourage submission of Word files, and encourage manuscripts to be sent in PDF format, as the way it appears on your screen is exactly how it will appear on everyone else’s, so you can ensure it’s printed exactly as you wish. If you have any problems with this then please either type in “convert Word file to PDF” to a search engine, or contact us. If you do submit a Word file, please ensure it’s in the correct finished page size, with the margin sizes exactly as you wish.

Self Publishing Grammar tips

It’s quite easy for authors to lose their audience if they are not that attentive to their grammar, so we’ve put together a few tips based on the most common mistakes:

Always check what language setting your computer is in. It might be English, but is it American English or UK?
Capitals should only be used for the beginning of sentences and proper nouns, e.g.: The Councillor wrote to the Government to raise a problem at his local School, where there wasn’t sufficient parking for the Cars. The only letter that requires a capital here is the T found at the beginning of the sentence.
In fiction, paragraphs should be indented by a tab, rather than distinguished by spaces between the lines.
To break up sentences, use one space, not two.
Use italics for the titles of books, songs, films etc.
It’s best to use italics if you’re stressing a point too, rather than capitalising, underlining it or putting it in bold, as these can be distracting to the reader.
Spell checkers aren’t foolproof so it’s always worth actively reading the document yourself, or asking for a proofread / edit from someone you trust, and we can undertake this for you and you can contact us for a quote.
Please do not submit your images separately; place them within the manuscript in the order that you would like them to appear when printed.

Book printing for Self Published Authors

We have been providing book printing services to authors who wish to self publish for many years to ensure the ideal solution whether it’s 25 books or 5,000. This service is also available to publishers who wish to produce a smaller run of books so that they can test the market before committing their budgets to a higher level of print.

You can be sure of the best print quality when you print with us, and are able to choose from printing in black and white, full colour, or a mixture. We can also produce titles in soft or hard back, along with dust jackets and material covers. We can print any type of book, including the following:

Novels
Children’s
Historical
Recipe
Academic
Poetry
Memoirs
Journals, magazines, periodicals
In-house training manuals
Thesis or dissertation

BookPrinting turnaround

We provide a fast turnaround of materials, so that you don’t have to wait any longer to see your title in print:

From receiving the files, we aim to provide a first proof within 3 days
Once this has been approved, our customer services team will advise a delivery date to ensure you are in to receive your books
If you have a specific publishing date in mind, or a book signing arranged, then please tell us when you order and we’ll endeavour to meet this deadline.

When you submit your Manuscript

Manuscript Layout

Unless specified otherwise, we will print your title exactly as the manuscript has been submitted, so there are a few things to bear in mind before you send it through to us to ensure that you’re getting exactly what you want:

Manuscripts must be sent as one single document, not broken down into chapters or sections.
Page numbers – odd numbers should appear on the right-hand side.

New chapters should start on a new page. It’s better for us if this is achieved through a page break, which can be created through pressing Ctrl and the return button together.

Although you are free to use any font, we would usually use Times New Roman, size 11.

For best results, we advise that a 15mm margin be used around the page, but once again, the choice is yours.

Because we print exactly as submitted, please ensure that you have proofread your book before it goes to print – or better still, had a fresh pair of eyes look over it as you’ll be surprised at what you might miss!

If you did wish for a proofreading and editing service, we could also fulfil this. Please contact us for a quote.

Images

The main thing to remember when using images is that the copyright has to belong to you, or you have to have obtained permission to use the images from the person who owns the copyright, e.g. from newspapers, the Internet, or other books.

There are a few other things to bear in mind:
Images for print have to be the best quality. If you have obtained permission from the copyright holder for an image that is from the Internet, then it may look great on screen, but won’t print well. Images have to be 300dpi.
If images are in colour, please ensure they are CMYK, not RGB.
Colour images cost more to print than black and white, and because of the printing process, we would advise that it would be cost-effective to have images back on to each other, so only one sheet of paper needs to be used for the illustrations.

To check if your image is suitable for print, please call 01525 621742.

Self Publishing Cover Design

People really do judge books by their covers, as do booksellers and distributors, so the better the finished product looks, the more likely it is to end up on the shelf and increase your chances of a sale.

Cover art should be submitted in PDF format and in CMYK, not RGB.
If you are using other people’s images, you must have the permission of the copyright holder.
Please provide cover art with the front, spine and back image as one single file, with a minimum of 3mm bleed.
If you would like a design to be created for you, then we would be happy to do this at extra cost. Please contact us to discuss your requirements.

Desktop Publishing Services

As we print directly from the files that you supply to us, we cannot be held responsible for badly formatted or incorrectly submitted files. To ensure a seamless process through our workflow, please ensure that the files supplied to us are set to the correct trim-size and in the order that you expect to see them once your book is printed.

If you require any assistance with the Desktop Publishing (DTP) setup on the cover or inner pagination for your book, then we can recommend a company whom we have worked with on numerous books over many years that would be able to help. They will supply files to the correct specification and provide us with print-ready PDF files for hi-res output which will allow us to process your books faster and deliver them to you without delay.

For any assistance with your pre-press files, please contact Nigel Austin at Pageset Limited on 01494 559924 or email pageset@btconnect.com and he will be happy to discuss your requirements in more detail and provide you with a quotation for any work involved.

How Many Books Should I Get Printed?

If you are thinking of self publishing your own book there are many questions that may spring to mind. One of the most asked questions is “How many books should I get printed?” There are many aspects that can affect this decision.

When self publishing you will obviously be considering a much lower publication run than if you are attempting to market and sell your book to a wider audience. If the book is industry specific, you may well have a database of contacts that you will be selling or sending your book to.

If you are marketing to a wider audience you may want to set a shorter print run and then top up your stocks if you find the book is selling well.

One of the major benefits of self publishing is that you can take advantage of shorter print runs meaning you can order a smaller amount of books to start with and reinvest any profit you have made in your next print run.

If there is already an appetite for your book and you haven’t even done a print run, you may want to take pre-orders.

Don’t forget if you have taken pre-orders that it is always best to order more copies. This will give you some growth room for any other marketing activities you undertake and means you will have copies of your book in stock.

If you have a friend or relative that has experience of self-publishing they will be a helpful resource for your book printing numbers and to provide advice upon marketing activities and design. If you don’t have help you will find that a self publishing book printer will be able to help and advise you on suitable print run amounts as they will have knowledge from previous projects.

Self Publishing Experts

Our dedicated team produce high quality books. Consequently they have a wealth of experience in the book production and publishing arena. We provide assistance to enable our publishers and authors to get on with the things they do best. Therefore taking the strain away from them.

Bookprinting.co.uk

Through our considerable experience in UK book printing, we work closely with publishers, self-publishers and authors. With a state-of-the-art factory using the very latest digital and litho printing technology, integrated with fully equipped craftsman bindery, we offer softback and hardback book printing to a very high standard.