The following article failed to make it onto the blog in October. Hope it is helpful.

Writing and Publishing Your Own Small Book

For small numbers of books, and for those containing less than 100 pages, it’s much easier to design, layout and print them yourself. Here are the directions for laying out pages for a small cookbook or any other type of little book you want to produce on your own without using a publisher or traditional book printing company. This type of book doesn’t have to look homemade; instead, it can look as professional as any, but it can be easier and faster to do it this way than having to deal with out of town printers and traditional publishers.

However, if you are interested in a do-it-yourself project and want to turn it over to a professional, there are cookbook printers who can do a wonderful job. Morris Cookbooks comes immediately to mind, since they print many of the cookbooks that are sold by non-profit organizations. They’ll provide you with directions for laying out the book according to their format, and can provide cover design, etc. Contact them at www.Morriscookbooks.com. But for others who don’t want to go that route, the following can help you produce a perfectly acceptable book that you can give to friends or sell through your local book outlets and gift shops or by mail or the Internet.

Since some of you probably use Windows and others, Vista, it would be impossible for me to provide directions for both, but if you use Microsoft Word, you should find the following settings on the toolbar at the top of your computer page. The example I use is for a cookbook, but could apply to any type of small book.

To lay out your book’s pages, select “page setup” and choose paper size 11 inch x 8.5 inch in landscape mode.

Choose size of borders: 1.0-inch for left margin and all others, .75-inch.

Choose two columns, select 4-inches wide for each column and 1.5-inch for spacing between columns. This layout creates two pages out of one and leaves enough space on the left side and in the center for binding after being cut in half. Both pages will be identical.

To get started, it is best to have your recipes already typed up and sorted. For a plastic comb or wire bound, follow these directions since pages will be cut in half to form two books. Type or copy a recipe on one page, then copy and paste it onto the other page. To test to make sure spacing is correct and that left margin on both pages is slightly larger, print one copy and fold it in half. If it looks fine, continue typing or copying in your recipes, 1 or 2 per page depending on how you want to set it up.

After all the recipes are typed in, print the pages and then decide which order they should be in, using a paperclip or other fastener to hold them together. Now you can go back to your computer and number the pages. You can also create a table of contents page, index, and any other type of information you want to include. Organize your pages in logical format, such as main dishes, salads, breads, desserts, etc. Decide if you want a dividing page between each category, and plan for that.

If you will be creating a small booklet that will be stapled together at the spine, each full 8-1/2 inch by 11 inch page should hold two separate typed pages since you will be having it printed so that they can be stapled in the middle inside a cover. Again, don’t bother to number your pages until you’ve printed out a copy of the complete contents and have placed them in order. You may have to do some cut and paste on your copies, then shift pages around in your computer program to get the book layout correct.

If the above is confusing, contact me and I’ll try to explain it more clearly. When you get into the project, the directions will make more sense. Also, it helps to have on hand published books similar to what you envision yours looking like so you can visualize the layout and how pages tie together as they’re put together in a book.

Next, design or find clip art suitable for the cover, or use a photograph, and title your book, then copy and paste the cover side-by-side on one landscape mode page just as you did the recipe pages for a ring bound book. For the stapled book, the front and back cover will appear on the same 8-1/2 x 11 page.

Once your pages are in order, have been proofread and retyped, if necessary, and the cover designed, print the complete book out on your desktop printer in “best” printing mode and take them the copies a quick copy center to have them printed and bound. Place your copies back to back like you want them printed and make sure numbers are in sequence for the ring bound book. Remember that each printed page makes two books, so if you have 25 originals, it will create 50 books.

The printer will have a selection of bindings, but the wire and plastic comb spines work best for cookbooks, which need to lay flat on the counter for anyone to cook from them. Other types of books might be stapled at the spine. You can choose the type of cover stock you desire from plain card stock, coated stock, or have the covers laminated.

Then distribute your book. If you want to sell them, contact local restaurants, gift shops, beauty shops, and anywhere a willing owner will sell them for you. It will be best if you’ve made these contacts before you ordered printed copies so you’ll know how many copies you need. You will want to order extra for individual sales by you, and sales made over the Internet or by mail.

If you can partner with a local restaurant before you get started, you may be able to feature some of their most popular recipes in a cookbook, as well as your own. If you come from a geographical area that is famous for its fruit or vegetable crop or a particular type of livestock, etc., you might be able to come up with favorite local recipes to feature in your cookbook.

As an alternative to a cookbook if you live in a popular tourist destination, you can produce a book on local historic sites, history, attractions, scenic drives, local hiking trails, or any number of features that would likely appeal to tourists and sell them through shops, restaurants, bookstores, etc. Don’t forget to approach places like the Automobile Club and local organizations or Chamber of Commerce for possible mass sales of your book.

Good luck with your project. Whether you're doing it simply for the pleasure of sharing favorite recipes with friends and family, or planning to make yours a bestseller, you should enjoy getting your words into print, from start to finish.

Books Published in Minutes

Technology is forging ahead so quickly that it’s hard to keep up with new advances. Just yesterday I heard a report about a new machine that is capable of spewing out a printed and bound book in only minutes. Looking for a rare, out-of-print book? You can print one out for only $15.00. Do you have a complete manuscript and want to see it in print immediately with your name on the cover? You can do that, too, although it wasn’t mentioned whether the machine set up the book layout from a typed manuscript, or if you had to insert your manuscript already formatted as a book, or what the cost might be for having a copy printed from a manuscript. It also wasn’t mentioned whether photos or other artwork could be included.

This particular machine is located in a bookstore in London, and so far there are only a few of the machines built, but someday soon we’ll all be able to find them in our own neighborhoods. Then all aspiring authors can create a trial copy of their masterpiece before they ship it out to a publisher (or printer, if they plan to publish it themselves). Or those desiring a small number of memoirs to hand out to friends and relatives can have as many copies printed as they wish.

The best thing about having a trial copy printed is that, once it is in book format (printed and bound) and the author reads through it, any mistakes jump out like huge red flags. For some reason, once a writer reads over their book several times in the same computer format, it’s easy to overlook the little mistakes, and the same is true for proofreaders and editors, no matter how carefully they might read the manuscript. That’s why, when I worked for a publishing company, every line was read by 10 different people ten different times, and in formats from rough draft to final printed format with photos added, just as that particular page would appear in the magazine. And we did find mistakes sometimes right up until that final printed format, but I never saw a single mistake make it into the magazines that were finally distributed to subscribers and sold from magazine racks in stores.

The world of publishing is one of the greatest beneficiaries of new technology, and we’re going to see more and more changes as technology speeds forward. Already, traditional publishers are having to rethink how they will compete in a new world of “print on demand” publishers, and soon, “print on demand” writers, themselves. And already, those publishers are picking and choosing to publish only those books from celebrities or those that have potential of becoming blockbusters. So that means that we all, as writers, have to be thinking about our futures in the book publishing business.

We’ll certainly have more options to see our books come into print, but we’ll all also have to learn how to market our own books and find outlets to distribute them. But wait, don’t most of us, even those whose books are published by major publishers, have to do that already? For quite a few years now, publishers have not budgeted marketing help, book tours, or publicity for anyone but their celebrity writers. And advances have shrunk to almost nothing for all but a few celebrity writers, and by celebrity, I mean celebrities and those celebrity writers who have already proved their success through numerous previous bestsellers. You know their names: Ann Rule, Dan Brown, and many others.

Get Paid What You’re Worth!

Freelance writers often ask me what they should charge for various writing jobs. There is no easy answer to this question because I don’t know how efficiently they work and can’t possibly tell them whether to charge by the hour or by the job. The fact is, no freelance writer can know what their professional services are worth unless they first know how many written, corrected, rewritten words they can produce in what amount of time.

Here is what all writers should do from the beginning of their writing careers. If you’re already producing written copy for clients or magazines and have never done this, start now! This is the only way you can ever know whether you’re being paid enough for what you do.

1. Start keeping time sheets for each writing project. And this means any writing project, even if it’s only something for your church bulletin or a piece you are writing for yourself. On the sheet, list the time you begin writing (and researching, if that’s part of the job). Also jot down the time you stop writing on that project. If you start and stop, note the start and stop time every time you sit down to write and get up to do something else, even if only for a couple of minutes.

If you are working for a client, include any travel time or time spent on the phone discussing the project or receiving instructions.

2. When you complete the project, add up your time spent on the project and count the number of words you’ve written. Divide the number of hours into the total of words and you’ll have your average number of words per hour. For instance, say you produce a 1000-word article and it took you 10 hours, you have averaged 100 words per hour. Now at first you may produce many fewer words per hour than 100, or you might produce more.

When I first started writing, I read everything I could on getting published and writing for clients. One leading author on writing stated that he averaged 50 words per hour, and would charge accordingly on any project. So he could confidently charge by the hour and would know how to price out the job for an estimate if, say, he was given an assignment to produce a 1000 word article or a 50,000 word book. After a few assignments, I found that I could produce 1000 words of copy in 10 hours, so I knew that I could confidently state a fee based on producing 100 words per hour.

When you first start out writing for magazines, most of the articles you write will be produced “on spec.” meaning magazines will not give you an assignment but will, instead, ask that you send in a completed article and they’ll decide if they want it or not. Some magazines only accept articles “on spec,” so if you want to write for them, this is the way you’ll have to write no matter how long you’ve been writing for a living. You can then determine their rate of pay from their “writers guidelines” and decide if it is worthwhile for you to write for them.

If you receive an assignment and you’re offered $200 dollars for a 1000 word article, that means you will be receiving $20 dollars per hour if you produce 100 words per hour. It will be up to you to decide if that is fair, and if it isn’t, negotiate for a higher fee. If someone offers you $20 dollars total, then you will be working for $2.00 per hour—hardly worth anyone’s time. That’s also 20 cents per word.

But if you are typical, you will run across some who will offer as little as $20.00 for a full-length article. For 1000 words, that would be .02 cents per word! If you know that you can produce 100 words per hour, then you can confidently question your client or the publishing company whether they would be willing to work for $2.00 per hour. It’s not likely they would!

Writers tend to settle for less pay because they work at home, and sometimes they simply aren’t confident enough to expect professional pay for a professional job. However, those writers who have already completed a few assignments, so know they can sell their work and know the facts about how much writing they can produce each hour, have a much better bargaining position than those who don’t have a clue about how much or how well they can write.

Many clients who seek to hire a writer think that it doesn’t take any more effort or training to be a writer than their secretary has or needs, so they don’t expect to pay more than they pay their clerical help. It’s up to you, the writer, to educate them on what is involved in writing copy, and on what the benefits of hiring you will be. You understand their business and the project’s goals (or you’ll learn) and you can produce words that explain their products or services clearly and in words that convince their prospects to do business with them. You can produce copy much faster than a secretary because this is what you do for a living every day. If it comes down to convincing them further, remind them that you operate your own business and, therefore, they don’t have to be responsible for paying your benefits, taxes, workers comp, or providing you with space to work.

Above all, stress that you are a professional and that you will agree to complete one re-write if the client is not happy with some part of the work you turn in.

And remember, you don’t have to make the same per hour for each job you complete, but you do want to make a fair living because you will be paying your own taxes, including the full amount ( employees’ and employers’) share of social security taxes.

Start keeping track of the time you spend on each project so that you can know that you’re earning what you’re worth.