How to publish a book, CD or DVD?
Little preface. This article was written on real events. I have a website where I promote my e-book. Many people like the book, they buy it. At one fine moment, I thought about releasing the paper version of this book, which was the start to the research.
Imagine now that you are an author who has material that can be easily published as a book or on a CD / DVD. It is very good to have a website where you can promote this material at least for the first time (very useful if there are visitors on the site :)
You can distribute the electronic version in order to get feedback and an idea of ​​the needs of the audience. If everything goes well and your work is in demand, you can start thinking about the offline publishing of your material. If you have a good friend-publisher, then you can be calm and not read further this article. The same applies to the availability of start-up capital of at least $ 5,000.
')
If you have difficulties with the first and the second, you can read further, I will tell you what you will encounter in the future.
The classic scheme of publishing books and information discs is selling them in bookstores and other book offices. But in order to enter this market, you need a decent circulation (> 1000), as well as an ISBN identifier for your product (how to get it in Russia or Ukraine ).
This scheme is not suitable for specialized publications, such as books about CMS or something like that. As I already mentioned, it is best to have your own website and invest efforts in its promotion, and sell everything from there directly.
And now as for the process of making books / CDs. If you could not agree with the publisher, you have the opportunity to publish material on their own. For two weeks of searching, I never found a sane company in Russia or Ukraine, which takes all the steps of making a book from printing to delivery by mail. Therefore, you have to take the whole process over. Namely: manufacturing, storage and delivery.
Let's start with the books. I would divide the manufacture of the book into two stages - printing and binding. Printing a black and white book consisting of 200 pages will cost you $ 13 in shallow circulation (up to 100 pieces) and as the circulation increases, it can drop to $ 3 in large editions (from 3000). If you have a color book, you can safely multiply the price by 2-3 times.
Moreover, if the company in which you ordered the printing does not provide binding services, then you will have to transport the printed pages to another company for binding.
As for the binding, it is of many types.
This is a clip ($ 1, for thin brochures and manuals),
spring ($ 2, used mainly for diplomas, not solid for books),
paperback ($ 2-5),
plus hardcover ($ 5-10)
In the end, it turns out about the picture
I also note that the calculation for color books turns out to be overstated, since not every book has all the pages in color. Therefore, if you have few illustrations in the book, the price may be much lower, but this should be discussed with the printing house at the stage of ordering.
As for the manufacture of CD / DVD, then everything is a little easier. You provide the company with a disc-standard, as well as images that need to be applied to the surface of the disc and liners, and the output is finished, sparkling and smelling of paint discs. The price for a CD is about $ 5, and for a DVD - $ 8.
If the circulation is small, then you can keep everything at home. But when the circulation exceeds 1000, this is already more problematic. There are several ways out of this situation. For example, some printing houses agree to keep their print run for some money. Or, if you have an office, you can put everything there. Anyway, this problem is solved individually for each case.
Delivery is the most evil process in this scheme. Recently on Habré flashed a topic about the valiant "Mail of Russia". Now I will add some tar to her description.
1. The statistics of the loss of parcels and parcels is 5% of the total number of items.
2. Static losses of cash on delivery for various reasons (cash on delivery is when a customer pays money to the postman during delivery).
3. Sending one parcel takes from 15 minutes to an hour. If you send several packages at once, then the time is multiplied by the number of packages. During this time, you will experience all the joys of standing in a queue, the “goodwill” of the postal staff and those behind you in the queue. The solution to the problem is the "wholesale shipment", which can be carried out under an informal agreement with the postal staff for an additional fee, but this depends only on your ability to agree.
The price of sending a book with a book will vary depending on the destination and the weight of the book, but in the worst case, if you need to send War and Peace to Sydney, you will pay no more than $ 6. If the destination is within the country, then the amount will be in the range of $ 1. Delivery time will be a week (all calculations were carried out using airmail).
According to the laws of Russia, when sending a CD / DVD by mail, you must present a certificate stating that these discs do not infringe copyright. In most cases, this item can be resolved with the employees of the post office “amicably” or simply contrived so that the mail does not know that these are disks. Be that as it may, the problems from this no less.
It is easy to calculate that with shorter print runs, the cost of the minimum book will be about $ 15. If you add at least $ 5 profit, it will be $ 20 (480 rubles) (102 hryvnia). As you can see, the price is quite high for the Russian book market. Especially for a wide range of books But, in general, is real.
Everything is much easier if your book is designed for international sales. It is quite possible to sell books for $ 30, or even $ 40. The benefit is obvious. By the way, the translation of the 200-page book into English will cost you about $ 1500- $ 3000. So, in Russian sales, you can save up this amount, and then easily break into the international market. If of course your product is worth it;)
Imagine now that you are an author who has material that can be easily published as a book or on a CD / DVD. It is very good to have a website where you can promote this material at least for the first time (very useful if there are visitors on the site :)
You can distribute the electronic version in order to get feedback and an idea of ​​the needs of the audience. If everything goes well and your work is in demand, you can start thinking about the offline publishing of your material. If you have a good friend-publisher, then you can be calm and not read further this article. The same applies to the availability of start-up capital of at least $ 5,000.
')
If you have difficulties with the first and the second, you can read further, I will tell you what you will encounter in the future.
The classic scheme of publishing books and information discs is selling them in bookstores and other book offices. But in order to enter this market, you need a decent circulation (> 1000), as well as an ISBN identifier for your product (how to get it in Russia or Ukraine ).
This scheme is not suitable for specialized publications, such as books about CMS or something like that. As I already mentioned, it is best to have your own website and invest efforts in its promotion, and sell everything from there directly.
And now as for the process of making books / CDs. If you could not agree with the publisher, you have the opportunity to publish material on their own. For two weeks of searching, I never found a sane company in Russia or Ukraine, which takes all the steps of making a book from printing to delivery by mail. Therefore, you have to take the whole process over. Namely: manufacturing, storage and delivery.
Manufacturing
Let's start with the books. I would divide the manufacture of the book into two stages - printing and binding. Printing a black and white book consisting of 200 pages will cost you $ 13 in shallow circulation (up to 100 pieces) and as the circulation increases, it can drop to $ 3 in large editions (from 3000). If you have a color book, you can safely multiply the price by 2-3 times.
Moreover, if the company in which you ordered the printing does not provide binding services, then you will have to transport the printed pages to another company for binding.
As for the binding, it is of many types.
This is a clip ($ 1, for thin brochures and manuals),
spring ($ 2, used mainly for diplomas, not solid for books),
paperback ($ 2-5),
plus hardcover ($ 5-10)
In the end, it turns out about the picture
| 100 | 500 | 1000 | 3000 | |
| 200 pages, paperback, BW | $ 6.93 | $ 4.88 | $ 4.29 | $ 3.09 |
| 200 pages, paperback, color | $ 31.88 | $ 29.22 | $ 27.01 | $ 25.87 |
| 200 pages, hard cover, bw | $ 15.12 | $ 13.04 | $ 12.56 | $ 10.90 |
| 200 pages, hard cover, color | $ 44 | $ 40.95 | $ 38.44 | $ 36.74 |
I also note that the calculation for color books turns out to be overstated, since not every book has all the pages in color. Therefore, if you have few illustrations in the book, the price may be much lower, but this should be discussed with the printing house at the stage of ordering.
As for the manufacture of CD / DVD, then everything is a little easier. You provide the company with a disc-standard, as well as images that need to be applied to the surface of the disc and liners, and the output is finished, sparkling and smelling of paint discs. The price for a CD is about $ 5, and for a DVD - $ 8.
Storage
If the circulation is small, then you can keep everything at home. But when the circulation exceeds 1000, this is already more problematic. There are several ways out of this situation. For example, some printing houses agree to keep their print run for some money. Or, if you have an office, you can put everything there. Anyway, this problem is solved individually for each case.
Delivery
Delivery is the most evil process in this scheme. Recently on Habré flashed a topic about the valiant "Mail of Russia". Now I will add some tar to her description.
1. The statistics of the loss of parcels and parcels is 5% of the total number of items.
2. Static losses of cash on delivery for various reasons (cash on delivery is when a customer pays money to the postman during delivery).
3. Sending one parcel takes from 15 minutes to an hour. If you send several packages at once, then the time is multiplied by the number of packages. During this time, you will experience all the joys of standing in a queue, the “goodwill” of the postal staff and those behind you in the queue. The solution to the problem is the "wholesale shipment", which can be carried out under an informal agreement with the postal staff for an additional fee, but this depends only on your ability to agree.
The price of sending a book with a book will vary depending on the destination and the weight of the book, but in the worst case, if you need to send War and Peace to Sydney, you will pay no more than $ 6. If the destination is within the country, then the amount will be in the range of $ 1. Delivery time will be a week (all calculations were carried out using airmail).
According to the laws of Russia, when sending a CD / DVD by mail, you must present a certificate stating that these discs do not infringe copyright. In most cases, this item can be resolved with the employees of the post office “amicably” or simply contrived so that the mail does not know that these are disks. Be that as it may, the problems from this no less.
Is it worth it?
It is easy to calculate that with shorter print runs, the cost of the minimum book will be about $ 15. If you add at least $ 5 profit, it will be $ 20 (480 rubles) (102 hryvnia). As you can see, the price is quite high for the Russian book market. Especially for a wide range of books But, in general, is real.
Everything is much easier if your book is designed for international sales. It is quite possible to sell books for $ 30, or even $ 40. The benefit is obvious. By the way, the translation of the 200-page book into English will cost you about $ 1500- $ 3000. So, in Russian sales, you can save up this amount, and then easily break into the international market. If of course your product is worth it;)
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/21382/
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