GASPS (Gay Authors Self-Publishing Society) and its imprint Paradise
Press were set up to provide a low cost way of producing short runs of
books and booklets using a good quality home printer. It has since
evolved into a collective that supports its members in all aspects of
producing, marketing and distributing their titles, but no longer prints
its own publications. Perhaps the greatest advantage is that the group
has developed substantial knowledge and experience, and members give one
another help throughout the process, from proof-reading to banking
payments for books sold.
GASPS' printing experience showed that a
good quality home printer allows books to be printed directly from
members' word-processed files and then bound professionally. Prices in
2003 were about £4.00 a unit for a 200 page paperback and about £1.25
for a 100 page stapled booklet with a monochrome cover. Runs of about 50
to 200 are practical (for smaller runs unit costs are likely to be
higher and the amount of work to set up the job may seem excessive; for
more than 200 copies a commercial printer may undertake the work for a
similar cost or less.)
A total of eight books and five magazines were produced by this method
during 1999-2002. The appearance and quality of the books was comparable
to that of other small publishers, such as GMP / Prowler and perfectly
acceptable to the untutored eye, but those in the book trade will easily
spot weaknesses, eg lack of appeal of cover design, book pages with
print not in perfect alignment, or where the first line on a page
consists of a few "hanging" words carried over from a paragraph, the
rest of which is on the preceding page. Niggles of this kind may seem
trivial to us, but discourage professionals in the business from
accepting the books.
Relatively poor quality in printing may have lain behind the fact sales
by mid-2003 had been insufficient for authors to recover their outlay
and partly
explains the Press' move away from self-printing to professional
printing, as described here.
Commercial printing Using a commercial printer saves the work
involved in DIY book production and probably makes sense where more than
200 copies are wanted; costs per copy vary greatly and fall rapidly as
the size of the print run increases, but as a rough guide a 200 page
book might cost £2 - £3 per copy, with 500 copies probably the minimum
number. Computer files are required in the special formats generated by
'typesetting' software such as Adobe Acrobat or Postscript, although
some printers may be willing to convert word processor files at extra
cost. The printer will provide a final (galley) proof before completing
the run, but a charge is incurred for any changes which are not the
result of mistakes on his part. The main risk is that correcting
oversights will increase costs and absorb much time and effort. If you
have not used the printer before and are not familiar with the software
and processes, there is a danger that the final product may not be up to
professional standards.
Printers will generally deliver to your door, but their responsibility
ends there - you will still have to market your book. Note that a big
publisher's minimum budget for marketing alone is around £50,000 and
tens of thousands of book sales are needed to cover this and all the
other costs. The far smaller budget available to GASPS/PP authors is
extremely unlikely to propel a book of fiction to, at best, more than a
few hundred sales.
Print on demand A number of companies offer a 'print on demand'
service. The following features are common: the size of the books
(approx A5) is larger than is usual for fiction; if additional services
such as proof-reading, cover design, page layout etc are required, they
will be charged at commercial rates. Costs per copy may be high. They
are unlikely to help with marketing.
Self-publishing companies A number of companies which now
describe themselves as being in 'self-publishing' are described by their
critics as 'vanity' publishers. Many - perhaps almost all - practise
deception by pretending to be commercial publishers, making seductive
references to royalty payments and TV rights, whilst their intention is
to charge the author perhaps £5,000 for a run of perhaps only 20 or 30
books or to offer a 'print on demand' service. Even after the initial
investment, the price per copy is likely to be very high. Horror stories
abound of charlatans defrauding authors of thousands of pounds.
Not all self-publishing companies take this approach, however, and some
place the authors' best interests at heart. Despite the dangers and
cost, one PP author, after printing 150 copies 'in-house' went on to use
such a company to have 1,500 copies printed and placed with a
'distributor' (as wholesalers are usually called in the UK booktrade).
The company advertises in the Society of Authors magazine and is listed
on the Arts Council-sponsored website www.author.co.uk.
Over 100 copies were place in bookshops by a distributor shortly after
printing, but the company seemed to lose interest thereafter. Promotion
is the publisher's job, but without the book being available in more
bookshops, the effect of sales promotion can only be limited. Whether
much can be achieved to follow on from the initial distribution remains
to be seen.
Lessons learned...
Although GASPS / PP's main objective of bringing unpublished works into
print at low cost has been met, sales overall have been disappointing.
The reluctance of bookshops to accept titles unlikely to achieve volume
sales remains an obstacle.
The processes necessary to convert a typescript from a word processor
file into a presentable book involve substantial amounts of work, much
of it painstaking. The skills necessary are available within the group,
but if this stage is hurried, all the copies will suffer from the
resultant failings.
The books which have sold best are those which have been actively
marketed by their authors. Novels have sold better than collections of
short stories.
Odd appearance, eg use of unusual-looking fonts, a white cover or
over-presentation of the author's personal quirks deters sales.
In conclusion, if one views writing as a creative rather than a
for-profit activity, bringing work from the manuscript stage to seeing
it in book form is a source of great satisfaction; copies will be held
for posterity in the statutory libraries and, despite the increasingly
cut-throat commercial nature of the book trade, some can be placed in
bookshops, giving a great sense of personal achievement.
If the objective of producing books is to make money, unless the titles
are pornographic or have some other guaranteed market, the chances of
success with fiction are very slim, whatever the quality of the writing.
For more information on self-publishing or publishing through GASPS / Paradise Press,
click below.
