[Woodcarver] Book publishing specifications.

Mon May 24 10:42:45 EDT 2004

Good Morning Joe,

I don't know that I can be much help as I have the wonderful advantage
of having a publisher who does all of the set-up work once I have the
manuscript completed.  I work extremely hard for about 3 to 6 months
creating the manuscript, send everything off to the publisher, then just
sit back and let them take over.  For me, this is the best solution.  I
have little desire to be out marketing a book as it means much too much
time out of the studio.  The work that Sally Nye and her good husband
are doing as self-publishers is far more investment than Mike and I
would chose. My hat is off to them!  With a publisher they do the foot
work, not us.  They hassle the layout problems, printer nightmares,
marketing mess, and shipping dilemmas then send me a royalty check.

As Bill has already mentioned the name, Fox Chapel has been an excellent
company to work with over the years.  So far I have had experience with
four publishers and so can say with experience that Fox Chapel is top
notch! 

I do much of the artwork with scans of 600 dpi.  This is well above the
300 dpi needs but for line art the higher resolution makes the line
drawings much cleaner in appearance for printing.  I scan at 600 dpi,
100% size, gray scale, then in Paint Shop Pro convert to two color
(black and white).  This clears any shadowing or haloing in the drawing
scans.  Next, increase the color depth to 16 million (tiff or jpeg), and
reduce the size to 98% of the original.  That reduction gets rid on any
square pixel angles in the drawing.  I save as a tiff at 600 dpi and the
publisher can adjust from there.

For text, that is all done in Front Page to create a html file for the
publisher.  By going html it is extremely easy for them to lift the text
and convert it to whatever program they are using.  When they copy and
paste the text there is no formatting to carry over into their editing
program. This has been to both the publisher's and my advantage as I
have yet to find a publisher that was not using a Mac to my PC, creating
program conflicts.  As both read html the same way that problem was
quickly solved. Plus I can easily create tables that let me insert what
image I am using for that section and add the caption directly to that
image. The other advantage to html presentation is that both Fox Chapel
and I get an idea of how everything will look before any layout work
begins.  I can check where I need more drawing or more explanation
because it has that website feeling to it.

When the html is finished and the image scans are finished Mike writes
the whole mess to several CDs ... The last book which hit Fox Chapel a
few weeks ago took five CDs to hold all the info. And we always send at
least two copies, one for their use and one for their files.  This last
manuscript is my excuse for not hanging out around the digest these last
few months. 

The best advice I might suggest is to have someone else proof the work.
It is odd the little things you forget to include as an author because
it is so second nature to you in your working process.  Example, do you
realize how many people today don't know what carbon paper is or where
to purchase carbon paper!!!  I grew up with carbon paper and manual
typewriters ... If you are a little older you might remember trying to
sandwich two sheets of carbon between three sheets of typing paper to
create a letter with two carbon copies and then trying to feed that
stack into the back of the typewriter without it all sliding.  If you
are a little younger you probably have never seen it as NCR (carbonless
paper) became available and the common transfer paper in the 70's.  So,
here I am writing about "tape your pattern section to the wood then
slide your carbon paper underneath" and someone says to me "... Carbon
paper? ... What's that?"  Having someone else proof it helps catch those
little tid-bits that you don't even think about today.

Your two target seasons are correct.  If you want a book to be available
for the holiday selling season that book needs to be available to the
retail in June.  So a manuscript that starts in the Summer of this year
(June) will hit my publisher about late-Autumn (October).  They do the
lay outs then it is returned to me for any changes and proofing that
they want, that would be around December.  When the proofs are done it's
off to the print house and this is about a three or four month period.
For this example that would be around April. In June it would be
marketed to the retailers for the fall catalogs. So I estimate that a
Summer book this year will be a retailed book for the Holiday season a
year and a half later.  Both release seasons seem to do very well in
sales.  There is not a large difference between royalties for Spring
sales as compared to those for Autumn.

Just a couple of quick thoughts here about being published ... Random
thinking here!  A manuscript can be turned down for several reasons that
have nothing to do with the quality of your work or writing.  It may not
fit the company's profile, you sent a wood carving instruction
manuscript to a wood working publisher.  These two areas are different
in marketing as one is more toward the 'Harry Homeowner' and the other
focuses on 'Harriet Hobbyist'.  A manuscript can be rejected because the
company already has your topic covered for the coming season,  three
relief carving books are already scheduled and a fourth would be to
many.  The publisher may already be at quota for the year, many do not
publish more than a dozen new books a season.  So if your manuscript is
number 14 you may not be accepted.  If your manuscript is not accepted,
call them, ask WHY?  You might be surprised to find that they want you
to resubmit in a few months ... 

The other thing that can happen is that a publisher will sit on your
manuscript.  I have had that one happen once already.  I sent in the
manuscript, the publisher raved about it then it sat and sat and sat
without a contract offer or estimate on a publishing date.  This went on
for about four months.  At that point (I was still very new at all of
this) I asked for the work back.  Later I discovered that they already
had a very similar book in the work - about wood carving and with
patterns on my topic.  By sitting on my manuscript they were able to
keep a book that might have been competition off the market!  So, if you
send out your manuscript but don't here anything within a month ....
Call them!  

BTW, Joe, lots and lots and lots of color because color SELLS.  The
color is what catches the browser's eye when they flip through your book
at the book store!

Oh, one more, keep copies of everything and insure the package for a
goodly amount.  I sent one manuscript off for submission to a publisher
in CA only to have a very nice person from a Hallmark store in NJ a week
later call me saying they had my manuscript ... AHHH!  I still have no
idea how it turned up in New Jersey .... 

Susan Irish

Carving Patterns Online
Designs Online Since 1997!
Classic Carving Patterns By L.S.Irish
http://www.CarvingPatterns.com
http://www.WoodCarvingPatterns.com

Fine Art Dog Prints
Dog Art At It's Finest!
http://www.MuttArt.com
http://www.FineDogArt.com 

-----Original Message-----
From: woodcarver-bounces at six.pairlist.net
[mailto:woodcarver-bounces at six.pairlist.net] On Behalf Of Joe Dillett
Sent: Monday, May 24, 2004 9:09 AM
To: [Woodcarver]
Subject: Re: [Woodcarver] Book publishing specifications.

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Hi Bill,

I'm learning about the specifications needed for book publishing as I
prepare a ms for publication. The working title is Relief Carved History
Mantels and we plan to have it available in the fall of 2006 or before.
I'm
thinking that it'll take me a year to write the ms and it takes the
publisher a year to get it to market. The publisher, at least in our
type of
market, targets two seasons for book releases, spring and fall.

This is what I've been learning over the last few weeks as I begin this
new
venture.

I would like to hear from those of you who have had books published and
discuss questions like how many words will fit on what size page, font
and
font size, type of binding, techniques for holding down production
costs,
when do you use color photos and when will black and white be acceptable
and
other things of interest in the book publishing world.

Joe Dillett
The Carving Shop
645 E. LaSalle St. Suite 3
Somonauk, IL. 60552
(815) 498-9290 phone
(815) 498-9249 fax
http://www.thecarvingshop.com
jdillett at thecarvingshop.com
http://www.carvingmagazine.com Carving Magazine web site and Readers
Forum
**************************************************

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Judt" <bjudt at sasktel.net>
To: "WML Woodcarver Mailing List" <Woodcarver at six.pairlist.net>
Sent: Monday, May 24, 2004 12:28 AM
Subject: [Woodcarver] Visit wit Jim Cline, Edmonton

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click
this link: http://wwwoodcarver.com/WWWList/WWWList.html
>

------------------------------------------------------------------------
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> Gentle Subscribers:
>
> I had the pleasure of visiting with Jim Cline, in Edmonton Alberta,
> this weekend, which the wife and I were visiting friends. He gave me a
> tour of his studio and of the carvings he has done. Especially
> interesting are the carvings he is doing for his first book. I tell
> you, he has some really neat relief carving projects. You better hope
> that Fox Chapel accepts his book proposal.
>
> We spend the afternoon brainstorming about the structure of books and
> the requirements for publishing. I am trying to convince jim to invest
> the time getting acquainted with digital photography and computer
> applications for the preparation of book manuscripts. I think I have
> him hooked on the idea of electronic documents.
>
> BTW, Jim's wife, Pat, make a wonderful German stew, with rye bread and
> salad on the side. Delicious. Thanks,Pat.
>
> More about Jim later...
>
> Bill
> List Owner
>
> W.F. Judt,
> 46 Harvard Cres,
> Saskatoon, Saskatchewan,
> S7H3R1
> PH: 306-373-6649
> Email: bjudt at sasktel.net
> Website: http://www.wwwoodcarver.com
>
> Bill
>
> W.F. Judt,
> 46 Harvard Cres,
> Saskatoon, Saskatchewan,
> S7H3R1
> PH: 306-373-6649
> Email: bjudt at sasktel.net
> Website: http://www.wwwoodcarver.com
>

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