[Woodcarver] Book publishing specifications.

Mon May 24 11:51:39 EDT 2004

Susan,  Thank you so much for your insight and sharing your publishing
experience.
In years past I light-heartedly declined a request or two from a major
publisher to do a book on architectural carving or human forms in heroic
scale work. I was somewhat younger, very busy and full of other ( more
profitable ) things to do.

Perspective changes as time goes on and I catch myself considering giving it
a shot just to see what the response would be. I had no idea of time to
publish etc.

I have a vast portfolio after doing commissioned carving for thirty years
and am now doing primarily production carving ( computerized) for other
carvers that have stumbled upon something that they want to mass market.
This leaves me with more time for my own projects ( hopefully including
writing). I have actually stripped 90% of my website down, just to slow down
commission requests. My grand kids finally taught me to "just say no"

I am still kind of light hearted about it, but your posting filled in a lot
of the blanks about publishing  for me. I at least have some basic ground
rules in mind if I decide to go forward.

Thanks again so much,

Phill Pittman
digicarve at verizon.net
www.masterwerkes.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Classic Carving Patterns" <irish at carvingpatterns.com>
To: "'[Woodcarver]'" <woodcarver at six.pairlist.net>
Sent: Monday, May 24, 2004 9:42 AM
Subject: RE: [Woodcarver] Book publishing specifications.

> To make a DONATION to the Mailing List using PayPal OR regular mail, click
this link: http://wwwoodcarver.com/WWWList/WWWList.html
> 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.
>
>
> To make a DONATION to the Mailing List using PayPal OR regular mail,
> click this link: http://wwwoodcarver.com/WWWList/WWWList.html
> 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
>
>
> > To make a DONATION to the Mailing List using PayPal OR regular mail,
> click
> this link: http://wwwoodcarver.com/WWWList/WWWList.html
> >
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ----
> ----
>
>
> > 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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