Services

Developing Publication Strategy

Let us help you select the most appropriate media and methods for publishing your work. Your options are varied, and include everything from traditional printing and printing on demand (POD) to a variety of electronic formats and non-traditional methods, such as blogs, vlogs, and social media. The choice of publication medium and format has far-reaching consequences that can have huge impact on the perceived value and desirability of your work. We can help with decisions from high-level strategy down to most intricate technical details such as the choice of binding, cover material, and paper.

Setting a sound and realistic marketing strategy is more important than ever, and should be done at the outset of the project. The new world of online resources offers many new opportunities for product placement and promotion, but also imposes significant challenges, not the least of which is the speed at which the rules keep changing. The other challenge is the proliferation of choices and options. We can help you navigate this new landscape, focus on the media that provide the most bang for the buck, and create a reasonable, sustainable plan for your social media, on-line, and more traditional marketing efforts.

Copyediting

Professionally produced publications pass the scrutiny of multiple technical editors, but their final polish—smooth flow, balanced phrasing of ideas, and impeccable rhythm—is a result of diligent work by a copyeditor. Publishers are always tempted to forego copyediting for financial reasons, but doing so can backfire. Do you want your book to be criticized for defects that could've been addressed? Publishing is about producing permanent value. Skipping the copyediting stage can seriously undermine that goal.

Distribution

Publishing via a POD provider seems to be a really elegant solution because it offers distribution as part of the fulfillment process. But does this address all your needs? For example, if you need to distribute the book internationally and want to involve particular distributors, why would you treat them like retail customers? Even if you offer them a discount, will their margin be large enough to remain motivated and properly market your book? If you need to kit your book with other materials, create bundles, or include promotional materials, does your POD provider give you enough flexibility?

Fulfillment

Whether you produce your book in print or via POD, it's critical to know how you will warehouse, sell, and support it. Is it realistic to do that yourself, or should you use one of the myriad available services? How much should you expect to pay for fulfillment and warehousing, and what are your options? You don't need to give huge royalties to large vendors anymore—there are much more economical options that are just as flexible and involve little additional work.

Book Design and Production

We offer complete pre-press services including:

  • Book design
  • Cover design
  • Book layout including footnotes, tables, figure frames with auto-numbered captions, and sidebars
  • Setup and generation of Table of Contents and various lists
  • Indexing (see below)
  • Graphics preparation and processing
  • Photography and scanning
  • Preflight checks and proofing prior to releasing the project for printing
  • Coordination of printing with traditional and POS print providers
  • Generation of PDF files for on-line distribution

Indexing

We specialize in book indexing, which can be limited to a few key terms and proper names, or include entire taxonomies of synonyms, mimicking on-line search engine behaviors. A quality index is an investment in usability that lends credibility to the material and projects the publisher's dedication to quality. Non-fiction books should always include an index.

Music Typesetting

If your project involves musical examples, we can:

  • Set them in music notation software—this option is appropriate for conventional music scores
  • Set them in vector-based graphical software using music fonts—necessary for examples that don't conform to standard clef/key signature/time signature structures
  • Reproduce, clean up, enhance, and annotate the original score

Either way, we can help you produce and proof musical examples for professional-quality results.


Let us know if you have a project we can help you with.