Into Print

Tag: book launch

  • Library connections


    Make libraries your allies when self publishing

    Libraries are places where people meet books and their authors. They are often where young people first develop a liking for particular books, and perhaps particular authors. There are many different types of library and the most important for authors who are publishing their own work are: public libraries (for books with general appeal e.g. fiction, children’s illustrated), academic libraries (for books aimed at students or teachers) and legal deposit libraries (who have a right to a free copy of all books published in the UK).

    Meet your public in public libraries

    More interesting is how you can make libraries your allies when promoting your book. They are directly in touch with the reading public and the professionals and volunteers who work in them are book-loving and book-promoting and on your side. Authors are exotic attractions. Not everyone has written a story, let alone a book. Libraries want to attract families out for a weekend visit by putting on events and other attractions (hot drinks and home-made cakes often feature). 

    So look out for libraries that are holding story-telling events and inviting local authors to take part. You can use the occasion to promote your book and the library will often provide a table for you to sell your books during the event. At Into Print we ship authors’ books into the libraries or direct to the author to provide stock for sale to the public.

    Libraries are also great spaces for book launches. If you collaborate with your library, it may help with event organisation and invite a local audience – a book club or school depending on your book genre – to add to your own efforts at launch promotion.

    Photo of Angela Taylor sitting at author table in a library setting. Angela is signing a copy of her book
    Angela Taylor at a library launch of Izzy’s Quest for Gold.

    Reach teachers and students

    Academic libraries are the allies of authors who have written a student text book or a scholarly work. The academic librarian’s job is to obtain the books that their clients (students and teachers) need to do their work effectively. At Into Print we do our best to assist the librarian by providing as much information about your book as possible. We’ll encourage and help you, as author, to write short and long summaries, and a list of helpful keywords. Timing can also be important so it’s good to use the calendar so that information about your book is in front of the right people at the right time. You may wish to send copies to your contact list in advance of publication so that, on publication, you’ve got academic recommendations and reviews lined up to bolster the credentials of your work.
    

    Knowledge bank

    At Into Print we publish in the UK under the Paragon Publishing imprint and so we send a copy of your book to the British Library, and to the other legal deposit libraries on request. We do this on your behalf and at only the cost of doing so i.e. the print cost and the carriage cost. It’s a small amount in the debit column of being in the business of publishing and you get the satisfaction of having your book on public record.

    Connect with librarians

    So be nice to librarians. They can easily order your book – their databases are supplied with full searchable details. Also, the librarians’ trusted library suppliers are connected to Into Print’s print on demand service. In institutions of learning and in large businesses, librarians source digital versions of your book (also on their databases) and account for any in-house copying of printed works. This copying is enabled by large-scale licensing agreements with collecting agencies. Into Print will connect you to these agencies so that you will benefit from any such use of your work.

  • Family Writing

    Your family can be a powerful inspiration to write – your partner, children, siblings, parents, your ancestry, your genealogy indeed. Perhaps you are writing about close family – something a relative did that was out of the ordinary or who has had an extraordinary life. You could also be writing about the wider family, as in a family history stretching back perhaps a few generations but also bringing the stories up to the present day. Or is it a story of your own life as part of a family and a way of passing down the recent family stories to future generations – a personal memoir?

    Writing for and about your family

    The process of family writing can take many forms. If you are recording existing stories, from diaries perhaps, and providing introductions to them, you are taking on the role of editor or curator. Getting the material for your stories may require you learn the skills of a journalist, so that you can successfully interview family members in person, over the phone or via a video call. The BBC’s website is a great place to find all kinds of advice on matters such as working with vulnerable interviewees. The Society of Authors and similar organisations have web and written material with advice on how to and how not to write biography.

    For interviewing, invest in a good voice recorder to make sure you don’t miss something important. You can get them for your smartphone and pause the playback when transcribing. Microsoft, Apple and Google also provide free transcribing tools. Take a well-lit head and shoulders photo of the smiling interviewee while you are there.

    Autobiography

    On the other hand, you may be recalling your own stories with the help of documents and photographs in your collection. Photographs are a great way of triggering memories for your writing and some photos may also make it into the book – but be selective.

    If your family history comes up to the mid-20th century and beyond then there will probably be colour photos. So the book will be printed on Into Print’s print on demand (POD) colour presses. As a result, we can use colour in other aspects of the book’s design (tables, illustrations, magazine style blocks of colour) and sepia photos will look like the originals.

    If the book is about an era before colour photography then black and white photos can be reproduced in ‘grey scale’ with black and white printing. Into Print helps authors with advice on how to best scan photographs, maps, illustrations and other materials that may be relevant to telling your family tale.

    Genealogy

    Genetics and statistics combine to tell us that we are all descended from people in the not unimaginable past, the whole human race from all the people alive just 3,400 years ago, for example. The last common ancestor of all people with longstanding European ancestries lived in 1400 so kings and queens may well be in your lineage somewhere.

    Libraries and local genealogy clubs can point you to the resources and techniques to research and record. Web resources such as Ancestry are paid-for services to delve into hidden archives. There are software apps to help organise your information into meaningful family trees and to scrap book documents and images. These have export options to formats such as JPEG and PDF, which can then be submitted to Into Print, along with your commentary in words, to create book artwork.

    At Into Print we’ve enjoyed designing and printing some impressive ancestral histories made up of family tree diagrams, groups of old and current photographs, illustrations and maps. Such collections often deserve to be presented in A4 or American A4 hardback, sometimes with an outer jacket which wraps around the book cover (which becomes an ‘inner’ cover). You can specify that the jacket and the cover are the same image or you can have a striking outer jacket together with an impressive single colour cloth inside cover.

    Collaborate and launch

    You don’t have to do all the research and writing yourself. Some self-publishers produce their family history book by commissioning the writing and the necessary picture research separately. At Into Print, we are experienced at managing the book’s production by liaising closely with everyone concerned. We take in the words and images to create the book artwork and then send proofs to our self-publishing client for final approval for print and distribution.

    A launch party with lots of family members invited ensures good initial uptake of the book. It’s best to check with guests ahead of the event to establish the quantity required. Into Print prints and ships and then the host self-publisher hands out the books personally over drinks and canapés.

    Enjoy your family writing project

    Researching and writing family-based stories can be great fun, so enjoy the process and get in touch with Into Print for advice if you get stuck. Give yourself a deadline so that the project doesn’t drift – the end game is to publish and make your work available to a wider audience, even if that’s just a wider family audience.

    Into Print sends out data about your book so that booksellers around the world will list it for sale. That means the distant cousins in Australia can buy a copy from amazon.au and the nephew in Los Angeles can pick one up from barnesandnoble.com. So sharing your family stories with relatives, wherever they may be, is easier than ever.