There is something strangely satisfying about holding a book that you've created yourself. In my case I've done absolutely everything, from the design and layout, to the final formatting and editing.
Granted it's not perfect. Neither is it a first novel.
But it is all my own work and the result of more than three decades of experience in making tiny, wee porcelain dolls and even if I never sell a single copy I am almost inordinately pleased and proud.
Self-publishing is no longer the trial it used to be and these days anyone can do it. Of course, publishing a print book which contains only words is a whole different proposition from one which contains colour images. I've had to learn the difference between RGB and CMYK, pixels and dots, TIFF and JPEG, file size versus image quality and much more that I've already forgotten.
I've spent hours experimenting with different fonts, seeing which ones work together. That said, my choice of font for the fictional sections will likely give designers a fit of the vapours, but it works for my specific purposes and as I'm in charge, nobody can give me a telling off. On the reverse side of that coin if it looks a mess it's all down to me.
Mea culpa.
When I was choosing a printer, I got quotes from lots of different companies. The very cheapest ones, though initially tempting, rapidly revealed their limitations. I had specific questions and the lack of detailed responses or no responses at all, quickly eliminated them from my list.
A few were only really interested in how many copies and when I would be ready to go to print, dismissive of my queries about image formats or embedded fonts.
One which initially came high on my list was crossed off when I read some online reviews and found that their books were often badly produced, misaligned covers, missing pages, damaged, or sometimes didn't arrive at all!
I was beginning to despair when I came across an A5 booklet that I had printed about 30 years ago when I was first starting out. Back in the day, they were a basic copy shop and I often used them for printing copies of my catalogues, patterns, mini booklets etc. That was before the days of digital colour photocopying and everything was black and white. For colour, the only choice was offset litho printing which was prohibitively expensive.
Anyway, a quick google revealed that the company I used all those years ago were still in business and were now producing a wide range of print products, including perfect bound books!
They have been incredibly helpful, offering a range of free online tools and lots of useful information. My email enquiries were met with prompt, friendly responses, and suggestions to help me get the best results.
So, here we are..... 30 years after first using them, they are now printing my book. There is a satisfying resolution of coming full circle about this which pleases me.
Who are they....?
Catford Print Centre.
I can thoroughly recommend them for quality and value for money. I don't expect that any of the people I originally dealt with all those years ago are still working there, but it's gratifying to know that excellent customer service and high quality products are still the foundation of their business model.
Anyway, now that I've reviewed the wire bound sample copy and made the necessary tweaks, I'm ready to submit the revised files and await delivery of the sample perfect bound copy... after which *fingers crossed* it will be full steam ahead the presses can roll.
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