Meeting with the Perfect Print Shop for Indie Authors
I had an epic meeting today. Why? Along with gaining needed knowledge, I got to keep the perfect book.
It was freezing this morning. I was headed to Milk and Honey Café to meet Zachary from One Stop Print Shop.
I have been curious if his print shop could serve Indie Authors. Spoiler alert… the answer is a gigantic yes.
I arrived first with enough time to study out the new winter menu and admire an entire case of gluten free treats. Even though there were a ton of delicious options I chose my usual Chai Latte – Hot.
Zachary brought me three sample books to review.
The first was something you might hand out for free. This first book felt like a catalog or a giant about-our-company type book. The pages were well made but not sleek. The aroma was fine. (I was once told you need to smell a book to know if it was well made. I am still trying to hone this skill.) I did notice right away that as I flipped though the book everything was formatted in a pleasing way.
Most of the free items I get often appear made in a rush.
The second book had a glossy feel. It was a sports book and highlighted all the players. It reminded me of trading cards, only made into a book format.
It was high quality. As Zachary showed me the book, he pointed out how the picture of each player was always on the same side followed by their information. If a certain player’s information had more pages, the designer at One Stop Print Shop would cleverly insert a notes page or another filler type page so that the next player’s picture was on the correct side of the book.
Understanding that this intentional formatting would make the book easier to read I asked the tuff question, “Can your designer help with hyphenation or word breaking?”
Word breaking, or the very unpleasant practice of hyphenating a word at the end of a line to fit more characters on to the page, is a pet peeve of mine. One Stop Print Shop feels my pain, and they have this amazing person known as a designer who takes your book and makes sure very annoying things like too much end of line hyphenation does not invade the books they print. Designers make sure that the pictures land on the correct page, that the table of contents page numbers are accurate and a million little things that make sure a great book looks great. And really that’s the point of having the book printed, right? So, you can have and hold your work of art.
As Zachary handed me book three, I had a goldilocks moment.
This book feels perfect. The cover is smooth with just enough shine to bring you in without feeling like a
magazine.
The pages themselves have the perfect feel.
As Zachary taught me about the different bindings, he used this book three as an example of “perfect binding.” No joke that is the real name of this type of binding. What puts this book over the top is that each page has the lightest background picture of winding leaves and flowers. Beautiful enhancement to the poems on the page. I learned that the technique of having the images go right off the edge of the page is called a “bleed” and it’s a special technique that One Stop Print Shop can do easily.
It's beautiful and makes good use of margins, extending the words with a visual. While I didn’t get to see any gilded edges that is also a book enhancement offered.
This book felt right in my hands. It was hard to put down. I had my favorite drink and a good book in my hands and could not start reading the book. I had to remind myself it wasn't my book, and I had more questions for Zachary.
I needed to open and examine the other books. But every time I finished with one of the other books my hands found the perfect book just to hold it.
Zachary was ready for all the tuff questions I threw at him. For Indie authors, a huge problem faced is where to store the boxes of printed books. It nearly always makes sense to purchase a larger number of books. When you review the cost of printing 100 books vs 250 books you might feel foolish not to go for the 250. But, you also don't want to be the fool that has a huge stack of books taking up space in your living room for the next 6 months. One Stop Print Shop has you covered; they can store your books for you. So, you can make the easy choice: get 250 copies and just take 50 home with you. The other 200 will be safe and sound in a climate-controlled environment.
Now, Zachary and I could have ended here. After all, we have a plan for printing perfect books, we have a plan for storing these books what more does an Indie Author need? Well once you have your book published a new phase of indie authorship begins.
Zachary and I spoke extensively about what support for this phase of publishing might look like.
We spoke of book tours, book signings at local shops,
booths at local festivals, and the need for a professional presence at networking meetings. Zachary has great solutions to elevate this phase.
We call them professional extras.
Bookmarks, business cards and signs to place on the table you’re signing books at all give an amazing, professional and tied together feel.
Imagine giving someone a new bookmark to go with the book you just signed for them.
That would feel like the cherry on top of an amazing dessert.
Now at this point in the conversation, that perfect book still in my hands, I realized we had run my entire list of questions and then some. I must have hesitated to give the perfect book back because Zachary laughed and said “you better keep that book.”
What a way to end a fantastic meeting. I got to keep the book!
PS – I read the entire perfect book this afternoon with a cup of lemon, mint and honey tea.
