Thoughts about Publishing and Printing a Book
Will talk about the merits of a number of publishing issues here.The readers, who will be most interested in this page will be authors,who self-publish their own works.
Printing
If you ask a printer to publish your book, they will quote you a price for 500, 1,000 or 5,000 books. Such a quantity will elevate your bed (where else can you store them) to a height, where it is a reasonable to assume that you will require a ladder to get out of bed each morning or risk an injury from the fall.
The Prototype
The Prototype
My tip is to print your prototype book as a A4, because it is the most common size, that is sold for computers. Most printers can print an A4 cover from 130 gsm oversize A3 paper. Then you can mull over the design of the cover.
Translation
Since
some languages are much more free with word order than the stricter
subject-verb-object (SVO) syntax in English, Estonian is more difficult to use.
The
difficulties that appear at first sight become more manageable, when one
understands two basic characteristics: one is that Estonian is primarily an
agglutinative language; the other is that it has a special syllable-accent
system.
An agglutinative language is one in which meaning is conveyed more by adding components to words rather than relying on word order or prepositions, so in Estonian single words often have to be unpacked into an English phrase.
An agglutinative language is one in which meaning is conveyed more by adding components to words rather than relying on word order or prepositions, so in Estonian single words often have to be unpacked into an English phrase.
This
process can frequently be seen at work in English, although it is not a
primarily agglutinative language like Estonian, e.g. in the formation of words
like 'beautiful', 'backwards', 'fullness', 'hyperactivity',
etc and especially in the formation of new words, particularly from Latin and
Greek.
Like Finnish and Hungarian, Estonian is a somewhat agglutinative
language but unlike them, it has lost the vowel harmony of Proto-Uralic, although in older texts the vowel harmony
can still be recognized. Furthermore, the apocope of word-final sounds is
extensive and has contributed to a shift from a purely agglutinative to a
fusional word order is subject-verb-object.
Typical
of most Germanic languages, English is characterised by the use of modal verbs,
the division of verbs into strong and weak classes, and common sound shifts
from Proto-Indo-European according to what is known as Grimm’s law..
English
is an intonation language. This means that the pitch of the voice is used syntactically;
for example, to convey surprise or irony, or to change a statement into a
question.
In Contrast Estonian is most
often considered a SVO language. However, in main clauses, SVX and XVS are equally frequent, which
indicates that Estonian has the V2 phenomenon.
In subordinate clauses, Estonian shows a quite
high proportion of verb final order. The picture becomes more complex when the
position of the auxiliary verb (I) in verbal complexes is taken into account:
Estonian seems to have a SIOV order.
What it means is that a computer generated AI program spits out more gobbeldy gook!
For example in reference to my Maritme Academy webpage
if you take the Estonian:
1891.
aastal asutati Kuressaare Merekool. See töötas 1903. aastani Pidula
kojas Pikk 44, 1903-1915 Kohtu ja Komandandi t. nurgal (praegune
trükikoda); 1915. a. evakueeriti kool Hersoni, ent juba 1919 jätkas
endise linnakooli majas Suur-Põllu 4. Aastail 1942-1944 töötas samas
Kapten J. Teäri eramerekool.
copy it to Google Translate:
1891st The school was founded in Kuressaare Sea. It worked for the 1903rd The distance to the house 44 years long, and the Court from 1903 to 1915 hrs Komandandi corner (current printing), the 1915th The School evacuated Kherson, but in 1919 went to school the former town house in Great 4th Field Between 1942-1944 worked at the same Captain J. Teäri eramerekool.
My Translation into English:
Kuressaare Merekool was established
in 1891. It operated from the Pidula building at 44 Pikk Street until 1903, from 1903-1915 from the location
at the corner of Kohtu and Komandandi Streets, in 1915 it was evacuated to
Herson in Russia. With the establishment of the Estonian
republic it resumed at its original site in 1919 at the town school
building at 4
Suur-Põllu Street.
My tip is to get an Estonian whose primary language is English to translate it into English. I have yet to meet an Estonian that doesn't put something in a funny way when they communicate in English, because of the differences above in word order and semantics.
01. septembris 2007 asuvad Kallemäe Kooli Kuressaare filiaali toimetulekuklassid vastrenoveeritud Suur- Põllu 4 asuvas koolihoones, mis sai teoks tänu Kuressaare Linnavalitsuse, arhitekt Katrin- Tomberg- Tohteri, Riigi Kinnisvara Aktsiaseltsi ja EBC Ehituse ning kooli koostöö tulemusena.
01. September 2007 School located in Kuressaare Kallemäe branch dealing with large classes in the newly renovated agricultural-4 in a school building, which was made possible through the Kuressaare City Government, the architect, Katrin Tomberg, doctors, National Real Estate Company and a partnership between the EBC and the school construction.
The Cover
For non-fiction
Briefly use an to convey a visual metaphor of the contents, let the typography reflect the time in which the book is set, send subtle cognitive signals, make it a clean clear message, a clean design visually and to inspire the writer I would like to suggest that you read about the ideas behind the Bauhaus font, what was the purpose it was designed for. Finally, use the elements of design, the cover design should be coherent, must tell what the book is about, where the setting is and where the action takes place. If you think that you have achieved these goals let me know.
For fiction
Talk to someone else, I can’t give you any tips on that. But as general piece of advice, look through a number of bookstores, look at as many book covers as you can , in say a month, select the books that appeal to you, take a pic of their covers, assemble them, and try to work out what it is in a particular book cover that you like. Then look for it in another book, until you have say 10 elements and rate all the book covers or those elements. Some designers take 200 pics, then sort out their own top 10 and base the artwork on this font, that layout, that colour, etc., etc.
The Design
On my visit to Estonia in the autumn months of 2008, I went to Toompea to meet with Mart Laar MP, the leader of the nationalistic faction Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica
in the Estonian Parliament [est: Riigikogu], writer, historian, journalist, previous Prime Minister, and Minister of Defence in the present government. Having previously gifted him a copy of my book to read on the plane whilst he was travelling to war-torn Georgia to attend negotiations, which then had had a Russian-invasion, I eagerly awaited his comments on the first book written in English about a critical period in Estonian history.
He was an exceptionally busy person. His remark about the design of the cover of the book went like this: Laar “it is very important for a book to have a good cover design, as significant as the contents”, “who designed the cover? I looked him in the eye and said nothing. He realised what it meant and commented “Oh, you!” My point in telling the reader this anecdote is; the cover is significant. If you value your book, then put a bit of work into designing a cover for your book.
My tip is to consider the elements on the cover: the title, the name of the author, the images and any other information on the cover and be consistent with the typography, the quality of the images and to make a number of mock-ups in a variety of colours and show them to a number of friendly people for their evaluation. Then reconsider their comments and try again, keeping in mind these design principles:
Clarity - is the message that you are trying to convey by your design clear?
Relevance – is each word or number relevant to your message?
Plot – does your title and sub-title conjure up a little story about the essence of your tale?
Naturally you must choose the correct contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity of the cover design elements. More about these principles is mentioned in an excellent, succinct book that I recommend you read: titled The Non-Designer’s Presentation Book by Robin Williams ISBN 13: 978-0-321-65621-6
The Title
Began with the title my father selected for his manuscript, “Who we are where we come from”, lazy authors and publishers use that name for thousands of listings. From the vast number of writers that I spoke to in the course of writing the book, one theme pervades, they want their book to be unique.
It is hard to see how this can be accomplished, if the internet is cluttered with hordes of books with the same name. The same applies to titles such as “My Father’s Story”, “Mother’s Memoirs”, “John Smith Remembers”, etc. etc.
Believe it or not, even using a foreign word can land you in a mess of trouble, if not immediately then later, when its use leads to ridicule, for example “Isa’s Tale”. The word Isa in Estonian means father. There actually exists a bestseller by that name, a story about a dog called Isa.
Imagine, me going to a serious repository of knowledge, such as an academic library, or a maritime museum and pitching a book, which then shows up as a dog story on being reviewed on the internet. Another element in the title is the use of a word about a country, Arab sea-captain raises the question in your mind from what country does the sea-captain originate. Similarly the use of an unfamiliar word in the sub-title “memoirs of a Saaremaa Sea-Captain” raises the question of what is the book about. Buyers don’t mind enigmatic plots in a narrative but not in a message on a book cover; they move on.
Thirdly if the story is not set in the present, then you need some way of presenting it to your audience to provoke their interest. Imagine a new movie; the title comes up, and the first message you see is the name of a famous director featuring ….. or Quentin Tarantino presents XXX etc. etc. The title needs to grab its reader from first sight; in the literary world is the equivalent of love at first sight.
The Size
C3 is the size of 99% of hard-cover books stacked on bookshelves in bookstores; C3 is actually an envelope size. Perhaps it is the size a standard book fits into. As a test I once printed out a chapter of my book in C3, easily done on a desktop printer. Most printers and typesetters set their master files in InDesign or QuarkXPress at the standard book size. If you are using a word processing application to type out your book it will follow some different rules. For example: look at a fiction book, there is no gap between paragraphs. New paragraphs are shown by indenting the first three letters of a new paragraph. Writers ignore the conventional layout of pages at their peril.
Unless it is a coffee-table book; bookbinders refer to all books, except for fiction books, biographies and text books, as coffee-table books, the text in non-coffee table books is laid down as one continuous sheet with the chapter separation, image insertion, pagination etc. done later. But it all starts with a master-file.
But my tip is to use normal desktop processing from a home PC as a starting point. It is something that you are accustomed to, working at a work-station and printing your work in order to have a look at it as hard-copy version of the story.
At the creative stage of writing I would suggest that it is foolish to step into unfamiliar surroundings or practices. Of course if your master file is on a desktop publishing file, not a word processor, then your only option is to print it commercially, which means a $8,000-$10,000” spend. For a first off work, I think it is huge risk.
More to follow later, got to do some writing. Tschau.
TRANSLATION EXAMPLE #2
Estonian:
Alates 1.
septembrist 2005 liideti erivajadustega
laste klassid Kallemäe Kooliga, saades Kallemäe Kooli
Kuressaare filiaaliks. 2006.a detsembris alustasid Suur- Põllu 4 majas lammutustöid EBC
ehitajad, jaanuarist 2007 algas ehitus-
ja renoveerimistöö.
01. septembris 2007 asuvad Kallemäe Kooli Kuressaare filiaali toimetulekuklassid vastrenoveeritud Suur- Põllu 4 asuvas koolihoones, mis sai teoks tänu Kuressaare Linnavalitsuse, arhitekt Katrin- Tomberg- Tohteri, Riigi Kinnisvara Aktsiaseltsi ja EBC Ehituse ning kooli koostöö tulemusena.
Google TRANSLATION:
As of 1 September 2005 was Kallemäe School
classes for children with special needs, becoming a branch of Kuressaare
Kallemäe School. Agriculture began in December 2006 in the Great Hall 4
demolition EBC builders, January 2007, began construction and renovation works.
01. September 2007 School located in Kuressaare Kallemäe branch dealing with large classes in the newly renovated agricultural-4 in a school building, which was made possible through the Kuressaare City Government, the architect, Katrin Tomberg, doctors, National Real Estate Company and a partnership between the EBC and the school construction.
My
Translation:
Kuressaare is
a branch of the Kallemäe National General Education Schools
Network for Children with Moderate, Severe
and Profound Intellectual Disabilities. (previously known as J. Teari Eramerekool)
Kallemäe School is administered by the Ministry of Education and
Science. It is an elementary school
for students with special educational needs school in Saaremaa, Estonia. It is located, in Saaremaa
county, Valjala municipality, Kallemäe village.
The school set up an affiliated branch in Kuressaare on September 1, 2005 at number Suur- Põllu street, called the Kallemäe School For Children with Special Needs.
The school set up an affiliated branch in Kuressaare on September 1, 2005 at number Suur- Põllu street, called the Kallemäe School For Children with Special Needs.
Demolition
works on the old building by EBC Building began in December 2006.
In January
2007, construction and renovation works began.
On
September,1 2007 special neeeds classes
began at the Kuressaare Kallemäe Branch
in the newly renovated Suur- Põllu 4 building.
The renovation
of the old building project was accomplished under the auspices of the the
Kuressaare City Government, the architect being Katrin Tomberg- Tohteri, and a coperative
partnership between the State Property Construction Partnership , EBC Building
and the schools.
Translation: Rex Urmas Rattur 17/10/11
Comment: my
tips are for writers who want to self-publish. Naturally some will write 500
pages of text, hand it to an editor [for a fee], then hand it a printer and
print a minimum quantity [5000 copies for a fee] and then hand it over to agent
[for a fee] and arrange to publish it. Recently I saw the memoirs of a former
Treasurer of Australia being sold in a warehouse for $5 a copy. If on the other
hand, you are of a like mind to me, namely that the first three editions should
involve a zero-spend, then follow me carefully and always ask the question, at
the end of the day who wants to buy a copy of my book.The Cover
For non-fiction
Briefly use an to convey a visual metaphor of the contents, let the typography reflect the time in which the book is set, send subtle cognitive signals, make it a clean clear message, a clean design visually and to inspire the writer I would like to suggest that you read about the ideas behind the Bauhaus font, what was the purpose it was designed for. Finally, use the elements of design, the cover design should be coherent, must tell what the book is about, where the setting is and where the action takes place. If you think that you have achieved these goals let me know.
For fiction
Talk to someone else, I can’t give you any tips on that. But as general piece of advice, look through a number of bookstores, look at as many book covers as you can , in say a month, select the books that appeal to you, take a pic of their covers, assemble them, and try to work out what it is in a particular book cover that you like. Then look for it in another book, until you have say 10 elements and rate all the book covers or those elements. Some designers take 200 pics, then sort out their own top 10 and base the artwork on this font, that layout, that colour, etc., etc.
The Design
On my visit to Estonia in the autumn months of 2008, I went to Toompea to meet with Mart Laar MP, the leader of the nationalistic faction Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica
in the Estonian Parliament [est: Riigikogu], writer, historian, journalist, previous Prime Minister, and Minister of Defence in the present government. Having previously gifted him a copy of my book to read on the plane whilst he was travelling to war-torn Georgia to attend negotiations, which then had had a Russian-invasion, I eagerly awaited his comments on the first book written in English about a critical period in Estonian history.
He was an exceptionally busy person. His remark about the design of the cover of the book went like this: Laar “it is very important for a book to have a good cover design, as significant as the contents”, “who designed the cover? I looked him in the eye and said nothing. He realised what it meant and commented “Oh, you!” My point in telling the reader this anecdote is; the cover is significant. If you value your book, then put a bit of work into designing a cover for your book.
My tip is to consider the elements on the cover: the title, the name of the author, the images and any other information on the cover and be consistent with the typography, the quality of the images and to make a number of mock-ups in a variety of colours and show them to a number of friendly people for their evaluation. Then reconsider their comments and try again, keeping in mind these design principles:
Clarity - is the message that you are trying to convey by your design clear?
Relevance – is each word or number relevant to your message?
Plot – does your title and sub-title conjure up a little story about the essence of your tale?
Naturally you must choose the correct contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity of the cover design elements. More about these principles is mentioned in an excellent, succinct book that I recommend you read: titled The Non-Designer’s Presentation Book by Robin Williams ISBN 13: 978-0-321-65621-6
The Title
Began with the title my father selected for his manuscript, “Who we are where we come from”, lazy authors and publishers use that name for thousands of listings. From the vast number of writers that I spoke to in the course of writing the book, one theme pervades, they want their book to be unique.
It is hard to see how this can be accomplished, if the internet is cluttered with hordes of books with the same name. The same applies to titles such as “My Father’s Story”, “Mother’s Memoirs”, “John Smith Remembers”, etc. etc.
Believe it or not, even using a foreign word can land you in a mess of trouble, if not immediately then later, when its use leads to ridicule, for example “Isa’s Tale”. The word Isa in Estonian means father. There actually exists a bestseller by that name, a story about a dog called Isa.
Imagine, me going to a serious repository of knowledge, such as an academic library, or a maritime museum and pitching a book, which then shows up as a dog story on being reviewed on the internet. Another element in the title is the use of a word about a country, Arab sea-captain raises the question in your mind from what country does the sea-captain originate. Similarly the use of an unfamiliar word in the sub-title “memoirs of a Saaremaa Sea-Captain” raises the question of what is the book about. Buyers don’t mind enigmatic plots in a narrative but not in a message on a book cover; they move on.
Thirdly if the story is not set in the present, then you need some way of presenting it to your audience to provoke their interest. Imagine a new movie; the title comes up, and the first message you see is the name of a famous director featuring ….. or Quentin Tarantino presents XXX etc. etc. The title needs to grab its reader from first sight; in the literary world is the equivalent of love at first sight.
The Size
C3 is the size of 99% of hard-cover books stacked on bookshelves in bookstores; C3 is actually an envelope size. Perhaps it is the size a standard book fits into. As a test I once printed out a chapter of my book in C3, easily done on a desktop printer. Most printers and typesetters set their master files in InDesign or QuarkXPress at the standard book size. If you are using a word processing application to type out your book it will follow some different rules. For example: look at a fiction book, there is no gap between paragraphs. New paragraphs are shown by indenting the first three letters of a new paragraph. Writers ignore the conventional layout of pages at their peril.
Unless it is a coffee-table book; bookbinders refer to all books, except for fiction books, biographies and text books, as coffee-table books, the text in non-coffee table books is laid down as one continuous sheet with the chapter separation, image insertion, pagination etc. done later. But it all starts with a master-file.
But my tip is to use normal desktop processing from a home PC as a starting point. It is something that you are accustomed to, working at a work-station and printing your work in order to have a look at it as hard-copy version of the story.
At the creative stage of writing I would suggest that it is foolish to step into unfamiliar surroundings or practices. Of course if your master file is on a desktop publishing file, not a word processor, then your only option is to print it commercially, which means a $8,000-$10,000” spend. For a first off work, I think it is huge risk.
More to follow later, got to do some writing. Tschau.
The Typesetting
The Copyright
Budgeting
Pricing
The Choice
Editing
Sources
Structure
Links:
Eyewitness: Estonia 1909-1949 PHOTOS
Articles About Estonian Issues, Culture and Institutions
