What You Need to Know
about Printing a Book

Cost | Printing Manuscript | Summary

There are many questions that rise to the front if this is your first experience with the world of book manufacturing, but probably chief among them has to do with the pocket book. Let’s address that one first then.

 

So, how much does all this cost?

It’s important to recognize that in printing your personal or family history—as in all book printing—there are two major categories of costs:

1. Getting the book ready to print, which can vary but fortunately must only be covered once, and2. Printing the book, which with Sheridan

Publishing does not require that you order thousands of books to get a volume discount; with us, the cost per book is always the same, whether you order 15 copies or 2015, for as long as you keep your book in our library.

Printing Manuscript

Let’s look closely at each of these to determine how Sheridan Publishing can best serve your needs. If you have never published a book before and are not familiar with the process, we suggest that you take a few minutes to read Where do you start? Depending on your skills, your budget, and the way you want your book to look, the cost of preparing your manuscript can vary widely. Below is a list of steps that you will need to go through to get your manuscript printed:

 

Step 1: Research
Although we do not provide professional genealogical researchers, we are aware of some who do. On your request we will send to you a list of resources that you might want to follow up on.

Step 2: Write

Primarily because paying someone to write your history can become a relatively expensive venture for most people (often around $50/hour plus expenses), we have chosen not to offer this as a standard service. Nonetheless, if you are fortunate enough to have sufficient resources and would like to hire someone to write your history for you, please contact us and we will put you in touch with a qualified writer.

 

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Step 3: Sending manuscript to Sheridan Publishing
Because we publish a high volume of books at Sheridan Publishing, it is important that you submit your book in a format that we can accept. Your first decision will be whether you design your book or you choose one of our design templates.

1. If you design your book or have someone else design it for you, please make sure that it will fit a page size that we offer. You will need to send us a clean printout of that designed book.

 

2. If you want us to design your book, choose from the options found on our sample page and make a note of it for your ordering.

You will need only to fill out the order form completely so we know how to create your book. You will need to send us your book in an electronic format according to the following instructions:

a. Word processing files must be in either Word or WordPerfect.

b. Tables created in your word processor will not transfer into our book production programs. Neither will lines, boxes, and other special design items.

c. Send the files on 3.5" floppy discs, Zip disks, Jaz disks, or CDs. Please do not send us your only files. Always make sure you keep a copy for yourself.

d. Photos are placed in a photo section rather than placed throughout the book. If your file contains both text and photos, the photos will be removed and saved as separate images for placement in the photo section.

e. Although we can place a color image on your book cover, only black-and-white images can be printed inside the book. If you send color images, they will be converted to grayscale images.

f. If you send us images to scan, please send copies only. We are not responsible for returning originals to you, nor can we guarantee that originals will not be damaged in our production process. Please keep all originals in a safe place and send only copies.

g. Photo files are prefered in a tiff format, but bitmap, gif, jpeg, or other standard format will be accepted.

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Step 4: Prepare visuals
To protect original materials against damage or loss, whenever possible work with these items into an electronic format. Scanning family photographs and important documents into an electronic format is a relatively simple and inexpensive process. If you do not own a scanner or do not care to purchase one, chances are that you can find a relative or neighbor who would be willing to scan your materials for you. If you choose to have us do this for you, we will gladly do so at the cost of $10 per image.

Step 5: Edit or proof
Some people are quite confident about their writing abilities. Others have included only historical writings and have created very little original text in their histories.Yet others welcome the assistance of professional wordsmiths to help their prose become more readable and consistent. At this point, we are offering only proofreading services by which we check for punctuation, spelling, and minor grammatical problems. We will be adding full editorial services in a few weeks. You may therefore have as little or as much to do with our text professionals as you wish.

Step 6: Cover Design
Use your own design or one of our pre-established templates, as you wish. We will be offering full custom design work in the very near future.

 

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Step 7: Interior Design
What typeface should I use? How do I begin a chapter? Do I have running heads? What in the world are running heads? We offer several standard pre-established designs that we can use on your electronic text, if that is how you are supplying us with your history. Or, if you prefer to design your own pages, either provide us with a hardcopy printout of your finished pages, or send us finished files in either QuarkXpress or FileMaker. Full custom interior design services are on their way soon.

Step 8: Index
A well-done index in a history is critical! Few things can be as frustrating to a genealogist than finding what you think is the key to that missing part of your family, only to learn that you will have to read every page of this 500-page book to find your ancestor because there is no index. Create the index on your own, or have one of our professional indexers to help, but please consider including a detailed index in your history.

Step 9: Printing
Here is where we really make a difference for you. The key to our success with you is that once you have taken care of the upfront costs of getting the book ready to print, you can order as many or as few books as you want, anytime you want, and the price will always be the same, delivered directly to your doorstep. Try calling your traditional printer and ask him to print you up just three copies of the book that he printed for you nine months ago, and to do so for just $18 per book (for example), delivered. He’ll either laugh at you or simply hang up. This is what sets Sheridan Publishing apart. This is what we do. And this is why we are the premier printer of personal and family histories today.

 

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Summary
If you aren’t afraid of hard work, are detail oriented, and are willing to take full responsibility for the look and feel of your family history, you can do a great deal to create a history that matches your vision exactly. If you lack the desire, skills, and confidence to tackle such a big task, we can help. Our directors over text development have a half century of experience in this area, and our creative design and production directors are among the best in the business.

Look at our site. See what we have to offer. We think you’ll like what you see. And above all, remember this–once you have worked with us to bring your cherished history to the press, you are guaranteed to get as many or as few copies as you want, and the price per book will be the same whether you want just one copy or one thousand copies. Anytime. Anywhere. That’s the Sheridan commitment to you and your family.

 

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Last Update: Friday, October 26, 2001 5:41 PM