13/07/2020
What’s involved in Publishing My Book?
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Recently, we got enquiries from two clients that want us to publish their books. As with many other prospects and customers, after stating that they want to publish a book, the next thing they ask is: how much?
I intend to take time and give an exhaustive discussion on this subject matter, but for now, it will suffice to state that to come up with the right price for your book, YOU should be CLEAR about the following:
Your Book Word Count
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Every page of your book has a word count and to determine the pages, you need to know how many number of words you have in your book. You can find out that by looking at the down left corner of your MS word or just copy your book content and paste on any online word counters software.
Preferred Book Size
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This is the final size for your book and it matters determining the number of pages for your book. An A4 sized book will take more words than A5. You can find out this by taking a ruler (abi rule) and measuring the length and width of your book.
When you tell your publisher this, he can give you a reasonably accurate quote for publishing your book as an eBook. However, if your book will be printed, you need to go further in telling him...
The type of paper you want to use for your inside and cover, Kind of lamination for your book, Your choice binding style, Pages with special colours or paper.
Paper Choice
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In printing a book, one of the basic consideration is the paper to use. You need to decide the paper colour and thickness. To choose the right paper to use for your book printing, the colour and the thickness are of primary interest. You can use as low as 55grams and as high as 80 grams for your book thickness.
You are at liberty to make a choice of paper to use but the factors to consider are volume of your book, cost and your taste. But I STRONGLY advise against using 55grams for a standard book. It’s too light that if someone tries to underline a point with a pen, it will puncture the paper.
Your paper colour can be cream or white. Cream colour is what we often call ‘foreign print’ because most imported books are printed in cream colour. It costs more, but is better for packaging purpose. A caveat: the cream colour does NOT confer any quality on a shallow book! So, don’t kill yourself to get cream colour book interior. Na packaging!
Just by the way, as at the time of writing this post, all Pastor Bankie’s books are in white print and “By Faith Acquire Life” and “Choices Key to Destiny” are his books that have shaped by life as a teenager. So, it’s not about the colour of your paper primary; it’s about the value your content delivers!
Next thing you should consider is the paper for your cover. The paper used for book cover is called card paper and you can use as low as 250grams. The choice of size you use for your book depends largely on the volume of your book, the size and your taste. Before we give you a quote, we discuss the best option that will serve you well.
Lamination for Your Book
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Your book can still be published and released without laminating the cover, but lamination it makes for longevity. Lamination protects your book from the elements and water and can even improve its beauty. So, by all means, I implore you to laminate your book cover.
There are two types of lamination you can use for your book cover—gloss lamination and mart lamination. Gloss is the shiny lamination while mart is the non-shinny one. Mart is classier and more expensive than glossy. Unless it’s school magazine or secondary school book, I don’t recommend glossy lamination. Give your book class with mart lamination!
Binding
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When books are printed, they are in a group of 4-32 pages per paper. Binding is all about joining the different groups of your pages to the cover as one bundle. When a book is poorly bound, it will look bad and tear within a short time.
There are different forms of binding options for your book such as Saddle Stitching (which involves folding the papers and stitching them together); Perfect Binding (involves using gum or thread to hold a book paper together and gunning them to the cover); or Case Binding (best used for hardcover book binding) Spiral or Wire binding (where plastic spiral or iron is wound round a compiled paper).
The choice of the binding styles to use depends on your book, target and budget. There is no bad and good binding style; it’s when we discuss your book project that we can determine a suitable one.
Special Pages
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If your book has special pages, that’s you need to print some pages coloured or with special paper, you need to let your printer or publisher know. Coloured printing costs more money than black and white and printing on art paper, like you find on many biographies and story books, costs more money than bond paper (which is the normal paper used in book printing.
What I have shared so far is what’s involved in determining the cost of your book publishing project. That’s not all that is involved. In my next post, I will explain all that in details.
For now, here is a good news for you…
At we have published 8 books for our clients and 3 are in print. In the course of working with these clients, we have developed a system for helping writers, bloggers and preachers turn their messages and stories into a book.
So, if your book is at idea stage, we can work with you to put in on paper, if it's written, we edit and proofread to make your language and message sparkle.
When your manuscript is ready, our team of graphic designer swing into action to design your book cover and a layout that makes your book easy to read. Our and ensures that your book is printed clearly with lasting binding.
To learn more about publishing your book or make enquiries, shoot a message to Fratee Media line: 0807071380 on WhatsApp or [email protected]
Regards,
Joseph Dinwoke,
Media Strategist, Fratee Media.
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Joseph Dinwoke is the lead Media Strategist at Fratee Media. After working as, the Head of Production in a publishing company where he supervised book publishing and many printing projects, he brings his wealth of experience and knowledge to bear in helping Fratee Media clients have their books published and printed. One of the most exciting parts of his work as a publisher is helping aspiring authors clarify their book publishing goals and make the best printing and marketing decision. He can be reached through [email protected] or Joseph Dinwoke across social media handles.
