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Issue 49 |
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Printing Your Own I (By Chris Chinen) Don't get excited: I'm not going to teach you how to print your own money: Not that I even know how.. And I don't encourage people to do anything illegal. What I am going to do is explain how you can print your own textbook which you can then convert into cash. In the February issue of the Gleaner I gave some suggestions for writing a textbook and trying to find a publisher for it. In this article I will talk about the nitty-gritty of printing your own textbook. You are probably reading this article because you haven't yet found a publisher for your textbook, and that's OK. Field-testing your book is the best way to know what works and what doesn't. However, before you can decide whether or not to print your own book, you have to consider whether it is financially feasible. The big question is: How many students are going to use your book? Printing costs per book vary depending on the number of copies you print; the more copies you print, the lower the cost per copy. For example, if you print only 30 copies, the cost will be a whopping ¥5,400 per copy, for a 100-page black and white book, while five hundred copies are ¥460 and a thousand copies will only cost ¥280 per copy.* Therefore, if you are one of those people who has always been frustrated by the large classes at the college where you teach, this large population of students who will use your book can now be an advantage. If at this point you are shaking your head and thinking, "That sounds OK to me," the next thing you have to do is consider in what form you will need to hand over your manuscript to the printing company. If a publisher accepts your textbook, then you simply have to submit the manuscript neatly typed (though publishers do prefer computer discs) and you don't have to worry too much about formatting, illustrations or even mistakes. However, if you decide to print the book yourself then you have to take care of these things yourself. In that case using a computer will make your life much easier. Using a computer you can format your manuscript, and use clip art or decorative fonts to "illustrate." While you need no special software besides your word processing program, formatting can be somewhat tricky if you've never done it, so you might want to hire someone to help you with it. A computer will check your spelling (be careful of correctly spelled wrong words ) and even your grammar. In addition, your computer can paginate the manuscript. To save on costs when having your book printed, plan to use black and white, B5 size and give the printer already formatted pages that he can just copy rather than something that he needs to typeset. After completing your manuscript, make sure the formatting is correct and proofread several times to check for mistakes. Asking someone else to proofread is helpful because as the writer, you anticipate what is coming next and miss a lot of mistakes. There's one more point I have to talk about: the copyright. You need to include the copyright information on the reverse side of the title page. Check a few published textbooks to see what a copyright looks like. Generally, you need to include the copyright symbol, the date, your name (as the publisher), the place where the book was printed and if you want, your address. Now you are ready to call a printing company and get an estimate for the total printing costs. Usually, the printer will take your manuscript, print a proof and give it to you for correcting (making sure the pages are in the right order and the print quality and darkness is good). My printing company took two weeks to print out my books; you should clear with your printer how long the process will take so that you can have your book in your hands ready for your first class. While writing and printing your own textbook is a lot of work, there are many rewards. First, using your own materials in class makes teaching easier and more rewarding. Next, field- testing your book in this way helps you refine it. And finally, there is a tremendous sense of accomplishment in seeing your own creation. * Information from Arm Total Printing Office, 092-611-8763, ask for Mr. Shibata (in Japanese.) Thanks to Paul Shimizu from Intercom for information about copyrighting. Now For Making Money! Issue 49 |
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