Contents
Introduction Page 1
AboutPage 1-2
A Guide to the Guide
Page 3
TypsettingPage 3-4
Clays
A guide to
Self-Publishing
with
Cover DesignPage 4
Printing
Page 4-6
Trim SizesPage 6-7
Extent
Page 7
Text PapersPage 8-9
Calculating Spine WidthPage 9
Binding Page 10
Cover FinishesPage 10-13
Supplying Files for Print
Page 13-16
BleedsPage 16-18
Final StepsPage 19-20
Clays
Self-Publishing
with
Introduction
Self-publishing is a fast growing market sector of the publishing
industry, as new technologies and growing acceptance of indie
books have led to an explosion of new titles and industry growth.
If you, as an author, believe that you can write and have the aspiration to build an audience, then self-publishing could be for
you, whether your motivation comes from a business venture, a
hobby, or the desire to become a published author.
As the self-publishing market develops, we are seeing authors
take a more entrepreneurial approach to their work by collaborating with editors and designers to escape the traditional associations of self-publishing with low quality. As technology makes
self-publishing ever easier, one of the greatest challenges for an
author is to stand out from the rest of the pack. The freedom of
self-publishing means that you can form, shape and mold your
book, following its entire journey from manuscript to market.
About Clays
With a great reputation for quality, service and innovation, Clays
is a market-leading book production specialist in the UK. When it
comes to production, Clays book printing facilities, coupled with
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our extensive portfolio of value added services - including fulfilment, distribution, and pre-retail - mean we now offer a comprehensive package for self publishers.
Taking the first steps to producing your book can seem daunting
but that is exactly what our team of specialists are here to help
you with. Whether you need guidance on choosing a cover finish, advice on the format of your book, or you don’t know what
text paper would be most suitable, we will talk you through these
complexities. We will manage this process, providing you with
personalised, in-depth information. We can send you out a sample pack of text papers and cover finishes to give you an idea
of what your finished book will look and feel like. It includes text
paper samples and covers that illustrate our range of finishing
possibilities. A great looking book will help drive sales and will
help you to market your books.
The self-publishing services that we have developed at Clays are
in response to a rapidly expanding self-publishing market and the
desire to provide a professional book production service to make
your book stand out from the rest.
Introduction
About
Why should I read this
Guide?
Typesetting
Cover Design
Printing
Trim Sizes
Extent
Text Papers
Spine Width
Binding
Cover Finishes
To learn more please visit the website at
Supplying files for Print
Bleeds
www.clays.co.uk
Final Steps
2
Clays
Self-Publishing
with
Why Should You Read This Guide?
Once you have a finished manuscript, you are ready to think
about the production process. By this stage you probably have
many questions so we have put this guide together with you in
mind, to give you a better understanding from the very beginning
of the creation of your physical book. We want you to be confident
with every decision that you make so this guide will introduce you
to essential considerations, technical terms, and to our offerings
focused on giving you the best advice and the best service, in
order to provide you with a high quality finished product. We will
be here to help guide you through every step of the production
process.
Typesetting your Manuscript
The manuscript is finished but what comes next? You want your
book to be beautiful both inside and out to ensure that the reader
never puts it down. If you were to look at two different books on
your bookshelf you will notice that the inside text design is completely different; this is where a typesetter comes in. How do you
decide on the format, the font, the type size, the layout? What is
it that makes your book a pleasure to read? A great book can be
compromised by poor textual design and if it is difficult to look at,
it will be hard to read. In our opinion, unless you have experience
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in the relevant software we recommend having a professional
typesetter carry out the textual design for you. Although we don’t
offer in-house typesetting services, we can put you in touch with
the right people to provide you with an excellent service.
Introduction
About
Why should I read this
Cover Design
It is often said that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but
your readers may do so. You want your book to target the right
readers, you want it to be picked up by the right hands and therefore your cover, to a certain extent, needs to reflect your words.
You want your book to stand out but what you dont want is a
chick-lit style cover on a sci-fi novel. Having professional input
on the cover design of your book will ensure that it is designed in
such a way that makes it stand out within the right genre and for
the right reasons. We can put you in touch with cover designers
who can give you first-hand advice on the right cover design for
you.
Guide?
Typesetting
Cover Design
Printing
Trim Sizes
Extent
Text Papers
Spine Width
Binding
Cover Finishes
Printing
Supplying files for Print
Bleeds
We will always quote for the most cost effective method of
production and this is dependent on the specification of your book.
Final Steps
4
Clays
Self-Publishing
with
Printing Methods
We have both conventional and digital presses and depending
on the specifications of your book, we will advise you as to what
is the best printing method for you. Our conventional presses
are used for long-run printing and we print short-run work on our
digital presses.
We pride ourselves on exceptional service and therefore we are
always happy to discuss the options with you directly. For a small
cost we can send you a sample pack that contains examples of
both lithographic and digital printing techniques, the variety of papers available for each press, the different formats that we print,
and an assortment of cover finishes.
Introduction
About
Why should I read this
Guide?
Typesetting
Cover Design
Printing
Trim Sizes
Extent
Trim Sizes
Photograph from factory
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Trim sizes refer to the format of the finished book after it has been
bound. Although we don’t want to drive the decisions that you
make, we will give you guidance as to how to make commercial
decisions about the design and format of your book. The most
widely used of these formats is the B format paperback and is
probably what your own bookshelf is full of. The format that you
chose is closely linked to the retail price that you want to charge.
For example, customers may be willing to spend more on a B
format book than an A format book, and a Royal format book than
a B format book.
Text Papers
Spine Width
Binding
Cover Finishes
Supplying files for Print
Bleeds
Final Steps
6
Clays
Self-Publishing
with
We offer 4 standard trim sizes:
178mm x 111mm
198mm x 129mm
216mm x 135mm
234mm x 153mm
Text Papers
Why should I read this
ROYAL
153mm
234mm
135mm
216mm
148mm
DEMY
Guide?
If you have had any previous experience with other online printers,
then they may have offered you imperial measurements and
non-industry standard sizing, for example, A5, which we
have demonstrated above. However we recommend that
you do stick to industry standards due to the economics of
printing in these formats.
Extent
The extent refers to the number of pages in your book. It cannot
be an odd number and extents are calculated in multiples of 16.
If the extent of your book sits outside our standard extents we will
round it up to the nearest multiple of 16 with your approval. For
example, if your book had an extent of 200pp, we would round
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Introduction
About
A5
198mm
A
178mm
111mm
210mm
129mm
B
A Format: B Format:
Demy: Royal: it up to 208pp and there would be 8 blank pages at the back of
your book.
Clays have a variety of both coated and uncoated papers, ranging in weight and brightness. Our standard book papers range
from 52gsm (grams per square meter) to 80gsm and generally
speaking, the heavier the paper, the better the quality but the
more it costs. Higher grammage papers tend to be more opaque,
and therefore there will be less showthrough of the ink on the reverse of the page that you are reading.
Typesetting
Cover Design
Printing
Trim Sizes
Extent
Text Papers
Spine Width
Binding
Cover Finishes
Supplying files for Print
Bleeds
Final Steps
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Clays
Self-Publishing
with
Different papers are suitable for different types of books and we
can recommend the best paper for you. The physical properties
of the paper will have a big impact on the weight and the bulk of
the book, which may also affect the cost of carriage if you intend
to distribute the books yourself. Furthermore it will determine the
spine width that will in turn have an effect on the cover design.
Calculating Spine Width
The spine width is essential to the production of your book. The
spine width also plays a key role in the cover design; if the spine
width is too narrow then the design on the spine of the book will
spread onto the front and back panels of your cover design. Likewise, if your spine width is too wide, then the design from the
front and back panels of your cover could run on to the spine.
We have created a spine width calculator to make this a straight
forward calculation that you can do yourself. You will find it in the
additional information section (half way down the page) of the
website via the link below.
Spine Width Calculator
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Binding
The most common binding style in book production is perfect
binding. We do offer sewn binding but it is unlikely that your book
will need to be section sewn. We offer both paperback and hardback binding and during the binding process for hardbacks we
can also secure marker ribbons and head and tail bands which
would add a great finishing touch to your book.
Introduction
About
Why should I read this
Guide?
Typesetting
Cover Design
Printing
Cover Finishes
Trim Sizes
Extent
We have a large range of cover finishes that can be applied to
your book and we will talk you through them to help you to decide
the best option for you.
Varnish
Varnish is a cost effective finish which offers overall protection
and coating to the printed cover. It is clear and provides a gloss
or matt finish.
Text Papers
Spine Width
Binding
Cover Finishes
Supplying files for Print
Gloss Varnish - Gloss varnish is a lacquer that we can use to
coat the cover. It protects against general wear and tear and gives
a high gloss finish to your cover.
Bleeds
Final Steps
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Clays
Self-Publishing
with
Matt Varnish – Matt varnish is the same process as gloss varnish
but instead of being shiny, it provides a more subtle matt finish.
Lamination
Lamination is a plastic film in various finishes which is applied to
the entire printed sheet to create various effects.
Gloss Laminate – It is very high impact and hard wearing. It
makes colours more vibrant and offers a high level of protection
to books.
Matt Laminate – It gives a subtle and tactile finish to your cover.
It doesn’t provide the same level of protection as gloss lamination
but it is a more popular choice due to its smooth quality finish.
Soft Matt Laminate – Similar to matt laminate it has a premium
feel and is extremely tactile, like rubber to touch.
Other Cover Finishes
Spot UV - this is where we apply gloss varnish to a localised and
specific area of your cover, for example, the title or an image. It
is particularly effective when used against a matt laminate cover
finish due to the contrast of matt and high gloss.
Foil blocking - this is the process of applying a metallic foil to
your cover and available in a range of colours. The process of foil
blocking is done on a foil blocking machine where heat is used
to stamp the foil onto the surface of the cover via a brass block.
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Embossing - Pressure is applied to the cover board using a die
to distort the surface and raise a specific area for greater emphasis or to create a textured effect.
Introduction
About
De-bossing - Debossing follows the same process as embossing but rather than raising an area it creates a hollow or dip.
Why should I read this
All of these cover finishes do incur additional costs. The cost of
making a block for foiling and/or embossing is quite high, so for
runs of under 1000 copies we would suggest sticking to standard
cover finishes such as varnish or laminate.
Typesetting
All of these cover finishes can be applied to both paperback and
hardback jacketed books. There are additional choices that you
can make about cover finishes if you decide to print a hardback
book.
Hardback
Cases can be covered with a wide range of materials but the following are the most commonly used and the most cost effective.
•
Printed paper
•
Paper embossed to look like cloth (Wibalin)
•
PVC coated paper (Balacron/Baladec)
•
Real cloth
If you are unsure on cover finishes then we recommend our specially designed sample pack that contains examples of all of the
cover finishes that have been described. Only then you will get
Guide?
Cover Design
Printing
Trim Sizes
Extent
Text Papers
Spine Width
Binding
Cover Finishes
Supplying files for Print
Bleeds
Final Steps
12
Clays
Self-Publishing
with
a real understanding for how your finished book could look and
feel.
Supplying Files For Print
•
Always save as single page spreads
•
Ensure that your PDF is set to the correct trim size, with the correct margins and crop marks
•
Text PDF’s
Before submitting your files for print, you can go through the following check list.
•
You may have previously printed your book with an online printing company as a POD title. It is a legal requirement to have the current printers details on the imprint page of your
book. Please insert the details below:
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, St Ives plc
•
•
•
•
•
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Save as a PDF document
Ensure that any blank pages are meant to be blank
Make sure pages are in consecutive order
Introduction
The text must be a minimum of 4mm away from the crop marks, if not then you risk trimming the text off of the page
Why should I read this
Guide?
Typesetting
•
When saving your file, title your file with a logical file name
for example, if the title of your book was ‘Great Expectations’,
your text files should be saved as: TextGreatExpectations.
pdf
Cover Design
Printing
Trim Sizes
Cover PDF’s
The cover for your book also needs to be submitted as a PDF file.
We print in CMYK -Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black- so when
submitting your cover file please be sure that it is set to a CMYK
colour profile. If you have your colours set to RGB -Red, Green,
Blue- then the colours will look different when we then print it in
CMYK.
CMYK
RGB
Extent
Text Papers
Spine Width
Binding
Cover Finishes
Supplying files for Print
Embed all of the fonts
Provide pages how they should appear visually, for example, if portrait, the PDF should be portrait
About
Bleeds
If, for example, you submit a file that has your logo set to
RGB and a background image set to CMYK, when we convert
Final Steps
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Clays
Self-Publishing
with
the whole file to CMYK, the colours in the logo will look different. We do perform pre-press checks on your submitted files
however it is your or your designers responsibility to ensure that
the cover is set to the correct colour settings when we receive it.
You can either check with your designer or check the document
settings on the software that you have used. Before submitting
your files for print, you can go through the following check list.
•
When saving your file, title your file with a logical file name
for example, if the title of your book was ‘Great Expectations’, your cover files should be saved as: CoverGreatExpectations.pdf. If you have an additional cover finish you
should save it as a separate PDF file, for example, GreatExpectations-spotuv.pdf
Bleeds
•
Ensure that it is the correct trim size - for example, if it is a B format it should measure 198mm x 129mm
•
Ensure that the spine width is the correct width using our online spine width calculator
•
Make sure that the colour profile is CMYK and not RGB
•
•
If there is anything that should run to the very edge of the
cover whether it is colour, text or image, the you need to
include a 3mm bleed.
Make sure that any type or non-bleeding images such as your logo are withdrawn at least 4mm away from the book trim edge.
Looking at the design of your front cover, if you have an image
that runs to the edge of the cover, then you will need to add a
bleed. Where images run to the trim, an allowance needs to be
made to account for the tolerances in printing. The image should
continue for 3mm outside the trim area to ensure that the image
covers the whole of the print area and so that there is no risk of
the image not covering the whole area once trimmed.
If you don’t want images on the front cover to run over the edge,
then you need to ensure that there is at least 4mm between the
image or text and the edge of your cover. This is so that when we
trim them down the image doesnt sit so close to the edge that we
risk trimming it off.
Introduction
About
Why should I read this
Guide?
Typesetting
Cover Design
Printing
Trim Sizes
Extent
Text Papers
Spine Width
Binding
Cover Finishes
Supplying files for Print
•
Make sure that the file has trim and spine width marks
•
Make sure that the images within the cover file are high resolution - a minimum of 300dpi
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Bleeds
Final Steps
16
Clays
Self-Publishing
with
Bleed
Bleed
Trim Mark
Trim Mark
Text/Image
Safe Area
Text/Image
Safe Area
Introduction
About
Why should I read this
Guide?
Typesetting
Cover Design
Printing
Trim Sizes
Extent
Text Papers
Spine Width
Binding
Cover Finishes
Bleed
The area outside the trim mark is called the bleed. As previously
explained, if you want an image to print to the edge, then the image needs to bleed 3mm outside of the trim mark to account for
print tolerances.
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No Bleed
The text/image safe area (4mm away from the edge) is the space
in which the main body of the text or of an image sit without the
risk of being cut off or loosing a section of the image that was
intended to be printed.
Supplying files for Print
Bleeds
Final Steps
18
Clays
Self-Publishing
with
Final Steps
Estimates
Once you have a final specification and know the size of your
print run, we will provide you with an estimate. The estimate will
contain all of the information about your book specification so
that you know exactly what we are estimating for, accompanied
by the cost of printing the number of units that you wish to print.
Our estimate will include delivery to one UK address.
Run-on Pricing
In addition to quoting for the quantity requested we also show a
run on price. You may pro-rata this figure to calculate alternative
order quantities. For example, if we quote for 500 copies with a
100 run on, the cost of producing 750 copies would be the 500
copy price added to 2.5 x the 100 run on price. The run on price
should not be confused with a reprint price.
Purchase Order
Once you are ready to print your book you will need to raise a
purchase order form with Clays. You will need to fill out the form
with all of the specifications and a delivery date. At this stage it is
essental that all of the details that you input into the purchase order form are correct.The purchase order form is available in both
print and electronic format via our website with details on where
to send it. Please follow the link for the purchase order form.
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Payment and Invoicing
We operate on a cash-with-order basis and the books will be
printed and distributed once we have received payment. An invoice will be raised once all books have been dispatched acknowledging any previous payment. Please follow the link for
Introduction
About
Why should I read this
payment details.
Guide?
When Can I Expect Delivery?
Once the purchase order has been processed, the payment has
been received, and the data has been through all the pre-press
checks for print, your books will be printed and it will take 10-15
working days for your books to reach you, depending on your
delivery location.
Typesetting
Delivery Considerations
Depending on where you want the books to be delivered, the order quantity and the type of packaging you have opted for, whether it be in cartons or on a pallet, will depend on what delivery
method is right for you. We can deliver on pallets to your front
door, but if you are distributing them yourself, it is more manageable to have them delivered in more managable binders parcels.
If you do opt to have them delivered on a pallet then you need to
consider road access and how your delivery will be lifted from the
vehicle, alongside where you are going to physically store them.
We can deliver to multiple adresses but you will need to let us
know so that we can process this within the estimate.
Extent
Cover Design
Printing
Trim Sizes
Text Papers
Spine Width
Binding
Cover Finishes
Supplying files for Print
Bleeds
Final Steps
20
Clays
Self-Publishing
with
Now that you have read this guide, we hope that you feel more
informed about printing your self-published your book. We pride
ourselves on our customer service and so even though we
have created this guide to give you a better understanding,
we understand that it still may not be clear, so please don’t
hesitate to contact us. Whether you have a one off question,
you need some advice, or you would like a price for printing,
we look forward to hearing from you.
If you would like to discuss your project with a member of the
team, please contact Rebecca Souster direct on:
0207 902 6474
Alternatively, please send all email enquiries to:
[email protected]
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