Writing, Self-Publishing, Book Marketing

For those of you who haven’t yet read the comments on the Periodical and ISSN blogs, Valya is thinking of starting a journal, and she’s wondering if Wordclay, a free print-on-demand publisher, is the right choice. 

Who can blame her? The idea of a print-on-demand periodical is a relatively new concept, even though I’m not sure exactly why. To me at least, it just makes sense to order as many copies of a journal as you need, so you aren’t out hundreds of dollars on unused copies that end up collecting dust in your cramped office. 

Still, Valya has questions, and I aim to answer them. 

Valya: “You say, ‘You can always pay a small price for the Stock Cover Art and submit artwork with directions for our professional designers.’ What if I want to design my own cover with my own photography? Is there an acceptable format that I can send to you to have printed? 

Justin: You can design the complete cover if you are capable of doing so. You can also contract your own designer to lay it out for you. The exact specs for each of our formats are in the FAQs toolbox. The best formats to use when sending the cover would be a layered .psd file or .tiff file, and if possible a PDF of the full cover as well.  

But unless you’re an experienced designer, I don’t recommend laying the cover out yourself. The whole concept behind Wordclay is DIY publishing through being affordable.

Not only will you devote tons of time to laying out a cover, or perhaps tons of money hiring a designer (and you’ll still have to pay Wordclay a custom quoted fee to use the cover you provide anyway), but often times the smallest formatting error can throw the whole design off for the printers.

For example, you may miss a trim line or you may not leave enough room for the imprint or barcode – what then? Your cover looks only half as good as it could have – that’s what. 

That said, the two best options (in my opinion), are either purchacing (1) the Stock Cover Art package for $149.00 or (2) what’s unofficially called “Cover Template Fitting” (which is a custom quote and requires order by Live Chat). 

With Cover Template Fitting, you can submit your images in high resolution jpegs or tiffs (300 dpi or higher at the actucal size you want for your cover) and you’ll definitely pay less than the full $149.00, but you’ll also have to trust our professional designers. Unfortunately, you won’t get to consult them, and using the info you should have already inserted on your templated cover in the publishing wizard, they’ll make the best decision about inserting your images.

But with the full Stock Cover Art package, you’ll be able to submit your high resolution images to customer support and talk to your designer about placement, style, etc.  

So it’s really up to each individual periodical, their level of design expertise and the time they have to spare on cover images.  

Valya: “You write ‘you can always reuse aspects of it, like imprints or layouts, limiting miscommunication and additional costs.’Would I still be able to do this, just changing the photograph, but keeping the text and logo? Also, would you be able to use my cover as a template, at then provide a variable individual ISBN number & barcode, and then include my “permanent” ISSN# ?” 

Justin: You sure can use the same cover as a template, replacing only the image with a new one, and of course updating the issue number, while keeping the permanent home for your ISSN. Each issue would have a unique ISBN, as you know, but the ISSN would remain the same, unless you obtained another (for whatever reason) and swapped them out when you updated us.  

You would still get charged a minimal fee, probably far less than their initial Cover Template Fitting or Stock Cover Art purchase though. Unfortunately, without examining the images and seeing the extent of changes, nobody can determine the price exactly.  

Remember, though, they have to be your own images or images you’ve legally purchased from an artist (with the expressed permission of using for your journal).

I wouldn’t want you or Wordclay to get into any legal trouble, now would I?  

Valya: “Might there be a discount for a publishing relationship with a semiannual journal? Or would each book be considered its own product?” 

Justin: Unfortunately, each book is considered it’s own product, but that’s not to say Wordclay won’t discount for semiannual journal in the future. The theme and templated nature of a journal does provide editors with discounts like Cover Template Fitting. We also have monthly promotions, which you can buy in bulk, one of which is now Be Your Own Publisher.  

Valya: “How then would I take advantage of ‘being my own publisher’? Would this be reflected in the ISBN number (because of the part that refers to the publisher? In my case, would the publisher then remain ABNA Books for each volume and number of my journal?” 

Justin: Essentially, you can use the Be Your Own Publisher package to claim your indepedence from Wordclay. Many journals and periodicals don’t like the idea of being associated with a publisher, traditional or self-publishing, but this package can free you from both, while saving you the money you’d otherwise spend on a bulk printing order if you went to a traditional printer. 

Once purchased, your publishing company ABNA Books, would be reflected in the ISBN, and if you provided your logo with your high resolution image submissions, all of the inserts, including your logo, would be included in the cover custom quoted price. 

In order for the publisher to remain ABNA Books from one issue to the next, you would have to purchase the Be Your Own Publisher package each time you wanted to publish and print an issue. As you can see, we discount the package occasionally, so you can save money by buying them in bulk. For a bulk quote on the package itself (say you want 5 or 6 to start), you’ll need to connect via Live Chat and ask.  

Valya: “And speaking of the publisher, my goal is to have my literary journal ready for October. How might I still take advantage of the Be Your Own Publisher Package?” 

Justin: You can take advantage of the Be Your Own Publisher Package at any time. Just remember that the promotion lasts only until the end of March. In order to meet your October deadline safely, all your materials would need to be submitted and correct by August 1st. I would leave 2-3 weeks for the cover and an addition 2-3 weeks at the printer. Otherwise, you’ll cut deeper and deeper into October. 

Remember, too, that since you’re essentially ordering the issue for your subscriber that you would have to prepay for the individual orders. It makes sense – you should have the money from the subscribers anyway – and you’ll be paying less then what you have on hand, that’s for certain.  

Valya: “You wrote ‘If editors just retain a spreadsheet of their subscribers and mailing addresses, they can always order the copies they need and have them individually mailed out via media mail or UPS.’ So I can send you a list of addresses and you will mail the copies to them, billing me for the cost? Is that how it would work? 

Justin: Indeed, you can send us a spreadsheet with each individual subscriber, their shipping address, contact information, number of copies sent to each individual and method of shipping (Media Mail or UPS). Once we tallied up the cost, you would have to pay for the issues and the shipping (which should be marginal compared to what you would pay at FedEx, UPS or USPS) before they are shipped out.  

Valya: “As far as distribution, I wasn’t entirely clear where/how you distribute? Clearly there the direct from the published route, but what about Amazon.com and others? I see that you can purchase a 1 year softcover channel distribution. Other than the ISBN, what does that buy you?” 

Justin: If you purchased distribution, which you can do with the Be Your Own Publisher packcage, then we would make the issue available at more than 25,000 different online retailers, such as Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Borders, etc. The issue wouldn’t be carried in physical locations, unless the manager ordered the journal for the store itself, but any reader could potentially order it anywhere, say from Borders or any brick-and-mortar store. 

We distribute by using Ingram, which essentially plugs us into more than 85% of the literary distribution in the world. So purchasing distribution buys you an ISBN, yes, but also accessibility and Internet Search Engine Optimization. 

 I think that about wraps things up for now. If any journals or series publications have questions, I recommend visiting the Wordclay Web site and connecting via Live Chat to a customer representative. I’ve gone over the potential gain for both Wordclay and periodicals with each of them, and they’re all happy to help. 

For now, this is Justin Dimos, blogcasting from Wordclay, signing off.