New technological advances in computer software and printing equipment have lowered the cost of printing on certain jobs but you’re faced with high-cost decisions on whether to use 4-color printing or not. Here are 4 suggestions on ways you can save money on color printing. 1. If you need a short full-color run (usually less than 500 sheets), find a printer who offers digital color printing. By using this process, you don’t pay for negatives, make-readies, or plates, and you can print variable data (for example, addresses on post cards). The forerunners were the Xerox DocuColor, a toner-based digital color…
Designing a children’s book was a treat for my team! As a team leader serving the publishing community, I have the privilege of helping authors publish their books and launch their websites. Every client is so passionate about his or her book, product or service, it’s fun to live vicariously through their work for a few months. Occasionally a client brings a project that seems to leap heads and shoulders above the rest in regard to the intriguing subject matter, quality of content, scope of work, artistic challenge and affect it has on our community. One such project was Alphabet Denver,…
Over the years, I’ve done some public speaking, mainly to position myself as an expert in my field. In that time I’ve been exposed to a variety of challenging situations that required on-the-spot creativity and preparedness. Murphy’s Law comes into play with technical difficulties, poor time management by meeting planners and just plain bad luck. At times I wondered how to make the most of a dire situation and still deliver a professional presentation. Orvel Ray Wilson has put together a list of items a speaker must have to prepare for the inevitable. He has graciously allowed me to share it with…
A client pointed out that the projects my team and I create – websites, one-sheets, and other marketing tools – successfully “encapsulate” what the target audience really wants; they don’t simply describe the product or service being sold. In other words, the copy focuses on the benefits and results the target audience receives. I asked my team member Patrice Rhoades-Baum to address marketing tools focus points. Patrice is a marketing consultant specializing in branding for solopreneurs and micro-businesses, and she’s an expert copywriter for websites and one-sheets. Do your marketing tools focus on YOU or your PROSPECTS? Take a quick quiz!…
Are you stumped by new acronyms that have suddenly popped up and become part of the current lexicon in the publishing, marketing or advertising arenas? I’ve notice new acronyms are born whenever there is a new leap in technology, such as the emerging field of ebook publishing. Here are definitions of some and newly coined and common acronyms used in self-publishing, printing and graphic design. AI — Adobe Illustrator A vector-based graphic file format developed by Adobe. BMP — Bitmap A raster-based file format. CMYK— Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black A four-ink color system used by printers to print full color images. This is…
In this digital age most photos are created as electronic jpg files inside our cameras, but sometimes we need to scan old photos, drawings or paintings as digital images for projects. Currently we are designing the cover and interior or a biographical book. Many of the old photos we plan to use in the book were taken decades before the invention of the digital camera. I would like to share some basic information about scanners so you know what to consider when buying a desktop scanner. Some of our clients prefer to scan the old photos and give us the…
My client Mike Gannon took home 3rd Place in the Inspirational and Memoir categories for his book If These Ears Could Sing at the 2011 Colorado Independent Publishers Association CIPA EVVY Book Awards banquet last night. Melanie Mulhall edited the book, Kerrie Lian designed the interior and I designed the cover. Mike Gannon and Jeri Costa flew in from Reston, Virginia to attend the banquet last night. We had a fabulous time supporting and cheering on Mike as well as Melanie, who took home a 1st Place Editing Tech Award for Called: Women Hear the Voice of the Divine by Gretchen…
Are you publishing your first book? Congratulations! Would you like a road map to show you the book production process and outline each step to go from manuscript to a professional, printed book or ebook listed on Amazon? Over the years of designing books for independent publishers I’ve recognized first-time publishers could use a quick reference guide on time frames, tasks they are responsible for, and how to work with contractors such as editors, designers and printers. I created an easy-to-follow 10-page guide with checklists of action items, standard time frames, an overview of the design process, and where to obtain important items (such as ISBN…