Publishing is often confused with printing. Although printing is an integral part of publishing, it is a different business with its own set of challenges. This argument will not convince many who have dealt with printers who, in their eagerness to secure the client’s business, readily take over the publisher’s work to the detriment of the final product. Unfortunately, astute printers are adept at convincing customers that what they deliver is the best there is until a wary customer pays for this by demanding a reprint or a price reduction for not delivering what was requested. Some printers in all honesty don’t understand the role of a publisher. To compound the problem, there are errant ‘editors’ with no sense of correctness, discipline and rigor of publication, presenting their work as a published work.
The publication begins with a concept. This image is usually in the head of an initiator. This person may be a junior person, but in every major company a senior executive sets the direction. When they asked me for designs for the company logo, I remember that a few years ago, their administrative manager called the printer. The importance of the logo, just like the company’s mission statement, cannot be stressed enough in building a company image. The called printer will seek the help of a typographer who will throw out some nice designs and after some presentations and discussions, in their rush to get things up and running, the best aspect of the submitted designs will be chosen. Then the company sticks with that design and image for years.
Although it is not uncommon for companies to operate in the early years with a weak logo or even without one, there usually comes a time when they are looking to differentiate themselves from their competitors.
Shouldn’t the relevance of the logo be studied further and management be guided by professionals who are passionately related to design as a way of life? Design houses, advertising agencies, and publishing houses are populated by creative bodies that look beyond the niceties and look at how management wants the company to appear in the minds of consumers. MacDonald’s and Singapore Airlines have logos that are an amazing symbol of what the companies stand for.
A clear concept established by top management, professionally interpreted by a responsible designer, may well be the flag that employees are proud to fly. Design does matter and with posts, each one has its own character and this has to be transparent. Think of all the great books you’ve read and each one will have a different character, even if one is adult fiction with abridged content and the other is a children’s edition. For example, Harry Porter books, the adult and children’s edition have different covers and presentations that give each one a different character.
The design implies knowing the target audience, the format of the book, the type and size of the fonts to be used, the illustrations and photographs, the colors to be used, the type of paper to be printed, etc. Every area, be it formatting, fonts, etc. it has its own quirks that experts use to produce as perfect as possible.
Assuming the text is written (writing is another topic we won’t discuss here), it would need to be set to an appropriate font, checked and edited to flow well. No spelling or grammatical errors will be allowed. A professionally managed publication will hardly have such an error.
Once the layout is complete and the text is submitted, it is delivered to the printer either as a work of art or in CD format. The printer will then have to separate the images by color (if they are in color) and make sure that the reproduction is no worse than the original. Color proofs are provided to the customer for verification and approval. The rest of the text is presented according to a scientific layout so that they run per page consecutively and do not conflict with the overall positioning. The binding method, in addition to reflecting market expectations (for example, lawyers prefer hardcover books), also determines the price of the book. The books are usually paperback bound, spine-stitched, or thread-sewn. Once printing is complete and the printed sheets are folded and cover-bound into a book, the printer only has to deliver the book.
If the book is intended for a restricted audience, the books are delivered to specific locations and the tour ends there.
However, if it is going to be commercially available, publishing becomes more complex and requires the services of other experts in your field. Obviously there must be a marketing plan in place and this would have helped determine retail price, print run, profit etc. A good publicity program will help promote the book and make the public aware of its availability. The author must also have considered the possibility of selling the book in foreign markets, in which case he would have to hire foreign representatives (distributors). Dealing with distributors and retailers can be a complicated and, for the uninitiated, a demanding experience.
The marketing and distribution of books is a challenge all over the world and publishers use various platforms to sell their books. This aspect of the business has to be fully understood before you even get down to writing and designing the book. Many authors have approached me with a finished book and asked me to sell to specific markets. However, the pricing strategy employed would be wrong most of the time, and the packaging might not be appropriate (for example, a hardcover novel is a poor proposition for certain markets).
I have tried to dispel the misunderstanding that prevails between printing and publishing. Printing is a fascinating field and it was my first love until publishing came along and swept me off my feet. I guess knowing I don’t have to give up printing to go into publishing makes the transition easy. In fact, knowledge of the printing process has made publishing a more exciting proposition.