Tulsa, Oklahoma • 918-551-6180

For 20 years, Ad Graphics was the longest running advertiser in NSA’s SPEAKER magazine.

Serving the professional speaking industry for over thirty years

Here's some useful information
on book production costs.

STEP ONE:

Establish a budget.

What's it going to cost? Self-publishing isn't cheap.

What you're actually doing is manufacturing a very

special and customized product that you intend to

sell for a substantial profit. Like any manufacturing

project, it costs money.

There are two major production costs. The first is what

we at Ad Graphics produce, the full-color cover design

and press-ready masters of the text pages. The other

major cost is the actual printing of the book.

We try to put a flat rate fee on the covers we produce because we know you have to know the cost ahead of time.

We charge a flat per-page fee for producing the inside masters. The page count starts from the first printed page to the last printed page. We also must charge if you do any editing of the text after we've produced the masters. Make sure the text you send us is PERFECTLY edited and you'll save lots of money. Of course, as you proof the final masters, you'll find a few things that you may have missed. We will allow for some minor typos but revisions can be costly.

Printing a book is a very specialized skill. You can use any printer you like but for 30 years we've used a printer rep that has learned and adapted to the uniqueness of the professional speaker industry. While we handle all the technical details, we put you in direct contact with Melody Morris so you can get direct and often instant answers to the many questions you may have regarding printing your book.

Digital On-Demand Printing is more of an option today than ever before. Talk to us early if you plan to go this route so we can be sure that all the details are in place early on for a successful project.

STEP TWO:

ISBN – Order them now. (Just the numbers, not the barcode)

ISBNs are linked to essential information allowing book-sellers, and readers, to know what book they are buying, what the book is about, and who the author is. This page has more info.

STEP THREE:

Producing the text for your book.

We do not provide on-site editing services. Your book needs to come to us already organized and edited. Our job is to produce the final design. That is, make it look like a book should look.

What you'll eventually send by email is the MS Word file that has your PERFECTLY edited text. Text that has been spell checked, grammar-checked, in other words, ready us to use.

STEP FOUR:

The cover design.

While you're doing the final editing on the text, we can be working on the cover design. We design the front, spine, and back cover. We also create the barcode from the ISBN number that you provide. You don't need all the text for the back for us to start on the front cover, but you do need to tell us everything you want on the front.

What we provide as a final product will be the press-ready digital files that are required to print the cover.

STEP FIVE:

Producing the inside masters.

Producing master pages of a book is truly a refined art and science. Once we have your PERFECTLY edited files, the process of interior design begins. During the process, we'll produce a sample chapter for you to look at. We us a state-of-the-art online proofing system that allows you to view the proof and if you like, print it. Once approved, we'll proceed to finish the book. Did you notice the emphasis on PERFECTLY edited? One of the factors that will affect the final cost of your book is editing AFTER we've produced the masters. (Editing should be done before the text is sent to us.)

STEP SIX:

The printing process.

Our job is generally complete once we send all the master files to press.

During the printing process the printer will produce a prepress digital copy of the book. This is your last chance for finding any horrible errors that must be changed. In reality, the main purpose of this proof is to be sure that all is well and ready to go to press. Check every page for spots, smudges, etc. The printer wants you to be happy with your print job so be sure to check everything closely. DO NOT ASSUME EVERYTHING IS OK. 

STEP SEVEN:

Savor the experience.

There's nothing like the proud feeling you have when you hold your first printed book in your hand. The excitement starts building when you receive the first proofs of the cover. It keeps on building as you see the first PDFs of the inside page samples. The day you actually send the finals to the printer will be the start of the longest couple of weeks you'll ever have. The anticipation will almost be unbearable. . . You are now part of a select group of professionals. You are a published author. Now reap the rewards.