02:34 Tasha E.: I have saved the biggest headache for last that is printing
printing. Has by far been the biggest headache, consistently with being a picture
book author. Now if you are going through one of the Big Five, they’re going to
print store distribute all of that for you, you will want to ask how you can get
author copies. These are copies that you can have. These are copies that you can
have in your own home and take them to author visits or sell them that sort of
thing. So you will want to know if you go through a traditional publisher.

03:18 Tasha E.: Especially if it’s the Big Five but also if it’s a small publisher, what
are the rules here? And What are you allowed to do? And not allowed to do? I
know, even with some small publishers, there’s only certain methods of payment
they want you to take and there’s other rules. So make sure, you know, those
rules and that it’s all in writing. So you know what you’re doing. However, if you
are doing or like the hybrid of picture book publishing or chapter book publishing,
Where you’re working, probably with a small publisher of some kind and it has
that feel of self-publishing.

03:55 Tasha E.: or if you are completely self-published, this is going to be
important information for you to have I’ve had to learn through the University of
hard knocks and I want to share those lessons with you now.

04:05 Tasha E.: so, If you have done anything in graphic design or printing in the
past, a lot of this isn’t going to surprise you. For me, it was very surprising. Okay. I
didn’t even know how to take my Microsoft Word document and get it into book
format. Okay. I have met an author who completely did her book through Canva.
And she Printed it and everything. I think you can print through canva. So that is
an option, especially if you’re wanting to do a smaller batch of printing, if it’s more
for family and friends, or if you’re just wanting to see, kind of what it looks like,
that is an option to do that.

05:05 Tasha E.: if you remember, I said in the first video of How to Become an
author, You will get proofs. So this any printing company should send you proofs?
so when you get those proofs, that’s when you can make the adjustments, that’s
where the headache for me has come in is when I see all these proofs I’ve
invested more money and proofs than I thought I would. They’re they’re not very
expensive when you only get one or two but it adds up over time. In regards to.

05:41 Tasha E.: Printing Companies, You can obviously do your own searches. I’m
also going to include a lot of links and articles for you so that you can filter your
search. So you can filter your searches through. To make it a little bit easier for
you. The big ones to consider would be of course, Amazon. Ingramspark. Local
print shops and overseas. So let’s talk about some of the pros and cons. I’m
gonna have a chart too on my blog so that you can actually see a visual of all of
this. But number one Amazon. So Amazon’s a behemoth, you know, you can love
to hate him and hate to love them, but it is what it is. So with Amazon, you’re
going to want to make sure that you follow their margins with all of these print
shops. No, your margins. Whether It’s a chapter book or a full-out picture book.
That’s very important.

06:51 Tasha E.: And it’s going to be different too. I think if you do everything
digitally It will probably print true to color a lot better than if it’s been painted or
you know, use color pencils and things like that, it’s going to be more true to
color. Most likely. Okay, now know your margins Amazon will, if you go to Amazon
KDP, That’s where you can get all the information about that, as well as pricing it.

07:22 Tasha E.: Now, One of the challenges of printing through Amazon is it’s a
huge company. So if you have issues, this is where it’s great to have a small
publisher, represent you so that they can go to bat for you and it’s not just you
advocating for yourself if there’s any issues. Okay? However, They have done
okay with customer service for us. Just know that on the front end, okay? That’s
why using a local printer. Sometimes is kind of nice is, there’s that more personal
interaction. Of course, you’re gonna get the margins, they’re also going to send
you proofs.

08:03 Tasha E.: Skim through those proofs and make sure that it’s what you
approve. And then you’re also going to set your own pricing. One of the things
One of the things that has surprised me is that they can change the price. It’s
your book, but it’s their business so they can change the price. So sometimes I’ve
signed in and I’m like, They have like, significantly discounted this. So, why would
anybody buy for my website, or for me? Thanks Amazon. So, be aware of that
and you will get a percentage back. So you’ll link it to your bank account, all of
that, they will pay you.

08:46 Tasha E.: I can’t remember if it’s at the end of the month or a couple 
months later after you’ve earned your royalties, it’s very minimal compensation.
So that’s part of the reason why I don’t actually know when it is because it’s such
a small compensation. Also, if you strictly use Amazon, there are courses on how
to market it, on Amazon to get reviews. One of the things to keep in mind when
you officially publish it on Amazon, if that’s gonna be your main source of printing
and distribution because it is nice. They store it, they distribute it. They do all of
that.

09:22 Tasha E.: For you let all of your family and friends know. Hey if you’re
buying the book buy it right now because it’s available. Okay? Or buy it on this
date, that’s when it will go live. So when you approve it and push it needs to go
live, it’s not going to necessarily be an instantaneous thing they do print and
distribute all of that. Not print and distribute. They print it, and ship it for you,
okay?

09:52 Tasha E.: Difference between shipping and distributing, so. You want
people also, to leave honest reviews, that’s important. If you’re just

10:05 Tasha E.: getting all five stars and glowing reviews, and all of that and then
actual consumers, start purchasing it and they’re like, um, Actually. It it’s not
authentic. So tell people to leave honest reviews. You know, it could even be like
great book. Loved it. It doesn’t have to be flowing and poetic either. Okay, so
there is a strategy to Selling through Amazon but it is a place where you can print
it and and have it go out to people.

10:41 Tasha E.: I also recommend because it’s such a big company and we will
talk about some of the printing issues that you may face. I do recommend when
you get, when you hit publish, get some author copies right away, and make sure
that those author copies are printed. Well, Just because you approved the proof
doesn’t mean you’re going to love the finished product from such a big company
and that can be challenging in and of itself. So get your author copies right away
so that if there is a fire to put out, it’s much smaller than waiting months down the
road and finding out through consumers that maybe the print job was terrible.
Okay? You may also have to depending on coloration. You might need to do like
the full color saturated premium printing options. You’re going to lose a little bit of
money doing it that way.

11:39 Tasha E.: On any of the companies that you choose. You’re also going to 
want to print. If you want perfect binding or staple binding. Perfect binding is
where it’s glued. It does look more professional. Staple binding is cheaper. You’re
gonna make a little more with royalties. From any of the companies that you
choose to print through, you’re going to make less royalties. If you do perfect
binding, So, keep all of that in mind and you can ask your illustrator, or whoever
you’re publisher. Whoever is involved with this to make sure that you’re all on the
same page.

12:13 Tasha E.: The little shot illustrator Miranda. And I have definitely decided.
We would rather have less royalties and be really happy with the finished product.
Then You know, save a buck or two per book by using cheaper options. so when
it comes to printing it, binding, it storing it and distributing it Ingramspark is a big
company to work with they have They have, you know, options for picture book
publishing where it’s like premium print quality as well as doing some marketing
for you. Some of you have to pay for some of it you don’t but when you are in
Ingramspark, the great news is whenever a library says, Oh, you know, where do
you print or Who do you, who are you published by even if you’re self-published it
doesn’t necessarily matter with the public library. If you say that you print through
Ingram spark, it will be in their system like they can order it. There’s also some
books.

13:26 Tasha E.: That they order their books through ingramspark so if you’re
wanting to distribute it and get it out to libraries and bookstores, and into more
hands, ingramspark is a great option because it is a bigger company and can do
that for you. A lot of the other things with Amazon, apply, You must know your
margins, please know your margins. Know your margins know what kind of paper
you want to print on? That was another thing. Comparing, You might get proofs
from multiple companies and compare them.

13:58 Tasha E.: Okay. It’s better to make sure you love your product before you
officially make it go live and do this work on the front end. So feel the pages, one
of the companies that we use the pages felt shiny, and I guess they look shiny.
They felt glossy and it was almost hard to turn the pages. And so we didn’t like
that very much. So make sure that you like the paper.

14:22 Tasha E.: Look at the paper, Feel the paper, as you turn your book, the
cover, one of the cover covers that I’ve printed through different company. Like it 
felt a little bit more like cardboard and wasn’t as flexible, okay? And making sure
that you like all aspects, you can also get in picture book. I don’t remember what
it’s called. But it’s kind of like a crease already put in the cover so that when they
open it it doesn’t rip the book apart.

14:53 Tasha E.: so, I don’t remember what that’s called. It’s like perforated. kind
of, so, Making sure that every detail is the way you want it. And here again, you
can go to the library, take all of your proofs and compare them to books at the
library or at a bookstore and see what you like. And don’t like, okay. Here again,
Ingramspark will send you your royalties. Keep in mind too. Whenever anybody
sends book backs back, whenever anybody sends book, Whenever? whenever
somebody sends a book back or multiple books back, Chase. Whenever anybody
returns books. You will see a deduction and royalties. As well. So keep that in
mind and you have options of how those returns go.

15:57 Tasha E.: Whether it’s Incinerated. Or actually sent back to the company.
It’s, it’s so sad. If anybody can change some laws where they have to donate the
books, that would be great. so, That will also affect your royalties and that is from
Ingram spark in particular and books who do the distribution. So Amazon does
you know the print on demand and then they just, you know, sell them whereas
Ingram does print on demand but they Distribute them. Okay.

16:43 Tasha E.: Another option is checking out local print shops. You know, I know
where I’m from. There’s a couple local to me, you know, within an hour radius of
me that are options, some things when it’s a smaller print shop, you need to know
about printing, And your options with covers pages. Margins. Have I said,
emergency enough. Margin. And if they have premium printing options, print,
meaning like coloration, right? If this is a chapter book, you’re probably not going
to see printing as big of a headache. If it’s all black and white and a chapter book,
you won’t, I’ve teased that any future picture books. I do is just gonna be black
and white.

17:35 Tasha E.: So you’ll want to know about that, you want to know about what
kind of binding they have. Some of them can only do staple binding because the
perfect binding is so expensive to do it requires different equipment, okay? You’ll
want to know about Do they store them for you? Because some places can do
storage, you’ll have to pay a monthly payment for that. Is it something that they 
can, you know, what’s their capacity for printing? How many can they do? What is
their turnaround time? How much time do they need from you? Because maybe all
of a sudden you’re like Well I’m out of inventory and I need books. You want to
know How long does it take typically for them to get the books printed? Also.

18:22 Tasha E.: I’ve had you know, big bulk order that was sent to Advent Health
and Tampa, Florida to the hospitals and so I wanted to know if they could ship
directly to the hospital for me, which was a step that was very valuable as saved
me a lot of Time and energy and wanting to know how they shipped and the
packaging and all of that. So these are questions that you’ll want to ask to make
sure that you know what you’re getting into. Here again you’ll get your proofs and
what’s great about using a local printer.

19:01 Tasha E.: Of course, you’re supporting another small business, which is
wonderful. But you know, when you have issues, I think because you can go in
belly to belly face to face and talk about, you know, what happened and why
sometimes they can even tell you. Oh, when you were an InDesign, maybe you
need to change the setting or something. So InDesign, when you are new is a
really hard program to learn how to use. And so sometimes those local print
shops or maybe even your local library can help you figure out how to do
everything correctly with the settings and layering things on the pages.

19:40 Tasha E.: This is a language that I don’t understand because I don’t have to
thankfully my publisher takes care of all of that but it is like a language to learn.
So if you’re concerned about that at all a local print shop and of course your local
library could quite possibly help you with that. Typically with a local print shop. Or
even through Amazon your author copies, you’re going to make a much larger
profit margin, you set your price when it’s your author copies unless you’re
working with the Big Five or some of the small publishing companies. You get to
set your price.

20:23 Tasha E.: You determine. This is the price that I am requesting on my
website vendor events author, visits, or when people buy from me, out of my
trunk in my car, you decide the price, you get to know your royalties and that’s
how you get paid back. So, one of the things I strongly recommend, Anytime you
sell a book. Please do this. Set money back. Take your top line.

20:53 Tasha E.: This is what I my revenue, right. What I sold it for Then did deduct 
your inventory cost. And you’re gonna put that money into an account and I round
up. So if it costs you 650 a book, round up to seven dollars, You set your price,
meet with your own CPA, make sure that you’re doing this correctly. This is what I
do. So, then, you’re saving money per book for your next round of inventory.
Okay? And then you’re going to deduct your taxes.

21:30 Tasha E.: Anywhere from 25 to 30% in taxes, you need to know your state’s
laws and all of that, but set that back and I hide that money, I put it in a different
account. It’s set back. Even if you’re like, I’m not gonna owe taxes this year. Set it
back, get into that habit. Of setting it back. Listen, it could be a rainy day fund.
Maybe someday you’re gonna need that money. Okay. But don’t touch it. That’s
your tax money. And then from there, you can do your royalties.

22:04 Tasha E.: And your payouts from there. That’s my recommendation. That’s
the agreement between my illustrator and me, we are on the same page with
that, but that’s how I do it. So please make sure you’re setting money back from
Your book sales for future inventory and taxes. Okay. Now, if you’re going to print
overseas, As of the time of this recording and my knowledge, all of this can be
changing obviously.

22:40 Tasha E.: but, What I have found is, yes, you can make significantly more
per book. However, you have to pay up front. even before you have approved, the
proofs So investing $5,000 in a much. Larger royalty is not a bad deal. But with all
of the printing issues, we’ve had with coloration, there is no way, I’m going to use
some random company. without being able to be there in person or close by Or
ensuring that I’m going to love the finished product and drop five grand. I’m not
doing it. If it was a sure thing that I would love it. Big picture five grand to make.
Significantly more per book, would be great. So my what I have found is. You pay
for the money up front.

23:45 Tasha E.: Then the proofs for this one company was like, a couple hundred
bucks, not like 15. 15 to 20 starts adding up pretty quick when you’re sending to
the illustrator, or your publisher yourself and doing multiple rounds of proof that
can add up to hundreds of dollars pretty quickly. but for one proof, so, You do
your own research, maybe you’ll find something that you like better. That’s how
some people are able to make so much more money per book or even charge way
less per book. Board book publishing is not something.

24:19 Tasha E.: Word book printing is not something that I have pursued yet
because you have to buy, like, thousands of copies at one time, it’s pretty pricey.
And I have not found a great option for that. I know it would be fun to have a
board book. The little Shot series would be so cute for like little babies to flip
through. That’s down the road, and if that’s something that you’re really
passionate about pursuing, I encourage you to do your research, and it’s been a
couple years since I’ve looked into it. It’s not really something that I’m considering
at this point in time, so you may find better research on that. And of course, I’ll if I
find any articles, I will definitely link them for you to help narrow your search.

25:06 Tasha E.: So with all these companies and like print on demand as an
option, it’s great because you don’t have to deal with storage, I know with my
author copies. I have them in huge totes. I spent a good amount of money on like
good quality totes that are flat on the bottom. I’m very protective of my books
because water and fire are death to books. so, My books are in the basement and
you know, water is can be an issue in basement.

25:37 Tasha E.: So I am very protective of them. And, you know, even have baking
soda to absorb any moisture and charcoal to protect my books and they’re in big
storage totes. Okay? You can store books. In facilities as well. Typically, you’re not
going to want to have a huge inventory. Unless here, again, you’re printing it, you
know, you’re buying overseas or something like that. Here are some things for you.

26:21 Tasha E.: Here is something I think is really important for you to know aside
from maybe

26:26 Tasha E.: margins being off or potentially having like smudges and things
on your pages when it prints that can be fixed, a lot of times in InDesign. You
know, obviously you don’t want pages out of order or things cut off. So, look
through page by page, you know, your chapter book, you’re going to want to look
through every single page, make sure that you’re happy with the print job.

26:48 Tasha E.: another thing to know about is, When you print and it’s full color.
This is mind-boggling. You could love it and get your proofs. Love your proofs,
you could get your final copies and love your final copies and then let’s say, you
do another round of printing. Six months down the road or whatever, and it looks
a little different. The color looks a little different. That is normal.

27:24 Tasha E.: So one of the things that you’re going to want to be aware of 
depending on who you print through is where it was printed from. If you need to
make returns. So like Ingram spark has multiple printing facilities. So maybe the
proof was printed one place but then you bought your author copies and it was
sent from another place. It’s a different printer. It’s the same company and it could
be the same print like Printer model.

27:53 Tasha E.: And still print differently. Your coloration can even look different
based on the humidity so it could be your small local printer. They print it in the
winter, they printed in the summer and color is going to look different. There’s
nothing wrong with the printer. It’s mind boggling. So Just know that coloration is
fickle. And also, if you’ve approved the color through one company, it does not
mean that you’re gonna like it through another company. This is why sometimes
like the Big Five, they will do a mass printing. At the same time so it looks the
same.

28:36 Tasha E.: because it can vary slightly depending on like I said, humidity
time of the year It can be the same model of printer in the same building. But
they’re both going to print a little bit differently. So just be aware of that set,
proper expectations that if you have. Created full color vibrant illustrations. It may
not look. Exactly how you envisioned it or even exactly how it it looks in real life.

29:14 Tasha E.: I would love to know if there’s other things that you want to learn
about as an author. Please share them with me. I’ve been doing this now for
almost 10 years and going through the ringer, learning through University of hard
knocks. Like I said, I did not even know how to take my Microsoft Word document
and turn it into an actual tangible book. So there are no dumb questions at all. I
promise, because a lot of times You can save a lot of headaches if you ask the
question. So please let me know.

29:48 Tasha E.: I’m happy to write blogs or do more of these videos for you to
help you on your journey. At the very least, I really hope. That you get the story
out of you, get it on paper and even if it’s one copy or print it for yourself so that
you have it. Sometimes it can be hard to believe in ourselves on this crazy journey
of being an author. And I want you to know I believe in you.