Putting it in writing...

Sometimes one wonders about publishers... we are, after all, in the business of words and their ability to get information across.

I just went to upload a cover graphic to the FTP server of a certain huge bookselling business.

Instead of the usually vacant upload folder there were a mass of files. And not one of them followed the instructions set out on the web site of that certain huge bookselling business.

The instructions are actually quite simple: Make the file 500 pixels in the largest direction, name the file with the ISBN and use a .jpg or .tif extension as appropriate. They even give some examples, such as 1254545332.jpg

Among this sample were ones with spaces in the name, spaces at the end of the name, the letters ISBN in front, the word "book" in front, the words "Book ISBN" in front and even a thumbnail database file.

I could also see some file sizes and a couple could not possibly be 500 pixel high files (unless maybe the book cover is one pixel wide) or maybe it is at the lowest possible quality setting. No, wait a minute, one of those tiny files was a TIF.

Hopefully the people responsible will not post on this list in a few weeks' time: "I sent my cover to ... that certain huge bookselling business ... and it hasn't appeared."

Or asking "why does my cover look so bad?"

And some person at that certain huge bookselling business will be wondering about the IQ of small publishers...

A must-read book on magazine publishing

It may seem a little odd for an author and publisher of a book called "How to Start and Produce a Magazine or Newsletter" to be reviewing a book called "Starting and Running a Successful Newsletter or Magazine" by Cheryl Woodard.

Surely they cover the same subject? Yes, but in different ways, and each covers aspects of the task which the other does not, or not in the same detail. For example, while both cover the web site for print magazine publishers, Cheryl covers it in more detail. She also approaches it from a different aspect -- perhaps more for people with the intention of doing as she did, twice, in starting publications that are on every newsstand.

The new edition also notes more emphatically that the would-be magazine publisher does not succeed by selling an idea to one of the major publishers. As she states: "Ordinary souls like us generally have to become the publisher to get a new magazine or newsletter off the ground." Gone are the hundreds of small companies which used to provide start-up capital. Today, six companies own about 80% of the magazines you see on newsstands.

The result is that people don't try to compete with the mass market titles. They find their niche in, as Cheryl states, "special interest titles or quirky ones that appeal to a unique audience, or mission-driven publications that have social rather than commercial value."

While there is much in common, and much that is different between our two books, one point we have in common is something there should be more of in this kind of book. Both have the author's email address, so you are not just buying the advice that's there but access to much wider information, not least on the web sites.

For more details see www.publishingbiz.com
and the book is also available at Amazon.