"An AMAZING BREAKTHROUGH for authors"
Self-publishing a full-color book is now VERY affordable, simple and fast
This FREE guide explains how! THANK YOU for inquiring about publishing your book. We want to mail you a FREE publishing guide -- or you can download and read it immediately. All you need to do is fill in the form at the bottom of this webpage.
The chances of a previously unpublished author getting a contract with a conventional publishing house are very, very small. Some large publishing houses accept less than one out of 1,000 proposals! No-one feels good being rejected.
Until very recently, doing-it-yourself by self-publishing was tremendously expensive for a color book (think about spending $20,000 or more!). The complicated process would have tied up a year of your time. Then you would have been stuck with a garage piled high with books and limited opportunities for marketing those books. Hardly what you wanted or needed in life, right?
Great news. Trafford has introduced an amazing BREAKTHROUGH for authors. Now you can have us do ALL the publishing work at about 1/20th of the cost of the old do-it-yourself way. Crisp copies of your book -- in full-color -- are printed "on-demand" as needed using state-of-the-art digital printing equipment. This means you won't have to pay a small fortune for preprinting thousands of copies.
Imagine YOUR book:
- A 16-page full-color picture book can be selling in bookstores for under $9.00
- You can buy copies in any quantity, at any time, for 40% of the retail cost or less... about $3.48 per book for that 16-page book!
- Your one-time investment for a publishing package can be only $1097.00 ... with the most expensive and comprehensive publishing package costing only $1797.00
- Simple, two-step submission of your story and artwork -- Trafford does all the rest: scanning, color separations, layout, printing, legal registration, international distribution, providing marketing tools, bookkeeping, paying you generous royalties...
- All this could happen within 6 weeks.
THAT'S what we mean by "affordable, simple and fast". Our guide will tell you how YOUR book can be published soon, at a very affordable price, and available to potential readers around the world. The guide uses the example of publishing a color picture book for children -- it can really be any type of book, for any purpose and audience.
Before you read on, please ensure that you will be receiving the guide that best suits your needs and currency, by selecting from the following choices.
My book will be:
- a full-color book that is between 16 and 60 pages long, with full-color cover
(Send guide with prices in $US dollars | $CAD | £GBP | €EUR)- a paperback book (such as a novel or memoir or how-to book) that is mostly black and white on the inside pages, with a full-color cover
(Send guide with prices in $US dollars | $CAD | £GBP | €EUR)
You may immediately jump down to the form by clicking
*HERE*
You are also welcome to read on to learn how to save tens of thousands of dollars and months of your time...
nce upon a time, you created a wonderful children's story. You've worked hard, have the colorful artwork and know EXACTLY how the book will look and feel. You can imagine the faces of youngsters all around the world as they and their parents discover and read your story.
Unfortunately...
...until now, you have not found a way to publish the book and your noble quest has been thwarted! That may be because it is nearly impossible for a new author to be signed by conventional publishers. And while self-publishing a full-color book was theoretically possible, it would have cost tens of thousands of dollars and tied up over a year of your time!
You had no way to share that tale with youngsters around the world. Everyone was unhappy.
Then suddenly, an amazing breakthrough in publishing happened. A small company named Trafford introduced the most affordable, simple and efficient publishing service ever! Your colorful picture book could now be available for purchase by young readers and their parents around the world within six weeks. Could this be the best thing since crayons?
How difficult is it for an unknown writer to have a book accepted by a conventional publishing house?
No writer wants rejection. Yet one children's book publisher told me that every year she receives over 5,000 unsolicited book proposals -- and is able to accept only one or two, and in some years NONE! [Nearly all her new releases are by previously published authors and illustrators.] Even if your story is superbly written, the chances of it being seriously considered by a major publisher are dishearteningly small. You could wait decades for a positive response -- and likely never be accepted during your lifetime.
How much time and money did it cost to self-publish in the past?
Before Trafford's breakthrough, only the most determined writers would try the do-it-yourself route: coordinating and paying for layout, color separations, and offset printing thousands of copies (to get the cost-per-book down to a marketable amount). Color separation required an investment of a few hundred dollars for every image. Layout in 4-color process and filmwork added another few thousand. Then offset printing a full-color book would cost tens of thousands of dollars [it is so expensive that conventional publishers usually send the work overseas]. The whole process would take well over a year before the first copy was available for sale. The heavily-mortgaged self-publishing author was then faced with a pallet loaded with books and limited means to publicize or distribute to the book trade. It was a pretty bleak situation, indeed!
Sales? How to distribute? What can I do?
A self-publishing author would then need to learn about and try to arrange library cataloging, ISBN, EAN barcodes, copyright, legal deposit and other matters. Accounts needed to be negotiated with a distributor, chains and individual bookstores. Sales promotions, announcements, advertising, seeking publicity -- it could all be overwhelming. When orders trickled in (that's the point, right?), the author became a combination shipping clerk and accountant, wrapping and mailing parcels while creating invoices to chase down payment in a few months -- if the books weren't returned unsold by the bookstore.
Is it any wonder so many great manuscripts are collecting dust on closet shelves? What a waste and shame those stories couldn't be heard and appreciated by the youngsters for whom they were written!
The "old way" was no way
Self-publishing -- the old way -- is prohibitively expensive, terribly complicated and frustratingly inefficient. Getting signed by a conventional publisher is unfortunately very unlikely, and you'd give up your copyright and control over content, appearance, marketing messages and pricing. Authors everywhere have been hoping and yearning for a breakthrough.
The "new way" - with Trafford's amazingly affordable breakthrough service
Your investment for Trafford's complete publishing service is less than 5% of the old method's cost. Trafford's service includes scanning of your artwork, typesetting and full layout for the cover and inside pages. Your full-color picture book, stored on digital files, is printed only when an order is placed -- which means ZERO preprinted inventory cost and ZERO warehousing cost. All orders are filled on a 'non-returnable' basis so there is no return of unsold books.
For the incredibly low price of $1097 your cherished book will be legally registered and ready to print in full color, for you to sell yourself. Or, select the $1797 deluxe package, and your book will soon be available around the world to tots and adults alike through bookstores and Internet retailers.
Your book -- if 16 pages long, for example -- could retail in stores at a very reasonable $9.00. Your potential readers will love to hear that. The minimum retail price is determined by the number of pages (you can set the price higher if you want). This retail pricing allows the bookstore to earn a full 40% standard trade discount.
You can purchase copies for your own use for very low prices [example: $3.48 each for a 16-page book -- even less when buying 50 or more]. Trafford's awesome print shop prices are shown on page 15 of our guide (which you will receive for free via a form later on this webpage).
When your books sell, you will earn back some or all of your investment. Authors using Trafford's deluxe package earn a healthy royalty -- far higher percentages than can be afforded by conventional publishers. You'll earn 60% of the gross margin [retail price less trade discount, less printing cost] on every book sold. If you buy copies yourself and sell them in person, you keep ALL of the gross margin as your profit.
A very modest investment. Competitive retail pricing. Outstanding wholesale prices. High royalties. Mmmmmm. Sounding good so far?
Beautifully simple -- let us do the work
Trafford has broken the inconvenience barrier. Now, self-publishing your color books couldn't be simpler. We'll make the once daunting task of publishing your book seem almost effortless -- and very joyful.
Simply send us your text, artwork and a mock-up, fill out a few forms, and Trafford will take care of all the layout, legal and administrative tasks, printing and distribution for you. It really is that beautifully simple.
"As a little girl, I made a list of all the things I wanted to do when I grew up -- and publishing a book was one of them. At first I entertained the idea of self-publishing using a conventional printer, but after doing some research, found the initial overhead -- just to get the book into print -- put my plans out of reach. I decided to go the on-demand route and it was really easy! I thought it was going to be a lot harder.
"At Trafford Publishing, the people are extremely friendly and willing to talk. They even charge a good price for what you get! I have five more books to go and Trafford will be the first company I approach. "
--- Sandra Dixon, author of Mom, Why is the Sea Salty?
Victoria, BC, Canada ISBN 1-55395-415-7
Delightfully efficient -- be published in 6 weeks, available internationally, printed on-demand
We can have your book ready for the international market in a blistering six weeks.
If you select the $1797 deluxe publishing package, your color book will be available through Trafford's online bookstore for customers to order by toll-free phone, fax, web, email or regular post. We'll send information for displaying your book to some of the world's largest book retailers (Amazon.com, www.Borders.com, Chapters-Indigo and others) and to international mega-distributor Baker & Taylor and other distributors/wholesalers. Trafford will open distribution channels for your book, alerting the book trade through its preferred reference sources.
We'll provide bookmarks to pass out, color postcards to mail to friends and relatives proclaiming your book's release, and posters showing your book's cover.
With our print-on-demand system, after an order is received, books are printed, bound and shipped generally within three to five business days. You have no worries of your book being out-of-print or back-ordered. How's that for efficiency?
Your Book, Your Way!® -- means retaining the copyright and keeping control of the design & pricing
You retain the full copyright. You keep all the rights for translations, foreign sales, movie rights and serialization, and you're encouraged to pursue any distribution opportunities that may arise. If a great deal comes your way, you can cancel your contract simply by sending written instructions.
We believe in enabling and empowering the author to pursue his or her creative vision for the book. You have control over the content, artwork and format, making all the key decisions on your book's design. If you don't have artwork, you can select the illustrator, either from your own personal network or by using Trafford's talent pool.
You'll set the retail price at any amount equal to or above the minimums shown in the free guide. Set a high price if the content is unique and you'll earn appropriately higher royalties. That's the beauty of Trafford's on-demand publishing service -- you truly have the freedom to publish your book, your way!
There's never been an opportunity for authors anything like this before, anywhere in the world.
"Trafford has provided a very personal, step-by-step procedure for the publishing of my book, which was fun and educational. The end result has been exciting and exhilarating! The publishing process has been a fulfilling experience, and I will definitely continue to team with Trafford."
--- Ginger Wich, author of Neil the Eel
Hunt Valley, MD, USA ISBN 1-55395-336-0
Background story
Focusing on authors' needs brings Trafford to this latest breakthrough Back in 1995, one self-published author, his graphic designer wife and two owners of a print shop launched Trafford Publishing to see if a totally revolutionary approach to publishing could work. Most people (quite understandably) scoffed at the idea, which was to:
- store digital images of whole books (black & white pages only back then, because this was 8 years before full-color on-demand printing would become economically viable)
- publicize the books on the Internet
- inform the book trade about the books' availability
- take orders from bookstores and individuals via the Internet, accepting credit cards
- print one copy to fill each order
- pay a portion of the net sale amount to the author as royalty
- ask each author to underwrite set-up expenses for his or her title.
At the time, many thought the Internet was going to flop. And the concept of shopping online with a credit card seemed bizarre before Amazon.com spent billions on advertising to change that perception.
Trafford carried on, steadily earning a devoted clientele of authors, bookbuyers and retailers. Every time the authors requested another improvement to the service, we hunkered down and figured out a way. We invented new print shop devices, and helped manufacturers redesign their equipment. Listing the books with Amazon.com; setting up relationships with chains and distributors; obtaining library cataloging; perfect (paperback) bindings; color inserts; fold-over flaps for coil-bound manuals and cookbooks; on-demand color covers; lower and lower printing and retail prices; confidential online sales tracking; working with authors from over 120 countries; selling books to readers on all 7 continents (the buyer in Antarctica was a research scientist)... The innovations kept happening, always prompted by authors' needs.
While Trafford was growing more popular and evolving its acclaimed service, a few other on-demand publishing services popped up, each taking its own approach to customer relations and needs. The idea Trafford pioneered in 1995 for authors of black & white paperback books has mushroomed into a major force in today's publishing scene. Now, over 10% of all new titles launched in North America are released by self-publishing authors using Trafford's on-demand publishing approach.
We'll never stop learning from our fellow authors. They are not shy about expressing what they think and want (note the hundreds of testimonials posted at our website). Authors have been urging us to provide an economical on-demand service for publishing full-color children's books. In answer to their increasingly urgent requests, I'm proud -- and delighted -- to offer you this ground-breaking solution.
We look forward to serving you soon.
Thanks,
cheers,
H. Gordon Hooker, CEO
Trafford Publishing
What does each publishing package include, and what are the benefits?
There are two publishing packages:
- the Amazing Color Book package for $1097, and
- the Color Book Deluxe package for $1797.
Core legal and administrative services
With either package, your book will be assigned an International Standard Book Number [ISBN], a globally-recognized identifier for the Trafford edition of your book. Without an ISBN, most booksellers won't handle your book.
On the back cover, we'll put an EAN barcode (for bookstores and other retailers). We'll obtain library cataloging and include a link to this information on your copyright page. We'll typeset a copyright assertion in your book and deposit a copy with the National Library (a statutory requirement).
Full layout and print-on-demand services
Again, for both packages, Trafford's technicians will scan your artwork. (Or, if you don't wish to ship your original artwork, you may have it scanned locally and send us the digital files on a CD.) We allow for one image per page on average. We'll typeset your story and lay out the pages, taking direction from your mock-up and photocopies of a book you wish us to emulate. We'll mail you a full-color, saddle-stitched proof to review. Then there is one hour left "on the clock" to make any last minute changes before the final proof. Changes beyond that point will be invoiced at $65/hour [one hour minimum] plus $30 for printing and mailing you a new proof.
You can buy copies at the incredibly low print shop prices, with no minimum quantity and healthy discounts on 50 or more copies. Authors selecting the deluxe package receive 10 free copies of their book.
Setting up distribution
For deluxe package books only, we notify major online book retailers (such as Amazon.com, Borders.com, BookSense.com and others), chains such as Chapters-Indigo, and distributors such as Bertram and Baker & Taylor. So independent booksellers, libraries and others can quickly locate your title, we inform Bowker's Books-in-Print, BookData UK, PubStock and other reference databases. This means your book will be available by special order at tens of thousands of bookstores around the world.
Publicity and promotional tools
For deluxe package books only, key search engines on the Internet are informed about your book's release. We send you 250 bookmarks to hand out, plus 100 color postcards and 10 posters showing your book's cover.
Trafford bookstore & order fulfilment services
Trafford's staff create a webpage for each deluxe package book. The webpage will show the cover image, description, author's photo (if desired), biographical note and an excerpt.
We process orders from individuals, stores and distributors around the world. Books are printed and shipped generally within 3 to 5 days after an order is confirmed. Your royalty will be 60% of the gross margin [gross margin is the amount of money remaining after deducting the reseller's discount and the printing cost]. You can track sales and royalties on a confidential webpage. We pay accrued royalties after each calendar quarter, mailing you a check within 6 weeks of the end of the quarter.
ow children around the world are able to enjoy your fine story. Congratulations!
They are also anxiously awaiting the sequel...The process to publish is really VERY straight-forward: You will be following these two simple steps to publish your color book:
1. Sign on, pay and answer the metadata questions
Fax or mail the completed contract (pages 13 and 14 of the guide) to Trafford. We require full payment with your contract -- by check, money order or credit card.Send your answers to the metadata questions (page 12 of the guide) via fax, mail or email. Once we have received your signed agreement and metadata responses, your book will be given an ISBN and you'll be assigned to your personal author services representative.
2. Prepare a mock-up, send it with photocopies, artwork and text
Included in both publishing packages is scanning of artwork and full layout (a surcharge applies if over 24 pages). Please provide a detailed mock-up showing exactly where the text and images go on every page. See page 10 of the guide for explanations and technical specifications.Send us the mock-up, photocopies, a digital file with the text, plus the original artwork or a CD containing scans. If there are any questions about your materials when they arrive at Trafford's office, we'll discuss options with you before surcharges are incurred.
It really is delightfully simple. Ready to start?
Please fill in the form below to request a free copy of "Have You Written a Kids' Book?", a 16-page guide full of explanations and instructions. You may also download a PDF Adobe Acrobat version of this guide.
Please send me (or allow a PDF download of) my FREE copy of "Have You Written a Kids' Book?"
Trafford's Privacy Policy: The data requested below will be used only by Trafford Holdings Ltd. and its subsidiaries for providing you with the latest information about our publishing service. The answers you fill in below will be kept confidential and will not be provided to any other company or business. By completing this form, you are requesting, and agreeing to allow Trafford to provide to you, information only. If you are completing this form on behalf of someone else, you are guaranteeing that you have that person's full permission to do so. To read more about Trafford's privacy policy please click here.
To receive the FREE Guide "Have You Written a Kids' Book?" immediately, you can download it in a printable .PDF file (named kidsBookGuide.pdf). Click on the "Download the Guide now" button above.
NOTE: Some computers are not able to download our guide successfully. If you have this problem, please click the "Order Your FREE Guide by Mail" button and we will send you a printed copy in the mail.
If you select the "Order Your FREE Guide by Mail" option, please allow 10 to 14 business days for delivery.
After you have placed your order for your guide or downloaded it, please check out the main Trafford website. Browse the book store. Review the testimonials. Then call one of our Publishing Consultants to start your book on its journey into print. Soon you'll be sitting back, contemplating your next book as your royalties start rolling in.
Thank you for visiting with us and the best of luck with your writing endeavors.
H. Gordon Hooker, CEO
Trafford Publishing
P.S. There has never before been such an affordable, efficient and simple self-publishing choice for color book authors and illustrators. Don't pass up this opportunity to see your work in gorgeous full color.
"Success" means different things to different people. Read what the first authors to use this amazing new publishing breakthrough service are saying...
"I couldn't get over the amazingly low cost to produce a book on-demand -- it seemed unfathomable. My goal in publishing the story was only to provide copies for family and friends. But when I found out about Trafford's publicity benefits, I decided to donate all the proceeds from any copies sold to the BC Cancer Foundation.
"Wee Jimmy (my son James) is now 10 years old and still gets a real kick out of seeing his name in print. He loves it that the book was dedicated to him by his father."
--- Dan Sharp, author of Wee Jimmy
Victoria, BC, Canada ISBN 1-55395-337-1
"Dear Trafford -
I would like to extend my many thanks and warm wishes to your company and all involved with producing my first children's book."The opportunity to establish oneself as an author, without restrictions, is a paramount part of the process and puts the creator up ahead with the rest of the competition from conventional publishing.
"Trafford's helpful advice and guide to self-publishing is really easy to follow, with absolutely no catches. A straight forward deal with extra bonuses of promoting your work via the Internet - an opportunity not to be missed!
"I have never looked back since embarking upon this exciting journey, and am enjoying every moment. It has made 2003 a fantastic year, and one I hope to repeat.
"With sincere thanks and gratitude to all at Trafford Publishing,
Ray"--- Ray Pitcher, author and illustrator of The Hare and The Crumhorm
Ballycullane, County Wexford, Ireland ISBN 1-4120-0366-2All prices shown on this webpage are in USA dollars.
Contents © copyright 1995 - 2006, Trafford Holdings Ltd.
On this page
An amazing breakthrough
Once upon a time...
The new way
Beautifully simple & efficient
Background story
Two packages
Two steps to sign on
ORDER FORM
A few success stories
Email this page to a friend
Trafford is a proud member of the Better Business Bureau.
