Grub Street Printing Newsletter #60, April 2014

Are you concerned that a college degree is unaffordable for your children or grand children? Does the prospect of mountains of student loan debt taken out by starry-eyed young adults who want to believe that somehow the loans will not haunt their financial health in their near-term future concern you?

Here's a tip. Move to Kalamazoo, Michigan, and the sooner the better. In 2005 it was announced that all graduates of the Kalamazoo school system and are eligible to attend college will have their tuition paid for by the Kalamazoo Promise. Even students who transfer into the school system as high school freshman qualify for 65% support. A group of anonymous donors fund the program, and so far has spent over $20 million on higher education for 3,831 students.

Former Kalamazoo schools superintendent Janice M. Brown (the only person that communicates directly with the donors) said the long term goal is to boost Kalamazoo's economy, which like many Midwestern cities in the 21^st century faced a loss of industry and a resiliently stagnant economy.

And nine years later, by any criteria, the Kalamazoo Promise works.

I thought of the Promise today when I read another article about Kalamazoo in the Detroit Free Press entitled Kalamazoo Quietly Emerging as a Literary Hotspot. I expected an exaggerated puff-piece written by the Chamber of Commerce, but it seems like there is actually a modest expanded literary presence in the city with the funny name. 

I don't expect that anyone from the Iowa Writers Program in Iowa City will turn green with envy, but a rebirth of arts and culture in any small Midwestern town has surely drawn some attention from cities with underfunded libraries and those watching area youth migrate away from their hometown.

Might the Kalamazoo Promise and this mini-Renaissance that Kalamazoo is experiencing be related? Maybe, maybe not. But any city that goes all in to support its young adults pursuing their higher educations is bound to reap some rewards down the line and what could be better than adding writers, poets, and teachers to a community many thought could have been sucked into the black-hole vortex of shrinking employment opportunities and population loss that many formerly prosperous Michigan towns still face.

Vook Offers Ebook Sales Reports

Vook has announced a new sales reporting service that can track daily sales and issue a monthly report for all of your ebook titles. There's no charge for the service.

Leveling the Playing Field

The closing of a Barnes and Noble in my boyhood hometown spotlights the uneven application of tax laws. How is it fair that one retailer selling a product collects sales tax on it (all the while paying state and local property and business taxes) while another retailer selling the same product doesn't?

What's a Fair Ebook Royalty? 25% or 50%?

Since most publishing costs associated with book production don't apply to ebook distribution, some authors will not allow their work to be sold as an ebook for 25% royalties.

Conservative Book Bubble Bursts

Books written by conservative politicians, pundits, and researchers have been on a tear for the last fifteen years, but it appears the party is ending. Sales figures show a saturated market that only attracts readers to books by famous, successful authors, usually elected officials.

  Branded Print Magazines Are Growing

The print and bind industry has seen entire markets disappear in the past fifteen years. Now corporations are discovering that producing their own ink and paper magazine can be cost effective. These publications build brand loyalty stronger than pixel marketing or placing ads in consumer magazines.

Printing Isn't a Growing Business, So...

Kathie Gillespie, owner of A&B Printing in Las Vegas NV realized her business (and industry) weren't growing so she's transforming her shop to enter a business that does: growing and selling medical marijuana. If her permits and inspections pass muster, she will operate the first legal dispensary in Southern Nevada.

Say Ya To Da UP, eh?

If you live in Michigan you are either a Yooper, if you live “above” the Mackinac Bridge in the Upper Peninsula, or a Troll if you live “beneath” the bridge. Having strong Yooper roots, I'm pleased to see that Merriam-Webster has conceded that “Yooper” is indeed a word.

Garamond Saves

Not only is Garamond a beautiful font for books, apparently it can save you money if you use an ink jet printer because it seems to use less ink. If federal, state and local governments used it, it's estimated it would save taxpayers $400 million each year.

On Being a Successful Writer

While ignoring prominent exceptions to the rule, (think Walt Whitman and Charles Dickens ) perhaps the most important trait shared by successful writers is to be born and raised in a wealthy family. Unfortunately, poverty has again become the norm for many writers.

Day One Seeking Submissions

When Amazon's digital only literary journal Day One debuted last October it did not solicit submissions, the plan being to troll MFA programs for content. Day One has just announced that it is seeking submissions. As of now, there are no guidelines, just this: dayone-submissions@amazon.com.

Is White Bright?

Selecting an appropriate text stock for your book can be confusing,. There is shade, brightness, opacity, bulk, finish and whiteness to consider. We can help decipher all the various paper properties to help you in your paper selection, much like this explanation of the difference between whiteness and brightness.

Digital Shortfall

A decade or more ago we were awash in digital fervor, imagining all the possibilities that e-everything seemed to offer. In more sober moments, someone would look up and ask, “But how do we make money on it?” Apparently that remains the question.

Unbelievable

The Harvard University library houses over 15 million books, but three share a bizarre distinction; they're bound in human skin, the newest as recently as 1880.

Final Thought

“If I'm engrossed in a book, I have to rearrange my thoughts before I can mingle with other people, because otherwise they might think I was strange.” Anne Frank - The Diary of a Young Girl

Grub Street Printing Newsletter #59, March 2014

I miss real, honest to god telephone books.

I know. You think it's because I'm an unrepentant Neo-Luddite. That I simply like anything and everything resembling a bound book. That I just like the idea of RR Donnelly pounding out hundreds of millions of telephone directories, thereby preserving the livelihood of hundreds if not thousands of printing crafts people. And that I miss massive tomes like the Manhattan directory which boosted many a toddler to table level on Thanksgiving.

 Well it's all of the above, plus one more. Telephone directories are still relevant and always have been.

I ran into an old friend at Kroger's the other day. We had a nice chat, but as I was driving home I realized there was something I meant to ask him that had just slipped my mind.

I hadn't seen him for a few years and if I'd ever had his phone number, the scrap it had been written on had been shuffled into non-existence a while back. No problem though; I'd just look up his number.

Well, that was the plan.

We have a nice collection of telephone directories. Every few months one company or another leaves a stack of them down by our community mail boxes and we always grab one. It just makes sense to have the newest most up to date directory available, right?

Well, that's the theory.

When I got home and was ready to call him I reached for the newest telephone directory. Oops. Business and yellow pages only. Hmmm, I didn't remember getting a directory like that before.

Well, duh. It was the YP directory: THE Yellow Pages. I picked up another directory, checked the head trim and saw white pages in the back. This one must have the information about actual people.

Not. It was the Livingston County Yellow Book, complete with white page listings of every business in the county (except mine). And a 2007 Washtenaw County directory. And a 1995 Hamburg Elementary directory. And a neighborhood directory from the house we moved out of in 1999, and a 2005 Dexter phone book.

I ran downstairs to the recycle bins to find a real directory with phone numbers of the diminishing populace who cling to their land line phones in a twenty mile radius. Too late, it had already been delivered to that great pulper in the sky.

So now all I had to do was turn my computer on, wait for it to boot up, then wait for Firefox to load. I entered his name in the Google search box. Since I couldn't remember how to spell his last name, the white pages gave me an address in Escanaba. Not him. I tried a variation.

One thing I liked about directories was that all you had to do was get somewhat close in guessing how to spell a last name. If your guess is in the ballpark, chances are you can scan up or down the column of names to find the person you're looking for. Sometimes analog really trumps digital.

I tried another spelling, then another. There he was, and with another click or two I got his phone number. And for a mere $.99 I could get even more personal information about him.

I saved my money.

So getting his phone number only took five or six minutes thanks to the belief that real phone directories were just 21^st century buggy whips.

Weeks later, while traveling to Denver for grandson Myles' birthday party, we found a motel along I-80 rather late one night. We were both too tired to jump back in the car to find a place to eat after a ten hour drive. I thought we could just order pizza or something from a nearby restaurant that offered delivery. Like independent bookstores, I'll put in a little extra effort to find a locally owned, family operated eatery. (Ever had a Runza in Nebraska? Based on the billboard count I'm pretty sure it's the Nebraska State Food.)

There was no telephone directory (white or yellow pages) in our room. Our key cards had the telephone numbers of four local Domino's Pizza stores, but if it was to be pizza, perhaps a smaller restaurant could also deliver. The laptop was already on so a quick search found...Domino's. And Pizza Hut. And Little Caesars. And a truck stop we'd just passed that sold pizza by the slice. Then a nice local restaurant that seemed to be about 20 miles away.

Flabbergasted, I went to the front desk to ask the young night clerk where I might order delivery pizza. He pulled a telephone directory from under the counter, and as he was copying down names and telephone numbers, he was describing each restaurant, it's specialty and in one case, its ownership since he happened to know the family.

After thanking him I asked why the rooms didn't have telephone books. He looked at me with thinly masked amazement.

“Well, nobody really uses them anymore, do they?”

Irony is so wasted on the young. 

 

Amazon – For Better and For Worse

This New Yorker article is perhaps the most wide-ranging analysis of Amazon I've read: it's history, business model and performance. Yahoo Finance offers a different take on Amazon and the industry.

Better Grades With Books

A recent study analyzed not only college students' preferences in textbooks, but also learning differences between print and pixels. By including the findings of other related studies, it theorizes that print readers enjoy better test results because paper and ink is less mentally taxing than backlit pixels.

He Must Know What He's Doing

After being promoted from running Barnes & Noble's Nook Media division in January, new CEO Michael Huseby has laid-off most or all of the engineers working on the Nook. Just a year ago Microsoft invested over $600 million in the Nook division giving it a 17.6% ownership stake.

B&N: Lifeline or Noose?

Last week B&N had another offer to sell a 51% interest in the company. The suitor, G Asset Management, also offered $5 per share for the recently down-sized Nook division as an alternative. The plan is to split the company (and maybe load it with debt, then run). Meanwhile, B&N posted an $.86 per share profit on sales that dropped 10% over last year. Reduced overhead is credited for the increased profit.

But What Will It Look Like?

Now that we know that Google has filed for patent protection for an ereader with two screens, speculation turns to exactly what such a thing would look like, let alone trying to figure what benefits may accrue.

Amazon Hosts the CIA

There is concern that Amazon's $600 million cloud computing contract with the CIA may include sharing vast amounts of Amazon's consumer data collection. While a petition to safeguard that information has been started, Amazon's privacy policy states that they can release consumers' personal data “when we believe [the] release is appropriate to comply with the law.” Wasn't this sort of blatant governmental invasion of privacy supposed to stop with Ed Snowden's NSA disclosures?

My County Gets an Indie!

After years of newsletter readers (i.e. you) putting up with my annoying whine that Livingston County no longer has an independent bookstore, an adventurous couple has followed their muse and opened the Blue Frog Bookstore less than twenty minutes away from us!

Unbelievable Writing Opportunity

Some people abhor train travel, but I'm not one of them. Amtrak is experimenting with a writers' residency program that would allow writers a chance to escape the static of everyday life and concentrate on literary creation as they roll across the country. And so far, they've been able to offer the residency gratis!

Creativity Needs Constraint

As more writers bypass professional editing, does artistic creativity suffer? Perhaps Twitter's character constraint is the model for avoiding intellectual sprawl. Should the new mantra be, “Less is more”?

What Is It About This Industry?

Mitch Albom met a 90 year old woman who opened her bookstore in 1942 in Manilla, Philippines. Between Japanese censorship, a devastating typhoon and a fire that destroyed her store, no one would have blamed her if she'd walked away from the book business. Instead, she runs nearly 150 bookstores today.

Do You Miss Newsweek?

If you do, you're in luck as the re-imagined, redesigned magazine begins publishing again on March 7 under the ownership of IBT Media.

Printing Books in 868

Because of the differences in alphabets and word representation, the first Chinese books were printed using blocks with characters carved into them. The Western alphabet supported movable type as we know it, but eight centuries before Gutenberg printed his first book the Chinese had published the Diamond Sutra.

Final Thought

The suddenness of the leap from hardware to software cannot but produce a period of anarchy and collapse, especially in the developed countries.
The Medium is The Massage (1967)                                  Marshall McLuhan

Grub Street Printing Newsletter #58, February 2014

I got an email a few weeks ago from a printer that I work with. He informed me that one of the publishers I'd sent to them called and offered to work directly with the them: ie cut out the middleman, which happens to be me.

Since it wasn't a publisher I worked with back when I was in the shop everyday, I wasn't too upset. I love working with new publishers, but I treasure the 75 or so that I chose to contact when I started Grub Street back in 2007.

And since I have publishers that I've worked with since 1979, I've gotten to know a lot about them and I am always forthright with my printers and share what I know about my publishers. In fact, my relationship with my publishers is the reason why printers offer me preferred pricing. By conveying what I know about your publishing company's history, skill levels, credit worthiness, etc. to the printers when an order is placed (never at the pricing stage!), I anticipate their questions so they can get to work immediately instead of questioning the viability of the publisher. They know I won't ever lie to them.

And I do get the best pricing; just ask the printer I broke ties with last June when I discovered that I was getting their normal day-to-day pricing.

But it bothered me a little that someone didn't value my knowledge and effort, particularly because their understanding of book making fundamentals wasn't even something that could be described as basic. Miscommunication and misunderstanding of book manufacturing processes lead to incorrect assumptions and incomplete instructions. Unfortunately, tracking a problem to its cause often leads to a mistaken assumption by the publisher. That's where I come in. I want you to get the exact book you envisioned and I try to make clear precisely what needs to occur to make that happen.

The point is that yes, I do get paid a small percentage. Since I pay for all of the charges that a regional printing salesperson regularly passes on to his employer, I cost my printers much less than hiring a salesperson would. Grub Street Printing pays its own phone bills, internet fees, postage, shipping, book-keeping, and vehicle maintenance. It buys its own computers, laser printers, scanners, and smart phones. If I have a chance to grab a cup of coffee or bowl of soup with a publisher I don't turn in the receipt for reimbursement. I don't ask for someone in the office to send me a report, I generate it myself.

What does all of this mean to you? The ratio of Grub Street's pricing estimates that ultimately convert into production orders is extremely high, much higher than any shop I ever worked in.

And since all the pricing from all of the printers crosses my desk, I know that Grub Street Printing generally saves publishers well in excess of the amount the printer pays us.

You see, I structured Grub Street so that on the one hand I get to work with all my old friends in publishing, and on the other hand I get to work with some of my old friends in printing. Pretty cool, eh?

I know that makes my job sound pretty cushy to you, and just to make sure you're really green with envy I thought I'd share a couple of pictures of Grub Street Printing's World Headquarters and our trusty delivery vehicle, often seen traversing the roads and byways of Southeastern Michigan.

Eat your hearts out.

The President's Office at World Headquarters

Our trusty delivery truck

 Great Opportunity: Ann Arbor Indie Bookstore

Nicola Rooney, owner of Nicola's Books, Ann Arbor's largest independent bookstore, wants to sell the store she has owned since 1995. There is very inexpensive part time help available to start immediately.

New B&N CEO Has Finance Background

Michael Huseby has been named CEO of B&N after his latest stint running the moribund Nook division. Although his background is in finance, he says he “has a lot of passion for this business”.

All You Can Read Subscriptions

Avid ebook users can get all that they can handle from a few competing services. Amazon's Prime membership offers 350,000 titles ($79/year, includes other non-book features), newcomer Oyster already claims 100,000 titles ($9.95/month), and Scribd boasts of 40 million books and documents on hand ($8.99/month).

That Which We Call a Rose by Any Other Name...

Now that all of the important issues in Washington have been resolved, there's a move afoot to rename the Government Printing Office to the Government Publishing Office. I suppose they'll need to find a printer to redo the stationery.

Save Indies, Ban Free Delivery

Concern over the continuing decline in the number of small, independent bookstores, the French Senate has voted to level the playing field by banning free shipping of book purchases. Perhaps well intentioned, but I can't wait to see the unintended consequences.

Photoshop Does 3D

Adobe hopes to attract more clients to its Creative Cloud subscription service by enabling CC Photoshop to work with 3D printers.

Can a Building Without Books be a Library?

Since the word library comes from the Latin word libraria (bookstore), San Antonio coined a more accurate descriptor for its new public collection of digital only information, BiblioTech, a neat play on words. The BiblioTech serves a barely literate clientele.

PBS – The Next Oprah?

Twenty four hours after PBS aired the documentary about Catcher in the Rye author J.D. Salinger, Amazon sales exploded, making it their #1 title.

Of Ebooks and Apps

Did you want to publish an ebook or an app (along with your printed book of course)? What's the difference? It may define where your book will be sold and who may or may not find it online.

No New Public Domain Works in 2013 (or 2014)

Thanks to the efforts of Rep. Sonny Bono (deceased) working at the behest of the Disney Corporation (trying to protect its one trick mouse) no books, drama, music, or art entered the public domain in the U.S. again in 2013. Mickey remains in protective custody.

A Free Virtual Getty Experience

Having posted 4,600 hi-res images of some of its art last summer, the Getty has more than doubled that number plus posted all of its books published since 1966 online with no user fees or subscriptions.

Ebook Apostle

After reporting that printed books remain popular with 18 – 29 year olds Michael Morris (Pew Research) goes on to speculate that some people, “are going to stick to print for incredibly boring reasons” even though the research he cited did not study why some people still purchase books for reasons that are boring or otherwise. Michael apparently discounted this article on his iPad.

A Wine Named Paper Trail

Every three years Clampitt Paper sponsors a contest for graphic artists to name a wine and design a label for its bottle. The deign and execution of wine labels is an art form in itself, involving paper selection, artwork and design, foil stamping, die cutting and even numbering.

This years winner was for a wine called Paper Trail.

Counterfeit Super Bowl Tickets

I'm impressed. Two men were arrested at a Bronx White Castle for selling counterfeit NFL Superbowl tickets that were good enough to be scanned at the gate for admission. The high quality printer that produced the imposters? Kinkos!

Final Thought

If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed. Benjamin Franklin

Past GrubStreetPrinting.com newsletters can be found at http://grubstreetnews.blogspot.com/

Grub Street Printing Newsletter # 57, January 2014

I don't really understand why so many people dislike the United States Postal Service. I've always liked the Post Office and I'm not alone.  
When I was a kid I collected stamps and learned more about American history and geography by gluing commemorative stamps into my album than I would have otherwise learned until high school.

And I remember that Ben Franklin (the patron saint of printers) was appointed postmaster of Philadelphia in 1737 at the age of thirty. His office was so efficient it actually ran at a profit which he reported to the British Postmaster General.

And that early American leaders envisioned the role of postal delivery as a way to unify the colonies and a year before the Constitution was signed established the Second Continental Congress named a Postmaster General to operate out of Philadelphia and establish other post offices “from Falmouth in New England to Savannah in Georgia” as seemed necessary.

Later, the existence of the postal authority was guaranteed in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution to serve 4 million residents using the 75 post offices then in the country.

Sure enough, postal service expanded with the country, but some say the country expanded with the postal service. Transporting goods via the post office proved so effective that 80,000 bricks needed to build a bank in a secluded Utah city were sent Parcel Post, 49 pounds at a time.

As a printer it's assumed that I have an obligation to encourage the government to continue to subsidize bulk (aka junk) mail by providing extremely low rates. As you can see, it's no secret that low bulk mail rates support increases in print tonnage. Unfortunately (for printers) the Postal Regulatory Commission has raised postage rates citing low but persistent inflation.

But while I was reading the article linked above, one phrase stuck out; “Due to a regulation, the USPS cannot base an exigent increase on the continuing effects of electronic diversion.” Even as Congress deals with conservatives who want to privatize mail delivery, it has also effectively stacked the deck against the US Post Office only to crow about its inherent inefficiency when the inevitable happens and service suffers as rates increase.

The postal service has historically been a cash cow for Congress to raid, yet Congress has hobbled it by asking it to behave as a profitable corporation. But it has granted it no control over its pricing or services and is subject to the whiff of the lobbyists' cigar smoke at every turn.

Even in Canada, which proudly calls its postal service Canada Post Corporation because it has the ability to sell stock in itself, is overseen by Parliament and Cabinet and is also crushed by the bureaucracy governing it, and so Canada has just announced it will discontinue door-to-door mail delivery in favor of centralized (down the block, 'round the corner) delivery.

So the great seers of the Cato Institute (motto:Millard Fillmore was a great President) gravely pronounced the post office a doomed relic nearly thirty years ago that needed to be privatized; which makes you wonder who would want to enter a “doomed” industry anyway, now or then?

More likely, the Institute sees what the editors of Forbes see: the post office still controls the gateway to putting printed products on your tables and desks and that direct mail in the hands of marketers kicks the crap out of digital advertising splashes we are all so bored with.

The short-comings of the private carriers over the holidays has not produced any cries to “federalize” their services so presumably, incompetence can be tolerated in the private sector.

If the drum beat to privatize postal service continues in America, I think there should be two stipulations; the independent company must deliver mail on a timely basis to every citizen of every state and Congress gets to set the rates.

I believe in a level playing field.

 

But Does He Get Royalties?

A 19 year old William Powell wrote a book, The Anarchist Cookbook, that has become the de facto guide for mayhem and violence over the past four decades. He has openly asked that the publisher, Delta Press, allow the book to go out of print, but with 2+ million copies sold, the publisher has declined. There's no mention if Powell continues to profit from his writing.

Textbooks via Drone

While Amazon plans on using drones for 30 minute deliveries in the future, Australian textbook rental company Zookal will be “up and running" next fall.

Poland Tries to Ensure Profits

Alarmed at the decrease in book sales and the shrinking number of book publishers in Poland, its legislature has passed a law stipulating that books must be sold at their cover price for the first year and a half of publication. Does Amazon have to abide by this?

Calling for Writers of a Certain Age

AARP and Huff/Post50 are looking for well told memoirs in a writing contest that offers $5,000 and extensive publication to the story awarded first place. Details are here.

Future Print

Frank Romano may be the most respected analyst/ commentator from the world of print. Here, Frank takes a look at “The Ghost of Printing Yet To Come” with a wink and a laugh.

New Life for Travel Guides?

As we reported last April, the future seemed bleak for stalwart travel publishers Frommers and Lonely Planet as they were jettisoned by their new owners just months after their acquisition.Lonely Planet has been resold (at a 50% loss to the sellers) to NC2 Media, while Frommers has been rescued by its former owners, the Frommer family, and rebranded as “Frommers Media”.

More on Metadata

Thanks to Edward Snowden and the NSA intelligence snooping he revealed I think we all have a better sense of what metadata is. BISG has just released an updated version of Best Practices for Metadata report, available here at no charge. Makes me wonder; do any companies opt for just good enough practices?

B&N Needs to Compete on Price

Could B&N's path to survival begin by adopting a price-match program similar to the one that sparked Best Buy's resurgence?

Reading Books for Your Mental Health

I've always believed there were myriad benefits enjoyed by reading a book. Now, Book Prescription believes that bibliotherapy can help to combat depression.

Apple Anti-Trust Monitoring

Last summer a federal judge appointed a monitor to scrutinize Apple's alleged collusion with five publishers to set ebook pricing. Apple has asked for a new monitor, claiming the current one is too aggressive.

Most Expensive Book in the World

Although only three copies have been sold in the past 130 years, each time a Bay Psalm book, believed to be the first title printed in America, changes hands it sets a new record for rare book pricing. The latest sale, one of eleven surviving copies, set the new record at $14.2 million.

Coincidence?

November's reminiscence about what a great bookstore New York City's The Strand is, was published just prior to the Strand posting its best Christmas sales in its 86 years history. You're welcome.

Books go Upscale

As a reaction to the bare-bones experience of reading ebooks, publishers are finding ways to enhance the inherent value of their printed books. We work with some publishers who do this by simply making the highest quality book possible in which to present their content.

North Carolina Censorship

In a bid to maintain its historic support of ignorance, a county in North Carolina wants to ban Alice Walker's The Color Purple. Doonesbury describes the state. Alarmingly, there have been reports that censorship efforts are increasing across the country.

Final Thought

A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counsellor, a multitude of counsellors. Henry Ward Beecher