• The Graphic Designers of Canada’s website (www.gdc.net) has links to the sites of many of the association’s members to help you find professional design help.
• The Indexing and Abstracting Society of Canada (www.indexingsociety.ca) has a referral service for anyone needing a book index prepared.
The next chapter guides you through the two preliminary steps in most publishing projects: preparing a budget and a schedule.
There are two essential elements to virtually every publishing project: a budget and a schedule.This chapter leads you through the process of preparing both of these.
THE BUDGET
Publishing projects have a way of costing more that you dreamed possible. This chapter will help you anticipate and control your costs. Of course, if you are producing a photocopied, hand-bound book entirely by yourself, cost is not going to be a major consideration and you can skip this section. If you are independently wealthy, you can probably get by without a budget, too. (Of course, you didn’t get to be independently wealthy by ignoring budget considerations!)
THE SCHEDULE
Do you need to produce your books by a certain date? If so, you need to prepare a schedule. Even if you have no “due date,” you should have some idea of how long each step should take.
This chapter ends with a sample budget and schedule. But before we get to them, it is useful to consider the steps in the process individually, to look at how long they typically take and how they affect costs.The following estimate table shows what it would cost if you paid a professional to do each step and how long each step should take.
BUDGET AND SCHEDULE ESTIMATE
A SAMPLE BUDGET
The following budget tries to break even on selling 250 books. How realistic that sales target is really depends on the individual project. It is far better to set the projected sales as low as possible and get a pleasant surprise than to be too optimistic and lose a fortune.
FAMILY AND MONEY
We have already discussed how this project is indeed a labour of love.Although it may be true, it is also code for “don’t expect to make a profit, unless you are related to King Tut.”Your financial goal, if any, is to break even or at least to cover some of the costs of producing and shipping the book. The project’s great reward will be finally seeing your family history documented and enjoyed by others for generations to come.
However gratifying this might be, you must consider how to pay for the book’s production so you do not go into debt. Although money is the most contentious topic of discussion within families (apart from the topic of the cousin who ran away with the circus), you must deal with the financial realities. Three main courses of action are open to you.
Pay All Expenses Yourself
You can chose to produce a fairly inexpensive book with a small print run. Perhaps you feel that since you took on the project, you should shoulder the costs. Or, you are wealthy, generous and have no reservations about giving away hundreds of copies. If you can comfortably afford to take on all expenses involved in the book, you have no reason to worry about a potentially awkward conversation, or about what to give everyone for their birthdays next year.
Solicit Donations from Relatives
You are committed and passionate about the project, but you can’t possibly pay for everything alone. How do you bring up the subject of a bit of financial help?
Some relatives, usually the ones who always remember your birthday, will offer you a donation without prompting. With others, it might not occur to them to offer—it’s all in the family after all. The best strategy is to let as many relatives as you can know in advance that you are writing this worthy book. Ask if those who can afford it would mind contributing a certain amount to help you cover the costs of printing and mailing out copies once it’s finished. Casually mention that you would love to include colour photographs, but you’re not sure if you can afford it. Once they understand that a small honorarium could enrich the project for the whole family, they’ll probably be willing to help out.
Most people (yes, even people in your family) are very reasonable. They won’t balk if you ask them to pay for the mailing costs, especially if they live in Malta.
Name Your Price
After you’ve sacrificed so much of your time, you realize you do need to charge for the book.To treat everyone fairly, you can simply sell the book to everyone for the same amount per copy. Determine what you think is a fair price based on your production costs (perhaps you hired an editor or a book designer), printing costs and shipping costs.You might forgo the charge if someone was particularly helpful with your research or lent you some great photographs. Even professional publishers give away a few complimentary copies when they must.
Of course, some relatives will expect to receive a copy for nothing.They feel you owe them for all the times they helped you move or babysat your temperamental poodle.How to deal with this situation is entirely in your hands. Each family has unique eccentricities, which is one reason telling their story is so worthwhile. It is best to bear in mind that this project commemorates your family’s history and the bonds you share. Is it the time to squabble or the time to celebrate?
SAMPLE SCHEDULE
Most home-publishing ventures are done without any schedule in mind, which is as it should be. Most readers can skip straight to the beginning of Chapter 4. But, if you need your book to be finished by a particular date, such as the date of a family reunion, read on!
Schedules are prepared by counting backwards from the delivery date.To make this really explicit, this sample schedule is presented “upside-down,” with the end-date in the first line.
| Step | How long the step takes | Target date for completion of that step |
| Target date to have | September 1 | |
| books in bookstores | ||
| Delivery to stores | 1 week | August 24 |
| Printing and binding | 1 month | July 24 |
| Indexing | 2 days | July 22 |
| Proofreading and correcting | 1 week | July 15 |
| Layout | 1 week | July 7 |
| Incorporating editor’s suggestions | 1 month | June 7 |
| Editing | 2 weeks | May 24 |
| Design | 1 week | May 17 |
| Writing | 6 months | November 17 (previous year) |
| Start date | — | June 17 (previous year) |
This schedule is fairly typical. Of course, a schedule like this is only necessary when you have a definite target completion date. Early September is the most common target date in book publishing, because books published in the early fall benefit the most from the Christmas buying season (but it also means your book is competing for attention with all the bestsellers).