To Market, to Market
I'm getting ready for a big marketing push for the 2007/2008 guides. The first three titles are arriving at Midpoint Trade (the national distributor) in the next few days, and Midpoint will be filling the backorders that have been piling up since the printing began last month.
I the meantime, I have a few hundred books that I will be sending- along with press releases and other such material - to area media and public relations offices. I expect these books will sell best regionally (that is, near their covered destinations), so I will be focusing most efforts on the local outlets. This part is a bit repetitive for me, lots of envelope stuffing, but ideally this should result in some much-needed publicity.
Labels: marketing
How to Tell if a Book is POD
Print on demand ("POD") technology is what I first use to "test the waters" of various book projects. They are cheap to produce, you only need to order one copy at a time, and they look very similar to books printed via traditional offset technology. Many people may even believe that POD books look identical to offset. But there are some very obvious differences. Here are a few telltale signs which indicate that the book you just purchased might be POD:
1.
The spine shows no signatures. Books printed using offset usually have larger signatures, such as 24 pages, whereas POD books might only have 2-page signatures. If you can see large signatures on the spine (which look like groupings - or blocks - of text pages), then the book is not POD.
2.
The last page has a barcode. POD book companies put the book's barcode on the last page so that the binders can match the book to the cover automatically. This is necessary because the books aren't printed in bulk.
3.
Pages tear out easily. POD book pages are glued in 2- or 4-page signatures, which are easier to pull out of a book, attributing POD books to poor construction.
4.
Slight spine misalignment. POD book covers have a wider margin of error. If the cover seems a bit misaligned, the book might be POD, since traditional printers are very careful with spine alignment and width calculation.
Despite these flaws, there are some good arguments for using POD technology, including (1) the book sells very few copies but the publisher still wishes it to remain in print, and (2) the publisher wants to test the market with a new/unique book before going to press with it.
Labels: book printing
A Very Informative Review
I never think to check
Epinions.com for books reviews, yet I just stumbled across a customer review from one of my old books about Wisconsin Dells. And it was a very nice, informative review.
Perhaps the best piece of information is that the customer - who visited Wisconsin Dells with her family - would recieve coupons from various sources (hotels, travel brochures) and then check the book to see if the attraction was any good. This is how I envision that these books be used, so its great to see that they are actually being used this way. I also learned that more photos would have been more helpful.
The book is no longer available, but portions of it are used in the new
Tourist Town Guides book of the same name. At any rate, these kinds of reviews are the most helpful in creating future editions; it addresses how the book is specifically used during a vacation, which, as a publisher, is great to know.
The full review, written last summer, is available
here.
Labels: review
Picking a Blog Name
While I search for a more appropriate name, I will call this blog "travel write publish" because that's basically the order in which I get anything done. First I
travel, this is my research. Then I
write about what I have done, and I write about whether it would be worth it for you, my readers, to do the same thing. Finally, I
publish, combining all the tidbits of information into one softcover perfect bound packet.
Of course, I really should have called this blog "travel write edit layout design publish market sell revise" but all those words didn't fit very well in the headline graphic. Regardless, I hope to come up with a better, more catchy name as soon as possible.
Labels: general
Welcome to my Blog!
Welcome to my new blog! This is the first entry I am writing, so allow me to introduce myself and the purpose of this blog. My name is Dirk Vanderwilt, and I am a writer and publisher of regional travel guidebooks. I have written travel books about
Niagara Falls,
Wisconsin Dells,
Atlantic City, and
Las Vegas. In other words, I love tourist towns!
In my "other life" (outside the travel publishing world), I have training in film production, music composition, and information technology. I didn't get into publishing because I like to read. Rather, I was annoyed with the fact that I couldn't find any good travel guidebooks on Atlantic City - a favorite vacation spot of mine (since I live in New York City). So, several year ago, I set out to write one on my own. As I did, I noticed that many of my favorite places lacked a good travel guide. And so, with the much-appreciated help of a small group of fellow authors and editors, the
Tourist Town Guides series was born. Today the series has eight books, but we are fast expanding.
I will continue to write about traveling to my favorite spots while learning about the favorite tourist towns of others. I will use this blog to share with you my knowledge and love of tourist towns. When I learn something exciting is developing - like a new theme park - I will share it here. If you are interested in learning about the book series, then please visit the website
http://www.touristtown.com.
Again, welcome, and I look forward to sharing with you all the love of these fun places that I have.
Labels: introduction, welcome
