Gordon Woolf's Blog

Oh no! Not the 'Under New Management' Sign

In my book Success in Store both I and my co-author separately berated anyone who'd even consider a sign stating Under New Management.

If the business was good then you do not want to make a point of saying that the old owner has gone; customers, even those who are not actually dissatisfied, may take it as an opportunity to just drop off, to try that other shop they've been thinking of going to.

If the business was bad, then if a sign with those words is all you can do to make it appear that things have changed, then you may appear to be doing the same old things in the same old way.

But this sign is a play on the theme. It's big, on a busy road where it stood out even to people like me who had not noticed the business as it was. But it makes a strong point and it is in a field where many such businesses in Australia were taken over by huge groups who seemed to have money to burn but then burned out. It can therefore be a good idea to promote the benefit that the "new" owners are in fact the old owners who knew what they were doing.

We hope it helps. 

What's the production schedule for a publication?

I was asked what a typical production schedule for a magazine would look like.

I doubt if there is actually such a thing as a "typical schedule". Most that I've come across start with a simple list working backwards from the print date to the date on which final ads and editorial have to be with page production.

Then both advertising and editorial section will calculate back from that to have separate schedules.

However this is something which should be considered carefully not only in the planning for a new publication but also at other times by every publication. And schedules all have to bear in mind that only a few final items can be prepared on that deadline.

In advertising it is normal to set a deadline a day or two ahead of the date required by the production department, and the following wording occurs in many sets of conditions (this is for a weekly published locally on a Friday):

Preferred deadline for the receipt of all advertising materials is Friday, seven days before publication. Materials and space reservations will be accepted, however, until 5 pm Monday, week of publication. When space has been reserved and paid for by Monday, camera-ready materials can be accepted until 4 pm Tuesday, week of publication. Electronically submitted ads for which space has been reserved must be received by 1 pm Tuesday. Cancellations and changes cannot be accepted after 5 pm Monday, week of publication. For advertisers wishing to approve a proof, the deadline is noon Wednesday, nine days before publication. Major holidays that are celebrated on weekdays generally cause the deadlines to fall one business day earlier.

You will find many such schedules in the online conditions of publications.

There are also likely to be earlier deadlines on small display ads and perhaps later ones on classifieds which are just run in automatically by system software.

In editorial, magazines will tend to work in production runs even though all the runs may be on the press at the same time. So there will be perhaps on a 64-page magazine deadlines each day for perhaps 16 pages. The deadline given for editorial submissions would normally be a week or more ahead of the earliest of those dates for regular contributors who can be relied on to meet deadlines, a week or two further ahead for contributors who are not yet trusted, and then another couple of weeks further ahead for anything which is being considered at an editorial conference or on which the editor has yet to make a decision.

All these dates will normally be indicated by marks or stickers on a wall planner -- I have come across publications using computer scheduling but it is too easy to ignore something that is not constantly in the face of the actual users.

A production run which is a physically separate run on the press, even if only a day earlier, will usually be regarded as a separate production process to be completed before the final section, and so will most likely have a deadline at least a week before the rest. It can almost be regarded internally as a separate publication.

It basically comes down to ensuring there is a steady flow of work for each person in the process, so not only does the person setting the schedule have to consider what amount of work is possible in the time, but also what those people will be doing at other times. That is why it is common for feature pages of daily newspapers to be scheduled for all work to be completed two to three days ahead of the news pages. News pages will also have a succession of deadlines -- and the only pages actually prepared on deadline for a daily newspaper are likely to be the front page and the main sports page.

Despite the common impression that publications are a frantic hive of activity on deadline, any publication which is like that other than when a disaster occurs just ahead of that deadline, has a production schedule which needs work. I've worked on magazines where final deadline day can be very quiet, a time for long lunches because those in charge of checking final proofs just need to know where everyone is in case there is a query. A newspaper may be very quiet after midnight with just a late copyeditor watching the wire service.

On the other hand, if unexpected news breaks just as the deadline approaches, then real life may resemble the newsrooms of the movies.

Software that refuses to die

How many software programs from 1994 are you still using?

When I upgraded to Windows 7 and chose the 64-bit version, I expected to say goodbye to some of the pieces of software that I've used for many years.

But my barcode creation software, UPCTools, bought in 1994, refuses to die...it just keeps on working, now with its fifth operating system since it first ran in Windows 95 (or was it Windows 3.1?).

Admittedly it now runs in XP Mode, but I can select it from the Start menu of Windows 7, and then just use the UPC Tools menu item "copy" to copy the result in to InDesign (which was no more than a twinkle in the eye of some of the software people at Aldus when this software was written by Jerry Whiting at Azalea Software). The barcode fonts, which were in Type 1 Postscript format, installed in the Windows 7 font folder by just dragging them in en masse. When viewed now within InDesign those fonts show up as just one font with eight styles (to suit three inkspread requirements plus half height versions. 

Yes that is Windows 7 and the software running does say Copyright 1994. Some software was written with the future in mind!

Incidentally, to get software that runs in the XP virtual environment to show up in the Start menu of Windows 7 you have to put a shortcut in the "All Users" subfolder of the Start menu in XP and then reboot your PC. It took me a while to work that one out.

Of course I'm not suggesting you should buy the 1994 version of UPCTools but if you are looking for barcode software that will work in to the next decade, You'll find lots of info about barcodes in general at http://www.azalea.com/FAQ/

Overall, I'm happy with the decision to upgrade and the computer with its extra memory is performing well -- not a BSOD since the upgrade, though I was previously thinking it had to be replaced.

Which page layout program?

I recently added a feature page to this blog titled The DTP contenders: which page layout program for you? which lists very brief comments and contacts for some 17 page layout programs. Some you may never have heard of but many may provoke disrtant memories and you'll be surprised that not only are they still around but that they have been updated.

Most have free trial versions which give the opportunity for you to see whether they suit your purposes but also produce a file which will print -- from your own computer printer or by the printing company you intend to use.

I welcome your comments. Already several changes have been made based on responses to my tweets when I first revised the page from the original much shorter version which was published many years ago.

As well as the link in this blog, you will find the page under DTP Contenders in the menu bar near the top of this page.

Libraries: a story of hope

I wrote the following in 2005, and it disappeared in a blog reorganization. It is just as current now as I've recently read several anti-library comments, mostly from publishers:

A couple of times in recent months I've read stories of libraries in the USA just not buying books any more. One recent discussion list post asked "Imagine if you could walk into your public library and it looked like Barnes and Noble, or Borders, or your independent book store."

Well, despite there being tales of constant budget cuts and pressure for funds to be transferred to the electronic services of libraries, it gave me hope that local libraries at least near me in Australia do look bright, with comfortable seating, helpful staff, and no shortage of custom.

When the latest Harry Potter book was released here, it wasn't the local bookstores putting on a major show, it was the local public library. The release time here in Australia was 10am and, at 11am they had the books arrive, a dress-up contest, a reading of the first chapter, displays of other recommended children's books and names could be added to the waiting list of those who wanted the HP copies. Of course the other recommended books by other authors, including several local authors, were available for instant loan.

And I should add that authors and publishers get paid an annual fee for books in public libraries -- a little over a dollar a book for authors, a small fraction of that for publishers. It's done on a random sample basis so payments aren't absolutely accurate but that does keep admin costs of the scheme down. I have a book published more than 10 years ago which still shows up in the survey so I've received around $10 per copy in libraries as the author of that... It will almost certainly go below the 50 copy national threshold this year but that book would have almost been worth writing for library sales alone.

I just hope that the USA realizes the importance of public libraries and adopts the way of the UK, many European countries, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, etc. See http://www.plrinternational.com/

I've seen comments from small publishers that library sales could be hurting their other sales. I just cannot see that. It is not uncommon for the letters or emails we get at Worsley Press from people who order direct to say things like "I borrowed the book from the library but I want a copy for myself" and I'm sure that is only the tip of the iceberg.

Give your Printing Problems the Binary Chop!

The Binary Chop isn't a new form of karate. It reverses the power of the computer by calculating using two digits, the equivalent of on and off, just as the computer does.

There are many problems with printing — in fact as a consultant, I have more calls about printing problems than any other aspect of desktop publishing — but the most common problem can easily be solved using the Binary Chop.

This problem is that a file just refuses to print.

Firstly, check that a known good file will still print. If it does, then it is almost certain that the problem is with the non-printing file, and not with your printer or network. You could also try creating a PDF of the file. And, if that works, try printing from the PDF.

Here are a series of other steps to take:

1. Make a copy of the file under a new name and check whether this prints (sometimes the process of re-ordering and compression in file size which occurs from a Save as… command will solve the problem).
2. If you are on a network, try printing the file from the computer to which the printer is attached (which may also enable you to check whether the printer begins to accept information and whether this continues for some time before the printer returns to Idle mode. You can also check this on networks by following the progress of the job from your computer using the network software).
3. Using the copy of the file, try printing without graphics by using the Omit graphics selection under print Options if this exists. If the file prints then selectively delete and restore graphics files until you isolate the one causing the problem.
4. If the file has multiple pages, send half the pages, then the other half. This is the first application of the Binary Chop; by halving the non-printing pages each time, until you can isolate, hopefully, a single non-printing page. If you have more than one non-printing page, look for typefaces or graphics which they have in common.
5. Take one non printing page and cut and paste half the objects to a new file. Try both halves. If one half prints, you know your problem is almost certainly in the other half. Either way, continue halving the number of objects until you isolate a single object which will not print. See below for a solution if both halves print but not the whole.
6. If everything else prints, go back to the original page, make another copy, delete just the offending item, and, hopefully, your page will print.
7. Replace the offending object, which may be a graphic or a piece of type.

Errors in newspapers: there should be fewer

Much as I enjoy stories of errors in newspapers (one of the best I've seen was out local newspaper which had "headline in here" in 144pt - 2" - type, an error that I caused to be seen on TV and in the book Type & Layout), they are not happening *just* because of new systems. They have happened even in manual days because of the rush to get the first edition on the streets.

It has always been one of the benefits of living in a country area or one distant from the production point. (The UK newspaper the Guardian became known as "The Grauniad" by Private Eye because of all the spelling errors there was no time to fix.) What should be noted is that most such errors are soon fixed and the vast majority of the readership will have seen nothing odd.

When I was a subeditor on one of Murdoch's newspapers I recall the deputy editor looking at the first edition and shouting at the copy desk: "Well we got it out, now let's turn it into a newspaper". And that was in hot metal days.

The normal setup for newspaper staffing is that galleys, or their equivalent, are read either in printed proof form or on screen, originally by proofreaders, now more likely as part of the copyediting process.

At this stage the copyeditor should take out rude words in the slug because they too often get through to print. The slug is the abbreviated text used to identify a story, originally one word, now more often a kind of suggested headline. As a newspaper editor and chief of staff I banned this kind of dummy head; even if the person writing it would not want it to be the final one it should be something which makes sense and helps clarify what the main point is of the story. If the writer can't write any kind of headline, then it often idicates that the writer is confused.

The headline itself is usually added on the page layout so may be seen only by the person doing the layout of the page. In the past, errors and questionable headlines were often picked up by the compositors, i.e. those who put the page together in metal or phototypesetting, but those people no longer exist. It is therefore most likely the end of the compositor which leads to more errors getting through -- they'd even take a hammer to the plate on the press if necessary since it was sometimes preferable to ensure that no one could read it rather than let an error go through. You can't effectively take a hammer to a digital press, though I'm sure there are many who would have liked to.

The proofreaders who were reading the page proofs might still have been reading the proofs when the press started. On a newspaper with a large or growing circulation, the plate with those changes might then sit by the press until there was a paper break and the press had to be stopped unless there was some danger of legal action. There were trucks, trains, buses and sometimes even aircraft waiting for the newspaper bundles. A little embarrassment for a journalist or editor was not a consideration.

We may actually see fewer errors as newsrooms change over from a print first attitude to one of web first, so the more carefully researched and probably longer print version would have already appeared in two or three versions on the web. Any errors which get through to print will have happened in the final rewrite stage.

The future of news stories is seen in a quote from the consultant brought in by Vance Publishing chief Peggy Waker (even though that's a magazine group): "Instead of researching and writing a lengthy print article, then repurposing it for the Web, the new process would run in reverse: posting a first take of breaking news at 200 words, following with an update at 400 words, then producing a longer second-day story, which would subsequently be repurposed for the print publication." See http://bit.ly/3dDiBU

Ms Walker also tells of expecting an outcry when the web and press editing teams were merged, and not just for single publications but for the whole group. Unexpectedly the large open editorial room was popular -- as it used to be when most publishers were like that.

I'm also pleased to see that computers are now significantly quieter. When I first changed from paper editing the increase in noise level and the size of the monitors meant there was a massive divide between editors. No longer could you read out a questionable phrase to no one in particular, confident that if something was wrong you'd get a shout from a fellow editor nearby. I suspect that as editors get physically closer once more, those co-operative days which caught so many errors will be back.

A real reason to publish it yourself

Some people publish their own book because that's the way they want to do it -- to retain control, regardless of the effect that has on sales.

But take a look at this blog interview with someone who has seen both sides. (And with 25 books published, mostly by big publishers, he has major experience!) In 10 years, and with new editions as needed, John Bear sold more than 200,000 copies of his guide to distance learning for degrees; then it was taken up by a major publisher . . . which just did not do as well as he continued to do with his own edition which, through a stroke of luck in contract wording, he was able to continue to sell direct.

Such direct comparisons are rare, but it shows what a small publisher can achieve with a book that fills a need. I quote:

"It's so easy to get carried away, as I was, by the heady feeling of being published by someone big and famous. Perhaps that ego boost is reason enough. It is fine to hope for big sales, but one should not hold one's breath."

He adds:

"Even with more than 25 books published by the big guys (Ten Speed, Time Life, McGraw-Hill, Harcourt, Price/Stern/Sloan, Career Press, Prometheus), the most fun I had, and, by far, the biggest profits I had, were from the self-published, self-promoted books. While Bear's Guide was the most enduring, the most successful (over the short term) was one I bet you don't know about: Mailing from Mexico. Boy, talk about finding a niche. This was a 64-page 'manual' with information you couldn't get anywhere else, so my co-author and I sold it for $100, and we sold 1,000 of them from just two ads in Entrepreneur Magazine."

And that is also an important point: books are information and their possible sale price is related to the value the prospective buyer will put on them. In a book store books tend to be compared, even subconciously, with other books: why does this one cost $70 and that one, which is bigger, only $30? By mail and email and internet order you are selling the information. If you can find that niche, it becomes less a book and more a study guide, a manual, and some may prefer to put it out in a report format.

With one of my books, an early version of the one on PageMaker, I put out two versions: the normal book and the same information as a looseleaf manual for several times the price. Why I didn't stick to that format is anyone's guess. The numbers sold were smaller, but the profit per sale was very high and there were no middle men; every copy sold directly to a newspaper somewhere in the world.

Incidentally, that interview is on the Small Press Blog, run by Thomas Nixon, and though he now posts infrequently, it is still a good site for information on the small publisher world. And note that Mr Nixon calls it the "small press" blog with the subtitle "Your guide to independent publishing". There are mentions there of the dreaded term "self-publishing" but presumably they are to give the important keywords which will bring those who think it is the right term to his sites.

My own book on publishing your own book is Publish Your Book and though it is available from a publisher, Worsley Press, that is the publishing firm which I started and where I first produced that book on a copier, bound it myself, guillotined it to size and packed copies to mail out.

Magalog or catazine - good idea but not a new one

There's nothing new under the sun. That was my reaction when I read a US Postal Service blog suggesting the latest trend was the "Magalog" or the "Catazine", a hybrid of catalog and magazine. My reaction was thus because this is how one major category of magazines, the trade magazine or trade journal, started a couple of hundred years ago.

The Morgan brothers, who ran a business which combined the categories of druggists and hardware sellers, decided back then that they'd get more readers and more committed readers for their catalogs and thus more customers if they included news and information. And that meant news etc that was not just puffery for their products.

In the 1960s I worked in London for the firm of publishers which had been, a century earlier, that firm of chemists. Those catalogs became the world's first trade magazines, The Chemist and Druggist and The Ironmonger. As they became successful in their own right, they split from the chemicals company (which became Morgan Crucible) and the one which became Morgan Brothers Publishers (and subsequently the Morgan-Grampian Group, now part of Fleet Holdings).

When I started work for the descendants of the Morgan Brothers (Sir Charles Morgan Hudson was the chairman) I worked on The Ironmonger and they were approaching their centenary year as publishers. They set a high standard with an editorial staff of around ten on that magazine alone, a supplements department with two or three (I worked for that section for a while and wrote a 64-page guide to glues and adhesives - exciting stuff!) and an inquiry department with 5 people fulltime answering phone and mail questions from subscribers.

It was definitely profitable and as a young reporter I was sent UK-wide reporting on the meetings of hardware retailers and ironmongers. When John Betjeman (later appointed Poet Laureate by Queen Elizabeth II and following on previous appointees to that position such as Tennyson, Wordsworth and John Masefield) called for some information in order to write his speech to open an exhibition of Opercula (perhaps better known as "coal hole covers" those often ornate cast iron plates set in footpaths in front of houses above the coal cellars) I was told to find the booklet on that subject we had published long before, try to find some updated information and arrange to meet him before the event and then report on the opening. It took many hours and resulted in about a 6-inch story.

But that was the way things were in those profitable days. Maybe some of the "new" catalogues with news will do as well. As long as they follow the basic rule that the Morgan Brothers followed, that there must be no puffery. Readers had to be respected.

I'd suggest that a good start might be not to call the new publication a "Magalog" or the "Catazine".

How long does writing take?

When I was chief of reporting staff for a local weekly newspaper I used to tell reporters they should get a column inch of copy from every minute they spent on the phone. Columns were narrow so it worked out about 25 words to the inch, so a 500 word item should never take more than 20 minutes on the phone and about the same to write it from their notes.

Only one reporter on the newspaper was given the time to do in-depth research which could involve contacting many people in the hope of a snippet of information. But even he would keep several stories on the go at any one time so he always had a backup lead story for the paper which could be ready in half an hour or so if a planned story failed to come through.

Later, as a freelance I got 5 cents an inch from the same paper, so it would only pay if I cc'd the local radio news, and the State dailies plus a rewrite or two for farming newspapers and/or magazines.

The killer is the research time, but, as prolific author Isaac Asimov maintained, the key is to do your research once and then write it many times. Research into a period of history could produce a factual article for adults, a similar piece for children, a short historic story and maybe even a piece of present day or science fiction based on the same events and reactions transposed to a different time.