Self-Publishing

The modular nature of Officina’s services means that customers can join and leave at any stage of the publication process. Some of our customers will have already have had work done on their book but now need help taking it to publication. Others may have had their book produced by Officina and also wish to see it self-published as part of the same service. Below are the stages Officina can take the book through to get it ready for marketing. (Marketing is, unfortunately, not a service we offer – yet.)

Output

At the end of the pre-press process, the book will usually exist as a pair of pdfs (the text and the cover) ready for printing. The ‘output’ stage will see the books printed. Typically this would be a comparatively short run – anywhere from 20 copies (Officina’s minimum) to a couple of hundred. Please contact us for more information.

In many cases an ‘ebook’ version will also be produced as part of the service. If a customer has paid for other services, conversion to ebook format will be provided free. However, it cannot be offered for complex page layouts, as the conversion process would be too time-consuming.

The resulting ebook will be in the standard format for ereaders, ePub. Amazon, which produces popular ereaders like the Kindle Paperwhite, has its own proprietary format, KFX, but ePub is the ideal intermediary format when converting the book to KFX.

Books can also be output as a single web-ready pdf, where the text and front cover are combined and any images are at screen resolution: these are ideal as review copies.

Distribution

If the books have been printed, Officina can supply fulfilment to anywhere in the world (within reason), with a small fee charged to cover postage and packing.

Officina can also upload electronic versions of the book (ePub, pdf, KFX) to the appropriate distributors.

Administration

The main administrative function Officina can offer is to help with the purchase of ISBNs, which printed books need to be sold in shops.

Officina is also planning to launch a self-publishing print-only imprint, Nautilus Books. Please contact us for more information about this exciting development!