At The Troy Book Makers, we let the author do as much or as little as they would like. Have a nephew who can layout your book? Great! A cousin who can design a cover, also great. But if not, we can do these things for you for a modest fee. Browse the services below or contact us for a custom quote.
Formatting / Book Design:
Even a finished manuscript that is ready for printing still needs to be formatted, we can custom design your book from cover to cover. For a starting fee of $100, we can format your book to fit the final trim size and margin requirements. Files must be given to us electronically, either uploaded through out website or sent via e-mail, and must be a .rtf or .doc file.
Our basic formatting service includes fitting content to the appropriate margins for a book up to 100 pages and inserting headers, footers, page numbers, chapter and part titles, as well as a table of contents. Additional pages beyond 100 are 50¢ per page. Start with a template, then customize for an additional $80. We are also able to format special features, such as footnotes and appendices, for an extra charge.
Completely custom book design is also available—our specialists here at The Troy Book Makers will work with you to design a completely unique interior. We’ve laid out many books with excerpts, tables, endnotes, footnotes, appendices, bibliographies and indices, these books of course take a bit more time and the fees are based on your needs so please contact us about a custom quote.
Cover Design:
Starting at $100, pick a template and specify colors, supply a photo and back cover text, then we’ll take care of the rest.
For $220, The Troy Book Makers can work with you to design a completely unique cover—you’ll get three (3) options to pick from and be able to tweak one of those layouts to your liking or get another round of options. We also have some pre-made custom covers available for $150 – you pick a cover, we drop in your title and cover text and you have a custom cover – we then retire the design!
Stock Images:
Don’t have an image for your cover? Don’t worry! We can help you find a royalty free image at a low cost. Starting at $25, we can find an image that suits your cover. Interior illustrations are also available—remember, clip art you find on the web probably isn’t useable!
Premium paper stock:
The interior pages of your book will be printed on recycled 50# matte white text paper. You also have the option of choosing a higher-grade paper stock in white or natural for a book of any length at a small additional charge per page (usually a 5-8% increase on the printing cost).
Premium cover stock:
Your book will automatically have a uncoated full-color 8 or 10 pt. cover. Gloss or matte laminated covers are available for a small fee.
ISBN/Barcode:
For $100, we can obtain an ISBN for you. This 13-digit identification number—the International Standard Book Number—includes a barcode, which allows booksellers and libraries to order, stock and sell books. In addition, if you buy an ISBN and barcode from us, your book will automatically be listed in Books in Print—the industry directory used by wholesalers, distributors and bookstores to order books—making your book available to thousands of retail stores around the world. If you get an ISBN from us, The Troy Book Makers will be your publisher of record, so any wholesale orders would be forwarded along to you from us.
If you do not want us to be listed as your publisher of record, it’s not a problem. We can purchase single ISBN for you, so that you can create your own press name. The fee for this is $225 and includes the listing in Books-in-Print, ISBN, and barcode.
You can also register yourself at www.isbn.org. If you already have an ISBN, but need a barcode, we can create one for your book for $40.
Copyright:
For the most secure federal protection from misappropriation of the content of your book, we recommend that you apply for an official copyright for your book. You can apply at www.copyright.gov, it will cost $35 and you can complete the process online. Please note: It currently will take around of 24 months to get the certificate from the copyright office. If you need us to file your registration, the cost is $150, and there is a lengthy questionnaire that we will fill out with you over the phone.
Proofs:
Starting at $25, we will print a single copy of your book for your approval before printing. Most of our customers select this option and we strongly recommend it – you don’t want to print all your books with grandma’s name misspelled just because you didn’t get a proof copy of your book! Once we send you your proof, you will have two weeks to make changes or suggestions. If we have made a formatting error or you would like to make a minor change to the text, we will correct the problem at no additional charge, for up to 20 pages in your book that need to be fixed. Additional or more significant changes to the text at this stage will incur additional charges (per page) and additional proofs may be needed. Full color proofs start at $45, and electric proofs start at $15 per round.
Distribution:
By printing your book with The Troy Book Makers, you may choose to have your book represented in Market Block Books, The Bookloft and The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza for six months on a consignment basis. We also have two optional venues for online sale: though our website at TBMbooks.com, and through our seller account on Amazon.com. A listing on TBMbooks.com is free; however, there is a $100 charge to create an Amazon.com listing. Consignment fees also apply.
Marketing Materials:
Once you’ve printed your book, you will want to tell the world that it is available and how it can be bought. We can help by designing and printing postcards, event posters and business cards, so you can begin promoting your book.
Author Websites:
If you already have a website, we can add it to our Links page. If you do not have a website yet, or would like a separate website for your book, we can build you a five-page site (including an optional blog) and host it for a year for $550. We could also set up a blog for a $75 set-up fee. Extra domain names are $25, and additional years of hosting cost $125 per year, and include domain name renewal. Included in the cost of the initial design, we do a 30-minute tutorial on how you can make all future updates to your site. Additional sessions cost $45.
Editing:
We have working relationships with a several professional editors, each of whom has a great deal of experience with copyediting (for grammar, syntax, typos, etc) and line editing (for content and organization). We can refer you to one of these editors for one or both of these editorial services.
