Special Author Offer – through Thanksgiving 2016 Thursday, Aug 25 2016 

Electronic Book Conversion – Discounts for all

Choose free electronic service, 50% off, or deeper discounts, depending on what is most helpful to you:

FREE: Submit a copy of your manuscript in MS Word and we’ll convert it to PDF at no charge. Electronic approval is required before using converted PDF for print production. These electronic book files are meant for personal and family use and enjoyment, as they will contain no Copyright or Digital Rights Management (DRM) protections.

OR Interested in a PDF book manuscript from hard copy? If it is document feedable, we will only charge a penny a page to convert (at least 50% savings)

OR EPUB file (more “traditional” EBook format) of interest? Basic file conversion is free, but seldom does a basic conversion result in a file authors are happy with due to the differences between the printed page and EBook formatting. If further services are desired, they can be billed at only $10.00 hour – over 50% savings.

Electronic file offers may be combined and files provided via Dropbox, Google Drive, or Box.com free of charge. Mailed file services available for a fee.

To qualify for your choice of special offer, you must do the following:

  • Send your manuscript (with production instructions and discount code), mailing information, and deposit to arrive at the publisher postmarked no later than 11-25-16 with code.

  • Use this Discount Code ONLY: “ENov16Conv”.

Advertisement

June E-Magazine Thursday, Jun 2 2016 

What’s It Mean? A-Z
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Library Binding Institute (LBI): The main trade associating representing the binding industry. They collaborated with the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) to produce the American National Standard fro library binding.

Line Spacing: Actual space between lines of text characters on a page.  The standard computer default of “single” can be “squeezed” or “expanded” as space allows.

Terms marked with an asterisk (*) are not generally used in our office.

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For other writing, printing, publishing, marketing lingo, check our glossaries at
http://www.gregathcomany.com/info/dictionary and
http://www.gregathcompany.com/info/dictionary/writers.html

Run across a word that you don’t understand? Try us – email us your word, term or phrase and we will see if we can shed some light on the matter!
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Design Inspiration
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Here are what are considered standard industry terms with approximate heights:

Double elephant folio 50″
Atlas folio 25″
Elephant folio 23″
F = folio 15″ (coffee table book)
Q = quarto (4to) 12″ (telephone book)
O = octavo (8vo) 9″ (standard hardcover)
D = duodecimo (12mo) 7″ (standard paperback)
S = sixteenmo (16mo) 6″
T = twentyfourmo (24mo) 5″
thirtytwomo (32mo) 5″
fortyeightmo (48mo) 4″
sixtyfourmo (64mo) 3″

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This section is drawn from
http://www.gregathcompany.com/publish/design/size.html
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Book Manufacturing Concepts
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Benefits of our POD Publishing Offerings

  • True 600 dpi digital reproduction for high quality books.
  • Basic promotional pieces are easily designed, produced, and mailed as specified.

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This section is drawn from
http://www.gregathcompany.com/publish/pod
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Marketing advice
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The same people claiming direct mail doesn’t net enough return also claim print is dead. Don’t discount direct mailing for promotion. Some content ideas include:

  • Offer free information that is of service to buyers (tips, tricks, hacks, advice, etc.)
  • Invite them personally to an event or to take advantage of your services
  • Further promotion: think of things you can do for your customers!

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This section is drawn from
http://www.gregathcompany.com/service/shipping/businessmailuses.html
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Genealogy ideas
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The Online Catalog for the California State Archives

Online access to summary descriptions of the vast documentary treasures maintained by the California State Archives. A division of the Office of the Secretary of State, the California State Archives is responsible for the management and preservation of state government records. Within the more than 300 million items in its collections are documents from the state’s first constitutional convention in 1849, land grant records of the Spanish and Mexican eras, campaign contribution statements, State Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal case files, legislative committee files, original laws, papers of many of the state’s leading politicians, and large collections of photographs, maps, drawings, and audio/visual materials.

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Computer aid!?!
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Trying to locate something using an old bookmark/favorite that is no longer there? One of many options to try is the Wayback Machine at Archive.org. Currently in a handy search box at the top of the page, it searches previous versions of a lot of the internet. It’s not comprehensive, but is a user friendly way to “recover” material that has gone “missing.

May, 2016 Complete E-Zine Tuesday, May 3 2016 

What’s It Mean? A-Z
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*Leading:

See Line Spacing on website

*Leaf: Single sheet of paper – each side is a page.

see end sheet on website

*Leaf Attachment: How the pages of a text block are affixed together such as sewn by thread, adhesive, or non-ANSI/NISO/LBI Standard: staples.

Terms marked with an asterisk (*) are not generally used in our office.

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For other writing, printing, publishing, marketing lingo, check our glossaries at
http://www.gregathcomany.com/info/dictionary and
http://www.gregathcompany.com/info/dictionary/writers.html

Run across a word that you don’t understand? Try us – email us your word, term or phrase and we will see if we can shed some light on the matter!
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Design Inspiration
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When choosing an overall book length and width, consider what sizes books you see of the same subject matter and balance this with what you can place on pages in your preferred format. If economics are a focus, check with your publisher to see what size suggestions they have as well. Logic dictates you can not get the same information on a 5.5×8.5″ book page as on a 8.5×11″ page and maintain the same format, including font size. When deciding your overall size format, don’t forget to estimate the total page count (weight or heft) to decide if the size and format won’t be too heavy to reasonably use or ship economically.

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This section is drawn from
http://www.gregathcompany.com/publish/design/size.html
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Book Manufacturing Concepts
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Benefits of our POD Publishing Offerings

  • Accomplished from printed or digital manuscript.
  • Manuscript formatting and graphic design services are reasonably priced professional service upgrades.

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This section is drawn from
http://www.gregathcompany.com/publish/pod
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Marketing advice
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The same people claiming direct mail doesn’t net enough return also claim print is dead. Don’t discount direct mailing for promotion. Some content ideas include:

  • Offer information on specials – individual “one of”, or reoccurring instances (new or well established).
  • Make your mail piece a gateway to more information available elsewhere such as websites, request printed material, etc. or use QR codes (can include audio or video).

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This section is drawn from
http://www.gregathcompany.com/service/shipping/businessmailuses.html
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Genealogy ideas
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Always check date ranges of sources. Sometimes a range, sometimes not even very large, actually means only some of this time or non-comprehensive coverage such as the reference book “Calloway County, Kentucky Newspaper Abstracts: Volume A” may be listed to cover 1897-1927, when it actually contains non-comprehensive coverage of 1897 and 1927 (only 2 years).

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Have a tip? e-mail us
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Computer aid!?!
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Over 2 million free books listed here: http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/
The Online Books Page was founded, and is edited, by John Mark Ockerbloom, He is a digital library planner and researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. He is responsible for the content of the site. Alison Miner is Associate Editor.

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Have a tip? e-mail us
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About this e-zine
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Gregath Company, Inc. is pleased to present information that may be of help to authors and genealogists on a monthly basis in this format.

If you have decided since you requested this newsletter that you prefer not to receive mailings, please go to the following page and fill out the subscribe/unsubscribe form to be automatically dropped from the mailing list:
http://www.gregathcompany.com/zine
This set of directions is also the way to subscribe to this e-zine to get your own copy in your box monthly (if not already a subscriber).
NOTE: If trying to unsubscribe, supplying a different email address then the one you signed up with will result in multiple copies rather then being unsubscribed.

Back Issue information available through http://www.gregathcompany.com/zine or https://gregathcompany.wordpress.com

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Copyright and reprint information

Gregath Company, Inc. is happy to give permission to forward this e-zine in its entirety, INCLUDING all contact information, to any person or group. To excerpt this e-zine for any form of reproduction, you must contact us to request permission. All material is copyright by Gregath Company, Inc., as staff members are responsible for the content.

February 2016 E-Zine: Complete Monday, Feb 1 2016 

Design Inspiration
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At the earliest, as you complete your manuscript, you should begin thinking about what editions you will be publishing in. Estimated page count, target usage, and type of binding may dictate different maximum page margins for traditionally printed books. Depending on the software options (index, end/foot note, etc.) you use to produce your work separate manuscript files for each edition may be needed. Preliminary work for electronic edition may be done in a word processing application followed by a straight conversion (such as PDF) or export for more work done in a program geared to produce electronic publication manuscripts.

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This section is drawn from
http://www.gregathcompany.com/publish/design/layout.html
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Book Manufacturing Concepts
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Using Microsoft Publisher, Adobe InDesign (or other program of this type)? While it is easy to place frames and objects outside of your established margins and even running off the edge of the page (full bleed), remember margins are necessary to produce a page pleasing to the eye and many forms of standard printing do not allow for no margin or bleed printing. Always place all elements, unless previously discussed with your publisher, within your established margins.

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This section is drawn from
http://www.gregathcompany.com/info/tips/selfmanuscript.html
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Marketing advice
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In the 21st century Social Networking is not going away. Where you may have “pressed the flesh” and been active in organizations to network in the past (thus getting the word out on your current and past projects), getting involved in the online community can be great if your marketing is “grass roots” based. Don’t go crazy – it will just result in more stress about learning something new: Learn about your options, join one at a time and monitor a bit before making it a marketing platform. In this way, if the interface or tone doesn’t seem right for you, you won’t gain followers you’ll abandon if you discontinue.

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Genealogy ideas – this issue marketing applies to genealogy as well.
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Have a tip? e-mail us
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Back to top of page

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Computer aid!?! – see Design Inspiration this issue.

January 2016 E-Zine: Complete Monday, Jan 11 2016 

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What’s It Mean? A-Z
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Headband/Footband (also header/footer in binding terms): A strip of embroidered cloth at the end (top/bottom) of the spine, extending beyond the book block. Optional ALA element included in Gregath deluxe binding. Now available as upgrade in color hard binding.

Hinge In: A paper or cloth strip may be adhered along the binding edge of the a page, or pages, to be added after the book has been bound, so that the strip extends beyond the binding edge. This can then be “hinged” into a “finished” book by pasting up the part of the paper or cloth strip that extends beyond the addition, and adhering the strip to the binding edge of a sheet (or leaf) in the text block.  This may also be used to change a given published page: cut the page to be replaced out of the existing book leaving as wide a bound paper strip as the binding margin will allow; follow instructions as above or – trim the replacement page to fit the published book (with extra paper to overlap bound strip); using an archival quality media, attach replacement page to bound strip.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
For other writing, printing, publishing, marketing lingo, check our glossaries at
http://www.gregathcomany.com/info/dictionary and
http://www.gregathcompany.com/info/dictionary/writers.html

Run across a word that you don’t understand? Try us – email us your word, term or phrase and we will see if we can shed some light on the matter!
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

///////////////////////////////
Design Inspiration
///////////////////////////////

Consider adding extra material to a book through QR codes, removable media (CD/DVD, USB, memory card), or cloud links.

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Book Manufacturing Concepts
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If budget is a watch word, consider the weight difference between hard and soft cover books when shipping.

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Marketing advice
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Take into consideration USPS price and standards changes (effective 1-17-2016) when figuring book shipping prices.

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Genealogy ideas
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It takes a village: Don’t discount getting together with other like-minded people for education and reinforcement. Gregath is hosting a retreat in October that may be of interest.

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Computer aid!?!
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Do you have something (format) you use over and over again from MS Office – maybe with just a little bit of tweaking? Consider making the format (blank without personalized information) into a template. In your MS program, make a file that contains all the repetitive format and information. When you save as (save if not already saved), click the down arrow by format (under file name) and choose template (word template, excel template, etc.). To make it easier to use, save it where your other templates for that program are saved – or make a dedicated template file folder that is easy to find.

September 2015 Ezine – Book Production Wednesday, Sep 2 2015 

One thing, sometimes overlooked, is that the overall book format(s) may alter both production and shipping costs: If a large part of your sales may be shipped, consider both finished book height and width, as well as page count (depth) and explore packaging and shipping costs. QR codes, bonus material URL, or additional media can be used to cut the total size/weight without reducing the content.

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This section is drawn from
http://www.gregathcompany.com/service/marketing/bookselling.html

June 2015 Magazine – Genealogy & Computer Saturday, Jun 6 2015 

Did you know the Arkansas Genealogical Society has free, proprietary database information in PDF online at http://agsgenealogy.org/databases/default.html?

June 2015 Magazine – Design Saturday, Jun 6 2015 

Will you make an electronic edition available as well as printed books? Consider your formats in each to decide if one manuscript can be used without modification or by adding functionality to the electronic edition. Sometimes dual manuscripts for dual format editions are best.

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This section is drawn from
http://www.gregathcompany.com/publish/design/digital

February, 2015 Magazine – Production Monday, Feb 2 2015 

Electronic books published on removable media format can include memory cards or chips.
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This section is drawn from
http://www.gregathcompany.com/publish/electronic/media.html

Electronic Magazine – September, 2014, v13#9: Design Thursday, Sep 4 2014 

Is your vision for your project not fully developed yet?

Consider looking over packages to decide what choices you may wish to make? GCI now offers several packages for hard cover, soft cover, and electronic in varying quantities. GCI packages are all fully customizable but contain popular options to get you started.

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This section is drawn from
http://www.gregathcompany.com/publish/design

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