Guest Post by Irene Watson

Writing a book that will include images can be a challenge for many reasons. Whether it’s getting quality images or securing permission to use photographs, authors need to do their research if they want to produce a quality book with stunning visual appeal.

Most authors are concerned about retaining the copyright to their books, but too often, they forget to give the same attention to materials copyrighted by others, especially when it comes to images. Using photographs and other images in books often can be confusing for authors, whether they are taking their own photographs or using other people’s images.

Many authors are clueless about photography and how well an image may reproduce in a book. Book designers and printers can tell you stories of authors who submitted photocopied pictures, or grabbed copyrighted images from the Internet, not realizing they needed permission to use those images or that those images would not be of sufficient quality/resolution for their books. Even if an author is taking his or her own photographs, certain requirements must be met if those pictures are to be included in the book successfully.

Image Quality

It doesn’t matter what is a photo’s subject or who took the photo if the photo is not first of good enough quality to be reproduced in a book. At minimum, you want quality photos of at least 300 dpi but the higher the dpi the better. Many museums and photographers will scan photos for you at 400 or 600 dpi. The “dpi” (dots per inch) refers to the image’s resolution, the number of pixels in it, which determines how easily it can be shrunk or enlarged to fit your space needs.

If you are taking your own photos, be sure to use a digital camera and set it to the appropriate setting. Most professional photographers will not have any trouble with providing you with photos of the correct resolution but let them know what you need up front.

It is always best to talk to the printer you will use to see what is recommended and will be usable. The last thing you want to do is take a hundred photos only to find out they can’t be used when you send the files to the printer. In many cases, those photos cannot be replicated if they are photos of events. (You’ll also want to talk to the printer about what your paper choices are since images need better quality paper).

If you have some older pictures you definitely want to use, but they are not of such great quality, don’t fear. A good layout person can work with most any photo. It’s understandable if you’re doing a memoir, for example, that you may have some old snapshots in a photo album from fifty years ago you want to use. In most cases, these can be scanned, touched up, and manipulated so they will reproduce in a book. You can always take your photos to a professional photo developer to have them fixed up if need be, or you or your layout person can use Photoshop or another program to make the images presentable. Make sure you get a quote for any work done to the photos. Most layout people will charge you a certain fee for each photo they have to alter. I’ve seen prices from $1-10 per image, so make sure you do the math ahead of time and plan your budget accordingly.

Permissions

You cannot just grab a photo off the Internet and use it for your book, no matter how good its quality. Surprisingly, many authors do not realize this rule exists. If you do print a photo you haven’t acquired permission to use, you may end up paying serious fines or having other legal repercussions, so make sure you have the rights to the photographs you use.

“Historical” photographs may be old enough not to retain copyrights, but if they belong to an organization, such as a historical society, you still must gain permission from that organization and you will almost always have to pay a usage fee and sign a permission form. Make sure you let your source know you want to use the photo in a book. Permission rights and costs may differ depending on whether you want to use a photo on your book cover, inside your book, in your marketing pieces, or for a slide show or an education display.

Make sure you ask your source—whether it’s a museum, university archives, etc. if that source has the rights to the specific photos you want to use that are in their collection. That may seem strange, but photographers actually retain rights to their photographs. For example, I know one author who wanted photos of some old movie stars for his book. The photos he wanted were in a university archives, but they had been taken by a movie magazine that retained the rights. In his particular case, the magazine had gone out of business so the photos were donated to the Library of Congress, which would then need to be contacted for the rights. In other cases, you may want to reproduce a photo in an old book, so the book’s publisher may still have the rights; however, that publisher may have been bought by another publisher who in turn was bought by another publisher, so you need to contact the current publisher. It can become quite frustrating tracking down who has the rights to some photos, but it is in your best interest to make every effort to abide by the copyright laws, and if you can’t track down the owner, simply do not use the photo. In some cases, you might even decide the photo is not important enough to go through the cost and trouble of obtaining it.

Copyright on photos is currently seventy-two years, so if the photos are younger than that, you need to track the owners down. Even if the photographs are older than that, if they belong to a collection, such as a museum or library, you still will need to get permission.

Shopping Around

Acquiring permission to reproduce an image in your book can be not only time-consuming but also expensive, so shop around. If you’re writing a historical book and you need a photo of the old courthouse now torn down, the local county museum might charge you $20 for a photo, but the city museum might also have a similar but not the same photo and only charge you $10 while the local university archives might have a photo and only charge you $3. That said, you might find the county museum easier to work with and find it’s less trouble to pay $100 for five photos than $15 and get the run-around from the university archives. However, if your book is going to contain 100 historical photos, you will need to watch your dollars. You might also need to make some difficult decisions then about which photos are worth the expense of including in your book. It’s not uncommon to get photos from multiple sources, often with similar images, and just pick and choose those images.

Having a Creative Book Designer

Make sure you select someone who has experience in laying out a book with photos. You may want to ask a few different designers for copies of books with photographs they have done so you can see what kind of work they do. As an author, you may not have the artistic eye of a photographer or layout person, so look to see if the designer just plops photos “as is” into books, or if he or she is a bit creative with the photos. For example, if you use a historic photo of Theodore Roosevelt speaking to a crowd, the designer might crop the photo to provide a close up view of Roosevelt as well as the larger photo view. He might even zoom in on some details of woodwork on a building to provide some close up photos for your architecture book’s detail rather than just straight pictures of buildings.

While the use of the Internet makes distance of little concern today, you might feel more comfortable being able to sit down in person with the designer as you both decide to move a photo, enlarge or shrink it, or zoom in to enhance specific details. Working together in person still has its advantages over multiple emails, PDFs being sent, or talking on the phone. Remember, this book is yours and will have your name on it for the rest of your life, so as long as you’re willing to pay for it, you may want to get all the personal attention you possibly can from your layout person.

A Visually Stunning Book

In the end, photos and other images can enhance your book and create a visually stunning impression on readers. A history book with photos will definitely be purchased over one without, and for art, architecture, cooking, travel and many other kinds of books, the photos are as important, and sometimes even more important, than the text. Think through what you want, get quotes and talk to designers or photographers as needed. It will take a lot of effort, but in the end you can have a visually stunning book that will entice readers and make you proud.

Irene Watson is the Managing Editor of Reader Views, where avid readers can find reviews of recently published books as well as read interviews with authors. Her team also provides author publicity and a variety of other services specific to writing and publishing books.

Guest Post by Irene Watson

Finding an appropriate price for your book can be a delicate balancing act—you need to set it high enough to make a profit, yet not too high to dissuade readers from buying. With a little research and an understanding of what customers perceive as being of value, authors can find a price that will work for them and their readers.

The other day I was talking to an author who had written a short historical book of about 100 pages. The book was priced at $29.99. I suggested to the author that her book was overpriced. She responded by saying, “What price should I charge for my three years of research and writing?”

This author’s response made it clear that she was looking to get a return for the work she put into writing the book, and that is understandable, but she failed to consider what her readers are willing to pay. If authors want a return on their work, they need to get it through the quantity of books sold, and less so on individual copies. When a potential customer looks at a 100 page book, he is not going to see that it took three hours to research. He’s going to see 100 pages, which will take him about two hours to read. $29.99 is a lot of money for two hours of entertainment when you can go to a movie for about $8. How much is two hours of entertainment or information worth? I would have priced the book maybe at $14.99 myself, but the author clearly thought her information was worth more. I will give her that her book is the only one I know of on the topic so some people might be willing to pay more for the information in it, but I don’t think too many will want to pay $29.99.

I once attended a conference where several bookstore owners discussed how authors could work with bookstores to sell their books. Two of the owners disagreed about whether the price of a book mattered. One owner said that if people wanted what you had to sell, they would pay what you asked. (In the case of this history author, because her information was new, that might be the case. I doubt it would be, however, in the case of a fantasy author when there are thousands of fantasy titles to choose from.) The other bookstore owner pointed out that people will tend to buy the less expensive book if there are two on the same subject, unless the more expensive book appears to be of higher quality to make it worthwhile.

Higher quality might mean a hardback book, or it might mean something beyond text such as pictures, graphics, or colored photographs. A 100 page coffee table book or a graphic novel can be sold for a higher price because they are perceived as having higher quality because of their attractive look and that they have more than just straight text.

So just how do you determine an appropriate price? The best thing authors can do is to visit a bookstore to compare books similar to their own. It is better to go to a physical bookstore, not an online one, because then you can see and touch the books and compare them side-by-side. For example, if you’ve written a fantasy novel, look at the other fantasy novels in terms of content, size, and price and try to price yours somewhere in the middle. Granted, if you’re self-publishing, you may not be able to compete with the $6.99 mass market paperbacks put out by big fantasy publishers like TOR, but perhaps you can sell your book for $12.99 to out-price the hardback fantasy novels and the larger sized novels.

In general, it is best to price your book in the middle price range. You don’t want to overprice your book so people won’t buy it, but neither do you want to price it lower than most of the other books in your genre, especially if it’s self-published, because readers might dismiss your book as not being of value.

Some cases do exist for pricing your book on the higher end. If you are an established author in your subject matter and have already had some success with previous books so that customers will be loyal to you despite the price (within reason of course: you might get away with $29.95 when your past books were $25.95 but charging $39.95 may turn customers away). In the case of the history author above, she might be able to sell her book for $19.99 because its subject matter is unique, but I still think $29.99 is too high.

When setting price, you also need to take into account your cost, your profit, and what profit you will end up giving to bookstores or book distributors. For example, if you pay $5 a copy to print your books, is $19.99 a good price for selling them? A bookstore will want 40%, leaving you with $11.99 for the sale, a profit of $6.99—still more than double your investment. A book distributor will want 55%, leaving you with $9.00 for the sale, a $4.00 profit and still an 80% return on your investment. Just make sure you take those numbers into consideration before you price so you don’t end up losing money when you sell your book through distributors and bookstores. If you price your book in this case at only $9.99, you’ll only get $0.99 profit from bookstores and the distributors will take $5.50 leaving you with $4.49, a loss of $0.51 per book.

Remember, you can always drop the price. If your book is $19.99 and the bookstores are getting 40%, while you want customers in the bookstores to buy your books, you can also sell your books independently on your website or at various book festivals or art shows you attend for $15.99 and advertise that it’s a special 20% off just for this book signing or art show. Customers will then think they are getting a deal, and you can still make a profit. Remember, once you set the price on your book, you cannot raise it beyond the price printed on the cover (at least not until you do a second printing), but you can always sell for less.

Another option is to offer special or limited editions or hardcover copies of the book. An author might print 1,000 paperback books to sell at $19.95 each, and then print an extra 50 to sell at $29.95 each. The hardcover copies might cost $3 more to print, but you make an additional $7.00 in profit. People are more likely to buy hardcover copies over the paperback version for gifts, and they will also feel they are getting something special and more likely to last. You can do a small hardcover print run to see if the hard covers sell and then that may help you determine whether you can raise the paperback price if you reprint.

With a little research into book prices you can settle on a price that will benefit you and your readers. Don’t be afraid to ask for the advice of other authors and bookstore managers. The research and time spent determining your book price will be well worth the reward in books sold and profit gained.

Irene Watson is the Managing Editor of Reader Views, where avid readers can find reviews of recently published books as well as read interviews with authors. Her team also provides author publicity and a variety of other services specific to writing and publishing books.

Guest Post by Diana M. Raab, MFA, RN

Every October I facilitate a workshop at the Wellness and Writing Connections Conference in Atlanta. The subject of this year’s workshop will be, “Memoir: From Notebook to Manuscript.” Most of the people who attend the conference are therapists or those who look to writing as a means of healing. Early bird registration is already available at: http://www.wellnessandwritingconnections.com/

A lot of research has been done on the healing power of expressive writing and how it reduces stress and strengthens the immune system. When you write your deepest thoughts about a stressful event, your heart rate goes down and you experience a deep feeling of well-being. Writing personal stories also frees up buried emotions and thoughts which can eventually lead to revelations.

Psychologist, Dr. James Pennebaker is a pioneer in studying the healing power of writing. He’s found that those who write regularly encountered 43% less doctor visits and showed better health than those who did not write regularly.

Over the years, quite a few well-published writers have used their notebooks and/or writing as a way to heal. Many have gone on to publish their work, including Walt Whitman, Andre Lorde, May Sarton, Hilda Raz, Donald Hall, Elizabeth Berg, Jane Kenyon, Isabel Allende and my favorite diarist, Anaïs Nin who began her first journal as a letter to her estranged father who left the family when she was ten years old. Writing that letter was her way to help heal from the pain of losing him. Nin went on to become an avid diarist and today many volumes of her journals have been published.

Nin wasn’t the only writer who has used letter writing as a form of healing. For example, novelist Isabel Allende also began her writing career by writing a letter to her grandfather when he was nearly 100 years old. At the time he was dying in Chile where her novel, House of Spirits is set. She admits that in many ways, writing that novel saved her life.

Maintaining a healing notebook for personal use and/or future publication, has numerous benefits including:

• it’s a place to capture and record memories
• it’s a place to clear the mind
• its’ a place to build self-confidence
• it’s a place to empower
• it’s a place to witness the healing process.

Having the proper tools is essential to keeping a notebook. It’s important to have a notebook which inspires you in a size that meets your personal needs. It should resonate with your personality, as should your pen.

The best way to start is with 20-30 minutes of free-writing first thing in the morning. This practice involves writing without lifting your pen off the page. Begin by writing about an experience which has deeply affected your life or one which has been an obsession for you. If you are still stuck, just write on the top of your page, “Right now, I feel …”

It’s good to get into the daily habit and with time you might find you will write for longer periods of time. One thing to keep in mind is that if while writing you start crying or the pain becomes too great, it is probably a good idea to stop. Try to take a break and do something different like take a walk or some other form of exercise.

In summary, the best part about keeping a writing for wellness or healing is the ability to turn a negative into a positive and that’s a good thing!

Diana Raab is a memoirist, essayist, poet and author of seven books and editor of two essays collections, including the latest, Writers and Their Notebooks (2010) with an introduction by Phillip Lopate. She is a journaling advocate and teaches in UCLA Extension Writers' Program and in various conferences around the country. Her forthcoming book, Healing With Words: A Writer's Cancer Journey is forthcoming from Loving Healing Press in June 2010. Visit Diana Raab.

Guest Post by By Michelle Tennant Nicholson

Building a relationship with the media is a dance, and just like a good dance partner you can’t step on their toes. If you want to Salsa and the media wants to Waltz, you’re going to have some problems (and look ridiculous.) That’s why research is so important. It’s not that hard to figure out what will interest the media outlet; it usually just takes a visit to their website. And once you know what they want — and more importantly what they don’t — you can say to yourself, either, “No, pitching them will be a waste of both their time and mine,” or “I think I have something that will really pique their interest — I need to get started on my pitch.” Don’t stretch it though; if it’s not a fit, it’s not fit.

So when you email or phone the media, treat them like you would if you were asking someone to dance. (No matter what you think though, you’re not Patrick Swayze from Dirty Dancing and the media’s not Baby. It’s the reverse!  Remember, Baby volunteered to be of service. Play your cards right, and they’ll be showing you the time of your life.) So be respectful and ask whether or not it’s a good time for them to talk, if it’s a good time to pitch them; and if it’s not, let them know when you’re available to continue the conversation. But before you even pick up the phone make sure you’re clear on what you have to offer and how it’s relevant to this specific outlet’s needs. Remember: When you can add new, fresh and creative perspectives, angles and ideas to a news story you’ll dramatically increase your chances of grabbing the media’s attention, ensuring a callback and most likely a media placement.

Building relationships with the media to grow your business is all about being of service without being a nuisance. You have to give the media what they want and we’ve learned time and time again: if you make the media’s job easier, they’ll pay attention to you. Once you make your pitch, don’t badger the media about whether they received a particular news item you sent them. It’s OK to make one phone call or email to remind them and offer further assistance, but the last thing overworked reporters want to do is to spend time talking with publicity seekers to follow up on where their request stands. If you’re a pest, the media might just put Baby in a corner.

20-year PR Veteran and Chief Creative Officer of Wasabi Publicity, Michelle Tennant Nicholson's seen PR transition from typewriters to Twitter. Called a five-star publicist by Good Morning America's Mable Chan, Michelle specializes in international PR working regularly with the likes of Oprah, Larry King, BBC, The Today Show and all major media. Recently she secured a Dr. Phil placement for a client within eight hours of signing the contract. Contact her at PR blog http://www.StorytellerToTheMedia.com where she teaches tips from the trade.