Always wanted to see yourself in print?

Many of us would like to see what we have written in print. It may be our memoirs, our stories, our poems or our family history. Maybe it's a children's book with our own illustrations, or a collection of our favourite recipes with anecdotes related to the times these meals were eaten.

For the majority of us this will always remain only a dream. Very few aspirant authors will find a publisher for what they have written.

The answer to this is to self publish. This is often known as "vanity publishing", but there is nothing vain about wanting to see your work nicely bound and on your, your family's and your friends' bookshelves.

Traditionally, self publishing has been a very costly enterprise. Now, with advances in technology, it can be achieved at a very reasonable price.

Boutique Books can help you make your dream come true.

Boutique Books offers a range of services, any combination of which can help you to get your book into print.

Have you already typed everything into a word processing programme? If so, we can help you with editing, copy editing, format design and layout - or, if you're quite satisfied that what's there is pretty perfect, just get it ready for print.

If all you have is a bunch of handwritten pages, we can take this, too, and make it into a book - although this would obviously not be exactly cheap as a great deal of work would be needed to achieve this!

We can also arrange for the printing of your book. If you want 50 books or more this will be done by a printing company. Unfortunately, smaller quantities for books that require a spine cannot be catered for, but folded and stapled books can be produced in smaller quantities if necessary.

In addition, we can get your ISBN number, if you want your book to have one and don't want to make application yourself. Please note that you can get your own ISBN for free, but getting a good quality barcode is less easy.
Read more about ISBN...

Should you wish to, you can also have your book present on our website for people to order, or download, depending on your decisions in this regard.

What will it cost?

This is not an easy question to answer, because the cost will depend on what needs to be done, how many pages there are, how you want it printed and on what kind of paper, and how you want it bound. We can, however, give you some examples:

A 52 page A5 booklet, folded and stapled, with a heavy, glossy cover

Text supplied in final form (i.e. no editing or proofing required), in a Word or similar document.
Layout required
Cover design required
ISBN number required
50 final booklets, printed and finished, required

Costs:
Layout - R750.00
Cover design - R750.00
ISBN application and barcode - R250.00
Print facilitation - R450.00
Printing (80gsm bond, black only for inside pages, full colour on 256gsm OJI silk matt, UV varnished cover) R650.00

TOTAL COST: R2850.00

As a matter of interest, the cost of printing 50 copies of the same book, but in full colour would be about R2500 (as opposed to R650 when printing in black only). This shows that printing in full colour is significantly more expensive than printing in black. What one can do, however, is print a group of pages in colour and place these in the book in a bundle, as one often sees with autobiographies.

A 450 page novel, perfect bound

Text supplied in in a word or similar document.
Editing required. Layout required
Cover design required
ISBN number required
100 printed books delivered in Cape Town required

Costs:
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Editing is always the most expensive part of the process because the editor has to read each and every word and make considered decisions about what is read. We make a point of not fiddling with the "voice" of the author but of ensuring that the work is grammatically acceptable and that spelling and punctuation are correct. Suggestions are made regarding the style, content and story line where appropriate.

To edit a book of this length will cost about R12 000.

While this might seem like a great deal of money, it is often money well spent because a book filled with errors will not sell and any money spent on printing it will have been wasted.
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Layout - R1000
Cover design - R750.00
ISBN application and barcode - R250.00
Print facilitation - R450.00

TOTAL PRINT PREPARATION COST: R2 450.00
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Because it is almost impossible to catch everything in a single read, and because the author will often make changes after the first edit, proof reading after layout is strongly recommended. In this case, proof reading would cost R5500.
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Printing of 100 copies, including delivery costs: R80.00 per book

Therefore, total cost of printing 100 copies is R8000.00
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TOTAL PRODUCTION COST OF FIRST 100 BOOKS: R27 950

Remember that this is quite an expensive book because it is many pages and requires fairly extensive editing. Most books will work out a lot cheaper than this.
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As you can see, the setup costs form a great portion of the cost of the first copies. Naturally, the more copies that are printed, the less each book will cost. BUT there is no point in printing many books if you are not sure of selling them! Books sitting in boxes under your bed are wasted capital.

Services

Layout and design are charged at R250 per hour
Editing and proofing are charged at R250 per hour
Typing is charged at R35 per A4 page
Unique Website presence: R150 per annum
ISBN application and bar code: R250
Print facilitation: R450
Printing and Binding per quote

It does not matter where in Southern Africa, or even the world, you may be as we can simply send you a print-ready file which you can have printed locally. The print prices indicated in the above examples include delivery costs within South Africa.

What should I do next?

Why not fill in this form or e-mail any questions you might have to enquiry@boutiquebooks.co.za? You could also telephone 033-387-3186, or fax 086-609-1535.

Brochure

If you would like to download a brochure which outlines the basic information either for yourself or to print out and give to someone else, click here.

A frequently changing quote from writers about writing

Nadine Gordimer said "You're never going to be able to write if you don't read!"

Think that an e-book might suit you better? Take a look at www.africanpublisher.com.
Looking for a good way to present your family photos? Go to www.evergreen-memories.co.za.
Needing English/Afrikaans translation or language workshops? Then visit http://www.nickygrieshaber.co.za.