The first project of the day (or how to work ON the business rather than IN the business)

Five years ago I sent out a newsletter with what has turned out to be the most helpful of all the ‘how to’ business tips I have ever found. I could not write blogs, newsletters, work on our web site and so on without having taken the advice below to heart and gradually, slowly, learnt […]

Avoid looking stupid when self publishing: don’t make common grammatical and usage errors

Avoid some of the more common mistakes, and make your work read more professionally. Here are some examples. When referring to a decade, don’t use an apostrophe as in 90’s, use ’90s. Use hyphens as dashes to hyphenate words (in-between), en rules between numbers (100–200) and em rules between words (different files — for instance). […]

Bad email habits you need to break

I came across this excellent, down to earth article this morning on PrintPlanet, one of the regular email newsletters I receive each day. I reckon it has some useful suggestions, so I quote it below in full. I hope you find it helpful. The author, Armya Inc, from Toronto, Canada, observes that whilst there is […]

Avoid looking stupid when self publishing: make sure you number your pages correctly!

An area of confusion we find amongst people who come to us for book printing concerns the correct way to number pages, particularly at the beginning of the book. This is in addition to putting the various parts of a book in the correct order. The following advice is taken from the “Style manual: for authors, […]

The discipline required to write a book (Part 2)

Yesterday I posted part 1 of this series. I conclude today with part 2. However I will be posting at least another ten blogs on self publishing over the next few weeks, covering subjects such as: ISBN, CiP, stupid mistakes that make you look unprofessional, the cover, the need for an editor, and marketing advice. […]

The discipline required to write a book (Part 1)

At Kainos Print, we constantly encourage our customers to consider turning their accumulated wisdom, or creative ideas into books. We wrote in a recent blog “Marketing gurus such as Perry Marshall (acknowledged as the leading Google AdWords expert in the world), and our own customer, John Dwyer of “the Institute of WOW” both encourage their clients […]

“I’ve got this great idea for a book . . . but I don’t have the time.”

Just get on with it. As one writer observes “Writing is the only profession I can think of that requires no license, no certificate, no special training, and no special tools. Anyone who wants to can be a writer. All you have to do is write.” And he adds “Here’s my theory about the New York Times bestseller […]

When worlds collide — a call to overhaul the National Print Awards

This year, at the four yearly PacPrint printing trade show (held in the Melbourne Exhibition Centre), it was obvious that digital printing is well on the way to taking a huge chunk of offset printing’s traditional market — see my blog on the subject. The National Print Awards were held in conjunction with PacPrint on Friday […]

PacPrint13 — the week that changed the printing industry forever

PacPrint13, held in the Melbourne Exhibition Centre (“Jeff’s Shed”) towards the end of May this year, showcased a “dizzying array of new high-tech digital” equipment, providing visitors with an unequivocal indication of where the printing industry is headed. PacPrint is held every four years, and four years ago, the floor throbbed with the incessant beat […]