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Booklet Tips From Paulette

Writing, producing, and promoting tips booklets for marketing, motivating, and making money.

Monday, May 05, 2008

What to Do With Badly Edited/Produced Booklets

The conversation came up recently on a discussion group of the Publishers and Writers of San Diego (PWSD), where I happily serve as a Board Member, regarding what to with a print run of books that were badly edited and produced. The author thought she was dealing with a higher caliber of vendors than turned out to be the reality and was now considering trashing the entire print run, literally. My colleague and friend, Andrew Chapman (prez of PWSD) posted a helpful reply to the author. While it refers to books, there's some ideas that could be useful to you if you find yourself in a similar badly edited or badly produced circumstance with booklets. Or maybe you have a book to which this applies. I offer you Andrew's reply in full:

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It seems to me from what you've written that this is not just a matter of a couple typos (which, yes, can happen with any professionally produced book). That being the case, I think you can tarnish your reputation more by putting it out there than you can benefit from it in some way.

So, what to do with them? I say make lemonade out of lemons and turn them into promotional tools for the revised version! You can do this by having large stickers printed that read:

ADVANCE READING COPY
Uncorrected proof - Not for sale

Below that text, put your website address and contact info. And this large sticker gets plastered right on the covers of your books. Then send those stickered books to:

1. Media for review (industry pubs like PW and Kirkus should be sent anytime between now and September; other media sent to in August-December)

2. Celebrities, personalities, other authors, and anyone whom you think would be ideal for a blurb or testimonial for the revised book and other promo materials, including your website

3. Places that takes book donations: libraries, Goodwill, Salvation Army, community centers, schools, places of worship, shelters, senior centers, etc.

4. Retail outlets that may be interested in carrying the revised version

5. Any other connection with whom you may benefit in the future when your revised version comes out and who can help spread the word about your book

Publishers send out hundreds, sometimes thousands, of advance reading copies of books (and uncorrected galleys) to promote coming books -- think of this inventory as being your stock of the same thing. As you see from #1 above, you can start doing this right away. Others will be sent out later in the year as the Christmas buying season starts in October.

I'm glad you asked the question, since I hate to see things go to waste. Hopefully, this will re-ignite your passion for the book and spark you to move forward with the revised version. Just make sure to get a professional's help this time!

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Andrew Chapman
President, Publishers & Writers of San Diego
www.PublishersWriters.org
Ask the Publishing Pro
www.AskThePublishingPro.com
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Until next time,
Paulette - who has spent a lifetime making lemonade out of lemons
www.tipsbooklets.com

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