[izbnso]

I have found a company that is called Author Inc. They have a website WWW.chefspalate.com. They sell recipe software that I have and it is pretty good. Just with my own desk top printer and their base software I can print no frills recipe books (no extra text and no graphics) like what the people who charge for what is called comb binding (this is what most of those fundraiser cookbooks look like) which is technically different from spiral binding. If I had a comb binder I could do that at home too, it is so not rocket science. My husband is in academics and his university has a comb binder so if I wanted to go that route it would be fairly easy. Or you can print it at home and take it to a place like Kinko’s to be comb bound.

Their basic software starts at $39 for the download ten dollars more if you want them to mail you the CD. I like it so far but have only had it for a month or so and am still planning a marathon data entry party to put all my recipes in the program. And they offer a free 30 day trial of the software.

The cool part about this company is that they also sell publishing software that interfaces with the recipe software. The publishing software allows you to build the actual book i.e. import text, graphics etc., it even does cover designs. The recipe program has an alphabetical index that is generated automatically but has a keyword option for a super-duper index if you upgrade to the publishing software to aid in automatically generating a detail index in the publishing program. (Was that clear or did I confuse even myself?)

A lot of nifty info about the publishing software is not on the website. I had a problem with the down load (my spam blockers kept me from getting the e-mail giving me the proper link) and when I sent them a “help me” e-mail the owner called me and spent a good deal of time explaining what both programs do and the printing services that they offer.

Yes they offer printing services and it is really a good price. Years ago I looked into having my husband’s doctoral dissertation re-printed so that each of his nine children, parents, etc. could have a copy (doesn’t everyone want a comprehensive study of Nietzschean Pedagogy on their bookshelf) and the smallest amount of money I had to invest would have been $2000. I would have had 100 (minimum order for the company) copies of the book, but I only needed around a dozen. Half of that $2000 was the various fees the other half was the $10 per book printing fee.

This company will print 1 or 1000 copies and all a very reasonable price. They do hard and soft back perfect binding, spiral and comb. Yes color will cost you an arm and a leg compared to black and white, and paper choice is limited to white and off-white of the 20 pound paper they use.

The deal is the publishing software (around $150) allows you to do the work of the editor. You build your book (the program is not limited to cookbooks) from scratch, then no set up fee for printing and once you electronically submit your book to them to go to the printer you can at any time after that order as many or as little additional copies of your book.

They (for a fee of $99 ) will even set you up with an ISBN number and a scanable bar code, a listing in the Library of Congress and list you with major book dealers. Even one in the UK. So if you feel like you want to mass market you can.

It is total do it yourself self-publishing. I looked into a lot of other Print on Demand places and none of the others seemed as good. They were making money off of charging set up fees and putting your book into the program that the printing presses use, but they did most or all of the technical work for you. I’m a control freak and actually like the idea that it will be done absolutely the way I want it, even if that means doing it all myself.

I plan on purchasing the publishing software when I am done with the data entry on the recipe software. I write an Erma Brombeck meets Martha Stewart column for a small newspaper with a readership of about 12,000 (I said small). The readers have been asking me to reprint recipes and articles (like the one in which my kids lit a diaper on fire and I used my bare hand to put it out instead of smothering the fire with the pillow because the pillow cases were new) for a year or more in book form so I have a built in market, and I can easily recoup even the software cost. The owner of Author Inc. told me he has a client that uses both programs and is selling a good number of a specific cookbook for around $30 that cost her $4.85 to print. So the upside of doing it all yourself is that you make way more money per book yourself, but you are your own PR agent and distribution agent, all of it.

I’m sure it could also be a too good to be true situation. I know that it still won’t be easy or totally without some up from cost. But this company seems to offer the smallest up front cost and the widest ranges of options, but only because you do ALL of the work.

For those who want to publish a cookbook for money: even though cookbook publishing is lucrative for the publishing houses there are also 8 jillion people with an idea for a cookbook trying to get published. If you just want to do something really nice for friends, family and or a small niche market this might be just the thing.

I’ll let you know how it goes for me.