Thank you Bev. Praise indeed from someone like yourself. Self-publishing is now possibly the only way to go for the majority of lace authors; publishers need a much greater volume of sales in the current climate. At the moment Iâm encouraging another lace author to self-publish her out of print book and she is nearing decision time. The Print-on-demand machine produces a perfect bound book like my Salex dictionary. (A typical paperback with single pages glued to the spine.) OK for a dictionary, but this type of binding does not open out easily and there is danger of the spine cracking and pages falling out if forced flat for copying prickings. Also coated paper (more expensive than uncoated paper) that gives higher definition cannot be used. My Bucks books are PUR bound. (The pages are folded and stitched, then folded along the stitching to form blocks, the blocks glued to the spine and the folded edges trimmed, as for a standard hardback. As hard covers cost at least another £2 per book I opted for soft covers.) This binding can be used with coated paper and allows the book to be opened out for copying prickings without the danger of losing pages. The author I am encouraging is having to decide between perfect bound and spiral bound. If she chooses the latter the book can safely be opened flat without loss of pages. However, the general opinion is that the spiral bound should be cheaper than perfect bound and actually there is not much difference in price. We are hoping that once this book is out we may be able to encourage other authors to self-publish their out of print books. It all depends on sales. If you wish to have books made available buy them. A healthy market will encourage more authors to self-publish new titles and reprint out of print titles.
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