BookMasters Blog

Over this past year, The BookMasters Group has expanded its manufacturing capacities to match clients’ needs for increased speed and quality.

Following the expansion of its distribution services division, BookMasters installed a Timsons web book press to accommodate longer print runs. One of only a handful in the world, the press has three interchangeable print cylinders allowing BookMasters to keep down costs by being able to produce the most popular book sizes on one press. Using state-of-the-art ink and drying technologies, the company can produce books from lightweight stocks up to fine, coated enamel stocks with excellent halftone quality not typically seen on web presses.

For short runs, BookMasters has expanded its high-quality, full-color and black-and-white digital capacities. It has seen enormous demand for short run, full-color, hardcover children’s books in recent years, and is unique in providing options for hardcover digital press runs such as custom stamping, rounded spines, and even three-piece cases.

From our Ashland office, BookMasters Asia works with publishers on benefiting from four-color Asian pricing. Representatives in Ashland help publishers obtain estimates, submit files, and ship. The company can digitally produce advance sales prototypes, which can help publishers generate sales ahead of primary print runs.

In our Digital Services division, we have offered composition, editorial, and design services to publishers for nearly 30 years. More recently, it has offered publishers the service of creating, managing, and distributing electronic content to all major resellers.

With an eye toward vertical integration, BookMasters allows publisher partners the opportunity to send raw manuscripts and have BookMasters incorporate up-front XML workflows, which produce tagged files that can be repurposed for print books, eBooks, and marketing components.

BookMasters’ Digital Services offers publishers the opportunity to have e-content distributed to all major content wholesalers and retailers. Through its partnerships, its publishers’ books are available on more than 30 eBook retail sites as well as devices including Kindle, Sony Reader, and Barnes & Noble’s Nook.

Through BookMasters’ e-content distribution portals, publishers also receive a marketing widget. The widget offers a preview of the book, including a cover, which can be copied and pasted onto an author’s blog, Facebook, and MySpace pages, and other Web sites. This viral marketing tool can then be copied and pasted by viewers of the page and placed on their respective pages.

BookMasters’ e-content distribution service also offers a direct-to-consumer sales component that lets publishers increase their profit margins while gathering customer information. Publishers receive full retail value for any sales through BookMasters’ online bookstore and can begin building a mailing list of customers who have purchased their product directly. These lists can help publishers promote future titles or with updated editions of previously published titles.

The BookMasters Group has evolved over the last three decades based on publishers’ requests for additional services. Today, it strives to be a one-stop shop for its publishers by offering every service from start to finish. Most recently, this has entailed the further development of its marketing and public relations services for publishers. It is important that the coordination between distribution and sales is finely in tune with marketing and public relations. This is where The BookMasters Group has an advantage in offering these services.

The company offers customized marketing packages for each title, as well as public relations services which target industry professionals, niche, and regional markets. These services evolve daily based on publisher demand and are constantly updated to keep up with industry trends.  As a growing department, this sector of the BookMasters Group can work outside the box and is flexible enough to position itself as a unique service provider.