Self-Publishing
Don’t pay an arm and a leg with one of the big internet publishing companies: we can produce a superior product
at a fraction of the price.
During the Golden Age of Printing (from the mid-thirteenth century to the early seventeenth century) printers were also publishers and book sellers. To quote Ernst Lehner in Symbols, Signs and Signets, "They were the intellectual and cultural upper class of their time … these artisans were in steady, friendly contact with leading scholars and artists … With the dawn of the seventeenth century commercial publishers, who were not skilled printers, took over. These publishers were little interested in 'wasting' money for artistic designs … or quality workmanship." Much the same can be said of the big internet self-publishing companies current today, the books are badly laid out, with no consideration taken for the grain of the paper, the overall look of the book or the reader's pleasure. Contrarily, the shortcuts these publishers take are not reflected in the prices they charge their customers, they are merely made so that they can maximise their profit.
Aspect Design was established with the ambition of providing high-quality design and print to the vibrant artistic and writing community of Malvern and the surrounding area. We take a pride in the work we produce and believe that we always provide an excellent job at a fair price. Almost all of our books are printed and hand-bound in our workshop. At Aspect Design, we care about the quality of the books we publish, and we always produce at least one proof copy before printing your book, so you will have input into how your book looks before it is printed. Although we are a small, independent book publisher, we can provide proof-reading, typesetting, design, illustration, printing, binding and finishing services.
We have a number of publishing options available for all budgets. You can provide us with the text and any illustrations that you wish to include and we can design your book to a professional standard. Because our reputation as a publisher rests on the quality of the books which we produce, we only put the name of Aspect Design to those books we have designed and which meet a minimum standard. For this reason we have developed a house-style which, although not set in stone, we like to apply to all those books published under the name of Aspect Design. We believe that an attention to detail, the application of good design, and adherence to the standard publishing conventions set us apart from many of the less reputable publishers who are also working in this field. In such a way, we believe that both you, as the customer, and ourselves, as the publishers, will benefit from a good reputation and a body of work of which we can both be proud.
Alternatively, the cheapest option is to provide your book as a ready-to-print pdf file. However, this is only an option if you are completely satisfied with your design for the book; we cannot design or edit a pdf. We will then print out a proof and, if you are happy with how your book looks, we will then simply charge you a small set-up fee and quote a unit price per book based on the number of colour and black and white pages plus any additional costs for binding and finishing services.
If you want to have an ISBN you can either buy one yourself, or from us (if you only want one ISBN then the latter is easily the cheaper option). If you purchase the ISBN from us your book will be published under the name of Greyhound Self-Publishing or Aspect Design depending on the amount of input we have had on your book. If you buy the ISBN independently of us then you will be the publisher.
For more information download our information sheet here. An example of how text should be provided for a book with illustrations/photographs is provided here. Please do not place pictures in the Word file.
As an optional extra we can format your book for Amazon Kindle so people can buy a cheaper e-book version of your title. The cost of this service will vary depending on the complexity of the book's design. If you are interested in this option, then talk to us about it when you bring your book in.