If you are a book publisher wanting to outsource typesetting, cover design, book illustration or prepress PDFs for print production, Murray & McCarthy Publishing and Design has a full range of book design services at your fingertips.
View Murray & McCarthy's Portfolio of Book Design showing samples of previously published books both plain text or full colour and completely illustrated.
Publishers can depend on properly formatted Prepress PDFs that are colour managed, fully packaged, and ready for print production.
For authors wanting to self-publish Murray & McCarthy Publishing and Design can be a valuable alternative for turning your manuscript into a fully copyrighted and published book with ALL RIGHTS AND PROFITS going straight to the author.
Murray & McCarthy can design and publish your book for you including arranging all the printing, and book data forms for inclusion into the booksellers databases, and also submitting copies of your published book to the Legal Deposit Copyright libraries. The AUTHOR OWNS ALL COPYRIGHTS and assumes responsibilty for the all content and images used in the book. Additionally a personalised web page will be created for you on the Murray & McCarthy website to help you promote your book.
Murray & McCarthy Publishing and Design is a small press alternative for authors wanting to self-publish having small print runs of 500 to 1000 copies to "Test the Market" before investing large amounts of money into larger press runs or submitting your "success story" to a large publisher who may be willing to take your book on, because of a proven book sales track record.
There are many steps in the process of producing a self-published book, but these three will be where you will spend most of your book publishing money.
Book Design • Printing • and Marketing
The following list are ways that Murray & McCarthy can help you get your book published and into the booksellers market, but first you must assess how much money and time you can invest into the publishing of your book. Since each book is unique please call or email to get more information about self-publishing and what is involved.
Tel. 023 885 7358 Mobile: 087 161 2910 or Email info@mcpublishing.ie
Murray & McCarthy Publishing and Design Services include:
As a small press publisher I have self-published five books of poetry including an audio book on CD.
Additionally I have self-published a fully illustrated book of site plans, and maps entitled "Secrets of Drombeg 2nd Edition 2014 - The Stone Circle and Fulacht Fiadh" which has proven to be very popular for those interested in the megalithic stone circles of the Irish Bronze Age. This self-published book has had feature articles written in both the Irish Times and the Southern Star.
But make no mistake that the journey of self-publishing just begins after you receive your books from the printer. Self-publishing is an exciting process of designing and printing your finished book including getting your book into the Legal Deposit Copyright Libraries where they will become part of the library's literary resource and be copyright protected forevermore, and though I highly recommend self-publishing, please understand that by self-publishing you are taking on a large part of publishing which is the Marketing of your book!
I have included the link below to Amazon's Website if you would like to view my self-published work. Amazon.co.uk
Additionally you can view more specific samples here on the Bookshop Page of the Murray & McCarthy website. MMc Bookshop
For more information please contact Ronan Murray at 023 885 7358 or Mobile: 087 161 2910
or send an email to ronan@mcpublishing.ie
And let's get started!
Writing, Editing and Word Processing
Preparing your draft manuscript is the most important element in getting your book ready for publishing. The manuscript can be prepared on any word processor. Microsoft Word is popular but any text editor will do. The manuscript does not need to be styled because all styles will be stripped out when preparing it for typesetting. Murray & McCarthy can prepare your manuscript, but if you choose to do the word processing yourself to save on cost just make sure your styles are consistent.
Check all spelling, and grammar, and give it a final proofread.
Here are a few guidelines for preparing a FINAL DRAFT manuscript.
Fonts, Styles, Page Layout, Contents
Combining typesetting and the use of photos and illustrations you can turn your FINAL DRAFT MANUSCRIPT into a visual experience for your reader. The world of font styles, photography, illustrations, and painterly backgrounds can be used to create a wonderfully illustrated book of your concepts, ideas, and philosophies.
Typesetting is the artistic arrangement of page elements to create the structure and style of your final book layout and page spreads. A "Table of Contents" will be prepared and pagination will be added. Indexes, references, and bibliographies including all front matter, credit pages, and acknowledgements will also be included in your book design as is appropriate to the specific genre of your book.
Appearance, Hardcover, Paperback, Laminates
Once the basic layout is typeset and the overall concept of your book defined the book cover can be designed using eye-catching typography, illustration, and photos. Using the elements of colour, typography, images, backgrounds, and textures your book cover should convey the message of the content of your book.
A synopsis and author's bio can be written to include on the back cover, including the ISBN, Barcode, and selling price for booksellers to reference and catalogue your book. It is important that your cover is a well decorated door that readers will want to walk through. Designs can convey a visually curious door that your reader will open to view the landscape of your Table of Contents and be drawn into the interior pages of your book.
Apart from the technical aspects of ISBNs, Bar Codes, and Pricing which will be added in the final stages, the content of your book has acquired a sense of its message, its genre, its style and personality, and the audience you are trying to reach.
Photos, Illustrations, and Images
Images can be woven into your page layouts using columns, text wraps, and image borders. These embellishments will greatly enhance the beauty of a page design.
Are you going to use a Photo image?
If so, please read these important tips!
Below you will find a few guidelines for choosing images or taking photos for use in your book.
As a rule, "The clearer the image, the better the print."
Being provided with well photographed images, and high resolution stock photos, and original illustration files greatly reduces the cost of image editing for preparing images into the design of your book. Poor quality images produces poor quality prints, and frustrating colour shifting. So discuss with your graphic designer to make sure the images you provide are of sufficient quality for printing.
Colour Management, Prepress PDF, Digital Formatting
Now that the design is complete with Final Draft Proofs reviewed and approved your book is prepared for prepress, printing, and binding. A prepress proof is provided to make any last minute edits.
Colour Management is our ally and our nemesis and again consistency is the key to quality output. All programs used in the Adobe Suite of publishing software can be calibrated to use the same colour management system synchronised using the same colour model as the chosen printing company.
But all of the synchronised colour models mean nothing if the graphics and text have not been prepared using the proper colour palettes specific to the the printing process. For example those beautiful electric blues or vibrant reds that look wonderful on screen but are completely unprintable in the 4-colour printing process. These items will be resolved during the prepress process before printing.
These are just a few of the many Prepress issues that can crop up, but rest assured experience has proven to be the best teacher over the years giving you a quality colour-managed printed book.
Voice Recordings, Songs, Narrations, Interactive PDFs, Audio CD's
This new service of producing Audio Books and Recordings was initially the reason that Murray & McCarthy was created to produce Audio Books for Poets wanting to perform thier poetry. The focus of the business is returning to its roots of inception and are proud to offer to poets, writers, and musicians a creative venue for producing thier demos, CDs and digital files filled with multi-media expressions of thier creative work.
For more information on Audio Recordings CLICK HERE, Murray & McCarthy AUDIOBOOKS