- December, 2006
- The Sun Lowell, By Dan O'Brien (Sun Staff)
Do-it-yourself publisher continues to book success.
Business is booking it at King Printing Inc. on Industrial Avenue in Lowell.
The company which specializes in so-called “short-run” publishing — creating runs of a few as a couple hundred copies of books written by local, do-it-yourself authors — recently announced that it landed its first big international shipment, a deal for 15,000 copies of a children’s book to England.
In addition, Tom Campbell, King’s senior vice president of sales, noted last week that a locally-based book is showing a lot of promise.
“Manchester Airport: Flying Through Time,” which is about — you guessed it — the history of Manchester Airport (now Manchester-Boston Regional Airport), was published four weeks ago with a modest initial run of 1,000 copies.
“Within two weeks, the authors realized they would need more.” Campbell said, adding that a second 1,000-copy run is in the works.
Campbell noted that the company’s niche is serving professionals such as doctors, lawyers and psychologists who engage in speaking events.
“They’ll put the book in the background and sell it after their speaking engagement,” Campbell said.
Publishing a book at King, which is privately held and employs about 100 people, is relatively easy and not terribly expensive — often less than $1,000. But the catch is that authors are responsible for their own marketing and selling.
“Some new authors will make 100 books and sell less than 100 books, and realize they haven’t lost the ranch,” Camplbell said. “A few have sold as many as 50,000 or 60,000 — but they worked their tail off to do it.”
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