Pick an ISBN (international standard book number) for your book. There is a master list of Pathos Press ISBNs in the files; just pick a number from the list and write down your title next to it. Don't lose this list! Don't even take it out of the room, and always make sure that it's back in its place in the files.
Make a new folder for the book, and put it in the files. Anytime you're filling out a form for this book, look at the files of books that have already been completed to see how it should be filled out--a lot of them are tricky.
Decide on the format, and on the size of the first printing. This will determine the size and quantity of paper that you must order, and the layout of the plates. I highly recommend laying it out in folio (one sheet is folded once to form four pages). I did a full-length book in quarto (one sheet is folded twice to form eight pages, & the top folds are cut off when the finished book is trimmed) and binding it turned out to be such a pain in the ass that I was wishing that I'd done it in folio so that I could just run glue down the spine instead of hving to drill holes and run wire through it. Remember, you can use the band saw to cut sheets in half after they're printed, so going with a folio format doesn't mean doing twice as many impressions.
Take a look at what you'll be laying out for paper and other supplies, and decide on a cover price for the book. Remember, you'll get only 60% of this on the copies that are sold through bookstores. Hopefully you'll sell enough copies to cover all your expenses, and also have some money left over to pay the author and to pay you, the printer.
Decide how you're going to print the book. There are several ways: In-house offset printing gives you a nice feeling when you get it right, and it's cheap, but I caution you on doing a full-length book of prose this way; it's very time-consuming, and if you don't have a lot of time, the quality may suffer. A skilled operator could compensate for the run-down condition of our press, but we don't have a skilled operator. If we had an in-house plate-making operation things would be a lot easier, but we don't have that either. (If you decide to do the offset printing yourself, you'll probably want to watch the how-to video, which is in the starage crate in the wall cabinet under the log book.) Contracting out for offset printing is the alternative for such long works of prose. Of course, you have to have some money up front. If you've planned the edition size right you'll make all this back from sales, but it may be difficult to convince Kommittee of this, so see if you can either make the author pay for it or pay for it out of your budget without letting Kommittee find out until after the fact. Try Pioneer Printing (they used to be in Trumansburg at 387-5900 but I've heard that after I left Ithaca they lost their lease and moved up the lake) first; speak with Joe Sepe and say that you're from the Risley print shop. Describe the job and ask for a bid, and he'll probably get back to you with a good deal. Letterpress is great for books of poetry or other works that are short or don't have a lot of text on each page. If you want to be very precise and produce the highest-quality work, I'd recommend using the Challenge press. It takes longer to make each copy, but I think it's worth it. Contracting out for xerography (i.e., photocopying) is good for small editions because it saves you the trouble and the expense of making plates. Do shop around before settling on a vendor; there's a lot of variation. For example, the people at Quoin Copy really know what they're doing but they're very expensive, and the Korean guy at K C Copy Center is known for good deals on big jobs.
As soon as you have the full text (this means titles, copyright page, everything) laid out exactly the way that it's going to look in the finished books, photocopy it and send it to the Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Division (CIP). (The copyright page goes on the verso of the title page. If you're wondering what to put on it, take a look at the books that we've published before, or at other published books.) The only modification that you're allowed to make after having sent it out to CIP is the addition of the Cataloging-in-Publication data onto the copyright page. If you absolutely need to change something, read the CIP booklet to find out what you need to do. CIP is very good about getting you the data within ten business days, as long as you mark your package conspicuously with something like `URGENT--CIP PROOFS ENCLOSED'. If you're printing letterpress, then you won't have a copy of the full text until you actually start printing--that's okay; you can wait to file. Please read the CIP information booklet, all of it, before filling in any forms. There's a lot of other stuff that you need to have enclosed with the proofs for CIP; the booklet gives the whole list. Also, remember that `proofs' means just that; your copy can be smudged, fingerprinted, lacking some illustrations, &c., as long as it's legible and unambiguous.
As soon as you get the CIP data back, you have all the information that you need to put on the R.R. Bowker Advance Book Information form (ABI). This is what gets your title into Books in Print. The earlier you file this, the better.
For everything that you're printing in-house, order paper from Alling & Cory. There are sample books of paper in the files. Please use acid-free or alkaline paper; we want these to last! Alling & Cory will cut to size; their fee for this usually ends up being a flat $15. If you know that you're going to have more jobs coming up, try to consolidate your orders so that you can get the best possible quantity discount. About brands of paper-- for my book I used 70# Hammermill offset opaque, which is a good compromise between price and quality. You may want to print at least a few copies on something better, perhaps one of the Mohawk papers. In any case, everything that you need should be available from Alling & Cory. Don't buy glossy or heavily textured paper; it won't work well.
Print the book (or have it printed).
Bind the book (or have it bound).
While you're in the middle or nearing the end of the above two steps, start querying bookstores. Locally, the Cornell Campus Store and The Bookery are sure bets. Tell them about the book and give them the cover price and our terms of sale: 40% trade discount on orders of five or more, fully returnable within one year. If they want to order, give them the ISBN, and get their purchase order number, shipping address, and billing address. Tell them approximately when the order will be shipped.
Fill out form TX, and have the author have the author sign it. All books published at Pathos Press are copyrighted by the authors, unless the author wishes to transfer the copyright to Risley College (this has never happened). Send the completed form TX to the Copyright Office, along with two copies of the book and a Risley cheque for $20 payable to Register of Copyrights. All this stuff must be in a single package. Also send one copy of the book to CIP. Pathos Press has to pay the postage for the package that goes to the copyright office, but for the CIP copy you can get a pink postage-due sticker from the CIP office.
Send complimentary copies to reviewers, along with a short description of Pathos Press (there's one in the `miscellaneous' file), the bare facts about the book (title, author, nature of the work (novel, essays, poems, or whatever), when it's available, ISBN, price, whom to call for more information) and anything else that you think is appropriate. There's information on some likely reviewers in the files. Locally, The Ithaca Times and The Grapevine are good bets. The Bookery also has recently started a nice `newspaper of the literary arts' called The Bookpress. Ask about this when you contact them about retailing the book. If the author is in town and is willing to give a reading to promote the book, then also ask The Bookery about their reading series. They book well in advance, so plan on some lead time on this. Non-locally, try Small Press (Mount Kisco, New York) and Small Press Review (Paradise, California), as well as any speciality journals that might be interested specifically in the subject of the book. (For example, I sent my book, which has a lot to do with post-modern science and Newtonian determinism, to the journal of the Society for Literature and Science.) You might also send an advertising flyer to The New York Times Book Review and ask them if they're interested in receiving a review copy (what the hell).
Sell, sell, sell! It helps if you print up an advertising flyer, or just print some extra copies of the cover. If you're targeting a particular audience, go to the library and research what bookstores nationwide cater to that audience. Remember to keep copies of your invoices and to keep a clear accounting of what's been paid and what's still payable. Look at the old invoices in the files of our previously published books to see what you need to put on the invoices.