Gorham Printing Celebrates Women’s History Month

Happy National Women’s History Month! To celebrate women and their contribution to history, culture and society, we wanted to give recognition to some of our favorite women authors and publishers that we have had the great pleasure of working with at Gorham Printing.

Red Letter Press and Helen Gilbert

Red Letter Press publishes books and pamphlets to inform and arm today’s activists with the ideas, experiences and history of radical and working class women and men, people of color and sexual minorities, and others in the global movement for social change.

High Voltage Women: Breaking Barriers at Seattle City Light

A compelling account of pioneering electrical tradeswomen who put their bodies on the line to break into all-male, largely white electrical trades. By Ellie Belew.

Permanent Revolution & Results and Prospects

Trotsky’s classic work on workers’ power, internationalism, social transformation and the transition to socialism. Includes new introduction, index, and glossary.

Uplifting Dreams by Judy Glenney

WEIGHTLIFTING is something women aren’t supposed to do and they certainly don’t belong in the weight room.” The naysayers’ words kept clanging in her head. What were women supposed to do? Why couldn’t they lift weights? Grappling to find answers to these questions, Judy Glenney was torn between her passion of weightlifting and what others expected her to be…

“This remarkable woman is a humble human being and a credit to our sport who from day one never gave up her dream of the ladies being in the Olympic Games, on an equal footing with the men.”

– MURRAY LEVIN, Past President, Pan American Weightlifting Association

Clara Did the Work by Courtney Clements

In nine diaries written between 1872 and 1891, Mary Ann Porter Harrington provided a detailed look at daily life on her central Massachusetts farm…Throughout the diaries, Mary Ann described her daily chores, meals, errands, social calls, and correspondence. After the death of her husband in 1875, she devoted more of her time and attention to managing her farm and finances.

Need to pay for your book project? Try crowdfunding!

We’ve seen many authors and artists come through our shop who have used a crowdfunding website to fund the cost of publishing their books. What is a crowdfunding website? It’s a website that exists as a platform to help people who have an idea, but need dollars to make the idea a reality. In our line of work, that idea is a book.

Listing your project on a crowdfunding website is also a great way to test the market’s interest in your book before it’s published. It will help you start thinking about the niche your book will fill. If you can successfully generate buzz for the concept of your book on a crowdfunding platform, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to enjoy some traction with your marketing efforts once the book is published.

The most commonly-used crowdfunding website is Kickstarter. Here is a link to their handbook to get you started, and a few tips to help along the way:

• Backing others helps you learn the ropes and get a feel for the Kickstarter community.
• Set up your payment options in advance so you are ready to accept funds on day one.
• Be clear on discounts and perks – and get creative!
• Aim high when setting your dollar amount, but not so high you can’t meet your goal and cash in.
• Tell the story of your book, and consider making a video.
• Answer all backer questions. They are supporting your efforts!
• Use a simple analytics tracker to learn more about your readers.

Time to get inspired! Here are a few authors we know used Kickstarter to fund their book projects, then hired us to print them.

 

Breena Bard, a Portland, Oregon-based cartoonist and graphic novelist released “Hey Baby,” a 6.5×8.5″ softcover, in summer 2016.

Breena’s Kickstarter

http://www.breenabard.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Margaret Davis, another Portland-based writer and book artist, funded “China Under the Covers” this past winter.

Margaret’s Kickstarter

http://chinaunderthecovers.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Olympia-based fungi enthusiast Ellen King Rice funded her novel “The Evo Angel” in 2015 for publication in spring 2016.

Ellen’s Kickstarter

https://www.ellenkingrice.com/

 

 

 

 

Back in 2014, Peter Donahue funded a beautiful full-color, full-size landscape hardcover book complete with custom-printed end sheets and a matte-laminated dust jacket for the first volume of his popular “Rudek and the Bear” comic collection. As one of his Kickstarter pledge prizes, Peter drew any supporter who pledged $35 or more into the style of his characters and added it as a spread in the beginning of his book.

Peter’s Kickstarter

Peter’s ongoing web comic: http://zuzelandthefox.com/

Test the waters for your book project! Try crowdfunding!

Introducing…Our New Website!

Gorham Printing has a new look! As always, we pride ourselves in the amount of information available on our website, but now we think it’s even better. We’ve been working hard on our site and we hope you’ll find our new features intuitive and helpful.

New Features

We know you’ll love our new Quick Price feature. If you want to print 25 to 2000 copies of a softcover book sized between 4×5” and 8.5xll” portrait or landscape with a 32- to 900-page black & white or color interior and a glossy cover, you can enter your desired quantity, your trim size, and your page count including an exact color break down for a to-the-penny price that is one click away. (I’m serious. Try it. It’s fun. Matte lamination adds about $3 to a 50-book order.)

An overview of our process is easy-to-find and up to date. Instructions and requirements for sending us print-ready PDF files are more prominent under the Prep Your Files tab. We hope you enjoy browsing our book design portfolios and that you’ll call us if you have questions about any of this after you’ve taken a look at what we offer.

We’ve even updated the staff page so you can get an idea of who we are. There are ten of us in the building every day including Kurt Gorham, the owner. We are a small but mighty team and we love working hard for you. Now you can get to know us a little better!

Returning Customers

Looking for your log in? Just hover your mouse over Prices and click on Quote Generator. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click “Customer Log In” on the right. We are working on a direct long in link on the home page and we appreciate your patience as we fine-tune the new site.

Talk to Us

We want to hear from you. We did our best to keep you, your needs, and your questions in mind when we updated our website. If something isn’t working for you or doesn’t make sense, let us know. We are always looking for ways to improve your experience with Gorham Printing, so don’t be shy.

As always, our customer service and attention to detail set us apart. We take pride in crafting your books and we stand behind our quality. If you have any doubt, just ask any one of the thousands of satisfied customers we’ve had over the years.

We can’t wait to meet your book!

10 Strategies for Fiction Writers – A quick how-to for novelists

Gorham Printing released its first informational free eBook on March 1st. These ten publishing strategies provide over forty tips and tricks to help you jump into the world of self publishing: including building a platform, developing your business and more. Easy to implement, and cost-effective tips for self-publishers and small publishers!

More fiction writers are taking their publishing future into their own hands. This free informational guide for authors is written by a published writer, Kathleen Shaputis who works at Gorham Printing short-run book printer. Shaputis is a published author of three non-fiction and two novels. Her genre is romantic comedies and contemporary fiction.

At Gorham Printing Shaputis deals with newbie authors and veterans alike every day and has found a way to support and encourage fellow writers everywhere with this new informational guidebook.  “Whether you have a kernel of an idea staring or a complete manuscript, I wanted to help share some ideas a writer may not have thought about,” Shaputis said. “This eBook is short, fun and may help kick start writers.”

Reading “10 Strategies for Fiction Writers” explains:

• How to define your fiction genre market
• Ideas to develop your own publishing company
• The importance of professional design
• Grassroots marketing ideas.

You can find this free ebook at: www.gorhamprinting.com/writer