Category: production

Trim sizes

Published on by Mike McCandlessLeave a comment

If you’ve taken my Publish It Yourself Course or read my book the Publish It Yourself Primer, you know a little about trim sizes. “Trim size” is one of those holdover terms left over from the days when analog printing was all there was. For efficiency, book pages were, and still are, printed on large sheets of paper. They come off the press, are stacked, and then cut, or “trimmed,” to size. Then they are gathered in book sets with all the pages in the right order. This work was originally done by highly-skilled printers, then later, computers helped to speed things up. Just like now.

The size of your book plays a part in how it’s perceived, in general and against other books in its genre. Not every country prints books in the same sizes used by American printers.

I asked Google Gemini whether I should consider re-designing the Touchwood Press 50 Fun Facts baseball books for international markets, now that baseball is rapidly growing as a global sport.

Dear AI: I have published a series on books on baseball teams and used a trim size of 5″ x 8″ to make them easily portable and pocket-sized. Should I change the trim size for international markets?

Gemini: While your 5″ x 8″ trim size is a classic, portable choice that works well in many markets, there are a few professional and logistical reasons you might consider adjusting it for international distribution—specifically if you are looking at the UK and Commonwealth markets.

Here is a breakdown of how trim sizes translate globally:

1. The “Trade Paperback” Standard

In the United States, 5″ x 8″ and 5.5″ x 8.5″ are standard for trade paperbacks. However, in the UK and Australia, the standard “B-Format” is slightly different:

  • UK B-Format: Approximately 5.1″ x 7.8″ (129mm x 198mm).
  • Your Current Size: 5″ x 8″ is very close to this, meaning it won’t look “wrong” on a shelf next to British sports books. It is actually a very safe “middle ground” size.
2. Industry Expectations by Category

According to the IngramSpark guide to popular trim sizes, different genres have “trained” readers to expect certain dimensions.

  • Reference & Nonfiction: Many international nonfiction titles lean toward 5.5″ x 8.5″ or 6″ x 9″.
  • Portability: Since your brand is built on being “pocket-sized,” staying small is a smart move. Moving to a larger size like 6″ x 9″ might alienate your current fans who value the portability.
3. Print-on-Demand (POD) Economics

If you use services like IngramSpark or KDP for international distribution, you should check if your specific size is “Standard” or “Custom” in those regions.

  • Distribution Reach: Most POD services offer 5″ x 8″ as a standard size globally. If you chose a highly unusual custom size, you might be restricted from “Expanded Distribution,” but 5″ x 8″ is widely supported.
  • Page Count & Pricing: If you change to a smaller size, your page count will increase, which can raise the print cost and lower your profit margin per book.
4. The “Look and Feel” Factor

As noted by Amy Collins, book buyers and librarians are often “trained” to recognize professional quality by the trim size. A 5″ x 8″ book:

  • Feels like a Mass Market or B-Format book in the UK.
  • Is perfect for “commuter reading,” which is a huge market in Europe and Asia.
Recommendation

I wouldn’t recommend changing it. Your 5″ x 8″ size is globally recognized as a standard portable format. Changing it for international markets would require you to manage multiple interior layouts (files) and different cover wraps for the same book, which increases your overhead and the risk of formatting errors. The “pocket-sized” branding is a unique selling point for a sports series—stick with it to maintain brand consistency across the globe.

Gee, thanks. I’ll stick with my current strategy.

There’s a lot I could unpack in AI’s comments, but that will wait for another post or book. Let us know if you have questions.

Good writing!

Yikes! Amazon raises prices.

Published on by Michael McCandless1 Comment

Here is Amazon’s May 30, 2025, announcement: For the first time since starting print operations almost two decades ago, starting June 10, 2025, we are changing the royalty rate for books priced below certain list prices (e.g. less than 9.99 USD) from 60% to 50%. 

I have been in and around publishing long enough to understand that printing and binding a book is not cheap. In the pre-POD (print on demand) days, printers and publishers were compelled to produce print runs as large as possible in order to reduce per-book costs to a level that they and their customers could handle.

Back when I was in the textbook publishing business (the 1980s), tiny changes in the commodity price of lumber (used to make paper) and manufactured paper caused great angst in the C-Suites of the major publishers. These same economics usually made it impossible for authors to self-publish because the print runs that printers demanded were way beyond what self-publishers could spend. We are thankful that POD technology made it possible for us to self-publish and Amazon to re-invent book selling. Note: The economic travails of the 70s and early 80s also sent US publishers as a rule to Asian printers, where labor costs were much less. This spelled the deaths of American companies and industries with long-standing stakes in book printing and binding. That’s another story.

I am impressed with how creatively Amazon configured the price increase. Lowering the commission rate for books priced below USD 9.99 is definitely a price increase for authors with books below that price level, but Amazon figured out how to give us a choice. When I received the first notice of the change, I dropped everything, logged into KDP, and raised the prices for all my books priced that were below USD 9.99 to that level. By acting fast, I was able to avoid losing any sales and avoided the lower royalty rate ahead.

When I raised my prices, I did not notice initially that there are new thresholds for most of Amazon’s non-US markets as well. So, I had to make a second pass and re-set prices for the UK, Canada, etc.

Take a quick look at this analysis of the costs of printing and binding a 200-page paperback book. Thirty-five to 45% of the total cost of printing and binding can come from paper and ink. A five ot ten percent increase (tariff or otherwise) will play havoc with the bottom line.

Cost ComponentTypical % of Total Cost
Paper25–30%
Ink10–15%
Labor15–20%
Binding10–15%
Overhead10–15%
Other (margin, packaging, etc.)10–15%

But wait, there’s more.

It seems pretty transparent that Amazon bundled a cost reduction with their price increase to soften the blow.
…we are reducing color printing costs for paperbacks in some marketplaces to help authors adopt color printing…

Color printing generally requires better-grade (thicker, denser) paper than black-and-white printing to avoid “bleed-through” and ink dispersion effects that degrade image quality. This costs more. So, by lowering the cost, Amazon has either found a workaround or is able to handle reduced margins for color printing as compared with the margin increases that they will realize from the price increases described above.

Either way, I will re-think whether I have books that will benefit from color printing. Note that the cost reductions impact both standard and premium color jobs. At Touchwood Press, we’ll be looking at the viability of creating color versions of our 50 Fun Facts print books to match the color we can include in the eBook versions of those books for readers using phones or tablets.

Adding illustrations

Published on by Mike McCandlessLeave a comment

Can I start by uploading a text-only version of an eBook—to KDP, most likely—and later update the book to include the illustrations? This would let me get the story “out there” more quickly. I should only need one more revision pass to get the text ready.

Yes, you can do this, but do you really want to? One great thing about eBooks is you can upload and publish new versions anytime, with some limitations.

In your case, you might decide to make the two books discrete products—a print version and an illustrated version. But take care to make each version a quality product, putting your best foot forward with what you’ve got to offer. If the book is really lacking without the illustrations, wait until you’re ready to include them.

But yes, it is technically possible to upload new and improved versions of your book. Doing this and nothing else will change the deliverable that readers download. Do you really want to deal with readers’ disappointments over needing to “upgrade” their books? Or worse, pay for an upgrade if you sell the illustrated version separately?

Another consideration is that you want to avoid disappointing the buyers of the non-illustrated version once the illustrated version comes out. You might offer the second version free or at a steep discount. It’s all about building and taking care of your readers and your brand.

So, this is a win-lose situation most of the time.

Where can I find artwork to use in my book?

Published on by Mike McCandlessLeave a comment

What may seem like a difficult or even overwhelming question to some, finding artwork to use in your book has lots of possible answers.

  • First of all, look within, grasshopper. Do you own a camera? Your own photograph, maybe cropped, embellished, or amended in a photo editing application already on your computer, may be the solution. You may have untapped creativity where you least expected it! (And, you own all the rights!)
  • Have any good friends or relatives with drawing or photography chops who might be delighted to help you out, for a small fee? Think about it and talk with them. You may be surprised.
  • There are cover art resources available through KDP and CreateSpace.
  • Search “artwork for my book” in your favorite search engine.
  • Try the pay-per-image photo libraries such as Fotolia, Getty, and others. You create an account, buy some credits, search and select photos from their libraries, and download the image size you need. Make sure you understand the rights you are acquiring for each photo you license.

Can I embed videos into my book?

Published on by Mike McCandlessLeave a comment

Yes. This is only a viable idea if you are producing a book intended for a tablet, smartphone, or computer screen, where the video can be viewed. To embed your video, use one of the Kindle Creator applications (Kindle Textbook Creator, etc.) or Adobe InDesign as your production platform. If you’re  Apple-exclusive, then use Ibooks Author, but you knew that already.