Support for Indie Authors discussion

I went to vistaprint and took a look at their prices for bookmarks--more than $8.00 for 5...and they're on sale! Does anybody else find that outrageous? I went ahead and designed one, but they want it to be two-sided and want only one side printed. So I took the design and redid it using Paint.net, and printed it on card-stock paper. Now all I have to do is get a paper slicer. Or am I economizing too much?

Hi Ken,

I had book marks made at my local Kinko's. I had about 175 book marks made, double sided, laminated and cut at $6.49/each. My total was $249.03 for all these services. Not a bad deal, really.

Hope that helps. Lisa

A QR code on those book marks would look mighty spiffy! :D

You know what? I don't even know what that means. A QR code? Is that the sort of square thing with a bunch of shapes that you scan?

Lisa wrote: "You know what? I don't even know what that means. A QR code? Is that the sort of square thing with a bunch of shapes that you scan?"

Yep. :D You can generate your own easily.

How? And what does it do?

My philosophy is that if you can do it yourself, then do it yourself. It's a heck of a lot cheaper. I made a couple of bookmarks as a promotional prize for my fist book, and all it cost me was, I think, around twenty dollars (possibly less), and they turned out really neat.

How did you accomplish that? Did you print them out on your home printer?

Melissa wrote: "My philosophy is that if you can do it yourself, then do it yourself. It's a heck of a lot cheaper. I made a couple of bookmarks as a promotional prize for my fist book, and all it cost me was, I t..."

I need to start making bookmarks soon and want to make them myself. How did you make yours?

Mine are 2 inches by 5 1/2 inches, and at 8 to a page they'll be cheap. The slicer might be expensive, though. I could put a QR code on the back, but that might get complicated.

I made my own on cardstock and printed them on my own printer. Had ink and paper on hand but purchased magnetic tape and made some into the foldable magnetic bookmarks. Cost around $10 total to make 100 bookmarks (both the long, 2 sided ones and the folded magnetic ones) and people love them! I just used Microsoft Word and pictures I took or created.

According to my understanding of QR codes (which is nonexistent), if someone with a smartphone scans it, it should take them to my website:

On http://www.psprint.com, you can buy 500 full-color, glossy (one-sided) bookmarks for $36 plus $9.50 for shipping. You upload your own design. Or, two-sided bookmarks for $65 plus shipping. I'm going to do this (probably one sided).

Hi April, Wow! This website, PSPrint.com, looks good. I think I'll work with them for my next order of bookmarks, business cards, etc. Thanks!

April wrote: "On http://www.psprint.com, you can buy 500 full-color, glossy (one-sided) bookmarks for $36 plus $9.50 for shipping. You upload your own design. Or, two-sided bookmarks for $65 plus shipping. I'm g..."

That sounds much better.

April wrote: "On http://www.psprint.com, you can buy 500 full-color, glossy (one-sided) bookmarks for $36 plus $9.50 for shipping. You upload your own design. Or, two-sided bookmarks for $65 plus shipping. I'm g..."

That's sounds pretty good April. How will you design the book mark? Do you know what the dimensions are?

One thing I noticed about psprint is that you can't design your bookmark on their website the way you can with Vistaprint. You have to design it on your computer and upload it.

I have been trying to find affordable bookmarks that I could order here in Canada but finally just decided to go with 2 sided colour business cards from vistaprint. 500 for $20 CAD. They were easy to use and let you design your card online plus had an option to add the QR code.

Lisa wrote: "April wrote: "On http://www.psprint.com, you can buy 500 full-color, glossy (one-sided) bookmarks for $36 plus $9.50 for shipping. You upload your own design. Or, two-sided bookmarks for $65 plus s..."

Hi, Lisa. I haven't checked the dimensions yet. I will design the bookmark in Photoshop and upload it to the psprint.com website.

Ken wrote: "One thing I noticed about psprint is that you can't design your bookmark on their website the way you can with Vistaprint. You have to design it on your computer and upload it."

That's true, but that's how I would do it anyway. I'd use Adobe Photoshop to design the bookmark, then upload the print ready artwork to their site.

Mind Process and Formulas: Principles, Techniques, Formulas, and Processes for Success

If you have a good printer and a good dtp package you can design and print out you own book mark. You might can even do it woth microsoft word program tabs.

say Kenneth

Kennet wrote: "Mind Process and Formulas: Principles, Techniques, Formulas, and Processes for Success

If you have a good printer and a good dtp package you can design and print out you own book m..."

Kennet man, we appreciate what you say and do on the board, but can you quit linking to your book in EVERY post? It feels way too much like a bookwhack. Thank you!

Riley wrote: "Kennet wrote: "Mind Process and Formulas: Principles, Techniques, Formulas, and Processes for Success

If you have a good printer and a good dtp package you can design and print out..."

Lol, Riley. You just reposted his link!

Oops! So have I... Dang he's smart!

You can always edit. :P

You can always just bring your completed file to a local print shop. It is often a better value than going to an online print place for short runs.

Two options will make them happy:
1. Just the single bookmark, with the appropriate 0.125" margins and bleed space.
2. Many bookmarks set up, with bleed and crop marks, on an 11"x17" page. Print shops do not use 8.5" x 11" paper for stuff like this.

(I can tell you don't have bleed or margins on your bookmarks at the moment. This will make them harder to cut out. You can find info on how to do this easily on google. If you can design it, you can add bleed to it!)

They will print them off for you very reasonably, and even cut them. I work for one of those and honestly, it is reasonable. You can get a deal if you cut them yourself.

Lamination is nice, but expensive. It is a bookmark, so I don't worry about it. Plus this way I can write on the back.

Finally QR codes are for smartphone scanning. They are easy to generate. Here is a place that is free, and lets you make them fancy colours!:

http://www.qrstuff.com/

Just be sure and test a QR code before you print them off! :D

I've got a QR code (see message 12); unfortunately I don't have a working smartphone.

With the few bookmarks I give away I've decided that the one-pane page and a pair of scissors (used carefully!) produces a bookmark of acceptable quality. You really can't tell that they weren't professionally printed. If I start to get into mass bookmark giveaways I'll probably opt for professional printing.

Thanks!

I'm curious. What kind of paper did you use? Or what would you recommend?

The label on the paper I have is Georgia-Pacific 8 1/2" by 11" white card stock, a package of 150 acid-free sheets. I bought it a few years ago and found little use for it, so I have plenty. I suppose any card would do.

I used uprinting and got 150 bookmarks for $29. That was for front and back. Front only is $23 for 150. I used the back for all my contact info. They came out great!

Yasmine wrote: "Melissa wrote: "My philosophy is that if you can do it yourself, then do it yourself. It's a heck of a lot cheaper. I made a couple of bookmarks as a promotional prize for my fist book, and all it ..."

Mine were pretty simple - One set was just colored card stock, ink and a rubber stamp. The other set were photos printed out on photo paper that I then glued to card stock and cut out using a paper cutter. However, the tricky part is finding a way to laminate them. Not that you have to laminate them, but it does help them to last. I used this kind of clear glue - I can't remember what it's called but I know it had "diamond" in the name - that I layered on. It made for a really nice clear sheen, but it was tricky to use because it had a tendency to smear anything that wasn't fully dry.

But, in a nutshell, when it comes to making your own bookmarks, card stock is your best friend. As is any art program, such as GIMP or any scrapbooking program, to help get your image into bookmark shape for direct printing (I prefer GIMP myself. It's free and pretty easy to use).