Self-Publishing
with Fast BooksSelf-Publishing
with Fast Books
is the short run printing system established by book publishers Wild & Woolley in 1991. In just 12 years, we have produced over 2000 different books in print runs as low as 10 copies and as high as 10000. We "publish" more books each year than even the largest commercial publishers in Australia.
Our new website wildandwoolley.com.au contains all the very latest help for self publishing writers including layout instructions ("What margins should I set?") and full details on all the popular book sizes ("How do I set up my page in Word?").
Book publishers are in business to buy and sell a writer's words. They read and assess manuscripts, and return 99% of them because they are 'not suitable for their list'. A book needs to sell at least 5000 copies within 6 months of publication to make money for its publisher.
150,000 new books are published each year in English. That's around 400 each day, including Saturdays, Sundays and holidays!
Bookshops borrow, rather than buy, what they put in their shops through a system called "sale or return." 34-40% of books sold into bookshops turn around three months later and go back to the warehouse, where 23% are so tatty they're pulped.
The ones making money out of this massively inefficient system are the big publishers, who have a wide range of titles and can spread the costs around; printers, because publishers can't give them back their unsold books; and freight companies, paid to deliver and retrieve the books from retailers.
In 1986, Pat Woolley, the publishing director of the literary and artistic press Wild & Woolley, developed the concept of Fast Books and four years later, Fast Books opened its doors.
Fast Books is the market leader in self-publishing.
The Australian Publishers Association. Pat Woolley is the deputy chair of the NSW Writers' Centre. She graduated Bachelor of Laws, University of New South Wales, in 1991.
Writers of poetry, biography, family history, memoirs, etc. who want to self-publish; businesses doing their own in-house desktop publishing ; associations, writers groups, schools, teachers; in fact, everyone who wants their books printed in short run quantities.
Our office is in beautiful Watsons Bay, New South Wales, very close to The Gap Park and South Head, Sydney Harbour. You can reach us by ferry from Circular Quay, by bus, or by car.
Around Australia:
"This project took many hours to complete, and to trust the manuscript to strangers in another State, with it becoming the finished product before being seen again, was a little scary. Your positive phone calls helped relieve this stress, and I am certainly pleased with the result." - Mrs Merran Whincop, Kingsley College, Melbourne, coordinator of the book Kingsley Ridgway: Pioneer with a Passion.
Around the World:
We have clients in Papua New Guinea, Fiji, New Zealand, the United States, and Japan, and our clients have sent the books we've produced for them, all over the world.
We provide quick turn-around for printing and perfect binding of books in small and large quantities: 50-5000 copies. Our innovative manufacturing facility uses the newest and best technology for professional book printing: it is truly state of the art.
Because we know all about book publishing, we can help you with your cover design, advise you on copyright, and send your books to libraries as required by the Copyright Act.
Fast Books
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