Self-Publishing with St Andrews Press:
Bring Your Book to Life
Expert Support for Self-Published Authors
From manuscript to masterpiece, St Andrews Press empowers authors in Wells, Somerset, and across the UK to professionally print and publish their books with confidence.
Your Story, Your Way: The Dream of Self-Publishing, Made Real
You’ve poured your heart and soul into writing your book. Now, it’s time to share your story with the world. Self-publishing offers unparalleled creative control and a direct path to your readers, but navigating the print process can feel overwhelming. At St Andrews Press, we understand this journey. We’re here to be your dedicated print partner, providing the expertise and quality you need to transform your manuscript into a professionally printed book you’ll be proud of.
How We Support Your
Self-Publishing Journey
Professional Book Printing
Whether it's a novel, poetry collection, memoir, or educational material, we offer high-quality digital and litho printing tailored to your specific needs. Get crisp text, vibrant colors, and durable bindings that make your book stand out.
Flexible Print Runs
From short runs for initial launches and personal keepsakes to larger quantities for wider distribution, we cater to your print volume requirements. When it comes to self-publishing, print exactly what you need, when you need it.
Comprehensive Design & Artwork Services
We provide a complete range of design support, from full cover design and interior formatting to perfecting your existing files. We welcome you into our meeting room, we have plenty of samples to show you, helping you visualise your book's final look and feel.
Specialized Casebound Finishes
For your hardcover books, we offer bespoke options including Wibalin finishes, known for their durability and elegant texture. Elevate your book's interior with bespoke endpapers or choose from a range of colored endpapers, beyond the standard black or white, to perfectly match your book's aesthetic.
Special Finishes (Foiling)
Make your book truly memorable. Add a touch of luxury and sophistication with elegant foiling (e.g. gold, silver) on your cover. This finish helps your publication stand out from the crowd.
Expert Advice & Consultations
We provide guidance, present physical paper and material samples, and offer swatches on hand to ensure your bespoke products are perfectly tailored to your vision and requirements.
Binding Options for Every Book
Perfect Binding:
This is a popular choice for paperback books. Pages are gathered into a block, roughened at the spine, and then glued together with a strong, flexible adhesive. The cover is wrapped around this block, creating a clean, professional finish. It's cost-effective and ideal for novels, manuals, journals, and especially history books and autobiographies due to its neat, durable presentation.
Sewn Sections (Smyth Sewn):
Often used for high-quality paperback and almost always for casebound (hardcover) books, this method involves folding printed sheets into sections, which are then sewn together through the fold. These sewn sections are then glued into the spine. This creates a highly durable book that lies flatter when open, making it excellent for academic texts, coffee table books, and publications intended for longevity.
Our Self-Publishing Process
We believe in a clear, collaborative process to bring your book to life:
Initial Contact
Ready to start?
Please contact us via our website’s CONTACT US page, where you’ll find all our contact information.
We look forward to hearing about your project.
View the book below or click here to see the complete list of our process.
Your Dedicated Project Meeting
We’ll schedule a meeting, either at your office or in our dedicated meeting room in Wells. This is a crucial step where we’ll discuss every detail of your book
View the book below or click here to see the complete list of our process.
Choosing Your Paper:
The Perfect Feel for Your Book
The paper you choose significantly impacts the look, feel, and overall impression of your book. We'll happily assist you with this choice and can show you previously printed sample books to help you select the best material for your project, including different finishes and options for the all-important cover. Our production team are experts in paper and will be very happy to advise you.
Uncoated
This produces a flat matt finish. The majority of books you read have an uncoated finish, making it a classic choice.
Perfect for:
Novels, poetry books, anthologies, short stories, biographies, and more.
Silk / Satin
This option provides a smooth feel and subtle luster, making it a good choice for books with colored headings, maps, photographs, and images where you want a richer presentation.
Perfect for:
Photo books, posters, leaflets, brochures, etc.
Gloss
A higher gloss coating than silk, this highly reflective finish enhances color vibrancy and detail, making it an excellent choice for books rich in visual content.
Perfect for:
Children’s books, color inserts, photo books, recipe books,
Page Layout:
Designing for Readability & Professionalism
Our design team will take your raw manuscript and turn it into a truly readable book. While most of our customers typeset their book in Microsoft Word or similar software, we’ll take your Word file and transform it into a professionally laid-out book.
Many of our self-publishing authors hope to sell copies of their books, so it’s essential that the page layout is created to a professional standard. Even those who are only printing to fulfill a lifelong dream and intend to distribute their books solely to friends and family will want their book to look as good as it possibly can.
Consideration needs to be given to many intricate details: text tracking, leading, font size, style, chapter breaks, contents, front matter pages, index, glossary, footnotes, and of course, the careful placement of photographs, illustrations, graphs, and diagrams where necessary. What may seem like a simple case of changing the page size to a standard paperback format is actually a complex project in its own right, and our expertise ensures a polished, professional result.
Cover Design:
Your Book's Essential First Impression
Despite what they say, most of us do judge a book by its cover! Whatever your genre, if you want to sell your book, you’ll be competing for sales, and since your book cover is your shop window, it absolutely must be eye-catching. Whether on Amazon, iBooks, or in Waterstones, your book cover will be seen before a reader even gets to page one, so it needs to look like a best-seller. Again, even if you’re only giving it away to family and friends, you’ll want your hard work to look good! You ought to think of your cover as page one of your book, and it needs to resonate with your potential readers at a glance.
The design of your book cover is one of the most important elements of your self-publishing project. When you’re not there to explain to someone how good your book is, it’s your cover that will be speaking for you and telling your potential readership whether you’re a serious author or a half-hearted dabbler. It often amazes us how many budding authors sabotage their own success by choosing not to have their book cover designed professionally. Authors are not necessarily marketers and will often overlook this essential item. After months, if not years, of creating world-class content, it’s the cover that then conveys the nature and quality of this content. Without it, you create a ‘dead-end’ in your marketing. Browsers are turned into buyers when a cover engages and inspires, and it’s at this crucial point that a well-designed book cover should do its work.
We are passionate about the art and application of cover design. We’ll aim to interpret your content in a way that is specifically designed to reflect the nature of your book and, if necessary, to sell your book to your target audience. We will create a cover that accompanies and complements your work, engaging your potential customers at a glance.
E-Publishing:
Expanding Your Reach to Digital Readers
To bring your book to the widest possible audience, you may want to convert it to an eBook and make it available to the online Kindle, iPad, and other eReader markets and beyond. Our team will assist you in the often bewildering process of e-Publishing!
The conversion of text manuscript files into error-free, beautiful eBooks for Kindle and other eReaders is a process that requires specialist software, an eye for detail, and a thorough quality control process. Readers are used to viewing eBook titles prepared by publishers for professional authors, so it’s crucial that your eBook is up to that same high standard. We’re here to help ensure your digital edition shines.
ISBNs & Barcodes:
Giving Your Book Its Unique Identity
ISBNs and barcodes are essential basics for any self-publishing author, serving as your book's unique identifier and its ticket to market visibility.
What is an ISBN?
ISBN stands for “International Standard Book Number.” Introduced in the early 1970s, this 13-digit number uniquely identifies published books and allows you to take advantage of the internationally recognized cataloguing system. It’s an often-overlooked item, but your ISBN is crucial for retail accessibility. As your book sales grow, your ISBN will be used by the book trade and public to identify and differentiate your books in all of their editions, check stock levels at retail outlets, and perform library searches. Your ISBN is linked to all of your book data, making it a useful piece of information to help catalogue and map your products and presence as an author.
The Role of Barcodes:
You may already know that ISBNs are also used to generate the barcodes for each of your printed editions. Even if you don’t intend to sell your book widely, obtaining an ISBN ensures that the existence of your book is recorded with the British Library and other major libraries, meaning a copy will then be held in the British Library Collection.
How St Andrews Press Can Help:
- If you intend to print and publish a number of books, we can help you register as a publisher in your own right and obtain your ISBN and barcode(s).
- Alternatively, if you’re only intending to print one or two books, it will be easier and more cost-effective for you to publish under our in-house publishing arm, Close Publications. In this case, we will provide an ISBN for you from our allocation and register the book with the necessary bodies,2 ensuring your book is properly catalogued and accessible.
Dedicated Partner, Not Just a Printer
Our business was founded in 1952 by Arthur Wood, a Captain after leaving the army, with a core belief in building strong, lasting relationships. This ethos means we’re genuinely invested in helping you succeed.
Committed
to Innovation
Committed to Innovation: We are always investing in new technology and equipment to ensure we offer you the most efficient processes and highest quality output for your publication.
Personalised Face-to-Face Service
Personalised Face-to-Face Service: We offer one-to-one consultations at your office or in our comfortable meeting room in Wells. This direct, personal approach ensures we understand your vision and can provide tailored advice and solutions.
Commitment to Quality
We apply rigorous testing and meticulous quality checks to every project. Your book will be produced to the highest standards, ensuring a professional finish that reflects your hard work.
Experience & Expertise
With years of experience, our knowledgeable team offers expert guidance and practical solutions for every print challenge, big or small.
Our Commitment to Sustainable Printing
Partner with a printer that cares about the planet as much as your project.
At St Andrews Press, we are deeply committed to environmentally responsible printing practices:
Stock range of 100% Recycled Papers & Boards
Certified by the Forestry Stewardship Council
Committed to
minimising waste
We are proud to be Forest Stewardship Council (FSC®) certified. This means we adhere to the highest standards of responsible forest management, ensuring that the paper we use comes from ethically sourced, sustainable forests.
We stock and actively promote a full range of recycled papers. Opting for recycled stocks significantly reduces environmental impact and demonstrates your business’s commitment to sustainability without compromising on print quality.
Ready to see your book in print?
Let's start your self-publishing journey today.
Your Dedicated Project Meeting
- Book Size & Dimensions
- Paper Stocks & Textures (with plenty of physical samples to guide your choice)
- Cover design and finishes
- Binding Options
- Overall Timescales
- ISBN Numbers & Book Registration (if required, we’ll guide you through this process)
- Artwork Specifications (if you’re producing the artwork yourself)
- Quote & Timeline: Once we have a clear outline specification from our discussion, we’ll produce a detailed quote and a projected timeline for your entire project.
- Artwork & Design Phase: Once our proposal is agreed upon, we begin the artwork process. This could involve:
- Minor changes and file checking to ensure your files are ready for printing.
- Full interior formatting and cover design from scratch.
- A complete design service to bring your vision to life.
- Proofing & Approval:
- An initial PDF proof will be produced for your review.
- For a truly tactile approach, hardbound proofs are available, or flat sheet run-outs which are often excellent for detailed proofing.
- ISBN Allocation & Copyright: If you’ve requested an ISBN number through us, this will be formally allocated at the proofing stage, and we’ll ensure your copyright page is correctly created.
- Final Production & Delivery: As soon as your proof is signed off, we’ll confirm a completion date. This will be in line with our initial timeline, provided there haven’t been unforeseen amendments that delayed the artworking process. Your finished books will then be printed and prepared for collection or delivery.
