Published Authors - Cookbooks

We’re sure you have some questions about our cookbooks, our process, and about us. So presented below are some of the questions we are most frequently asked.

If you have any other questions, please just call us or email us on info@PublishedAuthors.com.au

• Are the cookbooks printed in Australia?
• What are the freight costs?
• Where do the colour food images come from?
• Are the cookbooks printed in black and white or colour?
• Can we choose our own Chapter themes?
• Can we supply our own photos or our student’s original artwork for display on the book cover and/or chapter pages?
• What type of binding should we select for our cookbooks?
• Are there any upfront costs we have to pay?
• What happens if we change our mind and don’t proceed with the fundraising event?
• What sort of guarantees do you offer, if any?
• How long does the process take from start to finish?
• How do children, parents and friends submit their recipes?
• How do parents and friends submit their recipes if they don’t have access to a computer?
• What happens if we have already collated our recipes?
• Do you offer proof reading and typing services?
• How many books should we order?
• Is there a minimum number of books we can order?
• Can we order extra copies of the cookbook at a later date?
• What is a good time to do this fundraising activity?

Are the cookbooks printed in Australia?

Absolutely! We work very closely with two separate Australian printers (one in Sydney and one in Melbourne) to ensure we can deliver the very best cookbooks that can be printed promptly and at the best price to you.

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What are the freight costs?

Once printed, our printers will dispatch your cookbooks direct to your nominated address by courier. The actual freight charge will vary depending on the total weight of your printed cookbooks and your location. However if you need to know these freight costs before finalising your order, please ask once the printing details are known and we will give you an estimate. This freight charge will be added to the final tax invoice.

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Where do the colour food images come from?

We source all our high resolution colour food photos from professional food photographers who feature in top selling food books and magazines such as Women’s Weekly and Women’s Day. All our images are legally purchased from accredited sources and hence fully comply with Australian and international copyright legislation.

If you have another particular recipe picture in mind, just let us know and we’ll do our best to source it for you at no additional charge to you.

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Are the cookbooks printed in black and white or colour?

All our covers are printed in beautiful full gloss colour displaying vogue-style food photos and your unique school / organisation name and logo.

With our Standard range of cookbooks, our contents pages are printed in a combination of colour and black & white. The recipe pages are printed in crisp b&w and the chapter pages are printed in full colour displaying more beautiful vogue-style food photos. Extra colour pages can be added if desired.

If you need to get your printing costs down even lower, we can print all internal pages, including the chapter pages, in b&w. However, we generally recommend that the chapter pages be printed in full colour to maximise the beauty of the printed cookbook and to maximise the price at which you can on-sell the published cookbooks.

With our Premium full colour cookbooks, ALL internal pages can be printed in beautiful full gloss.

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Can we choose our own Chapter themes?

Absolutely! To make it easy for you, we suggest the following 6 default chapter themes:

• Breakfast & Brunch
• Morning and Afternoon Snacks (Biscuits & Slices, Scones & Muffins, Other Nice Things)
• Healthy Weekday Lunch Ideas
• Apertisers (Soups, Salads, Bread & Dips)
• Mains (Meats, Rice & Pasta, Seafood, Vegetarian, Side Dishes)
• Desserts & Cakes.

However, if you have your own chapter themes in mind (such as chapters based on dishes from different countries or on food suited to each of the four seasons), just let us know what Chapter headings you would like to use and we will be delighted to arrange this for you. We include a simple 'Getting Started' template in our Step-By-Step Guide to make this process easy for you.

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Can we supply our own photos or our student’s original artwork to display on the book cover and/or chapter pages?

Absolutely! We supply over 140 high-resolution colour food photographs for you to select from to display on the cover and chapter pages. However if you would like to supply your own photographs or pictures displaying the original artwork of your students or members, just let us know and we can certainly arrange this for you.

Just remember that while including original artwork makes the published cookbook more personal, the process certainly increases the workload of the fundraising coordinator, and that of the teachers, the students or the members involved.

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What type of binding should we select for our cookbooks?

We offer the following three types of binding for our cookbooks:

• Saddle stitched (for small booklets of less than 68 pages where stitches of thread or wire staples are placed through the spine fold to hold the pages in place.
• Perfect Bound (where the book has a flat spine and the pages are held in place through gluing)
• Wiro-Bound (where the book pages are held in place using a double loop-bound wire spine).

We recommend cookbooks of around 68 pages or less be bound using saddle-stitching as it delivers a quality product at the cheapest price.

For books of more than about 68 pages, it really comes down to personal choice as to whether you select perfect binding or wiro-binding.

Perfect binding is the most common form of binding used in books, but the books can have a mind of their own and spring closed when left open on a table or bench.

Wiro-binding lays the book pages perfectly flat when opened on a table or bench, making them perfect for chefs young and old alike! But the books may cost slightly more and may take a few extra days to deliver due to the higher labour involved during the binding process.

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Are there any upfront costs we have to pay?

A key benefit of using Published Authors is that we charge NO upfront costs. Other cookbook providers charge up to $550 as an upfront and non-refundable fee to receive their Step-By-Step Guide - and this cost is often in addition to the final cost of the cookbooks!

It is only once your school or organisation has checked and signed off on the printing proof of the compiled cookbook that we require a 50% deposit. The balance owing is then payable within 14 days after the printed books are delivered. Hence NO payment is due until after your school or community group has already collected all orders and money for your fundraising cookbook.

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What happens if we change our mind and don’t proceed with the fundraising event?

The answer to this question depends on what stage in the process we are up to when you change your mind.

Up until the point in which you submit your Final Order Form and give us approval to collate the submitted recipes and start designing your cookbook, there is no penalty at all for changing your mind and not proceeding with your fund raising event. Just return the entire Step-By-Step Fundraising Package and pay absolutely nothing.

If you cancel the fundraising event once you have submitted your Final Order Form, we will charge a low $45 per hour (incl GST) to cover the hours we have spent designing your cookbook up to the point you notify us.

Once you sign off on the final proof of the compiled cookbook and we commence printing, you will be liable to pay the full invoiced amount.

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What sort of guarantees do you offer, if any?

If you receive damaged or faulty books, we will replace the books within 30 days. You just need to let us know in writing (fax or email is fine) within 3 days of delivery, and return the relevant books for our inspection. As you can appreciate, we can’t be held responsible for any damage to books that occur after the books have been delivered to your nominated address.

Note: We do not accept the return of excess or unsold cookbooks, so please consider your needs carefully before you specify the number of cookbooks you want us to print. As you can appreciate, we can’t sell your books to anyone else if you change your mind and want to return some.

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How long does the process take from start to finish?

The time to implement your fund raising event is up to you and will vary according to such things as the time you give to parents and friends to submit their recipes, and the time taken to review the final printing proof.

However, once all recipes have been submitted and you send us your Final Order Form, we aim to provide you with a printing proof and final quote within 3 weeks (please allow up to 4 weeks in 4th term). Once you then return this signed quote and arrange payment of the 50% deposit, we then aim to print your books and dispatch them by courier within 2 weeks (although please allow 3 weeks in case our printers are very busy!).

We include a recommended time schedule in our Step-By-Step Fundraising Package.

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How do children, members, friends and families submit their recipes?

Our process is incredibly streamlined as it enables contributors to just go to our website and type their recipes directly into our very simple on-line template. Once they hit the submit button, your job is done and that’s where we take over!

There are several advantages to this process:

• First, the children don’t need to remember to bring their crumpled recipes back into school, the teachers don’t have to collect them, and the coordinator doesn’t need to collate and then post them to us. This alone can save hours of work!
• Second, we automatically collate the recipes as they are lodged. Once the fundraising cut-off date passes, we can then begin the task of formatting, proof reading and then preparing the draft cookbook for your checking and sign-off.
• Finally, as we receive the recipes electronically, we can ensure all recipes are checked for spelling mistakes and typos, and ensure that all recipes are printed using a consistent format and layout. Other fundraising groups either require volunteers to type up the submitted recipes, or they just scan in and then print recipes as they receive them — complete with inconsistent formatting, spelling mistakes and typos, and paper marks such as creases and smudges.

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How do parents and friends submit their recipes if they don’t have access to a computer?

That’s an excellent question.

While we can provide secretarial services to type in hand written recipes, the process will take longer and increase the final cost (which means lower fund raising profits to your school or community group). As such, we strongly suggest that individuals without access to a computer arrange with their friends or a group of school / community volunteers to enter their recipe for them into our simple online template. Most recipes should only take minutes to type in.

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What happens if we have already collated our recipes?

Our preferred approach is for schools and community groups to ensure parents and friends lodge their family recipes directly via our website. However if you have already collected the recipes for the cookbook, we can handle that too.

If you have collected the recipes electronically (such as by email or by computer file), please insert all recipe files in one email and then forward them onto us at info@PublishedAuthors.com.au. We will then begin the process of turning these individual recipes into a professionally published cookbook.

Unfortunately due to the extra work involved, cookbooks compiled from pre-collated electronic recipes will incur an extra $2.00 fee per cookbook.

If you have collated hand written or printed recipes, see the next question for details.

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Do you offer proof reading and typing services?

Published Authors is the only fundraising group that include proof reading of text as part of our service to you. While we don’t guarantee to pick up all errors, we do check for spelling mistakes and typos, and correct these where found. We also ensure that all formatting is consistent to make sure your cookbook looks really professional.

Yes we can also provide secretarial services for typing in hand written recipes etc. If you think you need such help, please call us and we will be more than happy to discuss the details.

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How many books should we order?

In most situations, you will only give us final print numbers once you have collated your actual order forms and received pre-payment for the ordered books. However, as we generally find that you will continue to receive follow-up orders once people actually see the finished product, we suggest you consider over-ordering by around 10-20%. Hence if you receive firm orders for say 500 books, then we suggest you consider ordering a spare 50-100 copies.

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Is there a minimum number of books we can order?

As printing costs increase quite a lot with small sized orders, we generally recommend you try and order at 100 cookbooks or more. However, recognising some groups and kindergartens have only small numbers, we do accept minimum orders of 75 cookbooks. Please see our webpage titled Cookbooks and Prices for details.

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Can we order extra copies of the cookbook at a later date?

We will store an electronic copy of your completed recipe book for at least 12 months after printing, so you can order re-prints of your cookbook at any time during this period. Just remember that the cost of the books will be higher for smaller print runs, so if you think you may require extra books it will be better to print some extra copies at the initial print run. We often suggest printing an extra 10-20% copies to cover any shortfalls.

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What is a good time to do this fundraising activity?

The beauty of our fundraising cookbooks is that any time of year is a great time to do this fundraising activity. However, popular times for receiving your cookbooks and maximising sales opportunities are Mothers Day, major anniversaries, fetes, shows and conferences, National Book Week in August, and of course the ever populat Christmas.

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