Helping Authors Publish Their Books

Services

Three 8.5 x 11 full color Year Books books by 8th grade class.

"Your ability to work your magic with the mess we gave you and turn it around in time, every time was amazing."

Steve Wells, Computer Genius Guy

It's simple really.

We help you get your story told through the medium of self publishing.

It is not our policy to do the detail work for you but to give you the information you need to cover those details. You will be the critical eyes and ears when working with your illustrators, designers and the other creative helpers.

If your next step is consultation, then we will talk a bit; if the next step is illustration, then we will give you the information you will need to work with your illustrator to have a beautiful finished piece. If the next step is graphic design we will tell you what you and your graphic designer will need to know. Of course we are available to your creative staff to answer all their questions also. If you need help, we will offer recommendations which carry no fees for us in their invoices to you.

We do not charge for professional consultation.

We believe that your finished book should have your thumb print on all the creative aspects prior to print production. We intend to help you get it right so your finished piece is exactly how you imagined it to be... not what someone here imagined it to be. The creative parts of the book must have your personality.

RēlKey Books doesn't do cookie cutter books because every book we've ever produced exhibits the personality of each author. We just keep you from making any missteps so the finished book reflects who you are and is ready for resale.

After the creative building steps are completed, RēlKey Books will be your printer. Generally we print in Asia because the finest printing is coming from that part of the world and the prices are much lower there than anywhere in the world. The proper placement of your project with the proper printing house is where you will get the highest value for your investment. We have visited every print shop that we have work with so the printers I use are not middlemen nor scam artists.

We include everything that would cost you money in our formal printing estimates. Once your art is finished, the book is proofed, printed, bound and packaged, all you will have to worry about is where you would like us to deliver the books.

One more thing, we never forget to say, "Congratulations! We know how tough it was and you are part of a very select community of authors who actually 'did it.'"

.
My comments on the Golden Hills School books:

A double truck spread of the Little Green Frog children's book by Joan Barsotti.

Steve Wells contacted me because my nephew was a 6th student grade student working in Steve's volunteer computer science class and told him that I can print anything. That was the beginning of a friendship that still exists today.
Golden Hills School is a very small private school with a very talented computer science teacher. He decided to forgo the national School Book specialty printing companies and create a curriculum around having the 8th grade students plan, design, create templates, take the photographs and all the other administrative aspects.
For the record, Mr. Wells is not a printing expert and following the invitation to be involved with the first project I knew I'd have a challenge. It seems that the kids used a video presentation program to create all the art work and not a graphic program. The art looked great on the monitor but didn't have the "juice" to perform in high quality reproduction. We didn't have the time for the kids to redo six months of work, have the books printed and delivery into Northern California before the end of the school year.
When all the smoke cleared the annual school books, all 50 of them, turned out beautiful each of the three years we worked together on these projects.