Chap-Books by Alan Corkish

What are chap books?

Well literally the name derives from ‘Cheap-Books’; they are usually poetry books containing the work of one author, they usually contain around 30 - 50 pages, sometimes less. Chap books can be self-published, or published by a publishing house or your local printer.

BUT, to hell with the ‘usually’s; there are no rules with chap-books; you can publish a short story as a chap-book or even an instruction booklet or jokes or a satirical work or even a brief autobiography if you want to. Try something new is the key. Have a bit of fun and see your work as an easily handled and easily readable book.

To date I have published three chap bookS; Bum-Rap, (40 pages), Island Poems (40 pages) and Liverpool Poems (40 pages)... plus a longer book ...through a glass darkly (128 pages), all are imprints of erbacce-press. It was great fun to build them and if you’d like to produce your own then erbacce-press will supply free editing, typesetting and cover design. They'll also get you a print-run at cost-price.

This is not vanity-publishing; it is a most excellent way to get a publisher acquainted with your work; much better than sending them sheaves of loose paper. Also you can print a chap-book and sell it at your poetry readings making both a small profit and getting your work widely distributed. I’d suggest though that you sell it at about cost-price; the publicity is much more important than a few coppers profit.

If you would like a quote for printing your chap-book visit the erbacce-press website and they’ll fix you up with a type-setter and a cover designer and a print of up to 100 books at around cost-price.

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