Ron Pramschufer's Archive
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- http://www.selfpublishing.com
- ron@rjcom.com
Profile
Ron Pramschufer has been in or around the printing and publishing industry for over 35 years. His experience, including working in the pressroom, bindery, production office and estimating department helped give him a firm foundation to build on when he entered sales and management. He was partners in a small press publishing company in Annapolis, MD in the late seventies and co-invented and marketed two controversial political board games which sold over 100,000 copies in the early eighties.
Moving from his home state of Maryland to New York City after his game experience, Ron sold printing services to, primarily, small to mid-sized book publishers for over a decade before founding RJ Communications with an old friend. Ron recognized the potential of the Internet very early as a powerful communications tool. In 1997 he started one of the first printer related websites, www.rjcom.com, which caters to the professional print buyer. This evolved into www.BooksJustBooks.com and more recently www.selfpublishing.com which target the print buying novice, primarily self-publishers. All three sites are still operating successfully and SelfPublishing.com was named as one of Writers Digest’s, 101 Best websites for writers for 2006.
Educating the novice print buyer has been a top priority from day one. To help address this issue, Ron co-authored the popular title Publishing Basics- a Guide for the Small Press and Independent Self-Publisher, now in its Third Edition, as well as Publishing Basics for Children’s Books, in its Second Edition. He is the organizer of the monthly Publishing Basics Newsletter where he writes a sometimes controversial Ask Ron column which addresses various aspects of the publishing process. On the same note, he started the Publishing Basics Radio PodCast in 2005 and serves as the show’s host. A wide variety of topics are covered including a very popular series titled, The Truth Behind POD Publishing, where he conducts interviews with a select group of industry insiders. Since its inception, RJ Communications has helped thousands of customers print over 105 million books.
Ron is married and has three children. His daughter, Stephanie, teaches second grade and recently self-published her first children’s book in the Oliver the Clownfish series. Matthew, his oldest son, owns a website design business and Erik, the youngest, is enjoying high school.
Posts
- When is BooksJustBooks.com going to offer more book marketing programs to help small publishers sell books?, 11 May 2004
- Did you see the front page article in the Media Section of the New York Times last month about subsidy publishing?, 11 Apr 2004
- Why shouldn’t I first try a vanity/subsidy press until my book starts to sell? They say I own all the rights and am free to change at any time., 11 Mar 2004
- If Vanity (Subsidy) publishers like 1st Books are so bad, why doesn’t Writers Digest , write any negative articles about them?, 11 Feb 2004
- New Year Special - Summary of Compensation in the Publishing Field - 5th Edition, 2003, 11 Jan 2004
- A reader from last month’s “Ask Ron” column states, “I don’t believe that it was fair of you, in last month’s article, to talk about the average number of books per author sold by 1st Books (77 per title). The average Amway dealer only makes $69 per month and there are some Amway dealers who are millionaires. “, 11 Jan 2004
- I am thinking of Self-Publishing my book with 1 st Books. How does their service compare to RJ Communications and www.BooksJustBooks.com ?, 13 Dec 2003
- Can I still get my books printed before the holidays?, 19 Nov 2003
- Print on Demand: A method of printing or a form of distribution?, 19 Oct 2003
- Print on Demand: A method of printing or a form of distribution?, 20 Sep 2003
- Should I be looking outside the U.S. to print my black-and-white book?, 19 Aug 2003
- Which trade customs do I need to worry about when I am dealing with the printer?, 19 Jul 2003
- How did your co-op booth work out at Book Expo America in Los Angeles? Is exhibiting at Book Expo a good idea for the small press publisher?, 19 Jun 2003
- In search of the perfect file: Why are printers starting to require PDF files only for printing?, 19 May 2003
- How can I tell if the company who promises to publish my book is a real publisher or just another vanity press publisher trying to take my money? Do I really need an ISBN number?, 11 Apr 2003
- Is there a difference in appearance between a digitally produced book and one produced by standard offset printing?, 11 Mar 2003
- Questions & Answers about the Publishing Process, 11 Feb 2003
- Questions & Answers about the Publishing Process, 11 Jan 2003
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