The Passion of Community Publications

Misty Mountain - Stanthorpe through time.

Last week I loaded six pallets of books into the truck and drove off into the distance.
To make the agreed timeline and make sure their books arrived in good shape we decided to drive Rod Adam's latest book 'Misty Mountain' - Stanthorpe through Time to Stanthorpe ourselves.
We have known Rod & Ruth Adams for many years (since 1999) having helped them produce two previous historical volumes on Noosa and the Gubbi Gubbi people and Noosa Horizons, when they resided on the Sunshine Coast until 2004.
I enjoyed the 4 hour drive. It was a beautiful trip up through Cunningham's Gap with bellbirds in full voice. With the rain that has recently fallen over much of Queensland much of the countryside looked fresh and rejuvenated.
The Warwick district looked particularly alive. I did my business management degree at Gatton College and I was very much reminded of the good years in the Lockyer Valley.
Stanthorpe has certainly matured as a horticultural, wine and beef cattle region since my previous visits in transit to the NSW snowfields in the late 1970s. The energy of the area was obvious.
Helping people and organisations self publish is great fun. People only make the effort and take the risk of self publishing when they are passionate about their topic. Whilst we have become accomplished at taking the stress out of the practical process of print production we are rewarded with sharing the author's journey and their unbridled passion.
Misty Mountain is launched this weekend 8th February. Good luck Rod & Ruth.
Don

EcoBiz our Eco way forward

Environmental Sustainability @ Qld Printing
In the second half of 2007 we became frustrated with the progress of the Queensland Printing Industry in getting a useable environment policy and procedures together. After considerable we believed that the Queensland Government Environment Protection Authority's EcoBiz program best suited our needs. http://www.epa.qld.gov.au/environmental_management/sustainability/ecobiz_queensland/

We are working on the EcoBiz Six Step process
Application form (done & accepted), Baseline assessment - assess
our resource consumption (underway), Site survey - conduct a ‘walk through’ of our business to identify opportunities for improvement, Action Plan - shows the eco-efficiency improvements to be made, Implementation - of ActionPlan items, Re-assessment - re-assess our resource consumption to demonstrate savings.

Whilst we took out the 2007 (Inaugural) Queensland Printing Industry's Environment Award we don't want to sit on our eco backsides in fact we are keener than ever to improve (reduce) our environmental footprint.

More on our website www.qprint.com.au

Environmental Awards

On Friday night 23rd November the Queensland Printing Industry Awards were held at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre in Southbank, Brisbane.

One of the special moments of the night was to be the announcement of the winner of the Queensland Printing Industry's Environment Award. As this was the first time the environment had been recognised as an important part of the future of the printing industry here in Queensland it was to be a landmark moment.

We (Queensland Complete Printing Services) had entered this award having no idea how we might go. It had not been clear on what criteria the award would be judged. It was a bit like enter and hope.

Over the last 12 months we had placed a real emphasis on improving our environmental credentials including signed up for the Queensland Government EPA's Eco Biz program, substantially improved our recycling effort, commenced our 1000 trees project, begun developing our Environmental Management System and a whole of business Sustainability Report. We had also started talking to other green printers around Australia about forming a Green Printer's Alliance.

The announcement came - we had won this prestigious award.

We now look forward to reducing our environmental footprint even further and becoming a mentor to other manufacturers who want to make a real enviro effort.

Visit Us at www.qprint.com.au

Total E-Marketing

E Marketing is a strategy and not a website
These days it seems almost compulsory that any business or community organisation must have a website. Having a website without an E marketing strategy is like having a Yellow Pages ad and placing it in the wrong category or leaving off the phone number.
Websites are essentially passive. They invisibly sit out in cyberspace hoping that someone will find them. They are like the genie in the bottle - invisible until rubbed but with incredible unleashed potential.

Unless websites are optimized (the highly skilled process of getting a website to climb the search engine ladder) and integrated into a broader marketing strategy, they are essentially a waste of resources.

E newsletters targeted to existing clients (and their needs) may well have much greater return than a website.

Blogs can bring people to a website.

These days most of us are time poor. We don't go wandering around cyberspace seeing who has updated their website and if by some stroke of luck this does happen unless the site has good functionality and speed the random visitor won't stay long enough to buy.

www.qprint.com.au

Enviro Update

It’s not easy being green (In Queensland)
Funny Environmental Video

.......but nevertheless we give it a really good go.


We have a long term working relationship with the Sunshine Coast Environment Council and have recently become involved with the Sustainable Business Alliance, our local Shire Council’s Environment Department and have initiated communications with leading green printers around Australia to share ideas and build alliances so as to offer environmentally smart solutions to businesses and government departments who are planning major campaigns.

Don Parry, as the Communications and Planning Manager, attends appropriate conferences and forums, e.g. Global Warming Conference earlier this year. It is also his responsibility to keep up with magazines, E publications and websites in this area whether this is from the printing industry inc. paper manufacturers and suppliers and from the environment movement and government.

This month Don has been asked by the Sunshine Coast Environment Council, to be a judge for their2007 Sunshine Coast Environment (Frog) Awards in the area of environmental publications inc. content.

In the absence of a industry specific environmental program in Queensland we have signed up to the Queensland Government Environmental Protection Authority’s Eco Biz program. We have completed the application, been inspected by the local council’s environment officer and have a baseline assessment booked.

For more www.qprint.com.au

You can't judge a book by its cover

We are often asked by potential self publishers how important is the cover design to the success of my book. It seems to me a terrible thing to have to say to an authors but in certain circumstances the cover is critical to the sales of a book.If your book is going to be sold through book shops, retail outlets or even on a multi listing format website it needs to stand out in the crowd. It needs to be noticed. Unless the cover grabs the potential buyer your contents will not be discovered.There are many components to cover design and these don’t stop with layout or printing. Covers can also be embossed, foiled eg. metalic gold or silver, uv varnished, as well as covered with a celloglaze (similar to laminating) that gives the cover a gloss and protects it against scuffing & marking.There are a number of factors that influence how much the potential buyer perceives a book is worth. Some of these factors are about perceptions of the content but others include the binding method (hard or case bound books are worth more than soft cover or paperbacks), the number of pages or thickness of the book and last but not least, how the cover looks.Our in house graphic artists have designed hundreds of covers. They also understand the practical aspects of cover design like spine width and positioning of barcode.We are happy to help you design a great looking cover for your book.

Q Print helps out Lions Emergency Accommodation

We believe it is our responsibility as a successful business, to be a good community citizen.

A few weeks ago the opportunity arose to help out and we received a letter of appreciation today that said in part "Your donation has enabled our new Keys To Early Intervention in Homeless Services (KEIHS) to establish a computer network. This will assist staff to effect positive changes for people at risk of homelessness" Deborah Spanner, Co-ordinator.

We have recently installed a new (network) hub and by donating our old one we allowed an important community group to install a network.