Publications

Basic Department Description

• Publications is responsible for the development, layout, production and printing of the yearly commemorative conbook given to each attendee of VancouFur, as well as helping to coordinate and print various other assets for the event - these have included things like the badge inserts, promo pieces and pocket schedules, in the past..
• The conbook lead should have skills related to desktop publishing, graphic design, and publishing. It is useful to understand the process involved with printing publications such as magazines, and the capacity to deal with printing houses to have the book printed prior to the con. They also require access to the necessary desktop publishing programs.
• Your job email [email protected] & [email protected] (These are the forward facing “job” emails that get posted to the public and forward emails to your personal VF email. Your personal VF email is what you log in to and use to read and respond to emails.)

Yearly Responsibilities

• The conbook department has a number of phases of development through the year.

Phase 1: Material development (post-con through August or so)

• Write a request for submissions encouraging writers and artists to produce material for the book based on the yearly theme. Set a deadline - Nov. 30 is good, and allows for an extension to Dec. 31 when everyone is procrastinating.
• Review advertising rates and decide on pricing for the year. (Consider other conventions and their ad rates if available - ours are actually on par with many)
• Work with Social Media to get both submissions and rates publicized - start in May or June (or earlier)
• Work with Marketing to gather trade-out advertising from other conventions
• Talk to the Chair/Vice for budgeting and provide a rough budget based on previous year's printing cost plus a percentage increase for general costs and an estimate of attendance - you'll be printing more books each year, most likely

Phase 2: Material collection (August/September through December)

• Actively encourage artist and author submissions through whatever means you like - social media, personal email, cornering them at furmeets and not letting them go until they draw something, etc.
• Encourage Dealers Den, Art Show and Artist Alley to get the ad rates and information to anyone signing up for tables/boards
• Consider having someone actively approach area businesses (restaurants, services, etc.) for ad sales - this is an area we can certainly expand on
• As December approaches, evaluate content and try to fill any gaps present
• Contact printing houses for quotes. You will need to know what paper stock you wish to use, the page count, and the number of books to print. Quotes will vary significantly; get a good collection of them and compare to the previous year's printing costs for a good idea of where best to go

Phase 3: In-House Information Gathering

• After submissions close, start working with other departments to gather material
• Harass other departments regularly
• Can't stress that enough: ride the other departments like a thoroughbred until they pass along the material you need
• You need to get welcomes from chair/vice-chair, hotel maps and information, schedule of events, panel descriptions, GOH information, etc. Review previous conbooks for ideas on other items to gather
• Work with Artist Liaison regarding the conbook cover (if you're using the model we've used through 2016)

Phase 4: Layout & Printing

• In January, start designing the book. You should have your page count and the majority of your information available
• Likely, your programming information will be the last material you get, so start from the front and back and work inwards
• Trade-out ads should be towards the back; generally, paid ads appear further forward - putting them into the section with the panel descriptions is a good way to flesh that out and give the paid advertisers some good traffic
• Unless a decision is made to include finalized dates/times/locations for all events in the conbook, try to have it completed, reviewed by execs and ready for printing at least 3 weeks ahead of the con
• Send to your selected printers at least 2 weeks ahead to give time for printing and potential issues on their end
• Pick up & deliver either directly to the con or coordinate with logistics to get them into storage in a place where Registration will be able to access them for delivery to the event

Phase 5: At Con

• Bask in the awesomeness of your work - you're one of the only departments that has no at-con duties!
• Non-Conbook Topics

Pocket Schedule

• The pocket schedule is usually the last thing done before the event, and usually is done in conjunction with the final printing of the conbook.
• You will need the finalized (as much as it can be) schedule for the con, which is usually available two weeks ahead of opening, roughly.
• There have been multiple options for pocket schedule design - the grid schedule used in 2015 and 2016 is probably the best for an at-a-glance type of reference sheet. It's also easy to do - it's a double-sided letter page folded in thirds and then in half to fit in a badge holder. Highly recommended, but better ideas are always around somewhere!
• Encourage programming to provide the final schedule in a spreadsheet so it is easier to manipulate for what you need. Alternately, build a table in InDesign and fill the blocks in by hand. Slower, but it works.

General Printing

• This can be everything from badge inserts to promo sheets to whatever the chair decides should be printed.
• Badge inserts are usually 4” x 3.5” at final size - recommend getting art at 4.25x3.65 to allow for bleed. Printed through Zoom Printing 2015-2016 (see below). Give these two weeks for printing and delivery.
• Colour promos for distribution at other events are generally 4x6 postcards - they also need a bit of bleed for proper printing, so keep that in mind for art requests. Printed through Gotprint 2016 (see below) AND Vistaprint for 2017 (cheaper and LOTS of sales.)
• Other printing items should be handled as needed. Keep budget in mind.

Your Department on the Website

• Make sure that your call for submissions and ad rates are on the website, and that the website submission form is ready to accept material sent through it.

After the Convention/Before the Firing Party

• Make sure all your volunteers (and yourself) are entered into the system for their hours.
• Update your guide with any new/relevant information/changes.
• A staff feedback survey will be emailed out and sent into the staff chats. Please fill this out ASAP!
• Make any staffing suggestions to the next year's chair. (If you want to work again, staff who excelled and where, etc.)
• If VancouFur owes you money for department spending, PLEASE send your receipts to [email protected] & [email protected] and then fill out [[1]]

Break down of contacts

• Keep in close contact with social media regarding submission requests
• Artist liaison/conbook cover is good to keep track of
• Artist liaison is also key for promo material and badge inserts - if the time is approaching, nudge them to get what you need so it doesn't wind up too late.
• Encourage hotel to have maps and info ready early in the year
• Conbook falls under the Media department - keep in touch with your Media exec

Department Inventory and Ordering Resources

Printing Contacts from previous years

• Western Printers (2016) - Tom Davis, Estimator - [email protected]

• Mid-sized operation - good quality, quick turnaround, good pricing

• Jmedia One Stop Centre (2012-2015) - Jennifer, owner - [email protected], (604) 582-8882

• Small operation - very friendly to us, and was very competitively priced until 2016, when her price went up about 80%; may be interested in getting our business back, but Western is probably better

• Zoom Printing - www.zoomprinting.ca

• Badge inserts 2015-2017: decent pricing for what is somewhat of an off-size for printing. We've had them do 4 batches of 250 inserts with the 4 different art pieces.

• Gotprint - www.gotprint.com

• Postcards 2016: Great price on large batches of the postcards. Shipping is a bit pricey compared to the print cost, but still a batch of 500 postcards cost $55 US so no real complaints, y'know?

• VistaPrint - [[2]]

• Everything from posters, to postcards to business cards, etc. Lots of sales and you get discounts codes each time you order.

• Suggestions for other quotes:

• Monkymax Printing, Burnaby - [[3]]

• Pretty good pricing, still relatively new in the industry, so may be able to negotiate

• Universal Printing - www.universalprinting.ca

• Check with Aphinity re these guys - he has a contact there

• Check with fellow cons - BronyCan does a lot of printing
• Previous conbook specs have been as follows:

• Cover: 80 lb. gloss cover stock, 4-colour, one-sided, full-bleed (consider going 2-sided and selling the inside covers for a premium to cover the added costs)
• Interior: 20 lb. bond, no bleed
• Binding: folded & stapled
• Page count has generally been around 32 - this may change depending on the amount of ads you have (preferably) sold

Do's and Don'ts of the Department

• Do start early with gathering material
• Do keep on your fellow departments to get material in during the crunch
• Do work with groups such as the Furry Writers Guild to encourage submissions and promotion
• Do look at other cons for ideas from their conbooks
• Don't let time get away from you at the end of the process, so you have lots of time for printing, etc
• Don't get discouraged if submissions are slow - discuss with social media and artist liaison to get the word out more
• Do get quotes early to avoid nasty surprises
• Don't hesitate to explore other printing options to find better pricing if needed

Other Resources

• Keep in mind that the conbook is a take-home souvenir of the con that costs attendees nothing, but it is also a good source of information at the con itself. Present the information in it in an engaging and interesting manner, and keep it fun.
• Submissions from non-attending artists/authors are great - consider setting some books aside to send them after the con so they have that in their files
• It would be great to have the conbook pay for itself through advertising, but that's tricky unless we have an active ad sales rep pushing for more paid material. If that happens - great! Keep in mind that you will need to increase your interior page count to accommodate ads, and must go up in increments of 4 pages (one sheet of paper).
• Try to get ads submitted by the client; building ads can be tedious and require multiple proofs for them to be happy.
• Don't be afraid to ask for help!

PLEASE REMEMBER

• Always respond to emails/contacts, even if it is just to say “I recieved your email and will get back to you soon!” / “I don't know the answer but I am looking into it for you!”
• Be sure to contact the Chairs or Admin to make sure you have access to the materials you will need for the year like your Staff Email, Access to any folders/sites with materials, etc. (Be on the lookout for invites or emails to these things and check your junk mail too!)
• Make sure you TEST your new staff email (if any) and report problems immediately to the Chairs! (if you haven't gotten any emails in a while, do another test!)
• Make sure you keep all of your information up to date with the convention staff! Contact the volunteers lead to update your information if the volunteers spreadsheet is not available for direct editing!
• Do not WAIT for someone to contact you. If you have a moment to reach out, do so! Depending on who you are working with, the communication road may not be a 2 way street and you will have to do a lot of poking. Please be proactive!
• Do not edit any staff members' documentation without permission!
• Keep all VancouFur related documents INSIDE the VancouFur Materials folders. Keeping things on your own gdocs and not inside the VancouFur specific folders makes it incredibly difficult to find needed information for all parties without hassling a lot of staff.
• If you need to make something private in the materials folder (Googledocs or wherever it moves to in the future) Make sure that the Chairs, Admin and Executives CAN STILL SEE IT. We need to know where you are and if your files are all hidden we cannot proactively offer help, guidance, or corrections. Otherwise, just keep things public/view only to prevent people from messing with your info.

• Make sure you know who your Executive is! They are there to help you and oversee the branch of departments you are in. Contact [email protected] / [email protected] to check or check the contact page on the website! You can also use the contact sheet for the year