Karaoke Forums

We've talked about the best printing method...but what about how often to reprint books?

Do you just add on a "new" section every time you add titles, do you reprint your entire book, or does it depend on how many titles you add?

Also do you present your book in a 3-ring binder with each page in a plastic sleeve or use paper books with plastic covers that are comb or plastic spine-bound? How often do your books "walk"?

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Well, none of my books have ever walked. As for reprinting, don't go by me (because I don't do shows very often), but I have reprinted my books twice over the course of about 5 years. Usually, I will add new additions to the front of my books, and as I add more, I will just reprint those pages. Once I am up to about 40 pages of new additions, then I will reprint my entire book/s.

I reprint at least 1 time per year. New section gets updated with any new disc purchase & this new section gets reprinted with the new songs incorporated, not just a new page added on top of the old.
Have had books 'walk' over the years, can't say an exact figure but it's probably close to 15-20 over a 16 year period.

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Personaly,
I print new songbooks when I see wear, or I deem it nessicary.

Some KJ's are of the opinion they "Owe" their customers a complete inventory of what they own.

I feel a songbook is more of a list of suggested of songs to sing. Granted it is nice to list them all. But I have thousands of songs that have never and will never be sung.

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[font=verdana] I think,reprinting, once or twice a year should be sufficient, depending on how many new addition pages you accumulate. My books contain all the unique songs in my collection. We also have a Master book we keep at the KJ table with all songs in case someone doesn’t like the version of the song in our regular selection, we can look in the Master and see if we have another version they can try. True, there are many that won’t ever be sung but the customer is definitely impressed by the size of your selections. Our books are around 240 pages in plastic sleeves in white binders. We use the type with the plastic overlay on front and seam, with an insert in the front that has our logo and tag line, and one in the seam that says whether the book is by artist or song title. Many times I have heard customers comment on the size of the books, and that we have the best selection of songs. I have been to many karaoke shows in my area, and elsewhere. I am shocked at the condition of their books. To me your book represents your show and if it’s sloppy, dirty, badly organized, what does that say about your show? Your book is your first impression to new customers.

I am going to be reprinting my books soon, because when Johnny and I first put our library on hard drive, we had no idea which disc manu was the best of the ones we had. Right now our Chartbuster discs are in files 7 thru 12, so if there is another version of a particular song in files 1 thru 6 that is the one that is in the book. In the new book Chartbuster will be in files 1 thru 6, and the rest after that. CB isn’t always the best version, but I would say that at least 90% of the time it is, of the discs in our collection.

One of the things I like about the CB discs is that they give you what key the song is recorded in. I am a singer with a limited range and often have to change the key of a song to be able to give it my best. That is easier to do if you know what key the song is recorded in. Or if a singer asks you to play a song in the key of *, if you don't know what key the original is in, how do you know what adjustment to make? I haven't had this happen to me yet, but I have asked KJ's to change a key of a song I wanted to sing.

Why don’t most disc manu’s have this feature.



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Dusty Rose
Blue Rose Classic Karaoke
More Sound! More Selections! More Fun!
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Well after the last mishap and leaving out over 600 songs from my update. I'm tired of stuffing pages. I'm in the process of designing cover pages for my books and will be going sprial bound. For the ease and the price, you can't beat it. This way you can get updated faster and cheaper and more often. I wil still do the 'new songs' adders. I try to reprint the entire new song pages with every update to keep that selection as tight as possible. The sprial bound books can have the cover reused and even the pages replaces. You can expand them. What you are out is a trip to a place that has the machine, but it's much less effort and headache than pulling & stuffing pages. I'm going to try them for the next couple of years and see how they work out....MrD

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[highlight=midnightblue]MrD - KJ/DJ Specialist
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We use 3-ring binders and plastic sleeves. I add music sometimes twice monthly. Previously I had two sections (only because the original section was lost when a CD-ROM was bad and the computer that it was on crashed). However, to reprint an entire book every time I add music would be ludicrous.

How many times you actually reprint books will often depend on how much use the books are getting, and what type of venue. When we were doing 6 shows a week, the books required a lot more maintenance - cleaning, replacing sheets, etc. I have put off redoing my books (and btw, I made a mistake originally thinking more people would prefer books sorted by singer rather than artist - really it is the other way around - more prefer to look up by artist) - because next time I plan on going to spiral bound with a heavier laminated cardstock cover. It's a huge projecti and expensive time-wise and dollar-wise if you go with binders, plastic sleeves, and constant reprints/stuffing.

k

I too, use the heavy duty 3 ring binders ( "D" ring ) with the outer plastic sleeve to insert the "cover" into, as well as the sleeves for the pages. I have the selections listed by artist & title, plus I have my laser discs in a seperate section. Also have a "update" section for "new additions". Because I cater to a specific "genre", I really don't need to re-print as often as most. HOWEVER, due to the age of the books and their present condition, I'm in the process as we "speak". I see a lot of paper cuts in my future.

Donny "B"

BTW: As an "add" to this post, ( if DDK doesn't mind ) how many books, on an average, do you all have available for your shows? Personally, I have eight for the tables, plus my master which naturally has "stuff" not in the "patrons" versions.

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Well I started off with 10, then after not using many of them most nights. When I reprinted and stuffed, I cut back to 6 + 1 master, mostly out of lazyiness and cost I think. This next round with the sprial bound, I'm going to jump back to 10 I believe. What I also love is the space savings that it provides, 1/3 of the space....MrD

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[highlight=midnightblue]MrD - KJ/DJ Specialist
Visit MrD on facebook - mrdsentertainment
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How many? We have 13 books - 8 by song title and 5 by artist, but like I said, I will probably re-do to come out with 10 by artist and 4 by song title with the reprint. We don't really need one at our station because we can much quicker look it up on the computer.

k

I have been re-printing every 4 weeks so far but I have gone from about 1200 songs to 5,500+ songs in the last 4 months. I bought a printer with ink tanks instead of cartridges so it costs me very little.
I will now simply only re-print the "New additions" section which i put at the front of the books each month, then re-print the whole thing every 3 months. I now use a ring-binder folder with those plastic wallets for the paper. They always come back pretty much as good as new.

I would reprint my entire book about once a year; where we put the pages in the page protectors. The new song pages were NOT protected, and printed when we had the new discs, usually about once a month. But that new song stuff was always in order, never new pages with other new pages, with other new pages. No pictures of discs and their labels or disc covers...

I reprint my books about once a year.

I have 11 books.

I've never had a book walk or run away.

I post new songs until they get added to the books. A little sign above the book station.

I average about 3 shows a week.

I have found binders and page sleeves really don't extend the longevity of the books and are more expensive. I go to office max with a disc and have them laminate front and back covers. Then have them wire bind them. I hate the plastic binds. I have the pages printed front and back. It costs about $22 a book.

People are more respective of books that don't have page sleeves and binders. When I used to use them people would put their drinks on them etc... They would end up with mold between pages, Yuck. Using the other method looks just as professional and last longer.

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[font=verdana] Babs, What if a drink is spilled at a table, a common occurrence, and the pages get wet. Doesn’t that pretty much ruin the whole book? I don’t doubt that they look as professional as any other method, but this factor worries me, plus the cost per book. At the most I spend about $10 per book. If some pages get ruined, I just pull them out and reprint those pages on my home computer, as for the mold, I just pull out the plastic sleeve and replace it. I buy those by the case from a gal on ebay and they are pretty cheap.
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Dusty Rose
Blue Rose Classic Karaoke
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BlueRose:

How do you manage to get away $10 per book, especially with this method? Ink is VERY expensive and in the past I have tried printing off books at home - maybe you have a more cost-effective printer than I do? Ink costs were crazy high. Binders new are $6-8 each (for the 2-inch size). We carry 13 books. The cost of the plastic sleeves to do a 200-page book is very high (even though I have, like you, found ways to avoid paying the usual cost of these), and as they require constant replacement, you have to keep a pretty good supply on hand.

I'd be interested to know how big your book is, what kind of paper you use, and the source of your sleeves. I'd be happy to continue with this method if I could get it down to $10/book.

k

I'm not sure that has happened, but I do know I have to wipe off front and back covers sometimes because they are wet. The inside pages don't seem to be affected.
I laminate the front and back covers, so the wetness doesn't hurt the books. If they do get a little wet they dry. Pages that have sleeves on them hold in the moisture and mold. I've seen that many times and it is gross.

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Babs, your books look great. I have been trying to recommend that style, but but people seem to love the binder/page protector method for some reason. Maybe they like having page-stuffing parties....

If you have paper covers, the books will fall apart. But the laminated ones hold up great.

I think people are afraid of doing pages without the protectors on them thinking their hard work and expense that goes into making them will go to waste. All they have to do is try it once and they'll never go back to the old way. I honestly have the experience that they last longer.

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Babs,
I couldn't agree more. I was one of the 'afraid' ones, so I made a couple, just to check them out. The covers are not even laminated, but I'm going to redo them here very shortly too. I immediately fell in love with them. I only did the plastic sprial bound, will check into the wire bound also. I'll never have a page stuffing party again!...MrD

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[highlight=midnightblue]MrD - KJ/DJ Specialist
Visit MrD on facebook - mrdsentertainment
& on myspace - larrynance[/highlight]

We divide our books Title A-L, Title L-Z (and new arrivals), Artist A-L, and Artist L-Z (and new arrivals), there are 15 copies of each book plus a master which includes by disc. We have them printed at Staples at a cost of about $220-250. They are bound in plastic Duotangs with no protectors. If one gets wet we leave it to air out and no damage done. We reprint every 12-18 months, depending on how much new stuff we get and the condition of the books. My photo gallery has pics of them.

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