[Lexicog] publishing a dictionary

[Ronald Moe]

I've never published a dictionary. I got one ready to publish but someone
else actually took it to the printers and handled the finance and
distribution. This was 25 years ago in the Philippines. But I have a
colleague who recently published a small quadrilingual (4 language)
dictionary with a semantic domain appendix. It is essentially a simple
vernacular-English dictionary with a finder list in English and two other
regional languages. So it has five sections. It has 258 pages and is 8.5 X
5.5 inches (21.5 X 14.5 cm). It is paperback and printed on cheap but very
adequate paper. It was printed locally and sells for less than $1 in the
local currency. In fact I think it sells for about half a dollar, which is
affordable for the speakers of the language. The price is not subsidized.
The colleague who provided the technical expertise printed the dictionary on
the plastic sheets that the printer used. So he essentially published it
himself and the printer did nothing but run off the copies and bind it. He
printed 1,000 copies. There are other costs, too, like distribution that you
might have to factor in. It only has 2,500 entries, but he is republished it
now after using DDP to collect words. In fact he is in the process of
publishing eight dictionaries that he has facilitated. Each database has an
average of 20,000 entries, but I believe the published dictionaries will
have something around 15,000 entries. Of course the size and cost will be
greater. He has government and university support for these eight
dictionaries. So he isn't working alone. But he is the lexicographer,
computer expert, and publishing expert on the team. I don't have exact
figures on any of this, but they are close. I do have a copy of the
published dictionary.

 

The size of your dictionary is one of the primary factors in the cost. You
have to decide how many entries, how much information in each entry, how
many pages of front and back matter, how big a font, how much white space
(margins, double column), blank pages between sections, the physical
dimensions of the book, paperback or hardback, quality of binding, quality
of paper, number of copies, method of printing, color or black and white,
etc. Talk to some local printers to see what they require and what their
options are.

 

If you have lots of funding (who does?), and want to publish a professional
university library style dictionary, and can sell 500 copies at $125 per
copy, then you have more options. But you might want to talk to lots of
other people about how they published before making a decision. Some major
publishing houses will publish minority language dictionaries for the
academic community. But the price almost guarantees that most speakers of a
minority language would not be able to afford a copy. So think of who your
target audience is. There are lots more issues, but I'll quit here.

 

Does anyone else have experience publishing?

 

Ron Moe

 

  _____  

From: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
[mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of lengosi
Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2009 9:55 PM
To: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Lexicog] lexical relation

 






Ron,

It's so comforting to hear, "this is exactly what you should do"! I don't
hear it very often. :-)

I understand your point re. dictionary design--deciding what is wanted at
the outset will only help down the track. But I have a practical question:
what kind of budget would one need to print a 'traditional' dictionary with
semantic domain appendixes at the end? How big would such a dictionary be;
how much would the appendixes add? Just curious if you have any experience
with printing such a dictionary.

Paul



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