Products

Besides editing and writing services, Tom’s Touch offers two primary products: a memory photo book; and a slideshow with music that can also include voice and videos. Tom’s Touch has several advantages compared with ordering a photo book online:

• You deal with a human being rather than a computer. This means getting your questions answered, getting your photos in just the right order you want them, getting your photos cropped and adjusted for lighting and sharpness, and getting the captions the way you want them, with some editing backup to avoid potential typos, misspellings, etc.; 

• scanning services for old photos taken prior to the use of digital cameras;
  

• genealogical research help;
• professional writing and editing help with longer narratives; 
  
• a combined package of book and slideshow with the same, partially the same, or different photos; 
• if you get a combined package, the slideshow will be on a disk in a vinyl envelope stuck to the inside back cover of the book, and it will also be on a flash drive in a pouch stuck to the inside back cover of the book. The flash drive will contain eight things: the slideshow; all the original photos; the Photoshop-altered versions of the photos; a pdf of the cover of the book; a pdf of the interior pages; a pdf of both the cover and interior pages together; an InDesign file of the cover; and an InDesign file of the interior pages.   
  
• a slideshow that can combine not only music, still photos, and text, but also video recorded from friends or family members, voice recorded from them or by Tom's Touch, or Skype video recorded by Tom's Touch. These extra audio or video messages from friends or family members can cover birthday greetings (see the sample slideshow), congratulatory remarks following graduation, retirement well-wishes, recollections of the past for an anniversary gift, highlights of a company retreat, special moments from a family trip, etc.
  

• flexible pricing, with the cost per book dropping  as more books are ordered. See options below. For instance, a legacy book capturing a person’s life may go out to, say, 30 members of the extended family, and in that case the price per book would drop considerably because the layout costs are spread over more books and the printing costs are subject to a volume discount; 
  

• professional InDesign and Photoshop software used for the book, providing maximum flexibility, and iPhoto, iTunes, GarageBand, and iMovie software used for the slideshow video; 

• customer retention of control in terms of the ability to change the book or slideshow as time goes on because of the customer's retention of the InDesign file and components of the slideshow. For instance, there might be a desire to change the genealogical component of a book as new children are added to the family; 

• customer retention of control in terms of proofing a final pdf before a book or books are ordered.
  

Pricing

The pricing below is based on the idea that customers will typically want anywhere from five to 30 memory photo books and copies of slideshows, and by ordering at least five books, the price per book drops dramatically because the layout costs are spread over more books. For instance, if parents wanted to give a young adult a memory photo book, each parent could get one book, the child could get two (using one as a backup in case of loss or damage) and someone like a grandparent could get the fifth. If, say, a grandfather or great-grandfather wanted to capture his entire life, or that of his spouse, with a memory photo book, he could easily want 30 to cover each member of his entire extended family. It could include lengthy narratives about personal and family history (including family trees), personal philosophy, and so on. Plus, the grandfather could get all his Christmas presents for the entire family and handle all his Christmas shopping in one fell swoop.


BASELINE COSTS


Memory photo books 


5 books – $49 per book for a book of up to 20 pages, with about 40 photos on those 20 pages (on average, considering some pages with three or four photos, some with two, and some with one). Add $1 per page per book for every page above 20. Includes light proofreading. Assumes all photos have labels showing their order of appearance in the book, are in jpg format, and that each picture already has a caption. Does not include editing for longer narratives, or genealogical research, or scanning, and doesn't include sales tax or shipping charges. 

10 books – $29.50 per book. Same stipulations as above except add 75 cents per page per book for every page above 20. 

20 books – $19.75 per book. Same stipulations as above except add 50 cents per page per book for every page above 20. 

30 books – $16.50 per book. Same stipulations as above except add 35 cents per page per book for every page above 20.



Memory slideshows 


5 slideshow copies –  $39 per slideshow copy, with each copy including one DVD containing the slideshow and one flash drive containing the slideshow. This would be for the same 40 or so photos making up the memory photo book. Does not include any copyrighted music for which a synch license would be purchased (licenses are about $10 to $50 per song) and does not include any additional audio or visual greetings inserted in the slideshow or sales tax or shipping.  

10 slideshow copies – $25 per slideshow copy. Same stipulations as above.

20 slideshow copies – $17.50 per slideshow copy. Same stipulations as above.

30 slideshow copies – $15.00 per slideshow copy. Same stipulations as above.



Memoirs, book editing, and freelance writing –

Tom Locke has almost three decades of experience in the news business as a writer or editor for print or online organizations. His experience as an interviewer can help in producing memoirs.

In August of 2014 he completed the copyediting of a book by Jeff Miller on World War I, with particular emphasis on the Commission for Relief in Belgium (see http://wwibehindthelines.com/book-team/). Here's what the author said about his copyediting:

"Tom Locke copyedited my 400-page manuscript not only to catch my errors but to guarantee the text conformed to The Chicago Manual of Style. I could not have asked for a better copy editor. He is a thoughtful, careful, precise editor who has the experience, the knowledge, and the patience to handle any project. He also offered detailed explanations for all the edits he made. He made my book better than it was, and I thank him for it. (He'll probably copyedit this blurb as well, but I don't mind because I'd trust him with any of my writing!)" —Jeff Miller

When I presented the “final” draft of my novel, A Shot of Malaria, to Infinity Publishing for release, I knew it was a great book but also knew that, as a self-published novel, it would have to be immaculate in order to receive any critical attention. This was an issue that had plagued me since the release of my first book, which had a number of typos and misspellings.
A month prior to approving the launch of the novel, I reluctantly turned the manuscript over to Thomas Locke to proof. His brilliant and painstaking editing transformed the book into a fully marketable work of literary fiction and instilled a renewed confidence in me as I moved forward to promote the novel.
I strongly recommend that anyone in the final stages of their project should consider availing themselves of Tom for editorial touch-up work.
—Charles Souby

Locke has also edited three coffee table books by Fairplay-area resident Bernie Nagy. "Two of my coffee table books edited by Tom Locke won major awards." —Bernie Nagy

And he has edited articles on Park County history that have been compiled into a book by Laura Van Dusen. “I was extremely pleased with Tom Locke’s editing of my first book, 'Historic Tales from Park County – Parked in the Past.'” —Laura Van Dusen

Other products: For special occasions, other offerings include creating custom-made songs and newspaper Page 1’s.

While pricing is estimated on the basis of an hourly rate, a firm estimate is provided to each client, and that estimate remains the price regardless of how many hours are spent on the project. For editing, a sample two pages are provided for free, and a sample of 10-15 pages or so can be edited on a paid basis to provide an idea of quality of editing. A sample photo book page or slide show snippet can also be provided for free.


Steps in the process: 

1. Phone Tom at 720-261-7484 for writing or editing services or for memory photo books or slideshows. If for books or slideshows, establish a timeline to avoid expensive, last-minute shipping costs. 
2. Gather your photos. Print photos can be sent by mail and electronic photos can be put in a Dropbox folder on your computer to be provided by Tom. Have a file name for each photo that reflects the order in which it is to appear. For instance: 1FrankAtBeach.jpg; 2EdithAtDinner.jpg; etc. 
3. Create a caption for each photo (captions should typically say who is in the photo, left to right, when and where it was taken, and what is going on in the photo) and put all captions in a Word document, with each having a label matching the picture it goes with. 
4. Put all photos and captions in the Dropbox file.
5. If you want voice or video inserted into the slideshow, let Tom know who to contact and how to contact them to record them. 
6. Proof the pdf of the book and the electronic file of the slideshow once Tom's Touch has created them and let you know they're ready. 
7. After proofing, pay with cash, check or credit card. 
8. Receive your photo memory books and/or slideshows. If there is any problem that cannot be corrected, there is a money-back guarantee.