Countywide Guides & Maps, the Indianapolis-based publisher of the popular series of InfoBooks™ for select Indiana counties, offers complete “turn-key” or design/print publishing services to Chambers and area business associations with membership bases from 100 to 1,000.
This publisher, affiliated with Indy’s Odyssey Map Store, has produced over 500,000 custom maps, map books and over 550,000 county profile / data books for many clients:
Eli Lilly and Company – La Porte County Assoc. of Realtors® - Town of Edinburgh (IN) – Elkhart County Government – Hamilton County Government – Hendricks County Government – Johnson County Government – Lake County Government St. Joseph County Government – Greater NW IN Assoc. of Realtors® - Metropolitan Indianapolis Board of Realtors® Lafayette Regional Association of Realtors®
The advantages offered by this firm, which first published its Guide to Indianapolis in 1976, are the ability to provide attractive and informative Chamber of Commerce publications with sponsoring display ad rates that are affordable to many more of your members.
FACT: Our advertising rates for community profile books, membership directories and street maps run 30 to 40% less than what most other publishers charge your community businesses and organizations. In fact, over 92% of the display ads in 50,000 custom tourism brochures, cost UNDER $500.00 each . . and we still pay competitive royalties to the sponsoring organization!
We provide complete turn-key publications (handling all ad sales, photography, cartography, research, writing, and printing) that have critical, useful data / information that are designed to have the “data points” stay fresh throughout a publication’s multi-year distribution lifecycle.
FACT: Our Brownsburg Community Profile has 415 data points of important, useful information. The previous book had only 43 data points . . . plus, we paid higher royalties! If you just want a pretty picture book, please see the other publishers (they’ll do a nice job). But, if you want an attractive community publication containing useful editorial content, let’s talk!
May we have the opportunity to discuss your next community profile, membership directory or community map project? We can help you make these fundraising publications much more affordable for your average chamber members . . . and, we do all of the work!
Please review the product samples, information on our Chamber of Commerce affiliations, and what some folks have to say about us (how we are to work with, and the quality of our publications). If you are interested in more information, please contact Tim Gravenstreter.
Countywide Guides & Maps InfoBook & custom publications
Pictures worth a lot of words and words that work – all in an attractive visual publication!
Photography:
We want your input, and encourage the use of some existing photos from area sources. These are often available (with an introduction from the Chamber) from the local Historical Society, area parks departments, libraries, school systems, and others in the community.
Most of the photographic work in our publications is shot by Tim Gravenstreter, who has been a professional photographer for over thirty-five years. He has taken virtually all of the photos used in the InfoBooks we publish in nine Indiana counties, and has been assigned to shoot covers for trade magazines, as well as pics for catalogues, sales brochures & annual reports.
Visual Design & Layout:
All of our publications are designed by Carla Blackwell of Carla Blackwell Design. She is an award-winning graphic artist whose client list includes North America’s largest decorative calendar publisher, Brenwick Development, and other prestigious clientele. Her visual intuition and tasteful use of color makes any publication she designs both an artistic and communication success. The collaboration between this outstanding graphic designer and our many years in publishing yields books that reflect the spirit of the community, instead of a generic treatment that looks like many other profile books.
Editorial & Research:
With most of the large chamber publishers, the editorial content is “cookie-cutter” . . . one community’s section on education works in any other community’s profile! We tailor each book with pertinent, substantive information on schools in your community.
Writing duties are shared: Tim Gravenstreter has written numerous articles for industry trade journals and publications, as well as regional circulation magazines. Samantha R. Hyde is in charge of all information-gathering, and also scribes editorial content for our publications. Sam graduated SUMMA CUM LAUDE from Ball State’s Honors program, with a degree in English, and studied a year abroad at Oxford University.