Pointers on Self-Publishing
A few pointers on self-publishingC. D. Moulton - author of the Flight of the Maita series
The popularity of self-publishing is growing steadily at an increasing
pace. There are a number of reasons for this, not the least of which is
that traditional publishing houses are swamped with huge numbers of
manuscripts, most written to a formula. It sometimes seems the publishing
business has become so fixated on formula work that creativity and
chance-taking are as good as dead in the venue. They are not making
money, except on books written by the best-known authors and/or memoirs
of famous persons.
Self-publishing, to the contrary, is all about "something new" and taking
a chance.
With traditional publishing, there is a tremendous investment. One
failure can take the profits from several moderately successful works.
The houses can't afford that, so "hedge their bets" by playing to the
formula.
Anyone can self-publish for a nominal cost. You can design your book and
create a .PDF file of it, take it to Kinko's or any other printing
service, and get a run price, then set up a webpage or take the book
around to bookstores or other outlets and do your own sales and
promotion. The only added cost to such an endeavor is the ISBN, which you
can obtain through Bowkers on the net. For around $1,000, what you'd pay
a subsidy publisher, you can be in business for yourself.
There are better ways that run from no investment (Lulu.com, Café Press,
etc.) to about the same price, but they do the promotion (X-Libris, 1st
Books, etc.) but be careful. Check the reputation of the one you choose
to be sure they deliver, and consider more than the cost of the finished
product. Some have what seems like a reasonable price for the book, then
it costs more than the book for shipping and handling, and few customers
will even think of buying it.
If all you want is a few copies of your book to have on the coffee table
and to give to friends, you can use a vanity publisher. You get what you
pay for, and they will sometimes offer a lot of help and advice. You can
also use a free publisher such as Lulu or Café Press, set the book up,
get a lot of advice and help, and spend nothing more than your time. You
can then buy as many copies as you want and either leave the book on
their site to possibly sell copies, for which you receive royalties, or
retire it and never go back to the site again. You can get 10 or 15
copies of a very professional book for around $150, which is 10% of what
a vanity publisher would charge.
You can also publish with an e-edition. Some of the publishers will
produce both. Lulu is a free publisher that allows two sizes in two
bindings and/or on download as an e-book, and there is no charge, unless
you want an ISBN or wish to have a cover designed, etc.
After investigating a number of publishers, Lulu comes out ahead in most
categories. You will need help the first (and 100th) time, and nowhere
else is the help available so quickly and from so many people who have
"been there, done that." The forums, anyone can access, and all authors
and buyers registered with Lulu can use to ask and answer questions. Even
guests can ask and answer questions, and often do. Lulu even allows a
certain amount of flaming against them on the forums (I'm the bulldog who
gets nasty with my replies when I feel they have been unfair or
malicious). The staff feel they can learn a lot about how people feel
about various facets of the operation that way.
A good place to research the better publishers is Piers Anthony's site,
http://www.hipiers.com/publishing.html
After you choose the publisher, you will have to set the work up in a
manner they can work with. Most have their own system, but most will also
take a finished .PDF file. Covers, should you make your own, can be
uploaded in various formats, such as .gif, jpeg, png, bmp, jpg, et al. I
always recommend jpg for the simple fact that it is a smaller file and
it contains no layers to foul up the conversion process.
There are a number of good .PDF converters offered free on the net,
should your program not contain one (Word Perfect and Open Office, et al,
have a .PDF converter built in). Open Office can be downloaded free, but
is a complete program for writing, composing, formatting, layout, and
everything else. It is a very large file, so many will opt for getting a
free converter and doing their writing in standard programs, such as MS
Word.
A very good, easy free converter is CutePDF. You can get it at
http://www.acrosoftware.com/products/cutepdf/writer.asp
When using an external converter, such as CutePDF, be sure the fonts you
use will convert. Many are licensed, and you can set up a document to
perfection, then the conversion comes out in Times New Roman or such,
which is a good font, but the spacing, chapters, and so forth are moved
around to where you have to re-do the entire MS. Bummer!
To test the conversion, simply type a line in all the fonts you might be
interested in using, using bold, underline, italics, and combinations.
Convert it, and look at it in your reader (If you have no reader, you can
download Adobe reader free at any of the bookstores on the net or at
Adobe). Next, print out the page with the different fonts directly from
the .PDF file. If they show onscreen in Adobe and print out the way you
like, they have converted properly, and are ready for use. I find Goudy
OlSt and ZapfEllipt BT to be excellent fonts for most books. Times New
Roman is good for articles and technical work. Many publishers like
Garamonde.
Set the font size to your audience. If you are aiming at young adult, a
12 might suit you well. If you are aiming at 30+ audiences, 13 or 14.
Remember that font sizes do not mean the same thing in different fonts. A
12 in Times New Roman or Goudy is readable, but in BernhardMod is too
tiny to read.
If you are going to set up a book for .PDF conversion, you must set the
printer and the word processor program to the same defaults. You set the
program in the toolbar at format >page. I use a 6"X9" trade paperback
format, and set the margins L & R at .7" or .75", and top and bottom at
.5". Most prefer slightly larger margins, but I want to keep the books
between 200 and 230 pages to keep the price down. Remember that fewer
pages means a lower price for the customer, and people don't want to pay
more than $12.50 for a paperback book from an unknown author. Remember
that there will be a shipping and handling charge on single-book orders
that can be quite high. Margin and font sizes can expand or contract a
book. While we all want to believe our work is worth a lot more than the
price, the potential buyer does not.
To set the printer, go to control panel, printers and faxes, click on the
printer you will use (The printer does not have to physically be there. I
install CitizenPN48 because it will allow a .5" margin, and most will
not. If the printer default is not the same as the program setting, it
will revert to the printer setting, and you have a mess when you try to
print or publish to .PDF). You then click on settings or properties,
advanced, and create and name the size you want. Here you can set the
margins. If they will not set where you want them, you can install a
different printer and try it until you find one that will set where you
want it. You then install the size/margins you have set, and it will
appear in the program under format >page >settings as a click-on. You may
have to reset the margins when you start a new MS, but only on the
program format. The printer settings are installed.
You can set headers here. This is usually done through the insert feature
in the toolbar, but it will vary from program to program. In short story
collection, I prefer to wait until its finished, then set the headers,
footers, and page numbering.
Set up the page layout. You go to format >page> page setup and set up the
size by clicking on the one you want. Be sure the margins are what you
want. They can be changed while you're there, if not. You can set the
paragraph first line indent. I generally use 3, but some prefer 4 or 5.
If you are going to right justify, you can do it now by clicking on the
icon, but I prefer to wait until the document is finished, then to set
page numbering and justification. The processes vary according to your
program.
If you right justify, you should go through the entire document to edit
for strange spaces. You sometimes have to add or change words to make the
density of characters per line close. If there are too-long words at the
end of a line, they will wrap to the next line, so must be changed or
hyphenated so the lines don't look "odd" or too sparse.
Use your spellcheck, but do NOT use the "change all" feature. That can
lead to editors' nightmare when you "change all" of a word like "rod" to
"red" and you end up with your hero, Redney, who rede his horse up to
the hitching post.
When you have the document set up to that extent, you go through it to
place the chapters on their own page. I put new chapters six spaces down,
but some want them higher or lower. Some want all chapters to start on
odd pages (to the right when you open the book.). I use a larger, bolder
font for chapter headings.
I put in the page numbering in at this point, and the headers. Either and
both will change the spacing, so you have to go through another time to
reset chapter headings and so forth.
Set up your TOC (Table of Contents). You have the page numbers now. If
the work is to be offered as download (e-book) you can insert bookmarks
at chapters.
Set up the title page. I put the title of the book, the author, and
copyright on the title page, and the publisher in smaller print center
bottom. The next page will be the back of the title page, and I put a
very short synopsis and a critic comment there, if I have one.
Next is the TOC, which gets a whole page, even if its quite short.
Next, I put an author bio, so the book will start with page 1 on the
right. I start page numbering here.
Then the book.
I like to put a listing of my other books at Lulu on the last page.
Consider that the printer will add blank pages if necessary at the end of
the book. Your pages, including those before numbering began, must be
divisible by 4.
To see how I set up the first part of the book, you can click on any book
at http://www.lulu.com/maitaman and on the preview icon. It is .PDF, so
will take a few minutes to load on dial-up, but you can see what it looks
like.
How you set up any of this is a matter of personal choice. You may want
something entirely different.
Making covers is also a matter of personal choice. If you have a digital
camera or a scanner, it is not difficult, but the original idea may be.
You can access one way to make covers at http://www.lulu.com/pp-lm Click
on it, then on the preview icon, and the entire MS will load. It is a
large .PDF file and may take a few minutes to load completely. Once you
have it loaded, you can save it to your hard drive. Anyone using this
site has permission to copy it.
There are a number of advice articles on the pp-lm site. Fonts, covers,
promotion, and other advices. Users of this site are welcome to peruse
any or all of them. There is a lot of help there.
Now get your lazy derriere in motion and start writing that book!
C. D. Moulton - author of the Flight of the Maita series
