Tag Archives: Self-Publishing

Formatting Issues Clients need to REMOVE

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A short lesson today about formatting. Most formatting a client leaves in their manuscript can be removed easily, however, there are a few which can’t. Or, should I say, I’ve been unable to find a way so far. I’ve researched and looked and still nothing. They only way I can think of removing this particular error is by teaching the author/writer or client to not put it there in the first place.

This all comes down to INDENTS.  IF YOU CAN’T USE AUTO STYLES TO INDENT THEN PLEASE DON’T INDENT AT ALL!!

DON’T USE THE TAB – This is easy to remove when formatting. We don’t use the TAB because the INDENT is too big. Also If you end up wanted to go to TRAD PUBLISHERS they will want you to use AUTO STYLES and will reject most things without them. Please make sure you read their criteria for submissions if you do try TRAD PUBLISHING.

DON’T USE THE SPACEBAR – There is an easy way to remove this if there are TWO  or more SPACES. If there is less then it becomes an issue. If you are self-publishing it will mean your contractor (if you contract out for formatting) will charge you extra to remove them. It would be better if they aren’t there in the first place!!

WHEN YOU FIND ONE SPACE AT THE BEGINNING OF A SENTENCE THE ERROR IS TIME CONSUMING TO REMOVE, ESPECIALLY IF YOU HAVE A LONG MANUSCRIPT. EACH AND EVERY ONE HAS TO BE REMOVED INDIVIDUALLY.  

Most writers won’t notice they have them unless they work with the PILCROW SYMBOL, also known as Paragraph Mark (Shown below in the image.

When you use this symbol, it shows you where all your line spaces are, your extra spaces, double spaces, how your headings sit etc. In the next photo it shows you the extra space a writer has left behind. It is something most of us do. Even I have done this. for a formatter or interior book designer, it takes extra time and costs you – the writer, more.

In the last image, I have removed all the single dots you see at the beginning of each sentence so the manuscript sits perfectly. We have to do in and put the cursor behind the dot and backspace… on every single one. If there are TWO or more, it is easy to do and can be done in one go for the whole document.

Do you see the difference?  The SPEECHMARKS are now aligned with the first letter of the one above. This is what it should look like. Your formatter will INDENT your work for you, unless you already know how to do this correctly. AUTO STYLES can be confusing to use until you are using them consistently when you are writing.

Another thing to not use in a manuscript is SOFT RETURN. Luckily they are easy to remove, though make a mess of your manuscript once it is done. Use ENTER only when you do a new paragraph and hit ENTER TWICE if you have a change of scene. You don’t need a line space in dialogue or anywhere else unless the SCENE CHANGES or you have a NEW CHAPTER. Once again all these extra lines need REMOVING and they are done one at a time.

SOFT RETURNS are used on Blogs and Writing Sites like WATTPAD. If you are putting anything from a Blog etc into a manuscript then pleas remove the SOFT RETURNS – This is the little arrow you will see when you have the PILCROW turned on in your WORD DOCX. In the image blow is a sample of what a SOFT RETURN looks like.

These are the most common things we have to deal with when formatting for clients. Yes it is all doable, though if you wish to keep your budget on target then please learn to remove the above errors.

 

Update from Draft to Digital Print!

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Supply Chain Delays May Impact D2D Print

As a user of our D2D Print service, we wanted to inform you of the potential for delays for print on demand services that may arise in the coming months.

Our print partner has informed us that they are preparing for disruptions to various aspects of the print industry, including labor and supply shortages, as well as transportation issues.

Manufacturing supply shortages and labor shortages for the transport of goods are all factors that impact print on demand as an industry and these are unfortunately outside of the control of our print partner. 

Our print partner is implementing steps to reduce the impact of these shortages, such as warehousing materials and working closely with their shipping partners.

We wanted to offer a couple of recommendations to help you prepare and perhaps avoid delays with your D2D Print books: 

Order early—If you will need printed books for an event or any other reason, place your orders as early as possible to allow for enough time to fulfill the order even if supplies are delayed.

List early—If you have any current or future books you will want to be available during the holiday season, we encourage you to get them loaded into our print program so they are available for sale or as a preorder. With the rush we are anticipating in the later months of the year it is likely processing the books and getting them into  the system will take longer than usual.

While printing and shipping delays are a nuisance, we and our print partners are exploring every way possible to reduce the impact. We appreciate your patience as we work through this.

We will keep you updated on any developments.

The Draft2Digital Team

Print on Demand – Publishing a Book!

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As a Publishing House, we watch technology to see how it changes relevant to Self Publishing. We are now getting more and more choices for Print on Demand Books.

Here are some distributors who can help you self publish your book. Do remember there is a lot of work involved after you’ve finished writing. Plaisted Publishing House has an Author Assist Program to help you get your manuscript in the best shape for Publishing with any of the companies below. You can find the Submission Guidelines HERE

Distributors of Print on Demand

One of the most popular was Createspace which closed it’s doors and re-opened as KDP Print. Fair enough they still do Print on Demand, though it seems there are still a lot of hassles for KDP Print to get it right. This seems strange considering how good Createspace used to be. I’d like to know how they’ve messed it up so much. It is one I now choose not to use as a Print on Demand Distributor, though we still use KDP for eBooks.

Then we have LULU. They also do Print on Demand and eBooks. It takes a while to learn all the ins and outs, not quite as simple as KDP Print. However, they print on cream paper…YAY, They have LIVE CHAT along with up to 50% Discounts.  The only downer to many Independent Authors is you have to buy a proof before they will distribute WIDE whereas with KDP Print you can approve with a digital file at no cost. 

SMASHWORDS only do eBooks and it is still tricky. The layout for uploading is pretty easy to use, however, to get the document ready for their site is another matter. They are probably the fussiest of all distributors. The ebook cover has to be a certain size. For the uninitiated, it can be a nightmare of complications. On top of this, your manuscript has to be saved as Doc 97 which very few use anymore. We’ve been waiting for them to update for years.

Ingram Spark is a distributor of Print on Demand. We use this company with several of our clients. They do cost so it is up to the author if they wish to have an account with them.  On top of this, they also do Book Covers differently. Instead of RGB colours, they use the CMYK which you use at home with your printer. You also need to download their templates for the book cover size and make sure you add the 5mm on the top, bottom and the unbound edge of the cover and the interior. Make sure you use margins or your file can be rejected.

Draft to Digital is a great distributor for ebooks. They have templates you can use, however, I’m not overly keen on them when I see the files. Some looked pushed up and without the correct spacing. To us this is annoying. They do a good royalty share.  Today they ran out their Beta Print Book for testing Print on Demand for Authors to try out. We may well try. We’ve already heard about issues…They don’t do wrap covers…yet. We also noted in the email we received that the royalty share was 40% of the list price and they still take off print cost.  Where does the other 60% go?  We haven’t seen or read about this yet and will keep our eyes peeled to find this information. Confused? We are too.

These are the Print on Demand distributors most of us know about. However, Europe is digging in their heels with their own companies. Do you want your Self Published Book for sale in Europe? One site we were introduced to also do translations on a royalty share scheme. I suppose this would be a bit like with ACX and Audiobooks.

There you go…Information on ‘How to Self Publish a Book.’ Don’t forget we are here to help you. 

Thanks for Reading. Please SHARE

Uploading your Self-Published Paperback to Lulu

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LULU has been publishing books since 2002 with over 2 million titles published. Lulu has developed into an outstanding company with many advantages over both Createspace and Kindle which in recent years caused to many hassles for me personally to want to use them any longer.

One of my favourite parts of Lulu is the LIVE CHAT which helps you through the process of uploading your manuscript if or when you get stuck.  It is a bit of a learning curve and I have gathered the images of the process for everyone to use for any paperback publishing with Lulu.  I will eventually do eBooks as well.

First of all you need to create an account using your email address and finding a unique password. After you sign in you’ll  need to click on CREATE to find the image below.

In Image 1 (above) you will find two tabs PRINT BOOK and EBOOK. For this presentation you need to click on PRINT BOOK and it will open to image 2 shown below.

In image 2 you get to choose how you would like to publish your print book.  If you look at the selection you will find they also do hardback covers. Most authors use the Standard Paperback and the US Trade size (6 x 9)

In image 3 it gives you the details of what your paperback will be. It also gives you the manufacturing costs.  In the box it says 100 pages will cost $3.25 USD.  Obviously the more pages the more the cost. This cost is also what the author will be able to buy their own paperback copies at.  You can download the Template, look at Volume discounts and Spine measurements. To proceed to the next stage you click on MAKE THIS BOOK

Image 4 tells you what Binding you have chosen, what Size your book is and what the Interior will be like.

Image 5 is the start of making your book. As you can see you need to put in your BOOK TITLE and AUTHOR NAME and then tell them what you wish to do with your project. The choose depends of what or who the book is for.  Some people may do memoirs or family history books which they like to keep private. Most fiction authors tend to pick the RECOMMENDED so the book is distributed worldwide.  

In Image 6 you get to choose what kind of ISBN you want or even if you want one. Some authors buy their own ISBN and those on a budget generally pick the ISBN from Lulu.com, which can only be used on Lulu.com.

Most distribution/publishing websites you upload your paperback manuscript to will offer their own FREE ISBN to you. You may have your paperback on several sites and they will all have their own ISBN…that is unless you bought your own which cost quite a lot.  Also note if you chose not to use and ISBN then you will be restricted with what you do with your book.  

In Image 7 we have decided to get the FREE ISBN which gives you the barcode for the back of your book and you can also put this number inside your book. You need to download and save your BARCODE to a safe place on your computer.

Now we are getting to the interior of your book.  In Image 8 (above) you need find your manuscript. Click on CHOOSE FILE, hunt down your story (we find PDF is best) and then click UPLOAD and wait for the file to load.  Fight at the bottom you will find the Filename once it is loaded. Make sure there is only one file there and delete any extra or old ones in the instance you have to upload again.

Image 9 shows you your manuscript uploading.

Image 10 Shows the file finally uploaded. It is at this stage you can download the new file to review it at your leisure and check for issues.

Next comes the BOOK COVER. Your graphic artist will have sent you a full wrap PDF book cover or the individual front and back images for you to upload.

In the Image 11 is shows the old cover system. This is where you can upload a front cover and back cover jpegs. Lulu will make the Spine for you. You will need to pick a book style, remove the writing on the cover because it should already be on your images. This is unless you are going to use their template and build your own book cover. As you can see above your barcode is already set. You will only need to add it if you are NOT using their template. You will also need to choose a colour for your spine to match the images you uploaded and put in the book title and author name etc. Remember all images need to be 300 dpi.

I WILL DO A PRESENTATION FOR THE OLD BOOK COVER STYLE IN ANOTHER POST.

Image 12 is the one piece PDF book cover. Like with your manuscript you CHOOSE FILE and UPLOAD. This cover must have the exact measurements of the book it is covering. 

All cover images need to  be 300 dpi images

Image 13 is showing your book cover being uploaded to Lulu. As you can see it works the same way as it did for your manuscript.

 

Image 14 shows your Print Cover is ready to be downloaded and be reviewed prior to proceeding to the next stage.

Now it is time to describe your project. In Image 15 (above) you need to fill in the category, if it has explicit content and also the keywords for future readers to find you book to buy.

In Image 16 – it is a continuation of the page. Every book needs a synopsis or a book blurb. This is a description of what your book is about. Make sure it entices your readers in. Like with the first line in a book, the first line of your book blurb is important to your SALES.

Underneath the description you pick your language, copyright notice, license, the edition of your book and who your publisher is.  The copyright notice will generally use your name. Many Indie Authors also use their name, and small publishing house name (depending on how much work the said company does for them) or make their own company to use as Publisher.

Now it is time to work out the cost of your book. In Image 17 it shows you three columns. In the first one is SET YOUR PRICE. They show you a minimum price (£8.00) and a price they choose of £15.50. In the next column it shows what your revenue would be if you abide by their pricing. From Lulu you would earn £7.73 and from extended distribution you would get £3.00.

£15.50 is a bit high for a book. This particular client chose £10.00 which meant their revenue ended up lower.  The good thing to remember is you can change your prices at any time.  

Also in column one is the DISCOUNT Tab. It is here you can run a SALE with whatever Discount you wish.  Many authors do this type of thing with a new release or during special holidays they celebrate.

In image 18 it is generally for first time customers. You will need to sort out your payment and tax records. For authors not in the USA you will need to fill in a W-8-BEN .  Once the tax info is filled in, email it to the company.  Lulu pay via PayPal which means you end up getting paid once your sales hit a certain target.

Time to REVIEW your PROJECT in Images 19 & 20

This is your final opportunity to check out and review your book cover and book interior online. Download the PRINT READY FILES. It reminds you what your BOOK PROPERTIES are. Also check the DESCRIPTION – usually on the right, for spelling errors and grammar.

Image 20 with the final details. Note you can change the PRICING and LICENSE here as well as who can see the book. Once you hit the next SAVE & CONTINUE it will PUBLISH to LULU and YOUR AUTHOR PAGE.

YOU HAVE PUBLISHED YOUR BOOK TO LULU

What else do you have to do?  You need to decided if you want to extend the distribution to Amazon, Ingram and Barnes & Noble. To do this you have to purchase a PROOF COPY from LULU.

GLOBAL REACH FOR YOUR BOOK

You want to go for GLOBAL REACH? You’ve ordered your PROOF COPY? Then you can move forward. You click on the Global Reach tab in the below image and it will take you to another page.

Your submission will be pending until you have received and proofed your paperback. Once you have approved the book you will be able to GO GLOBAL.  Please remember if you have to make any changes to your book you will have to upload a new copy and order another PROOF COPY.  This is why it is imperative to make sure the PDF copy you download in REVIEW YOUR PROJECT is correct.  

As an Author I have had to order three PROOF COPIES due to something I missed. Triple check if you must.

 

 

FINAL APPROVAL OR CREATE A REVISION. TO GIVE FINAL APPROVAL GO TO YOUR PROJECTS PAGE AND YOU CAN APPROVE IT THERE. oVER THE FOLLOWING WEEKS YOUR BOOK WILL BE DISTRIBUTED WORLDWIDE TO ALL ONLINE STORES.

ALSO REMEMBER YOU CAN BUY IN YOUR OWN COPIES TO ON SELL AT BOOK EVENTS, SIGNINGS ETC.

 

THAT IS ALL FOR NOW. I DO HOPE THIS HELPS. IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS

PLEASE ASK.

THANK YOU!