Tuesday, July 26, 2011

The Next Step - Printed Books

Yes, I'm going to kill some trees. I've signed up for Create Space to put 'Let's Do Lunch' out as a paperback, with 'Swallow the Moon' right behind it.

It was a bit pricy for my non-existent budget, but well under $1k.

I would have done it myself, but the manuscript has been through so many word processors I wasn't able to get all the hidden codes out. Even after I pasted 'unformatted text' there were STILL strange little things going on.

Since 'Swallow the Moon' doesn't have these problems, and I have a cover, I'll do that one myself.

The 6x9 template looks good. I'm going for a sans-serif font because I like them better. They either are larger or they look larger on paper. The large page size should keep the page count within reason, which keeps the printing cost down.

The 'Design Team' at Create Space seems to be a nice, knowledgeable bunch. They will allow for 80 changes to the manuscript before there is a fee. But, as thoroughly as we went over that poor manuscript, I doubt we will find anything.

The cover team has a large framework to work with. They have the blurb, the photo of the Deli, my suggestions and my blessing to have fun and get a little 'pulp fiction' vibe going if they want.

Why I am doing this?

Mary W. Walters – it's all her fault. She wrote about The Author As Publisher which got me to thinking. (Danger, Will Robinson, danger!)

Print on demand publishing is the next step. This is the logical time for me to take that step. I've got 16 volumes of Mom's short stories staring at me. I’m sure she's going to want at least 1 printed on paper.

No comments:

The Enthropy in Travel

Oh the pretty cabins! Pretty, pretty cabins! I'm gonna travel to a national forest and stay in a pretty cabin with all the fun things a ...