O'Reilly Tools Of Change Conference, & Changes Afoot For This Blog

Ahem. I lied again about my next post resuming the series from The IndieAuthor Guide, and again I don't feel too bad about it since this earlier post explained how to get a free electronic copy of the entire book during the month of December. And in fact, I've decided that going forward, I'll be alternating editorial/informational posts with posts in the series from The IndieAuthor Guide.

Bottom Line It For Me, Baby Version (200 words or less):

Planning to be in Manhattan February 9 - 11? Consider attending the O'Reilly Tools Of Change Conference on technology in publishing. I'll be part of a panel entitled The Rise of eBooks on the afternoon of the 10th, which is being chaired by Mark Coker (Smashwords, Inc.) and also includes Joe Wikert (O'Reilly Media, Inc.), David Rothman (TeleRead.org) and Russell Wilcox (E Ink). There will be numerous other presentations, workshops and panel discussions of interest to writers, publishers and anyone else with a stake in the future of publishing, plus a trade show and keynote addresses from Nick Bilton of the NY Times R& D labs, author Cory Doctorow, Jason Epstein of On Demand Books, Jason Fried of 37 Signals, Jeff Jarvis of Buzzmachine.com and Sara Lloyd of Pan McMillan. Click on the conference logo above to get more information about the conference. Hope to see some of you there!

(No Run Yo' Mouth Version This Time - Nothing Else To Say!)

2009 ABNA: Horseman of the Writerly Apocalypse?

Okay, I'm delaying the next installment of the series from The IndieAuthor Guide one more time, but I don't feel too bad about it since my previous entry provided a means to get a free copy of the entire book. I'm afraid there's something I'm feeling pretty fired up about, and I've been encouraged to blog on it. Read on.

Bottom Line It For Me, Baby Version (200 Words or Less)
In this year's Amazon Breakthrough Awards contest, first round eliminations will be on the basis of a 300-word marketing pitch---not even a synopsis. No entrant's actual writing will get a look-see unless the entry passes the marketing-trial-by-fire elimination round. This is reflective of the sweeping, and to my mind, catastrophic changes currently revolutionizing the publishing industry to both readers' and writers' detriment. There was a time when the whole thing was about passion: a writer pouring months or even years of his life into a story or idea that wouldn't let go of him, then connecting with an agent who was so touched by the material that she was willing to risk her reputation on it by forwarding it on to editors, one or more of whom would be so inspired by the material to champion it up the chain of command. Now, passion has nothing to do with it. Books are sold to big publishers on the basis of a sales pitch, the same way screenplays are sold to studios. To all those who've doubted the viability of, or necessity for, an indie author movement to match those in music and film: can you hear me now?

Go On An' Run Yo Mouth, I Ain't Got Nuthin' But Time Version (Can't Promise It Won't Go On Forever):
The fact that the first round of eliminations in this year's Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest is based on a 300-word-maximum marketing pitch, not even a synopsis, and no one's actual writing will get a look-see unless it survives the pitch round, is downright depressing. The contest will accept up to 10,000 entries and whittle that pool down to 2,000 on the basis of a pitch, which is described in the contest FAQ as follows:

"The pitch is more than just a summary, it needs to be a well written explanation of what the book is about. Talk about your novel's strengths with respect to how it is being evaluated; Think about the elements chosen on which to judge your novel for the purpose of this contest; its overall strength, plot development, character development, originality of idea, and writing style or prose. Take the time to study your intended market and make sure your pitch demonstrates that you understand how your book fits within this market and how it will identify with your audience. Remember the book should resonate with who your readers are. The Pitch should be a concise explanation of your book and why the reader would want to read your novel."

Considering the fact that my 'Bottom Line It For Me' section above is 199 words, 300 words doesn't seem nearly adequate to squeeze in all the pith the contest organizers are demanding. What the ABNA contest seems to be asking for is an 'elevator pitch', which is the hated yoke of the screenwriter. The idea is, if you're in an elevator with a movie exec, how can you convince the exec to request your script in two minutes or less? All there's time for is a logline and a thumbnail market analysis, like this:

[Title] is a [genre] that's like [recent hit movie or all-time classic movie] meets [recent hit movie or all-time classic movie]. When [what happens?], a [who or what? - species, job title, gender, other concise descriptive] must [do what?] to [accomplish or avert what outcome?]. My research shows [statistic or researched factoid], and according to [reference magazine, well-known website or other authority], [genre or other important aspect of story] is very popular with [demographic]. [Industry person or other respected icon] read it and said [rave review remarks].

Just substitute the word "book" for the word "movie" in the above template, and you're good to go for your book pitch. I have some experience writing these things from my screenwriting days, but the fact that you have to write them at all, or be rehearsed in 'elevator pitching', was a big part of the reason I gave up on screenwriting. It's a soul-killing exercise in taking something you've poured your heart and soul into over months or even years, and boiling it down to an assurance of how much money can be made selling it. Once upon a time the screenwriter's job was to craft a touching or compelling script, and the producers were the ones who came in and bastardized it and dumbed it down for maximum marketing and profit. Now, they expect the script to come to them pre-dumbed-down and pre-bastardized, already packaged like a commodity they can immediately use to forecast sales. Sadly, the same thing is now happening with books.

As anyone reading this blog knows, a typical writer must feel a great deal of passion about a given story or character to invest the necessary time and effort in writing an entire book about it, then edit and polish that book in round after round of revisions. Yet when the time comes to try and land an agent or sell the manuscript to a publisher, the writer is supposed to just shut that passion off like a water tap, adopt the cold detachment of a marketing wonk and focus exclusively on his book's prospects for commercial success. The only ones who do it well are writers like Nicholas Sparks, who BEGINS with brainstorming about what will sell in today's market and works backward from there to come up with a story and characters. Writers like him are focused on the book's commercial prospects from the beginning; they don't write stories, they engineer them. That's why there are so many soulless, forgettable books these days, and why I've gone indie. In an October interview in Entertainment Weekly, Mr. Sparks describes his "process" thus:

''After every book I feel like the well is dry,'' he says. ''Well, that's it! Got nothing. Done. Washed up. Don't know what I'm going to do. Maybe I'll write a cookbook.'' But then he practices his standard method of formulating the skeleton of his next love story. ''Okay,'' he says, getting excited, ''I just wrote The Lucky One. So the next one won't be a military story. I know that right off the bat. These characters were in their 20s, okay, so the characters are not in their 20s. Okay, so if you're in your 40s, what are the dilemmas? Oh, wait, I've got Nights in Rodanthe coming out, and that's a love story with characters in their 40s, so if I come out with a book just like that, people will think I'm not original. Okay, what are the dilemmas that typically face 30-year-olds that I haven't done? Are we dealing with a woman who has put herself on hold for the sake of her career? Very common for women. See, you want something universal. So, hmmm, where does that go? Could be anything. Hmmm, let me do her biological clock. Hmmm, maybe she goes to her 20th high school reunion? Ah, yes, maybe she had a boyfriend? Was he ever married? Was he divorced, is he widowed? Does he have kids? What if this, what if that, what if this...''

Now, I don't know about you, but my own writing process does not begin with market analysis, theories about "dilemmas that typically face 30-year-olds", issues "very common for women," or "something universal". I tend to begin with characters or situations I feel passionate about, then work very hard to do them enough justice to inspire my eventual readers to feel as strongly about them as I did when I sat down to write. Apparently, I am part of an outmoded breed by today's publishing standards. My silly notion of beginning with something I find personally inspirational must appear downright quaint to a bestselling technician like Mr. Sparks.

Clearly, the book business is breaking down into the same two camps as the movie business, with the mainstream dominated by disposable projects and celebrity vehicles that got made on the basis of a marketing pitch, and the independent path being the only route left to people who got into the whole thing because they wanted to tell a story they felt passionate about. To me as a reader, it's depressing, because mainstream books of real quality and depth are few and far between anymore. But to me as an indie author, it's further reassurance that I'm on the right path and that an indie movement in authorship is both viable and inevitable.

If you're an engineer of stories, capable of successfully working backward from market demographics like Mr. Sparks, you no doubt have a fine future ahead of you in the 2009 ABNA and with mainstream publishers. Otherwise, ask not for whom the indie author movement calls: it calls for you.

When The Economy Tanks, It's Time To Publish!

Bottom Line It For Me, Baby Version (200 Words or Less)
The serialized how-to series from The IndieAuthor Guide will continue with my next post. Today, I've got some free holiday goodies to share!

Until the end of December you can get a free, electronic copy of my book, The IndieAuthor Guide (a $24 value), and a free upgrade to CreateSpace's Pro Plan (a $50 value). Indie authorship just doesn't get any cheaper. Read on to discover the secret location of the secret link to get the free book.


Go On An' Run Yo Mouth, I Ain't Got Nuthin' But Time Version (can't promise it won't go on forever):
From now through the end of December I'm making electronic copies of my book, The IndieAuthor Guide: A Comprehensive Reference to Self-Publishing And Managing Your Career In Indie Authorship available for free download via MarketWatch, one of the websites under The Wall Street Journal umbrella. Check out Marty Orgel's piece, Free Is Priceless, and look for the link in the 'Books and guides' section of the article. The book is provided in HTML format, readable in any browser (Mac or PC), so no special software or ebook reader is required.

Lots of us are struggling in this tough economy (me, too!), but lack of funds need not be a barrier to self-publishing. Publishing to the Kindle is free, and publishing in trade paperback via CreateSpace doesn't have to cost anything more than the price of a single proof copy (about $5 or less, plus shipping). My book will show you exactly how to do both, step-by-step. Through December 31 CreateSpace happens to be offering a free upgrade to their "Pro Plan", a $50 value that enables you to pay less per page to publish and earn a higher royalty per copy sold, so there's never been a more economical time to become an indie author. If you've got a polished manuscript that's ready for a wider audience, now is the time to go for it!

Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Joyous Kwanzaa, Serene Solstice, and Happy New Year to all!!!

Build A Manuscript Shell - Copyright Notes, Headers & Footers

Bottom Line It For Me, Baby Version (200 Words Or Less):
The series based on content from my how-to reference book on self-publishing, The IndieAuthor Guide, marches on. In the series, I present topics from the book to the extent of detail possible in a blog post. Note that I'm not covering editing, designing your own book cover, creating your brand or publishing to the Kindle here, since those topics are already presented on my website in the form of free pdf guides. I’ll include links to previous posts in the series here in the Bottom Line It section. So far, I've posted topics on Publishing Options, Rights, Royalties and Advances, What's the Deal With ISBNs And Bookstores, Choosing A Publisher , Getting Organized, parts one and two of DIY Formatting For POD, A Word About Industry Standards, Build A Manuscript Shell - Page Setup and Build A Manuscript Shell – Set Up Front Matter. Today's post is Build A Manuscript Shell – Copyright Notes, Headers & Footers.

Go On An' Run Yo Mouth, I Ain't Got Nuthin' But Time Version (Can't Promise It Won't Go On Forever):

A Note About Copyright
I provide this information here because we've just finished setting up the front matter section of the manuscript shell, which should include a copyright page, and which may be raising some questions in your mind about copyright.

Per the United States Copyright Office, in the U.S. “Your work is under copyright protection the moment it is created and fixed in a tangible form that it is perceptible either directly or with the aid of a machine or device.”

In response to the question of whether or not copyright registration with the U.S. Copyright Office is mandatory in order to receive copyright protection in the U.S., the Office responds, “No. In general, registration is voluntary. Copyright exists from the moment the work is created. You will have to register, however, if you wish to bring a lawsuit for infringement of a U.S. work.”

In response to the question of why a copyright should be registered at all if copyright already exists, the Office answers, “Registration is recommended for a number of reasons. Many choose to register their works because they wish to have the facts of their copyright on the public record and have a certificate of registration. Registered works may be eligible for statutory damages and attorney's fees in successful litigation. Finally, if registration occurs within 5 years of publication, it is considered prima facie evidence in a court of law.”

In other words, a registered copyright affords an author maximum protection in a court of law if he or she should ever need to bring a case of copyright infringement.

Having said that, legal matters are outside the scope of this book and nothing herein should be construed as legal advice. If you are uncertain whether or not to obtain a registered copyright for your work in the U.S., I encourage you to obtain Circular 1, Copyright Basics, from the U.S. Copyright Office website, and confer with an attorney for further guidance. For information about copyright law and enforcement outside the U.S., confer with an attorney versed in international copyright law.

Set Up Headers And Footers
Headers and footers will appear on your chapter pages, but not on the first page of each chapter. This is why you selected the ‘Different first page’ option for headers and footers in the Page Setup section.

In The IndieAuthor Guide, text in the header is right-aligned on odd-numbered pages and left-aligned on even-numbered pages. This ensures the header is always aligned to the outer margin of each page, not the inner margin, near the Gutter. Likewise, in the footer page numbers are right-aligned on odd-numbered pages and left-aligned on even-numbered pages. This is why the “Different odd and even” option exists for headers and footers in the Page Setup section.

Recall that these instructions are based on the use of Microsoft Word™ 2003, but can be adapted to any major word processing program from that year or later. To find the functions named here in a different word processor, just search on the desired item in your program's help files. Also, as with all these posts on the subject of setting up the Manuscript Shell, you may find it's easier to follow along if you open your word processor program in one window and keep this blog open in a second window, then switch back and forth between the two as needed.

If you want the text and page numbers in your headers or footers to be differently-aligned on odd- and even-numbered pages, as they are in many mainstream-published books, you need to insert four placeholder pages in each chapter of your manuscript shell, as detailed below.

Chapter Page, Header Content, Footer Content
1, No header, Right-aligned page number in footer
2, Left-aligned header text, Left-aligned page number in footer
3, Right-aligned header text, Right-aligned page number in footer
4, Left-aligned header text, Left-aligned page number in footer

If your header and footer content will be centered on every page, you still need to insert one placeholder page for the first page of the chapter (which won’t have a header), and a second placeholder page to represent how headers and footers should be formatted on every other page of the chapter. In that event, you can go back and de-select the ‘Different odd and even’ checkbox in the Page Setup dialog.

Begin by inserting placeholder pages, without headers or footers. If you've already set up your front matter per this series, page nine is the first page of your first chapter. Enter the name or number of the chapter and apply your custom chapter heading Style to it. Enter a few carriage returns and a page break.

For header and footer formatting with differently-aligned odd- and even-numbered pages, you must set up three more placeholder pages. On pages ten and eleven, enter a few carriage returns and a page break. On page twelve, enter a few carriage returns and a Next Page Section Break, as described previously. For books with identically-aligned headers and footers, you only need to have one additional placeholder page (page ten) with a few carriage returns and a Next Page Section Break on it.

Set Up Headers
Go back to page nine and select the Header and Footer option of the View menu. The cursor jumps up into the header section, and the Header and Footer toolbar is displayed.

Notice that the Link to Previous button is selected in the Header and Footer toolbar by default---in Word™ 2003, it is always selected by default at the start of each new section you create. Its current setting is displayed in the header or footer onscreen as well. This option should never be selected for your headers, even if you intend to use centered headers, because the first page of each chapter won’t have a header but subsequent pages will.

You don’t want a header on the first page of any chapter. Leave the header blank. The far right button, next to the Close button, is the Show Next button. Click it to go to the header on the second page of your chapter.
The second page of your chapter is an even-numbered page. If the Link to Previous button is selected, click it to de-select it. In a book with centered headers, the header on this page should be center-aligned. In a book with headers aligned like this book, the header on this page should be left-aligned so it will appear near the outside margin of the page. Enter your desired text (book title or chapter title) in the header. Apply formatting options as desired, including desired text alignment. Click the Show Next button.

If your page headers are all center-aligned, you don’t have any more page headers to set up. Click the Previous button to get back to page nine of your manuscript, then skip ahead to the Set Up Footers section on the following page. Otherwise, read on to complete your header formatting.

The third page of your chapter is an odd-numbered page, which means its header should be right-aligned. De-select the Link to Previous button if applicable. Enter the same header text as on the previous page and apply the same formatting, but make the text right-aligned. Click the Show Next button.

The fourth page of your chapter is an even-numbered page, which means its header should be left-aligned. If the Link to Previous button is selected, click it to de-select it. Enter the same header text as on the previous page and apply the same formatting, but make the text right-aligned.

Instead of the Show Next button, this time click the Show Previous button, located immediately left of the Show Next button. Click it two more times to get back to the blank header on the first page of your chapter.

Set Up Footers
Click the Switch Between Header and Footer button, to the immediate right of the Link to Previous button, to switch to the footer.

Again, by default, the Same as Previous button is selected. Click it to de-select it. Insert the page number (and any other desired text) in the footer. Apply desired formatting, including desired alignment. Page numbers will be either centered or right-aligned.

By default, page numbering will display the actual page number of the word processing document. If you want page numbering to begin with “1”, click the Format Page Number button (highlighted above) to display the Page Number Format dialog box.

In the Page Number Format dialog box, click the Start At option to select it and accept the default number setting of “1”. Leave all other options in the dialog set to their defaults and click OK.

On the Header and Footer toolbar, click the Show Next button to go to the footer on the second page of your chapter. Insert the page number (and other desired text, if applicable) and apply desired formatting, including left-alignment of the page number.

That’s all there is to footer setup, regardless of whether or not your footers will be differently-aligned on odd and even pages. Since all chapter pages will have footers, all even-page footers will be formatted the same as one another, all odd-page footers will be formatted the same as one another, and Link to Previous is always selected for a new section by default, you don’t need to do any footer setup for subsequent chapters/sections. Word™ will automatically continue inserting the correct odd- and even-page footers as pages are added to the manuscript.
As for headers, Word™ will continue to insert the correct odd- and even-page headers as you add pages to your chapter, but because you don’t want a header on the first page of any subsequent chapters/sections you will have to repeat the header setup steps for each chapter/section in your manuscript.

An even number of pages (two or four, depending on whether or not you want differently-aligned headers and/or footers) are inserted as placeholders for each chapter/section to ensure the first page of each new chapter/section will always be an odd-numbered, or right-hand, page. This is pretty standard in mainstream-published books, and while I don’t generally kowtow to mainstream conventions this is one case where I do, simply because it’s what readers are used to and have come to expect. Later on, as you type or paste chapter text into your manuscript, you may find the chapter/section ends on an odd-numbered page. If that’s the case, insert a page break to create a blank even-numbered page at the end of the chapter.

The last page of each chapter/section should always be an even-numbered page, and should always end with a Next Page Section Break. After you’re finished typing or pasting in chapter text later, if you find some of your original placeholder pages are still there at the end of the chapter/section, delete any extra, blank pages—but again, make sure the last page of the chapter is an even-numbered page, and that it ends with a Next Page Section Break.
Set up a second chapter/section as you did the first one, inserting and formatting desired headers and footers the same as for the first chapter/section. Two placeholder chapters are enough for the manuscript shell, so we’re done with chapter setup for now.

Up Next: Set Up Back Section

Build A Manuscript Shell - Set Up Front Matter

Bottom Line It For Me, Baby Version (200 Words Or Less):
The series based on content from my how-to reference book on self-publishing, The IndieAuthor Guide, marches on. In the series, I present topics from the book to the extent of detail possible in a blog post. Note that I'm not covering editing, designing your own book cover, creating your brand or publishing to the Kindle here, since those topics are already presented on my website in the form of free pdf guides. I’ll include links to previous posts in the series here in the Bottom Line It section. So far, I've posted topics on Publishing Options, Rights, Royalties and Advances, What's the Deal With ISBNs And Bookstores, Choosing A Publisher , Getting Organized, parts one and two of DIY Formatting For POD, A Word About Industry Standards and Build A Manuscript Shell - Page Setup. Today's post is Build A Manuscript Shell - Front Matter.

Go On An' Run Yo Mouth, I Ain't Got Nuthin' But Time Version (Can't Promise It Won't Go On Forever):
Your book should have all the same front matter as a mainstream-published book. That means a copyright page, dedication page, title page, and table of contents. The page facing the reader when he opens the front cover should be blank. Set a placeholder on the first page of your word processing document for this page, followed by some carriage returns and a page break.

Note that you may find this blog entry easier to follow if you actually open your word processor to a blank document and follow along with the directions, switching between this window and your word processing window as needed.

To insert a page break in MS Word™, under the Insert menu on the toolbar, select ‘Break’. In the Insert Break dialog, select ‘Page break’ and click OK. To insert a page break using the keyboard shortcut, hold down the Ctrl key while pressing the Enter key.

This brings you to page two of your word processing file, which is actually the reverse of that blank page the reader sees when he opens the cover of the book. This is where you will put your copyright information, in the basic format shown here. The print in the image may be a bit small to read, but it’s essentially the same format as any mainstream-published book.

You will notice that the left-hand margin on this page is much narrower than the left-hand margin on the previous page. This is because the left-hand margin on the first page consisted of a Gutter plus a margin, since on that page the left-hand side is where the page will be glued or sewn into the book’s spine. On this page, which will be the reverse of the first page in the printed book, the Gutter is on the right-hand side.

The effect can be jarring when viewed onscreen. Remember that each page of the finished book will consist of two pages from your word processing document: one will be the ‘front’ of a printed page and the other will be the ‘back’.

The blank page directly beneath the front cover is page one of the book, an odd-numbered page. Its reverse is page two of the book, an even-numbered page. When the book is open, pages on the left will always be even-numbered (because they are always the backs of odd-numbered pages) and pages on the right will always be odd.
Recall the facing-pages preview in the Page Setup dialog box. If these were two facing pages bound into a book, the one on the left side would be even-numbered and the one on the right would be odd-numbered. The Gutter will always appear on the left on odd-numbered pages, and on the right on even-numbered pages.

If you do not have all of the information needed for your copyright page (i.e., ISBN, EAN, etc.), leave placeholders as necessary. Just don’t forget to go back and update your copyright page when all the needed information is available. If your book mentions brand names of products or services, add copyright and trademark information about those items to your copyright page, following the format shown on the copyright page of The IndieAuthor Guide. Finally, select all the text on the page and apply your custom copyright Style to it. Insert a few carriage returns and another page break.

Now you’re on page three of your word processing file, which is the front of the second page in the book. This will be your title page. Enter your title, subtitle (if applicable), and author byline as desired, then apply the correct custom Style to each item. Enter a few carriage returns and a page break.

This brings you to page four of your file, which will be the reverse of the title page in your book. It may be blank or display titles of your other published books in an Also By [author name] list, according to your preference. Enter a placeholder, carriage returns and page break as shown here.

Now you’re on page five of your word processing file, or the front of the third page in your eventual book. This is your dedication page. Enter your dedication message about 1/3 of the way down from the top of the page, then select all of its text and apply your custom dedication Style to it. Enter a few carriage returns and a page break.
Page six of your word processing file is the back of the dedication page in your book. Enter a placeholder, carriage returns and a page break, following the prior examples of blank pages.

The next page, page seven of your word processing file, is where the table of contents goes. Enter a ‘Table of Contents’ header and apply your custom formatting Style to it, then the usual carriage returns and page break. The actual table of contents will be inserted much later, when the book is being prepared for print.

Now you’ve reached page eight, the reverse of your table of contents page. This page may or may not have text on it in the printed book, depending on the length of your table of contents. For now, set it up like the other blank placeholder pages, but instead of inserting a page break after the carriage returns, insert a Next Page Section Break.

This is done via the Break menu, as described previously. You’re inserting a section break instead of a page break to create a new ‘section’ for chapter one of your book. This is necessary because headers, footers and page numbers aren’t typically displayed on ‘front matter’ pages (copyright page, title page, dedication page, table of contents) but are displayed on the pages making up the main body of the book. Since headers and footers are applied on a per-section basis, if you want headers and footers on some pages but not others, you must set up separate document sections for each instance of changed formatting. Going forward, each chapter will be set up as a new section in the document.

Your front matter is set.

Up Next: A Word About Copyright, and Setting Up Headers and Footers

Build A Manuscript Shell - Page Setup

Bottom Line It For Me, Baby Version (200 Words Or Less):
The series based on content from my how-to reference book on self-publishing, The IndieAuthor Guide, marches on. In the series, I present topics from the book to the extent of detail possible in a blog post. Note that I'm not covering editing, designing your own book cover, creating your brand or publishing to the Kindle here, since those topics are already presented on my website in the form of free pdf guides. I’ll include links to previous posts in the series here in the Bottom Line It section. So far, I've posted topics on Publishing Options, Rights, Royalties and Advances, What's the Deal With ISBNs And Bookstores, Choosing A Publisher , Getting Organized, parts one and two of DIY Formatting For POD, and A Word About Industry Standards. Today's post is part one of how to set up a Manuscript Shell - Page Setup.

Go On An' Run Yo Mouth, I Ain't Got Nuthin' But Time Version (Can't Promise It Won't Go On Forever):
A manuscript shell is to your manuscript what framing is to a house: it provides a consistent structure to the overall project. The shell is where you set up all the necessary formatting options for text and the manuscript in general. It’s a lengthy pain setting up the manuscript shell, but you only have to do it once and manuscripts created in the shell will automatically be properly formatted for POD as you work. After the shell is created, save it for use as a template: each time you begin a manuscript, open the shell and “Save As” under a new filename.
Begin by opening a new, blank document and doing a “Save As” with your desired filename. Save frequently as you work on setting up the shell.

Create Custom Styles
Make a list of the Styles you will need, select a name for each one, and create them as described in my previous post, DIY Formatting For POD, Pt. 2. If you need a refresher course on Styles, refer to Part One of DIY Formatting for POD.

Modify Page Setup
In MS Word™ go to File > Page Setup to access the Page Setup dialog. If you are using a different word processor and don’t know where to set options like margins, paper orientation (i.e. landscape vs. portrait), search your program’s help files for “page setup”. Instructions here continue with MS Word™, but you should be able to set all the same options in your program. If you are using MS Word™, you may find it helpful to open the program to a blank document and follow along with these instructions as you read, since I was unable to get properly-formatted screen shots to display on this blog.

The Page Setup dialog has three tabs: Margins, Paper and Layout. When setting your top and bottom margins, bear headers and footers in mind. If you will have headers and footers—and most books do, even if only for page numbering—be sure to make headers and footers wide enough to allow for spacing between the header/footer and adjacent text. Your text should not butt right up against your headers or footers.

Before changing anything else, in the Pages section select “Mirror margins”. This will make the margins on facing pages mirror images of one another, and alters some options in the dialog. Left and Right margin names are changed to Inside and Outside respectively, the Gutter position drop-down is locked, and instead of one page, the dialog displays two facing pages at the bottom.

Now you can set your inside and outside margins. Take a book of the same dimensions and type as your intended book (i.e., trade paperback novel, training manual, etc.) off your shelf and measure its margins. Note that margins are sized up or down incrementally for different page sizes. The IndieAuthor Guide has 1” margins, but that would be much too wide for a mass-market paperback-sized book. In trade paperbacks, I set margins of ½”.
Inside and outside margins are generally set to the same width. Don’t worry about making the inside margin wider to account for the binding, because the Gutter setting will handle that.

Because hardcover and paperback books do not lie flat when they’re opened, a certain amount of empty space is needed between the book’s spine and the text on each page, to account for the part of the page that’s hidden by the binding. The Gutter setting allows you to specify how much empty space you want in that area of each page, between the spine and the inside margin.

The dimensions, page count and purpose of your book will determine the appropriate Gutter width. A large-format book will open a little bit wider than a small-format book, exposing more of the Gutter area to the reader. A thin book will open wider than a thick one as well, also exposing more of the Gutter.

Get a book of the same approximate size and thickness as your intended book and open it to a page somewhere near the middle, as if to read. Tilt the top of the book down so you can see the top edge of the spine, and measure the distance between the spine and visible inner edge of the printed pages—in other words, measure how much of each page is invisible because it’s curved inward, toward the spine. That distance is the width of the Gutter, and in mainstream books with glued bindings, it’s often too narrow.

If you’ve ever had to forcibly flatten an open book in order to more easily see the text closest to the spine, you know how annoying it is to the reader when Gutters are too narrow. Moreover, flattening a book in such a way can crack a glued binding, resulting in loose or even lost pages. If you want to make the reader comfortable and increase the chance your book will survive its first reading, be generous with your Gutters.

The purpose of your book comes into play when you imagine how the book is most likely to be positioned when the buyer is reading it. Books that are read for pleasure will be held in the reader’s hands, but in a how-to book like The IndieAuthor Guide, the reader will frequently need to lay the book open on a desk or table and refer to it as she follows a step-by-step procedure. Knowing this, I set the Gutter for this book to 1”. This, together with my 1” inner margin, makes the distance from the spine to the inner edge of my text a whopping 2”. The book still won’t lay perfectly flat on a desk or table, but the reader should have no difficulty reading right up to the inner margin when she glances up from her computer to look at it.

Try setting your Gutter to .5, or ½”. Notice that the facing-pages image at the bottom of the dialog now displays the gutter as shaded margins along the inner edge of each page.

In the Preview section at the bottom of the dialog, leave the ‘Apply to’ dialog box set to its default value of ‘Whole document’. Click the ‘Paper’ tab to open the Paper options dialog.

All you need to set on this tab is ‘Paper size’, at the top of the dialog, by manually entering your desired page height and width. If your book will be a ‘perfect bound’ paperback, in which the pages of the book are flush with the edges of the cover, set the paper size to your intended book’s dimensions (i.e., 6x9” for trade paperback).
If your book will be a hardcover, you will need to consult your publisher/printer to learn the correct paper size for your book’s dimensions.

The facing-pages preview at the bottom of the dialog will display a rough approximation of how your margin and gutter options will be applied to pages of the size you’ve specified, so if something looks screwy in that little picture you may need to go back to the Margins tab and make adjustments. When you’re satisfied with the preview image, click the Layout tab.

For most books, the only settings to be altered here are in the Headers and Footers section. Click on the checkboxes next to ‘Different odd and even’ and ‘Different first page’ to select them.

If yours is a poetry book, cartoon collection or other type of book with ‘alternative’ page layout, you may want to set ‘Vertical alignment’ in the Page section to Center instead of its default value of Top.

Click the OK button, and you’re done with the Page Setup dialog.

Up Next: Building a Manuscript Shell – Set Up Front Section

A Word About Industry Standards

Bottom Line It For Me, Baby Version (200 Words Or Less):
The series based on content from my how-to reference book on self-publishing, The IndieAuthor Guide, marches on. In the series, I present topics from the book to the extent of detail possible in a blog post. Note that I'm not covering editing, designing your own book cover, creating your brand or publishing to the Kindle here, since those topics are already presented on my website in the form of free pdf guides. I’ll include links to previous posts in the series here in the Bottom Line It section. So far, I've posted topics on Publishing Options, Rights, Royalties and Advances, What's the Deal With ISBNs And Bookstores, Choosing A Publisher , Getting Organized and parts one and two of DIY Formatting For POD. Today's post is A Word About Industry Standards.


Go On An' Run Yo Mouth, I Ain't Got Nuthin' But Time Version (Can't Promise It Won't Go On Forever):
You may have noticed that a lot of published books look alike in terms of layout and the Styles they employ, and this is due to ‘industry standard’ formatting. Each different “imprint”, or subsidiary, of a big, mainstream publisher will have its standard font, layout and sometimes even cover design. Rules and guidelines dictate everything from line spacing to header and footer height. About the only place you see much variety in the look of published books anymore is children’s books, in which more creative layouts and unusual fonts are still acceptable.

There are plenty of how-to books and articles out there admonishing indie authors to school themselves on industry standards, and strictly apply those standards to their self-published books in order to avoid an “amateurish” look. Not surprisingly, I do not share this viewpoint.

First of all, nobody but publishing professionals know the industry standards for book formatting. The general public may be aware that books from a given imprint all look sort of the same, but they don’t know or care why. The general public judges the professionalism of a book by the quality of its binding and cover, and the readability of its content. The average reader will not discard a book in disgust, exclaiming, “Verdana isn’t an industry standard font!”

Secondly, industry standards were established around mechanical typesetting, before the digital age began. In those days, each letter and character of text was carved into a tiny metal or wooden block, and the blocks were all laid out in a frame to create a massive stamp of each page of text to be printed. The entire frame could be inked and then stamped onto a page. Publishers and typesetters didn’t think of fonts as design elements, or experiment with different fonts, because the process of creating a whole new set of those tiny blocks was very expensive and time-consuming. Similarly, in the old days line spacing was built into the frames used to hold the tiny character blocks. Access to a variety of line-spacing options required a variety of different frames, and this was another expense to be avoided. When digital design came along a whole plethora of fonts and page layout options followed, yet the moldy oldies still dominate in mainstream publishing—not because of any inherent superiority but because mainstream publishers are used to them, and loathe to change.

Finally, as any graphic designer will tell you, fonts and layout can be used to convey something about their content. Anyone who’s ever chosen a font for a sign, greeting card, banner or scrapbook knows this is true. Not all fonts are appropriate for use in a book, because not all fonts are designed with easy legibility uppermost in mind. However, if you want to use Euphemia for your futuristic sci-fi book, Garamond for your romance, or Goudy Old Style for your circa 1880’s mystery, why shouldn’t you? If you want to use Bauhaus 93 just for the chapter headings of your 1970’s era chick-lit, why not?

Where your mainstream-published peers are stuck with boring Times New Roman and the like, as an indie author you can utilize fonts to enhance the reader’s overall experience. As long as the font is easy to read and not so busy or design-heavy that it will fatigue the eyes when laid out in paragraphs, there’s no reason not to choose a font that evokes the mood you’re after.

Similarly, your chosen font may be too small in a standard, 10-point size, or easier to read with line spacing slightly greater than industry standards dictate. Many readers find the usual 10-point, narrowly-spaced lines of the typical mass-market paperback hard on the eyes, but don’t really need a large-print edition. I generally work with non-standard fonts in a size larger than industry standard with 1.5 line spacing, and readers have specifically complimented the superior readability of my books. If you are publishing to an eBook format other than pdf however, you should only use HTML-compliant fonts.

Up Next: Build A Manuscript Shell

DIY Formatting For POD, Pt. 2

Bottom Line It For Me, Baby Version (200 Words Or Less):
The series based on content from my how-to reference book on self-publishing, The IndieAuthor Guide, marches on. I can't just copy and paste everything from the manuscript, because the thing is 300pp long and heavily illustrated besides. But I will present topics from the book to the extent of detail possible in a blog post. Note that I'm not covering editing, designing your own book cover, creating your brand or publishing to the Kindle here, since those topics are already presented on my website in the form of free pdf guides. I’ll include links to previous posts in the series here in the Bottom Line It section. So far, I've posted topics on Publishing Options, Rights, Royalties and Advances, What's the Deal With ISBNs And Bookstores, Choosing A Publisher , Getting Organized and part one of DIY Formatting for POD. Today's post is part two of DIY Formatting For POD.

Go On An' Run Yo Mouth, I Ain't Got Nuthin' But Time Version (Can't Promise It Won't Go On Forever):
This is part two of the section on DIY Formatting for POD, so if you haven't already done so, you should begin by reading part one.

I attempted to create a blog entry to cover this section from the book, but it's very dependent on screen shot illustrations and the text just doesn't make sense without them. However, since I promised you an entry on Creating Custom Styles, I've saved that portion of the manuscript (with illustrations) here for you in pdf format.

Up Next: About Industry Standards

The IndieAuthor Guide - Now Available In Kindle Edition

Bottom Line It For Me, Baby Version (200 words or less):
We interrupt your regularly-scheduled installment in The IndieAuthor Guide series for this important announcement: The IndieAuthor Guide is now available in an edition specially revised and updated for the Kindle.

Don't worry your pretty heads, the installment series will continue as usual within a week.


Go On An' Run Yo Mouth, I Ain't Got Nuthin' But Time Version (can't promise it won't go on forever):

The IndieAuthor Guide: A Comprehensive Reference to Self-Publishing And Managing Your Career In Indie Authorship

At long last, The IndieAuthor Guide is available in an edition specially revised and updated for the Kindle. Where hyperlinks appeared in the trade paperback edition, those links have been embedded (made clickable) in the Kindle edition. Also, the section on dealing with graphics when publishing for the Kindle has been greatly expanded, since it's assumed anyone who buys the Kindle edition of the book is probably planning to publish his or her own work in Kindle format. Finally, all the images from the trade paperback edition remain intact in the Kindle edition.

This was not at all easy to accomplish, and now I understand completely why there are so few illustrated Kindle titles available. Even though I detail the steps necessary to preserve graphics in a Kindle edition in my book, moderate to advanced HTML skills are required. I'm a retired software engineer with many years' experience programming in HTML and it still took me five tedious, frustrating days (and nights!) of editing, tinkering and trial-and-error to get all the images to show up where and how I wanted them.

If you're intending to publish an illustrated manuscript for the Kindle but lack solid HTML skills, I recommend you consider eliminating the images altogether before you publish for the Kindle. If your book simply won't work without the images, you only have two options: either forgo a Kindle edition or hire a consultant to do the conversion for you.

DIY Formatting for POD

Bottom Line It For Me, Baby Version (200 Words Or Less):
The series based on content from my how-to reference book on self-publishing, The IndieAuthor Guide, marches on. I can't just copy and paste everything from the manuscript, because the thing is 300pp long and heavily illustrated besides. But I will present topics from the book to the extent of detail possible in a blog post. Note that I'm not covering editing, designing your own book cover, creating your brand or publishing to the Kindle here, since those topics are already presented on my website in the form of free pdf guides. I’ll include links to previous posts in the series here in the Bottom Line It section. So far, I've posted topics on Publishing Options, Rights, Royalties and Advances, What's the Deal With ISBNs And Bookstores, Choosing A Publisher and Getting Organized. Today's post is part one of DIY Formatting For POD. The text is taken directly from The IndieAuthor Guide, but illustrations had to be left out because I can't get them properly aligned with my text on this blog.

Go On An' Run Yo Mouth, I Ain't Got Nuthin' But Time Version (Can't Promise It Won't Go On Forever):
If you’re using a vanity or subsidy publisher, you don’t need these formatting instructions because your publisher will either do the formatting for you or provide its own, very specific formatting requirements. This chapter explains how to format your book by yourself for print through a POD or eBook publisher. You may be familiar with standard formatting conventions for manuscripts to be submitted to an agent or editor, but formatting for POD is entirely different. The manuscript you submit for print must be formatted as print “galleys”: pages that look exactly how they should look in the published book. Therefore, it’s up to you to ensure everything from page dimensions to headers and footers are properly formatted before sending your manuscript off for print.

The keys to success with formatting a proof manuscript are minimalism and consistency. Use as few different formatting options as possible, and apply them consistently. Ideally, you should start with a pre-formatted document “shell” so that your pages will be properly formatted as you write, but you can also set up a shell, copy text from your existing manuscript and paste it into the shell as ‘unformatted text’ so that it will acquire the correct formatting from the shell.

In this post, I’ll be going through the steps needed to build and use a manuscript shell in Microsoft Word™ 2003. All the program features and options shown should be available in any word processing program from that year or later, and since MS Word™ has been the leading word processing program for decades most other word processors are designed to mimic Word’s interface and layout. If your word processor is substantially different, you’ll have to consult your program’s menus and help files to locate the features shown and learn how to use them.

Styles
Every modern word processing program has ‘Style’ functions built into it. Styles are a way of storing formatting options, such as font size, line spacing and so on, so you can easily apply all those same options to other sections of text with a single click. In Microsoft Word™, Styles are accessed under the Format menu.
When you open a new, blank document in your word processor, certain default Styles are already assigned to the document. If you just start typing into your document, the default Styles specify what font face and font size will be used, among other things. Clicking on the Styles and Formatting menu item in MS Word™ 2003 will display a list of all Styles currently available for use in the document.

Mousing over a Style in the list pops up a little box displaying all the formatting options being used in that Style. For example, the "Normal" Style is defined as Times New Roman, 12 point text, using English language conventions (i.e., no umlauts or Chinese characters will be needed), with text left-aligned, lines single-spaced, and widow/orphan control (explained in The IndieAuthor Guide to Editing) turned on. Style names are displayed with their respective formatting options applied, to give you a preview of how your text will look when each Style is used. For example, the Heading Style names are all displayed in boldface because each of those Styles applies boldface to text.

Three Heading Styles are available in the default list; Headings are formatted differently from ordinary text, and are intended for use as chapter and section headings in a document’s Table of Contents. In Word™, when you insert a Table of Contents (instructions to be provided later in this series) the program locates every piece of text with a Heading Style applied to it and includes that text in the Table of Contents. The Clear Formatting command appears above the listed Styles. Using Styles in Word™ is simple: just highlight the text you want formatted, then click the Style containing the formatting options you want. However, it’s obvious that this only works if there’s an applicable Style containing all your desired formatting options in the list.

People who don’t know how to use Styles apply formatting changes to the text in their documents “on the fly,” meaning as they go, by selecting the text they want to change and applying their desired formatting manually through use of the toolbar (i.e., 'bold' and 'italics' buttons) or formatting menu. Each time the user does this, Word™ stores the chosen formatting options as a new Style and adds that Style to the list. The newly-created Style is named in the list like this:
[name of Style before changes] + [list of changes applied, in order applied]

For example, if you select text formatted as the default, Normal Style and apply boldface and italics to it using toolbar buttons, the new Style will be named:
Normal + bold + italics

If you applied the italics first, then the boldface, the new Style would be named:
Normal + italics + bold

As you can imagine, it’s easy to quickly build up a huge number of differently-named Styles, many of which are duplicates in terms of the formatting changes they apply. The on-the-fly approach is fine for personal documents, letters, notes to yourself and the like, but not for a word processing file to be submitted to a POD publisher. This is because the publisher must convert word processing files into a format that’s readable by their printing programs and equipment.

You probably know that some computer programs place a limit on how many characters you can use for a filename; similarly, POD publishers’ conversion tools have internal limits on how many characters of a Style name they can read. If a given document has four different Styles that all begin with “Normal + bold + italics,” each of which goes on to set different options for line spacing, indenting, font face or anything else, the publisher’s file converter may not ‘read’ beyond “italics” in the Style names. It will assume that all four Styles are the same, ignore the latter three ‘duplicates’ and apply only the first instance of “Normal + bold + italics” to all the text that was originally formatted using four different Styles. It will still apply all the formatting options specified by that first Style, it won’t stop at “italics,” but any formatting changes applied by the latter three Styles will be lost and you’ll get an unpleasant surprise in the proof copy.

It’s far better to determine all the different formatting required in your manuscript ahead of time and create differently-named Styles for each. Note that if you only intend to publish in eBook formats other than pdf (i.e., prc, pdb, lrf, html, Kindle), you should keep the number of Styles you use to a minimum and keep them very simple, because when you’re done formatting you will have to convert your finished document into the desired format(s) and all but the most basic formatting options will be lost.

What About PDF Files?
Some POD publishers accept pdf file submissions in addition to, or instead of, word processing files (i.e., .doc, .txt. .rtf, etc.). In that case, no file conversion is needed at the publisher’s end. Their processing programs and equipment print the pdf file exactly as-is, so you can feel confident your published book will look exactly like the pdf file you submitted. However, turning a word processing file into a pdf is also a file conversion process. A pdf file is essentially a series of images; it’s as if the pdf maker program takes a photograph of each page in the source document and assembles all those pictures into a single file. The pdf file looks just like the word processing source file, but you can’t edit it with a word processor. The pdf file is also a lot smaller than the source file in terms of bytes, because it doesn’t contain all the behind-the-scenes formatting details and instructions that were present in the source file.

There are many pdf maker programs, and some of them are available online as a free download. Do an internet search on “pdf maker” + free to find them. Open Office™, a free, open-source alternative to Microsoft Office™, includes pdf maker functionality right inside all its programs. The granddaddy of them all is Adobe Acrobat™, the first pdf maker invented. Adobe™ distributes its Acrobat Reader™ software free of charge, but that program can only read pdf files. The full Acrobat™ program is needed to create pdf files. Every pdf maker program creates pdf files, but they don’t all use the same file conversion process. Some don’t take source file Styles into account, but those that include a feature enabling the user to convert pdf files back into word processing files might. Adobe Acrobat’s™ conversion engine generally disregards Styles, but it sometimes falters with heavily-formatted documents due to the large amount of data in the file. This isn’t necessarily a problem with the Acrobat™ program itself, but with the demands it makes on your computer’s processing power. Formatting your word processing document through the use of a small number of consistently-applied Styles keeps file size to a minimum.

Up Next: DIY Formatting For POD Pt. 2, Creating Custom Styles

Getting Organized

Bottom Line It For Me, Baby Version (200 Words Or Less):
The series based on content from my how-to reference book on self-publishing, The IndieAuthor Guide, marches on. I can't just copy and paste everything from the manuscript, because the thing is 300pp long and heavily illustrated besides. But I will present topics from the book to the extent of detail possible in a blog post. Note that I'm not covering editing, designing your own book cover, creating your brand or publishing to the Kindle here, since those topics are already presented on my website in the form of free pdf guides. I’ll include links to previous posts in the series here in the Bottom Line It section. So far, I've posted topics on Publishing Options, Rights, Royalties and Advances, What's the Deal With ISBNs And Bookstores, and Choosing A Publisher. Today's post is about Getting Organized.

Go On An' Run Yo Mouth, I Ain't Got Nuthin' But Time Version (Can't Promise It Won't Go On Forever):
Keeping your digital work organized is a critical but often overlooked step in successful authorship. As you work on a manuscript, you need your research, notes and drafts at your fingertips. When you begin iterations of revision, you need to keep tabs on the feedback you receive and make sure that feedback is readily available when you need it. After the manuscript is completely polished, proofed, and “locked” against further changes, you need to maintain separate ‘containers’ to hold the files for each type of release you intend to make available (i.e., POD, eBook, Kindle edition, etc.). Finally, you will want to archive all the files related to former works in progress, as you never know when those notes and ideas will come in handy as you work on some future project.

Hard Drive Housekeeping
It’s essential to set up an organized filing system for all of the writing-related files on your computer. This will save you a great deal of time and energy in the future, when any file related to any one of your manuscripts will be easy to locate with just a few mouse clicks. A well-organized, centrally-located filing system also simplifies and speeds the backup process---which of course, you’re doing regularly, right?

The question of specifically how to organize your files is a matter of personal preference, and what makes sense to you. Most people will have a top-level folder called “Writing,” “Manuscripts,” or something similar. Beneath that, some will create a separate folder for each different manuscript, using the manuscript’s title as the folder name, and then create sub-folders within each manuscript folder to hold each different type of file: rough drafts, notes and research, proofs, eBook versions, etc. Others will prefer to create folders for each different file type within the main, “Manuscripts” folder, and then place files for each different manuscript within the file type folders: all proof versions in the ‘Proofs’ folder, all eBook versions in the ‘eBooks’ folder, etc. etc. My own filing system is a combination of the two.

Within my Writing folder, I have a folder for Completed Manuscripts, Published Manuscripts and Works In Progress (WIPs). Within the Completed Manuscripts, Published Manuscripts and WIPs folders, there are subfolders for each manuscript. Within the Published MSs folder, there are subfolders for each different publisher/format. I also have a Web Presence – Promotion folder with subfolders to store all documents, notes and information related to my websites and promotional activities, organized by promotional activity type (i.e., a folder for press releases, one for each blog, one for my main website, etc.).

Within each manuscript folder in the Completed MSs and WIPs folders, I have subfolders for Correspondence, Current Version (for the most recent version of the manuscript, or in the case of published manuscripts, the final version), Drafts, Excerpts, Graphics (for cover art or any images appearing in the manuscript), Notes (for workshopping feedback) and Research. In setting up your own filing system, try to think in terms of how you will most often search for items it contains in the future.

Email Housekeeping
Just as on your hard drive, a logical, tidy email filing system will save you a lot of time and headaches when you’re desperate to locate a specific note, name or contact information. Just as with your hard drive filing system, your email filing system should be organized in a way that makes sense to you, but there are some overall guidelines that will probably make sense for everyone.

Typically, you correspond with many of the same people about all your different works and it may initially seem like a good idea to set up a separate folder for each of those people, containing all emails you send to, and receive from, each individual. However, if you set up your email files this way, when you need to find a specific email from Susan Editor about your My Super Fantastic Career manuscript it may not be easy to locate among all the other emails from Susan Editor pertaining to all your other manuscripts. I suggest creating a separate folder for each manuscript and storing all relevant correspondence accordingly. Separate folders can also be created for correspondence not specifically related to any particular manuscript. And don’t forget, you need to periodically archive and back up your email too!

At this point in The IndieAuthor Guide, there’s a chapter on Creating Your Brand. I won’t be covering that material here because it’s already available for free viewing and/or download on my website.

Next Time: DIY Formatting For POD, Part One

Choosing A Publisher

Bottom Line It For Me, Baby Version (200 Words Or Less):
The series based on content from my how-to reference book on self-publishing, The IndieAuthor Guide, herewith continues. I can't just copy and paste everything from the manuscript, because the thing is 300pp long and heavily illustrated besides. But I will present topics from the book to the extent of detail possible in a blog post. Note that I'm not covering editing, designing your own book cover, creating your brand or publishing to the Kindle here, since those topics are already presented on my website in the form of free pdf guides. I’ll include links to previous posts in the series here in the Bottom Line It section. So far, I've posted topics on Publishing Options, Rights, Royalties and Advances, and What's the Deal With ISBNs And Bookstores? Today's post is about choosing a publisher.


Go On An' Run Yo Mouth, I Ain't Got Nuthin' But Time Version (Can't Promise It Won't Go On Forever):

Choosing A Publisher
Your choice of publisher depends on your goals as an indie author and the resources you’re prepared to expend in the endeavor—not just money, but time and skills as well. As with so many things, the best way to find a good publisher is on the basis of a recommendation from a trusted third party. If you know any self-published authors, get their input. If you don’t know any self-published authors, or the ones you know recommend against the publishers they used, do an internet search on “self publish” or “POD” to find publishers and what people are saying about them. Narrow the field to just two or three candidates, then review each one’s Terms of Service (sometimes called a Membership Agreement), submission guidelines and FAQ sections to determine which will be the easiest for you to work with, according to your specific needs and priorities.

For example, if you intend to minimize costs by doing as much as possible by yourself, it doesn’t make sense to go with a publisher whose most basic package charges upfront fees for providing services you don’t need. On the other hand, if you know you’ll need to pay for certain professional services, such as editing or book cover design, it doesn’t make sense to go with a publisher that doesn’t offer those services. With respect to related services however, such as cover design, editing and layout, don’t think that the only way to get a quality result in the published book is to pay for professional services. The IndieAuthor Guide can take you through the entire process in easy to follow, step-by-step instructions that assume you are an ordinary person, not a professional editor, artist, publicist or anything else related to publishing. Much of the Guide’s content will be covered in this series, and some of it is available for online viewing or download at my website. If you’ve got decent computer skills and a do-it-yourselfer spirit, you can probably accomplish most or all of the tasks involved in bringing your book to print by yourself.

Crunch The Numbers To Forecast Profit Possibilities
If you’re hoping to make a profit selling your books, crunch the numbers for various publishers. Compare the setup costs, production costs and publisher fees for production of the same book, and don’t forget to include the cost for an ISBN where the publisher doesn’t provide one. Production costs for POD books are usually based on the size and format of the book, plus the page count. In order to determine your break-even point—how many copies you must sell in order to earn back your up-front investment—, you will need to do some ‘what-if’ calculations based on different possible list prices for your book.

Look at the list prices of current, mainstream books in the same genre, format, and rough page count as yours, making note of the lowest, highest, and most common prices you find. Working with the most common list price for a book like yours, use the following calculation to see what you will earn per book for sales through booksellers and through each publisher’s online store (if applicable):

[List Price] – [Per-Copy Production Cost] – [Bookseller Fee]

The standard bookseller fee is 40% of the book’s list price, but it may be significantly less for books sold through your publisher’s own online bookstore. Let’s look at some examples based on a 6x9, perfect-bound trade paperback with 320pp. Publisher A charges a base production cost of $1.50 per book plus $.02 per page, making the total production cost per book $1.50 + (.02 x 320), or $7.90. Publisher B charges a flat production cost of $10.53 per copy. Working with a list price of $14, which is currently common for a comparable mainstream book, the standard bookseller fee is $14 x .40, or $5.60. Here’s your profit per copy sold for each publisher:
A: $14 - $7.90 – $5.60 -= $.50
B: $14 - $10.53 - $5.60 = -$2.13

As you can see, you can’t break even with Publisher B unless you raise the list price of your book. In fact, you’d need to set the list price at a little over $17.50 just to cover production costs, and at $18.50 to earn the same $.50 per copy profit you’ll get with Publisher A. But suppose Publisher B offers an upgrade plan which will reduce your per-copy production costs to $6.53 in exchange for a one-time, flat $50 fee, and publisher A’s upgrade program will reduce per-copy costs to $.85 per book + $.01 per page ($4.05 per book, total) for a flat $100 fee:
A: $14 - $4.05 - $5.60 = $4.35
B: $14 - $6.53 - $5.60 = $1.87

At first glance it appears you’ll need to sell about 23 copies of your Publisher A book and 40 copies of your Publisher B book to earn back each publisher’s respective upgrade fee, but take author copies into account as well. Most publishers sell copies of POD books to the books’ authors at production cost. If you were intending to buy 25 author copies for family, friends, and to send to reviewers, before the upgrade you would’ve paid Publisher A $7.90 per copy, or $197.50 total, and Publisher B $10.53 per copy, or $263.25 total. After the upgrade, you’d pay Publisher A $4.05 per copy, or $101.25 total, and Publisher B $6.53 per copy, or $163.25 total. With Publisher A’s upgrade, you’d save $96.25 on author copies and with Publisher B’s upgrade you’d save $100 on author copies. In both cases the savings on author copies alone are enough to justify the upgrade expense, but with Publisher A, your ongoing royalties will be more than twice as much as you’d get with Publisher B. But wait, there are still more factors to consider.

Let’s say Publisher B will charge you an extra $85 for ISBN assignment, but Publisher A will throw in an ISBN for free. Now think about how you intend to make your book available to buyers online: primarily through big retailers like Amazon™ and Barnes & Noble™, or via direct links from your website or blog to your publisher’s online store? Assume Publisher A only takes a 15% bookseller fee for copies sold through its online store, but charges a flat fee of $65 per listing plus $.50 per copy sold for Amazon™ and Barnes & Noble™ online listings. Assume Publisher B takes a 25% bookseller fee in its online store, but will automatically get your book listed on Amazon™ and/or Barnes & Noble™ online at no additional cost. Personally, I feel that an Amazon™ store listing is critical if you hope to turn a profit on your self-published books, not only due to Amazon™’s huge market share but also due to the greater promotional opportunities available for products listed on Amazon™ (to be covered later in this series). If an Amazon™ listing is important to you, verify that the publishers you’re considering can get one and the cost isn’t prohibitive. As you can see, it’s very important to take every possible fee and factor into account when doing your calculations.

Publisher Tradeoffs
Look at the tradeoffs for each publisher, but always keep production costs and eventual list price in mind. One publisher may offer excellent tech support and customer service through the setup and publication process, but with steep production costs. In contrast, a different publisher may offer tech support and customer service via email only, but charge much lower fees. Remember that the eventual buyers of your book won’t care how easy or hard your publisher was to work with, they only care about the physical quality of the book, the quality of the writing, and the price. In the final analysis it won’t matter how great the publisher’s customer service or tech support are: if your book is priced significantly higher than a typical mainstream book of the same type and dimensions, it will be hard to sell.

However, while it’s often worthwhile to accept a certain amount of inconvenience in exchange for much lower production costs, it is never worthwhile to accept poor production quality, no matter how low the production costs. Your eventual buyers not only expect to pay about the same price for your book as they would for a comparable mainstream book, they expect to receive a book of comparable quality. Cheap paper, spotty quality control and pages that spill from a poorly-glued binding won’t cut it. You can’t be absolutely sure of the publisher’s quality of workmanship until you can inspect a proof copy of your book, but some industrious Googling on [publisher’s name] + “quality” should turn up some helpful insights from other self-published authors.

Finally, note that for some books, it’s not truly feasible to self-publish via POD for a profit. Recall that in publishing, as the number of books in a print run goes up, the production cost per copy goes down. If your intended book must have an unusual binding, full-color pages, specialty paper or any other attributes that will drive its per-copy production cost up to the point that you’d have to price it 2 – 3 times as high as a comparable mainstream book, self-publishing via POD is not likely to work for you. In that case you may want to consider a subsidy or vanity publisher, which is a publishing path outside the scope of The IndieAuthor Guide and this series.

If You’re Publishing To Attract Attention, Not For Profit
Rights will be a primary concern if your goal is to attract a mainstream publisher. You won’t be able to negotiate with any other publishers if you’ve already locked up publishing rights with a subsidy or vanity publisher. But since subsidy and vanity publishing don’t offer any advantages over POD publishing where typical books are concerned, there’s no reason for an indie author to sign away his publication rights in the first place. See the prior entry in this series on Publishing Options for more details about the different types of publishers.

Coming Up Next Time: Getting Organized