Frequently Asked Questions

You need to use a serif typeface, or font, if you want your text to be easy to read. Serifs are small extensions or “ticks” on the bases and tops of letters. They lead the eye from one letter to the next making the type easier to read. Times New Roman is probably the most widely used serif typeface. If you want something different I suggest Century Schoolbook, Baskerville, Garamond, Goudy Old Style or another easily readable serif font. Avoid any sans serif font—“sans” from the French meaning “without.” This sentence is written in Arial, a sans serif typeface, and reading several pages of it will tire your eyes.

Last Update: 07-11-2008

If you have an image that you want to print to the edge of the book, then that image “bleeds”. This is often done on book covers. For the printer to be able to trim the books so that the image is at the edge there must be some part of the image that gets trimmed off (or else you will have a white stripe of the paper showing). The amount that gets trimmed off is the “bleed”, and printers require a minimum of 1/8” (¼” is preferable especially for children's book pages). So, be sure that you set up your files so that you have enough image to go beyond your trim. In other words, a 6 x 9” cover that bleeds all 3 sides on the front will really be a minimum of 6-1/8 x 9-1/4”. And a children's book that is 8 x 8 will have pages that are 8-1/2 x 8-1/2".

Last Update: 08-05-2008

Turn to page 1 of any book. Then turn the page. The back of page 1 is page 2. Then comes page 3, and the back of page 3 is page 4, and so on. Odd-numbered pages are always on the right, and even-numbered pages are always on the left. I know this seems so obvious, but counting pages is one of the single most misunderstood simple things in printing. Self Publishing has received its share of manuscripts with the pages numbered 1F and 1B (1Front and 1Back), 2F and 2B, and so on—instead of 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. And yet, have any of us ever seen a book in print with pages numbered 1F, 1B, 2F, 2B, 3F, 3B, etc.? Could it be mind-numbing x-rays emanating from the copy machines at Kinko’s which are causing this confusion? Remember that every page counts as a page whether it is blank or part of the text—numbered or not.

Last Update: 08-05-2008

These are related in that they all print and wrap around the text pages of your book. A cover is the term we use to describe what wraps around a paperback book. Jackets and casewraps are on hard cover books. The difference here is that a jacket is loose (i.e. it can be removed from the book) and has flaps. Casewraps are more like a “cover” in that they wrap the binder board, which is what wrap your text pages. Casewraps are typically used on children’s books, field guides, cookbooks and short run hard cover guides.
Last Update: 08-05-2008

All of the books in the Self Publishing children’s book program will have a printed casewrap. Casewraps are what “wrap” the boards used in the hardcover binding and they go underneath the endpapers. Typically, a jacket is visually the same as the casewrap, but it is loose (i.e. it can be removed from the book, just the way we can take off a jacket). The advantage of having a jacket is that it allows you to have flaps, which are the parts that turn in at the front and the back of the book. Flaps are used to tell a bit about the book (front flap) and the author and illustrator (back flap). In other words the flaps are real estate that you use to sell your book. Many readers feel that the perceived value of a book is greater if there is a jacket. On the other hand, many parents tell me that their children just rip the jackets anyway, so they remove them as soon as they buy a book. The choice is yours. The bottom line is that the jackets do add a bit to the cost, but the choice is yours.

Last Update: 08-05-2008

No. The white of the paper never counts as a color. A one-color cover is one ink-color on white paper, so unless you fill up the whole cover with that ink—it could be black or red or green or any other color—you’ll have contrast. You start with blank cover stock, you add one ink to it, and you have a one-color cover. A two-color cover is two colors on white, and a three-color cover is three colors on white. Designers often use screens to get other tints or colors without having to pay for them. For example, a 50% screen used with black will yield a gray in the area screened, and a 50% screen of red will yield a pink, and so on. In addition, the combination of two screens gives you the effect of a third color. (I.e. blue plus yellow equals green, yellow plus red equals brown and so forth.) Once you get to four-color the rules change. Sometimes people new to publishing make the mistake of not thinking of black as a color. It surely is. The confusion comes in because we contrast black-and-white movies with those that are “in color.” A book cover printed in black and red is a two-color job. What color ink will you be using for the text of your book? Black!

Last Update: 08-05-2008

Trim size relates to subject matter and perceived value. There are five basic trim sizes. The mass market paperback size is 4 x 6.875”. This size is associated with both fiction and nonfiction, and it represents the low end of the retail price range. Short-run methods do not efficiently produce this size. You need a press run of about 10,000 books to obtain a unit cost that works with a standard pricing formula. The small publisher answer to this is 5 x 8". This is not really a standard big publiher size. but it is very press efficient on the short run digital printing equipment.The trade paperback size can be either 5-1/2 x 8-1/2 or 6 x 9. For quantities under 500, the actual trim size is closer to 5-1/4 x 8-1/4 due to short run equipment limitations. The 6 x 9 size does not work efficiently on most of the short-run processes. A standard Docu-tech is limited to printing only four 6 x 9 pages at a time, versus eight pages at a time using a trim size of 5-1/4 x 8-1/4. If you are running at least 500 copies the 6 x 9 trim size costs only about 5% more than the 5-1/2 x 8-1/2. Trade paperback books carry a higher retail price than mass-market books. Trade paperbacks are also sometimes called “quality paperbacks.” Generally, the “quality” refers to the offset paper usually used in trade paperbacks versus the groundwood sheets used in mass-market paperbacks. The textbook size is 7 x 10. Many software manuals and cookbooks are also printed in this size. The workbook size is 8-1/2 x 11. This size is a standard size for both short-run and long-run equipment. “How to” books and other nonfiction subjects fit well with this trim size. You would never consider this size for a novel. For short runs, there’s no price difference between this size and the 7 x 10.

Last Update: 08-05-2008

The title, the author, the publisher, and the city like so: Publishing Basics – Navigating the Publishing Minefield. Robert Bowie Johnson, Jr. Self Publishing, Inc. New York.

Last Update: 08-05-2008

The title page is still where you list your title, author, publisher, the city of the publisher, and usually your first picture. Children’s books are different from other books in that the role of the illustrator may be more important than that of the author. You’ll want to keep this in mind as you design this page.

Last Update: 08-05-2008

Every good word processor today gives you access to important characters that do not appear on the keyboard. They are called ANSI and ASCII character sets. To get the © character make sure the “Num Lock” key on the right-hand side of your PC is on, and use those numbers (the numbers at the top of the keyboard will not work). Now, hold down the “Alt” key and press 0169. When you release the “Alt” key, © will appear where your cursor is.

Last Update: 08-05-2008

One of the most significant changes to have taken place recently is the file format most requested by book printers. Adobe PDF appears to have won the race when it comes to preferred text format. It works with virtually all imagesetters, platesetters and digital output devises. Most popular file formats, including MS Word, Word Perfect, and MS Publisher are easily converted to PDF. Like postscript, PDF is a “locked” format so there is no problem with reflow when the files are opened on different computers. Unlike postscript, which can only be viewed on a postscript viewer (which most people do not have), PDF can be read on any PDF reader. Acrobat Reader is available for free at many web sites. Like everything else in the electronic world, the word “easy” is relative. It may take a little time and patience but for all you “word” users, it’s certainly easier and cheaper than purchasing and learning how to use PageMaker or Quark. Of course, if you’d like, you can have Self Pubishing lay out your book in the proper format for you. Since our computers save us thousands of dollars on typesetting costs, we should be able to afford several hundred dollars for the services of someone who specializes in making sure our books make it from PC to press smoothly and efficiently.

Last Update: 08-05-2008

Probably the thing that amateurs do most often is not allow enough space for margins. The printer needs to have white space all around the page and that includes your heads and folios. We suggest a minimum of ¾” in the gutter (center of the book) and ½” on the other three sides. You should never have anything closer than ¼” minimum (some say 1/2") to the edge of your trim size. This is especially important in children's books (and where 1/2" is better) where you may have illustrations taking up the whole page.Don't have anything too close to the trim, nor should you have the most important part of your two page illustration in the center as that will be the "gutter" and you do lose a bit.

Last Update: 08-05-2008

Text and art are two different things. Text typically prints in black (and black only, not black made up of four-colors). And art typically prints in four-color. So, when creating your artwork remember to leave space where your text is going to be placed. This can be either an area with no artwork or an area that is light in color, and an area that is not too busy. Remember, you want to be able to read your type, and that won’t be possible if type is in with your artwork. All files submitted to Self Publishing need to be hi-res single page PDF files. We need a file for your text, a file for your casewrap and a file for your book jacket (if you have opted to have one).

Last Update: 08-05-2008

The minimum number of pages required to do a hard cover book is 24, so you will have to “add” a few pages. Usually that’s easy to do with tricks such as having a “half-title” page, and a full title page spread (2 pages) and you can often “open up” some other pages to give you what you need. Remember, many children’s books have text on one page and a picture facing it, so not every page is “full”.

Last Update: 08-05-2008

Five years ago I would have answered, “Of course! It costs about $10 per page for camera work, film and layout.” Two years ago I would have answered, “Sure, but it will cost you $5 per page to scan your laser proofs into a digital format.” Today the answer is just “Sure!” Most printers today have scanners that will scan in excess of 30 pages per minute. A 320-page book takes about 10 minutes to scan. In short… it’s no big deal. Some printers still have slower scanners and need to charge a couple dollars per page but the marketplace is going to force these printers into line with the ones that are not charging at all. Remember though, scanning your laser copy puts the final printing another generation away from the original in a quality manner. But for straight text with no halftones (pictures) or screened graphics, few people will know the difference. I suggest that if you are leaning in that direction, you go out and buy a ream of good paper, (you know the kind I mean) and set your printer to as high a dpi as possible and give it a whirl. For books with screens or halftones you still need to figure out how to get your files converted to a PDF format. You’ll be happy you did!

Last Update: 08-05-2008

The answer to this question has changed in the last few years, because of advances in technology. Illustrations can either be original artwork, photographs, transparencies (35mm and larger), computer generated graphics (in Illustrator, Photoshop, etc.), digital photos (photos taken with a digital camera) or photo CDs (traditional film scanned to CD at time of processing). Certainly the current trend is for more and more of the artwork to be computer generated. If you do have physical artwork, keep in mind that it must be able to lie flat and the largest size that can be efficiently handled is 11" x 17". Art any larger than that needs to have a “picture” taken of it so that it can be scanned. This used to mean that a transparency was made, but now as digital cameras have improved, that is another option. If it is a transparency, that is then scanned. The last option is for the oversize artwork to be scanned on the more expensive drum scanner. Note that in making a transparency you are a generation away from your original from a quality standpoint, but the cost can run several hundred dollars per transparency which could ruin the budget on a 32-page book. So, sometimes, large artwork costs you more.

Last Update: 08-05-2008

No, not really, but keep in mind that scanners “see” everything. So if you have layers of watercolor, or if you erased anything, those things will get picked up. If you are in doubt about how your artwork will scan, we suggest you send us an image to test.

Last Update: 08-05-2008

Yes, computer generated artwork is very good as long as the resolution of the images is OK. This is the way more and more artwork is produced today and highly recommended to the self- publisher.

Last Update: 08-05-2008

Always keep in mind the trim size of your book and work proportionally with that size. In other words, if your book is going to be an 8" x 8" (square) book, the artwork should be square. If it isn’t, when you reduce or enlarge your artwork, something will be lost in order to have what you use be square. Also, ALWAYS ALLOW FOR BLEED if you indeed want the illustrations to bleed. Bleed is when your color goes to the edge of the book. In order to do that, the printer needs a minimum of 1/8" “extra art” at each edge. So, don’t have a character’s head at the edge of your artwork unless you intend to crop the head on the page.

Last Update: 08-05-2008

Simply put, a scan takes a continuous tone picture and separates it into dots that a press can print from. These dots are not always visible to the naked eye. All scanners are capable of producing adequate scans for use on the Internet. Not many scanners used by the average consumer are capable of producing a scan that can be used for quality printing.

Last Update: 08-05-2008

Yes, if you are confident that your scanner is a good quality scanner (can scan 1200 x 1200 dpi or higher) and that whoever scanned your artwork knows a bit about what they are doing. If that is not the case, then we recommend you let Self Publishing do the scans for you.

Last Update: 08-05-2008

Yes. It is worth every penny. The next time you’re in the bookstore, take the time to examine the cover designs. I can write with confidence that ninety-nine out of every hundred of those book covers were professionally designed. If there are exceptions to this rule, they will be found in the bookstore section featuring local authors, and nine out of ten of those books will have covers designed by people who knew what they were doing. Normally you are attracted to a person because of his or her face. The cover is your book’s face. Acne, bed-head, and snarled lips discourage interest in your book, if you get the analogy.

Last Update: 08-05-2008

There’s a simple formula which determines that width. Just take the number of pages in your book and divide that figure by your text paper’s PPI (Pages Per Inch). Where do you get the PPI? It depends on what kind of paper you’re using and it usually appears on the printer’s estimate or quote. If for some reason it doesn’t appear there, ask the printer for it. Let’s say your book has 200 pages and you are printing it on a web press using Alternative Offset, which has a PPI of 400. Then the width of your book’s spine will be 200 ÷ 400 or half an inch. That’s for a paperback. For a hard cover book, you have to add the thickness of the boards. The easiest way to do this accurately is to have your printer provide you with a template. At Self Publishing's Web site you can download templates from the Production Center.

Last Update: 08-05-2008

Let’s deal with the front, the spine, and the back of the cover in that order. On the front, put the book title, the subtitle, and the author. Place any graphics you want here. On the spine, the author’s last name is usually at the top, the book title center, and the publisher at the bottom. On the back put a four-sentence description of your book. You can put endorsements here, too. Leave space for a very short bio on the author, a photograph of the author (if appropriate) and the ISBN and bar code. Remember that if you are using a bar code, it must be black or a color dark enough to be scanned. If you are doing a hardcover book with a jacket, then you can use your flaps for some of these items that would be on the back of a cover. The front flap is typically a bit about the book, and the back flap will have some copy about the author. That means that the back of the jacket may have graphics (or an illustration) or more space for selling copy. These are the traditional places to put all these things, but, of course, you can break any or all of the rules whenever you want! Remember, however, that you do want to sell your book, so people have to know very quickly why they should buy it. If you are designing your cover, make sure you have some “bleed.” If your artwork goes all the way to the edge, it must extend at least one-eighth of an inch more, so when the book is trimmed there will be no white showing. Self Publishing usually provides about a quarter inch bleed to be safer. Cut out the cover and wrap it around a book on your shelf. How does it look now? When you put your cover on disc, you must include all the fonts and graphics you have used. It’s even a good idea to include any items which have been embedded in other programs during the design process. Then, if there’s something wrong, it will be easier to fix. If you are having a designer create the cover, explain clearly what you would like to see. You can also just give a designer an idea of what’s in your book and let the expert go for it! If you have covers you really like, copy them and send them along. Remember though, you are hiring a designer, not commissioning an artist to create an original work for you. A designer at Self Publishing told me a story about one customer who wanted a cover showing a cave halfway up a mountain, a bear and a donkey sitting on the nearby ledge, symbols from the I Ching surrounding the door of the cave, and the moon setting behind the mountain! What the author needed in this case, they concluded, was not a cover designer but an expensive artist! A good designer will take your concept and give you something that will work. Remember, despite what you have heard, you can sometimes judge a book by its cover.

Last Update: 08-05-2008

The ISBN for your book is easily translated into a worldwide compatible bar code format called a Bookland EAN (European Article Number). Every bookstore chain and most smaller bookshops use bar code scanning at the checkout register. If you didn’t know that, you haven’t been to a bookstore in the last ten years, and I’d say it’s time for you to visit one. Putting the bar code on your book is part of the book cover designer’s job, and it’s a simple one. Using a software program, the designer types in your ISBN and out pops the bar code in just the right place on your back cover. You can put your book’s retail price near the bar code on the back cover if you want to. That doesn’t mean that retailers will always have to charge the full amount. Using their computers, they can tie your Bookland EAN code to a sale price, and that’s what will appear on the register when your book is scanned. If you are using a bar code, it must be black or a color dark enough to be scanned. Keep this in mind when counting the number of colors on your cover.

Last Update: 08-05-2008

The final proofs that printers offer today vary depending on the printing method. Self Publishing makes sure each customer gets a final proof compatible with the printing technology used for his or her book. These final printer proofs are your last chance to catch mistakes before you go to press. Funny things can happen between your initial type input and the time when your book reaches the printing press. The obvious thing to check at this stage is that all the pages are there and are all in the right order. Some of the not-so-obvious things to check are to make sure that no formatting changes occurred when you converted to PDF from your application program. Punctuation sometimes changes, and fonts also sometimes change. It's up to you to catch these problems in the proof. Once you have OK'd the proof, you have bought the books that match that proof.

Last Update: 08-05-2008

The final proof stage is not the time to make editorial changes. The idea of these proofs is to make sure that page 2 follows page 1 and so on. If you are looking at those proofs as one more editorial pass, don’t. If you want another editorial pass, fine—just schedule it before you give your book to the printer. If you absolutely have to make corrections to the printer’s proof, you can; but you’ll have to pay for the changes. In the trade, they are called author’s alterations (AA’s). You’re the author. Make your alterations before you turn your work over to the printer. Why present something to the printer which needs to be changed? Printers aren’t set up to make their money re-shooting negatives or altering text files. I’ve learned over the years that rushing jobs to the printer winds up costing more and actually taking more time. Am I overemphasizing this point? No. If I could, I’d reach out from this page with a little rubber mallet and bonk you in the head with it to make sure you get the point, and abide by it. Corrections are a hassle. Why would you want to get the nice printer involved in a hassle of yours?

Last Update: 08-05-2008

Your designer’s computer is capable of doing things that only a decade ago were reserved for prepress film houses with millions of dollars worth of equipment. Today in most cases, when your designer finishes your cover, it’s ready for press. If you are running a one- or two-color cover, your designer’s laser proof should be enough. The printer will print the PMS (Pantone Matching System) colors that you specify on your order. With a four-color cover, things are a little different. You should not rely on your designer’s laser proof unless you have a fairly wide window of tolerance between your proof and the printed cover. You should also never count on what you see on your computer screen to be more than a general representation of what will be printed on the final product. But what can you rely on? Your best color proof is a press proof, but domestic printers rarely supply these because of their prohibitive cost. The next best proof is a film proof like a chromalin or matchprint. This type of proof consists of four layers of color film exposed from the negatives used to make the printing plates, mounted on top of each other on paper, giving the full color appearance. The problem here is that the trend in printing is moving away from negatives towards direct-to-plate. No negative: no film proof. That leaves us with a digital proof. Over the past several years, digital proofs have gained widespread acceptance. They are not as good as press proofs or film proofs but that’s progress. Remember that no one but you has seen your original cover. The money you save using today’s technology far outweighs any minor color variation in the final product.

Last Update: 08-05-2008

Pleasing color in simple terms means that without having seen an original, the reproduction of that image is believable and pleasing. In other words, grass is green, skies are blue, skin tones are believable, etc. Almost 99% of children’s book art falls into this definition. Remember, you and your friends or family are the only ones that have actually seen “the original.” A good test to see if your scans are OK (if you are doing them) is to show someone who hasn’t seen the original artwork the proofs from your color laser. If they like the look, you are fine. Keep this in mind when you see your proofs too.
Last Update: 08-05-2008

Yes. Always keep in mind that, only you, your designer and possibly your brother, sister, mother or grandmother have actually seen your original artwork. It’s sort of like the “tree falling in the woods” thing. If your color is not exact, will anybody know? The printer will print a reasonable match. If you cannot live with 90 percent . . . STOP NOW! Read no further. Unless you are independently wealthy and do not mind spending a sizable portion of that wealth on book printing, you should not attempt to self publish. Save your money. You are only going to drive yourself crazy and even worse than driving yourself crazy, which is your right, you will drive the poor printer crazy, too. Life is too short. Pick something else to do with your money.
Last Update: 08-05-2008

I recommend 10-point cover stock, coated on one side. It is measured not by weight, but by caliper (one point is equal to 1/72 of an inch). That means if you stack up 1,000 sheets of 10-point cover stock, it will be about 10 inches high. What will its weight be? You can’t determine that exactly because different paper mills produce different densities of cover stock. Three stacks of 1,000 sheets of 10-point cover stock from three different paper mills would most likely have three different weights.
Last Update: 08-05-2008

Yes, that is fine. We just called our program that, but your book can be about any subject and that is why our pricing goes up beyond what is a typical page count for a children’s book. The truth is, the printing press doesn’t care what it is printing as long as it is full-color!
Last Update: 08-05-2008

The term four-color refers to the three process colors of yellow, cyan (blue), and magenta (red) plus black. From these four colors printed in screens of dots, one on top of the other, you can make almost all the colors in the spectrum. Anytime you see a “full-color” photograph printed in a book or magazine, its four-color process. Anytime a cover looks like it has more than two colors, it’s probably a four-color cover. The next time you notice a blurry picture in a color newspaper, take a closer look and you’ll see how the process works. The picture is blurry because the press was “out of register.” Perhaps the cyan ink didn’t drop precisely on top of the yellow ink. Sometimes the register is so bad you can actually see the different-color dots.
Last Update: 08-05-2008

No. Although the prepress costs have fallen dramatically in the last decade or so, four-color process printing is still expensive. Printing a full-color 16-page signature in a 5-1/2 x 8-1/2 book will cost you about $1,000 for pre-press and proofs and another $1,000 or so for the plates and printing. If you’re only printing 500 books, that’s a unit cost of $4 per book just for the 16-page color signature. Using a standard markup of five or six times the production cost to get your retail price, you would have to add an additional $24 per book to make the numbers work out profitably. I have discussed my Secrets of the Parthenon series of books—all four-color throughout—with the experts at Self Publishing. They estimate that I am going to have to print 20,000 copies of each book in order to get my unit cost low enough to set a retail price under $20. These are very specialized books that wouldn’t make sense in black and white. I need some investors. So, unless you have a special case as I do, using color in the body of your book is not a good idea. The exception to this is children’s picture books.

Last Update: 08-05-2008

Saddle stitching is less expensive for books of 64 pages or less. Instead of piling the signatures on top of each other like perfect binding, signatures are wrapped around each other on a “saddle,” wire-stitched, then trimmed on three sides. This binding is great if you’re producing a newsletter for the local PTA—but not if you’re trying to sell a book. Saddle stitching has a much lower perceived value. Since they do not have a spine and would have to be displayed face-out, bookstores do not want saddle-stitched books. The exceptions to this rule are certain types of children’s picture books.
Last Update: 08-05-2008

Hardcover or case binding is certainly the top-of-the-line type of binding. It is accepted by all retail outlets and libraries and has a much higher perceived value. It is also the most expensive style of binding, especially in low quantities, so it presents a financial roadblock to most self-publishers. Within the hardcover category there are many options such as sewing versus adhesive, cloth versus paper, and case stamping versus printing a book jacket. In the spirit of “tires off the rack,” Self Publishing has come up with a standard set of hardcover specifications which gives the self-publisher an affordable option. For 100 to 400 copies they offer an unjacketed book, but it does have a digitally printed casewrap. For quantities of 500 and over Self Publishing offers standard imitation cloth, stamped on the spine with or without a printed jacket.

Last Update: 08-05-2008

This is up to you, one is not better than the other. Each is a coated sheet, the gloss just has more shine to it (and it is a little bit thinner than the same weight is in matte). The majority of our children’s books are done on matte, but the choice is yours.
Last Update: 08-05-2008

We use the word "text" to describe everything that is in the interior  of the book, not just the words. So, if you have artwork or photos, that is all part of the "text". If the artwork or photos are black and white, then your "text" is one-color (black). If your artwork or photos or you have anything in color, then your "text" is full color.

Last Update: 10-07-2008

Simply put... Never! Microsoft anything does not work very well with any printing process except your desktop printer. Bill Gates started out as a computer geek, not a commercial book printer. Word is a word processing program. As such it does a good job of processing words. Spell checker, grammar checker, thesaurus-all great tools to help you write a better manuscript. However, when it's time to turn your manuscript into a book, you will be wasting a lot of time and effort by trying to make a word processing program act like a page layout program.

The primary problem is that the way Word behaves on your machine depends on your printer drivers. What looks great on your screen may look entirely different on another computer with a whole different set of printer drivers. Your carefully positioned headers can suddenly move to the next page! A Word document can be converted to a PDF document (a file format that commercial printers can use), but you usually encounter the same problem in making the conversion.

So, if you really have the urge to design your own book, you'll need to invest in a page layout program, and that is not Word.

Last Update: 10-28-2008

These cover designs are based on templates that you choose from a large selection. If you have your own image already selected for your cover and you have a pretty good idea of what you want, chances are there will be a template to your liking, and this option saves you money. 

Last Update: 10-28-2008

Back in the old days we used to call it camera copy.  Few printers have cameras anymore so the term camera copy does not have any real meaning, in a literal sense, so we’ll call it hard copy.  Nowadays, hard copy usually consists of a copy of an old book where electronic files are not available.  In this case the printer can scan the pages in the book and use the resulting scan for printing.  Keep in mind that you can not easily make corrections to these files, so while this is fine for reprints of old out-of-print books; it is not good for new titles.  If you are struggling with trying to convert your word file to PDF, don’t try to short-cut the system and send a print-out to the printer to scan.  I guarantee that you will want to make corrections and will end up with a mess, if you do that.

  

Last Update: 10-28-2008

This is the ultimate text layout for the budget minded shopper. It combines some do-it-yourself elements, along with minimal designer interaction. If you have a basic fiction or prose-style non-fiction book and some time to invest, you can’t beat the price. You choose from several standard design options. Keep in mind, if your text contains photos or charts, or anything beyond straight running text, you will not qualify for this service.

Last Update: 10-28-2008

First of all, what is an Epub? An Epub is a digital version of a book that is designed to be read online using free applications like Adobe Digital Editions and Calibre, or on a number of eBook readers such as the Sony Reader and Barnes & Noble Nook.  You can even download applications that will allow you to read eBooks on your iPhone and iPod touch. The Epub format can also be easily converted to Mobi , which is the format read by the Amazon Kindle. Check out www.adobe.com/products/digitaleditions/devices for a complete list of devices capable of reading Epubs.

Last Update: 02-02-2010

An Epub is based on XML, XHTML, and cascading style sheets (CSS)—terms you’re probably familiar with that are associated with web pages.  And this is sort of what an Epub is:  a webpage. So you can see your Epub on a small handheld device and the text will flow to accommodate the screen size of the reader you are using. Depending on the capabilities of your eBook reader, you might also be able to change font and font size.

Page structure is not defined in the Epub format so when your book is formatted, everything flows together in one continuous file, images included.  If you have a fairly simple layout for your book you might not see much difference in the Epub, but a complex designed book might not lend itself to the Epub format and look totally different. Some content such as page numbers, page breaks and some vector based files are actually discarded when a book is converted to Epub.  Because the format is based on several open standards, some things will look different depending on what eBook reader you are using.

Last Update: 02-02-2010

Although the Epub format allows for embedding fonts that would to some extent preserve the look of your book, there are some eBook readers that will not work with embedded fonts. Besides, sometimes there might be licensing issues, as fonts are only licensed for use when purchased. For that reason, we at Self Publishing do not embed fonts but rather let the eBook reader determine what font is used.

 

At this point, the Epub format uses very basic code and has many limitations. Who knows what changes lie ahead. At Self Publishing, our goal is to provide you with an Epub that looks good and is readable on any device your customer chooses. And, we’ll do our best to keep up with the changes as they happen.

Last Update: 02-02-2010

The folder we will be sending you is in a zip format. Before you can upload your file to Amazon, you'll need to extract this folder using a utility like Winzip. If you have a zip utility, clicking on the folder will automatically open it allowing you to open and save the files in different ways. Once extracted, you should be able to open the folder and see three files in it;

• A jpeg of the cover
• A file with the extension .mobi
• A file with the extension .epub

The .mobi file is already in Kindle format and is the file you must upload to Amazon. The .epub file is a format common to other eBook readers and can be uploaded to other sites that can publish your book.

Please note that the best way to preview your book is to upload it to your Kindle or whatever eBook reader you are using. Any other application you use to preview your book such as Adobe Digital Editions or Calibre and even the Amazon site preview itself, may look slightly different.

Last Update: 02-22-2010

Not all eBook readers are the same and if one creates an eBook using InDesign it gives you a lot more flexibility with regards to what you can do with the formatting of the final file. At this juncture, Amazon has made pdfs more user friendly insofar as pdfs can be converted and will allow text reflow, but beware, only books with straight text and without headers are the only ones that will really work well. Recently we did a test on a book that was not straight prose. The result really had to be seen. Charts didn't come out correctly, page numbers wound up showing up oddly, in some cases two separate page numbers at once. Some text was capitalized and not capitalized in the same word. Photos wound up with the corresponding text in the wrong location. In short, it was a complete mess. If you want to test what your pdf will look like as an eBook, download Calibre, convert your file and see if you like it. That’s not to say that things won’t change and one day pdfs will be usable, it’s just not now.

Last Update: 06-09-2010