Happy Mother's Day, everyone! I just got back from a fine brunch myself, and am spending some time with my family today. I thought I'd temporarily shift the focus of this blog from online moneymaking back to self-publishing and offline work.
I've used both Createspace and InDesign to craft my own books before, and there were some things about it that caught me off guard. Whatever you do online or offline, you want your work to look professional. You want to give people confidence in your service, and you want to give them the feeling that you know what you're about. To do that, you need to be an observer.
When self-publishing a book, you need to know everything about books. Inside, outside. If using Adobe InDesign, it's a good idea to pick a few printed books that you like and examine their layouts. How thick are the margins? How big are the pages? How is the Table of Contents laid out? You should keep in mind also that it's not a word document. The paragraph indents will probably be not nearly as dramatic as on the computer, and the font size is probably going to be smaller than you use typing (usually p10 or p11). With Createspace it's much easier to design a book for mass production, but you still need to study the details. Without a professional editor you should keep an eye out for the tiniest of errors. Ordering or printing a proof copy is an important step here. With a proof copy you can examine the physical book and decide what needs to change.
Hopefully these tips will help those of you who are specifically interested in self-publishing. If you're more interested in online publishing, you should also take into account the layout of your page. Is it easy to maneuver? Does it look pleasant, and does it give off the over-all feel of whatever your writing?
I'm not that great of an artist, but people do judge books by their covers, and the details do make all the difference.
Please follow me for Twitter for more updates and tips, or join me in Clixsense for some fun!
No comments:
Post a Comment