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I am preparing my print file to print paperbacks via CreateSpace ... moral support, please?
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First off April congrats! Second, relax! lol. I uploaded my file to Createspace last week and I uploaded my cover a few hours ago and am waiting to hear back so I can go ahead and order a proof copy.What I can tell you is there's no need to feel nervous as its all fairly easy to set up and go over and if you have any issues it will alert you. If you have any concerns you can always call them as they are very helpful.
Best of luck to you!
Mod
You can do this!
Daniel
Be prepared. I found CreateSpace to be one of the most frustrating parts of publishing. You should fully expect to upload and resubmit the file about half a dozen times at least before you finally get everything in proper form.
Thanks, everybody, for the feedback. I'm on Chapter 8 out of 46, and I'm getting in the rhythm of it. *taking a deep breath*Is there any reason why I should convert my formatted Word doc into a PDF before uploading?
For the cover, I need 300 dpi. Is that good enough? Does it need to be higher than that? (I can't wait to calculate the cover size, including spine, etc... Oh, joy.)
And I will definitely get a paper proof copy. I have a bunch of people at work who are waiting patiently for paperback copies, because they don't read e-books. They keep asking (nicely), so I need to bite the bullet and do this. I know the process will get easier once I've been through it. It's just a little intimidating right now. I've put this off for two months now. It's time to get busy and just do it!
Thanks again for the kind and supportive feedback. I appreciate it A LOT!
Mod
How do you embed the fonts? I'm using Garamond 11 pt. That's pretty basic. Do I have to DO something to embed it?
Mod
Mod
My cover is a landscape painting at 300dpi and looks great on the paper book. I cheated with getting it setup. Using the Amazon cover creator there's an option to upload your own cover and they'll place the text where it belongs on the spine. I didn't like their font options, so I just lined my own up with theirs, then checked the box to hide theirs from the cover. That was it - no math involved. Very "unprofessional" I'm sure, but it works.
FWIW, I only had to upload my book twice to get it the way I wanted.
I found it was just as easy to upload my MS Word doc. Didn't have to worry about embedded fonts in the PDF. It took me two tries to tinker with the page margins to get the right width (using 'mirror' margins so that there was a gutter on the inside margin) but other than that it was easy. I'm sure you'll do fine April.
Maybe it was just the length of my book. I kept fixing the gutter, which would lengthen the book, which would mess up something else. It was very frustrating the first time.
Don't let it upset you. If you have a problem, call them. They'll call you back IMMEDIATELY and someone will walk you through it. Trust me--if I can do it, ANYBODY can. The only problem I had with CreateSpace was cover design--they could use a little help in that area.
You should upload your files as PDFs because that's what Createspace asks you to upload it as. This appears to be their preferred version of your documents. However when you convert it to Kindle, use the preview book on Amazon to see how your books. Sometimes when it converts to Kindle PDFs formatting gets jumbled. In the event it is, all you have to do is go to Kindle as if you were uploading a book there and switch over to html.
Yes, call them, they are awesome! I ended up downloaded one of their templates and use it as a guide, I highly recommend it, my page setup was perfect on the first round, no need to worry about mirror margins, the gutter and odd and even headers, it was already setup! I didn't convert it to PDF either and I gave my designer the link to create the book cover in the correct format. Since it was my first one I ended up ordering the proof of the book, I actually found out I didn't need to but it was way too exciting to hold the actual book in my hands!A word of advice, start early with the process. I ended up having to rush ship my book for my launch party, even though I ordered them a couple of weeks in advance. Next time I'll give myself a couple of extra weeks to proof and get everything ready for print!
This brings me to another question. Once I prepare my book, I submit it to CreateSpace, right? Do I have to do something on Amazon to tell them that the paperback exists/is ready to sell? Do I list the paperback in both places: CreateSpace and Amazon?
Yes, once you're done submit it to Createspace - when you select your Sales Channels you'll be able to select Amazon as a Sales Channel. Amazon will set up your page and have it available to sale. If you're doing the Kindle version you can ask Amazon to ensure the print and ebook sales pages are linked. Is your paperback already available for pre-order?
Angela is right. Download their template and you will have no problems with the inside. I created my own cover and it printed way too dark on the first proof. I just shopped it to make it lighter, re uploaded the jpeg and I was very happy with the second proof.
I found it to be a very user friendly process, and the per copy price is very reasonable.
They actually no longer require a PDF. A docx works fine, but the digital proof will still come back to you as a PDF. You do need a 300 dpi cover, but occasionally, for no explainable reason, the conversion will drop it to 299 dpi. That last pixel per inch does not prevent the cover from being approved, so don't worry if it throws a red exclamation point at you.
And I agree with everyone else. If you're stuck, call them. I had an issue with an image that their automated review saw as text, but when I called, they passed it through immediately.
Angela wrote: "Yes, once you're done submit it to Createspace - when you select your Sales Channels you'll be able to select Amazon as a Sales Channel. Amazon will set up your page and have it available to sale. ..."I can do a pre-order for the paperback on Amazon? Even though the e-book was released in July? Can I? That would be fun to do.
I'm using a CreateSpace Template and pasting my own content in and selecting the right styles. I lost all my italics. Bummer. That will be a huge job to go in and find the italics and put it back in manually. Did this happen to you? Or did I do something wrong?
April wrote: "Angela wrote: "Yes, once you're done submit it to Createspace - when you select your Sales Channels you'll be able to select Amazon as a Sales Channel. Amazon will set up your page and have it avai..."Well the pre-order process isn't officially authorized through Createspace but I am using a hack for mine. So far so good...but here are the steps: http://www.selfpublishingadvice.org/b...
What font do you guys prefer to the interior? For the paragraphs? I'm using Garamond right now. Is there a better one to use, in your opinion?
I had to email customer service when I uploaded my first book as I didn't know a lot of stuff at the time either. They were very helpful and even offered to do stuff for me on their end to make it easier. Now I feel little better about doing it now that I am putting up the second book soon but it's not that bad once you get the hang of it
it's easier to use a desktop publisher to create a press ready pdf. i heard some folks had success with ms publisher others with in design. i personally use serif's page plus. i used to use ms word but kept me in frustration... open office was equally headache inducing. cover art is 300 dpi. i use TIFF to keep the colors intact. make sure you have enough space for bleeds!
April wrote: "What font do you guys prefer to the interior? For the paragraphs? I'm using Garamond right now. Is there a better one to use, in your opinion?"I use Century because I like the style. It's a bit narrower than Garamond, but wider than Times. I have seen some complaints that Garamond is too light, but no idea what font size they were using. 11pt is a good size.
April wrote: "I have begun the process of preparing my print file to print paperbacks of my first novel via CreateSpace. Can I have some moral support, please? I'm a nervous wreck. (I actually have digital types..."You will do do great! If this is your first work you won't be able to sleep for a few days because you'll be so excited!!! Congrats!!!
Christina wrote: "April wrote: "What font do you guys prefer to the interior? For the paragraphs? I'm using Garamond right now. Is there a better one to use, in your opinion?"I use Century because I like the style..."
I used Garamond 11.... it looks very professional
Camilla wrote: "You will do do great! If this is your first work you won't be able to sleep for a few days because you'll be so excited!!! Congrats!!! "Thanks, Camilla! Yes, this is my first paperback. I released the e-book in July. I'm just now getting around to putting the paperback together. I've been procrastinating.
Christina wrote: "I use Century because I like the style. It's a bit narrower than Garamond, but wider than Times. I have seen some complaints that Garamond is too light, but no idea what font size they were using. 11pt is a good size."Thanks, Christina. I'll check that out, along with Garamond. I guess I can always change the font down the road if I don't like the one I go with initially.
April wrote: "...I lost all my italics..."That's because when you Paste Special/Unformatted Text into the template, italics are considered formatting and get lost if you don't take measures to preserve them...like so:
*In a copy of your original manuscript, press Ctrl+H to bring up the Find and Replace window.
*In the Find box, press Ctrl+I and leave this box empty
*In the Replace,m type something like "II^&II"(without the quotes, obviously)
This will add two capital i letters in front of and after each italicized section of text. As these are letters, not formatting, they will be preserved when you Paste Special.
After pasting the text into the CreateSpace template, you can restore the italics as such:
*In the CreateSpace document, press Ctrl+H to open the find and replace window.
*Click More.
*Check the box Use Wildcards
*In the find box, type "(II)(*)(II)" (no quotation marks)
*In the Replace box, type "\2" (again, no quotation marks)
*Press Ctrl+I so that it says "Font: Italic" underneath the Replace box.
*Press Replace All
Italics should be restored. Just be careful that you really don't use quotation marks or you'll do like I just did and end up with quotes before or after every italicized section. D'oh!!!!
P.S. I'm in the middle of doing my first CreateSpace book, too.
P.P.S. I ripped off the above from a Smashword formatting guide by GR member Ross Harrison. Invaluable. Thanks, dude!
I loaded the template into Libre Office (I don't use windows or word), copied in the text and hit the convert to PDF button. It more or less worked straight off, although I had to do a few minor tweaks.http://www.amazon.co.uk/Run-Stars-1-A...
April wrote: "I have begun the process of preparing my print file to print paperbacks of my first novel via CreateSpace. Can I have some moral support, please? I'm a nervous wreck. (I actually have digital types..."Accomplishing certain thing is not always easy, but most things are simple. Be passionate about doing that thing, stay focused and steadfast, and drive yourself doing it.
Mind Process and Formulas: Principles, Techniques, Formulas, and Processes for Success .
April wrote: "How do you embed the fonts? I'm using Garamond 11 pt. That's pretty basic. Do I have to DO something to embed it?"April, if you submit your inside matter in PDF form, select the PDF/A-1a (or anything that conforms to the PDF/A format) in your file conversion/export options. That embeds fonts for you.
Garamond is said to be an elegant inner text font. I've used Garamond 13pt, and Garamond 11pt (which I've called small print), and was happier with the 13pt, 1.5-line-spaced book, but it came back at 312 pages, and weighed some more than I liked. The Garamond 11pt version came back at 192 pages, of reasonable thickness, but the small print font is...rather small! :-)
Anyway, cheers, and it is great that you are at this point and moving ahead. A bit of a long haul; patience is highly recommended.
Last night I printed out the same passage in Garamond, Century Schoolbook, Palatino Linotype, and Bookman Old Style.I first compared them to each other. Garamond was indeed a lighter weight, more elegant font. But I can see where some people would find it too narrow. Also, the italics in it are really kind of odd...very scrunched up. They almost look like a totally different font.
The rest were almost identical to each other. Bookman Old Style seemed too heavy. Palatino and Century Schoolbook were both OK, but there seemed to be way too much space between the lines.
I compared these then to a trade paperback and I found them to all be too large actually. Five lines of text were printed in the trade paperback to every 4 in my examples.
Reducing Century Schoolbook down to 10.5pt (fractional font size: digital fonts are good that way) and the line spacing from something like 15pt to 13pt got the sample page appearing pretty close to the traditionally printed trade paperback.
In the end I'm still not sure what I'll go with. The smaller font and line spacing got what was 305 pages down to something like 285. This for a 75,000 word document.
Don't feel nervous, provided it's formatted properly it will look splendid :) I would recommend font size 11 and 5x8 trim size.
i used georgia 11 1.5 spacing in 6x9 format. georgia is more open so you'll read it better but some folks don't like extra pages. Gandhi is a decent font too not too narrow or wide though not as elegant as Garamond..
You will do great with Create Space. I did my second book with them and I am getting ready to use them again. You will do great and will be happy you used them. Congratulations and much success.
Micah wrote: "Last night I printed out the same passage in Garamond, Century Schoolbook, Palatino Linotype, and Bookman Old Style.I first compared them to each other. Garamond was indeed a lighter weight, more..."
Micah, I like the idea of comparing my digital typesetting with an actual trade paperback (a traditionally published paperback) that I have. I want my paperbacks to look good - just like they came off any bookstore shelf. So the type face, size, leading, etc... all need to be spot on. I'll experiment with different combinations.
I don't want the font size to be small. I want it to look traditional and be easy to read.
Thanks for these suggestions.
Now that I'm getting into this, I'm having so much fun!I started with CreateSpace's basic (traditional) template, but now I'm tweaking the formatting based on traditionally published trade paperbacks that I have. I'm playing with layout, headers, fonts, leading, etc... I also figured out how to embed the fonts - it turns out that's really easy to do in Word.
I'm past the stage of fear and intimidation, and now I'm into obsessive tweaking and playing. This might become addictive. :)
Well done, April. Congrats on your first book. It is exciting. I sell very few physical books, but there is nothing like holding your own book in your hand.
Then, when friends ask you to sign their copy... Woo hoo!
Congrats April!Have you decided on what you'll price your book at? I had to do this earlier and found it quite difficult compared to the last few times I've done it.
Wow, thanks guys. I just jumped in on this as I'm thinking of taking the plunge into CreateSpace myself. I'm only on eBooks at the moment, but getting lured by print. Like you say, there's nothing to beat the feeling of physically holding your own book.I think all this positive feedback may have just convinced me a) paperback is a good way to go b) CreateSpace is the best path to do it. Thank you xx
Good luck April.
Way to go, April. To my own mind, there's nothing quite like having a print book, even though you know most of your sales will be e-books.
April wrote: "Now that I'm getting into this, I'm having so much fun!I started with CreateSpace's basic (traditional) template, but now I'm tweaking the formatting based on traditionally published trade paperb..."
Awesome. Let us know what fonts and sizes and all that you choose.
Also, I'm not sure how picky CreateSpace is, but it's probably a good idea to do as much tweaking as possible at the Styles level, rather than just highlighting text and making changes there.
The print file is formatted. I went with Garamond 11.5 pt, multiple line spacing of 1.15, and I kerned the font with a .2 pt condense. Now I need to proof the formatting because I know I lost some special formatting when I applied the new styles.Next, I need to buy an ISBN number and a barcode, purchase a full cover image file, and finalize the back cover copy.
I'm thinking I might do a pre-order on the paperback. And I'll get to send out an e-mail (for the first time) to my mailing list, announcing the pre-order of the paperback and giving them a freebie (the first chapter of my second book - the sequel), which is in progress. I doubt anyone on the mailing list will be interested in buying a paperback, but some might. I do have other peeps waiting patiently for the paperback.
This whole process is fun! I could become addicted to formatting documents for print. I do love desktop publishing. I formatted my print file in MS Word, but in the future, I'd probably prefer to use Adobe InDesign to get better control over the leading and the kerning.
One traditional thing I didn't do was make sure every chapter starts on an odd page. I have 46 chapters (right now it's 474 pages long). If I made sure every chapter started on an odd page, I'd end up adding probably another 30-35 pages to the book, and it's already very long. So I didn't do that.
Is there anything else I need to do?
April wrote: "One traditional thing I didn't do was make sure every chapter starts on an odd page..."That might be a tradition, but it's not actually a standard. I have trade paperbacks published in the '90s that don't even put new chapters on a new page. It's a very fluid kind of thing. Trad publishers face cost issues, too.
I like chapters to start on a new page, but don't force them to an odd page number.
As others may have already suggested, (I didn't read everything) getting the formatting right shall prove an adventure for you; I know this from personal experience. Just know that all the suffering becomes worth it by the end, and you have a paperback book available for your future fan-base.
Hi, everyone. I'm enjoying the info on this thread. Thanks for starting it, April. I received my 1st proof from Createspace for my debut novel, a medieval romantic suspense that was release in ebook form a couple months ago. All this is new to me and, like you, I'm learning as I go.
I made the mistake of ordering 6x9, which is outside my comfort zone for a romance novel. I'm going to order the next proof in 4 1/4 x 6 6/8 inch size (or close to that), since that's the traditional size. I did scour a couple of bookstores to make comparisons.
Also, I ordered white paper for my first proof. Turns out cream is the traditional paper of choice, so my 2nd proof will have that.
I, too, chose Garamond after reading online that this is the new favorite font for publishing, replacing the formerly popular Palatino. I hadn't thought about kerning and line spacing before reading this thread.
As for formatting, I played around with it and put my name in the even-page header, title in the odd, along with page numbers.
I reformatted my entire 100,000+ words novel's 34 chapters to avoid beginning on a new page, but I didn't like it. I like to end each chapter on a cliff-hanger, and this seemed to defeat the purpose. I'm content to have each chapter begin on a new page, but not restricted to odd pages. This avoids having a blank white page with nothing on it.
In 6x9 form, Createspace/Amazon's required pricing gave me sticker shock! My survey of bookstores reassured me that prices have gone up quite a bit on paperbacks since I last purchased one. I hope that when I reduce the size on my next proof, the required price will reduce, too.
For my beautiful cover design, my husband is the magician who handles all the graphic art. I'm lucky!
As for editing, after being critiqued, I gave my manuscript to a professional editor of my acquaintance. She did a very good job, but I can't afford another $600 edit! So I'm relying on my own proofreading and copy editing skills, aquired from previous jobs. It helps that I'm extremely detail-oriented and a perfectionist! Haha. Leave your manuscript alone for several weeks, months even, then look at it with fresh eyes. Errors will pop! And look at your ms in different forms: printed, digital, different fonts, etc., to see things that need to be corrected.
Thanks, Luca. I'm really enjoying this thread, too. And I'm REALLY enjoying formatting my novel for print. I used to do DTP years ago, so this is kind of old-home/review for me, and the more I do it, the more I remember why I love doing it so much.Here's the format I have come up with so far: http://www.aprilwilsonwrites.com/imag...
That's an image of a 2-page spread; it shows the start of a new chapter, the chapter heading, a drop-cap 1st paragraph, some body text, and headers (author name, book title, and page number). This is all very standard formatting. My trim size is 5.5" x 8.5".
I'm using Minion Pro (11pt) for body text and Candara for the chapter numbers. Margins are .5" all around, plus a gutter on the interior margins. As for trim size, I'd like like to have 5.5x8.25 (which is what the premium paperbacks use), but CreateSpace doesn't offer 5.5x8.25 as a standard trim size. They offer 5.5x8 and 5.5x8.5, so I'm going with 8.5 as the length.
I've got my book down to 414 pages, based on the typeface, font size, leading, and tracking that I am using.
Now I have to proof the daylights out of this, because I know that I lost a lot of special formatting when copying the text over from Word. All my italics was lost, as well as the special formatting I used to indicate text messages. (I'm using Adobe InDesign, which is professional digital typesetting software. It's expensive to purchase outright, but you can get it on a monthly fee basis, which makes it affordable for me. It's $20 a month, or $15 if you work in education, which I do. I'm thinking about formatting other people's books in the future, so I definitely want a professional tool.)
I have the page count down to 414 pgs, which is the point at which I can do "expanded distribution" (bookstores and libraries) through CreateSpace, although I'll barely make any money on those copies (I'm talking PENNIES). I don't care about that, though - I just want my book to be available for expanded distribution. The profit margin for selling paperbacks on Amazon and my CreateSpace estore is pretty high - much higher than the margin on the e-books. But, my retail price is standard trade size price ($15.00), which I think is very high for a paperback, so I may not have many paperback sales at all. Oh, well. I'm okay with that. At least it's out there. That's my goal.
I do plan to purchase paperbacks myself (at the "author price," which is $5.67). Those I want to consign in local bookshops, donate to my local library system, sell from my own website, etc...
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Mind Process and Formulas: Principles, Techniques, Formulas, and Processes for Success (other topics)Care Taker (other topics)
Any words of advice? Any cautions? Pats on the back? Pep talks? Anything? Please?