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Rethinking paperbacks and hardcovers
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Ken wrote: "There are three ways to approach the formatting of paperbacks and hardcovers on websites like Createspace and Lulu. The first option, and probably the one most taken, is to keep it cheap. Smaller p..."That sounds great. However, Createspace doesn't offer a hardcover. I would love to have one just for my own collection. You say LuLu will make a hardcover?
Lulu makes hardcovers. You even have a choice between a glossy hardcover or a linen hardcover with gold-colored print and a dust jacket of your design. I used the paperback cover design for the dust jacket.
my doorstoppers were never cheap to begin with so I made them pro looking from the start. I have an account with Lulu but never made a hardback yet. the only difference between Lulu and CS was the spine lolz
I made my paperback books look like books. I picked my font size based on the trade paperbacks I own and yes, just like with my ebooks, each chapter begins on a new page (though I noticed that with several of my older scifi titles, this was not typical back in the day). The only thing I did differently was choose the 6x9 size from Createspace, which is slightly larger than a standard trade paperback. As for pricing, there's not really any point to trying to price low. Have you seen what they charge for a paperback these days? 300-500 pages is going to run you $20-30 depending on the publishing house. I don't really feel that my $13.99 is a bad price, but I will tell people that they can save $10 and the life of a tree by reading my books in electronic format. ;)
Man, I would love to have Bounty in hardcover... even if it only one copy for my collection. I learned a lot in the process of publishing that book, lessons I'm putting in place as I prepare Blood Ties for publication. I start chapters on a new page, I'm trying out fonts other than Times New Roman for the text, and I'm currently trying to get my page headers squared away (that seems to be the most difficult part so far).
W. wrote: "looks good in lulu, ken."
Thanks. The hardcover is done, too, it just hasn't appeared yet. Lulu is otherwise about the same as Createspace, just a little harder to do (but not much), and your revisions appear on Lulu immediately without going through a review process. If you have an acceptable 6x9 paperback book formatted, you can use the same interior on the hardcover. But if your ISBN is inside, be sure to change that before making the PDF file.
Thanks. The hardcover is done, too, it just hasn't appeared yet. Lulu is otherwise about the same as Createspace, just a little harder to do (but not much), and your revisions appear on Lulu immediately without going through a review process. If you have an acceptable 6x9 paperback book formatted, you can use the same interior on the hardcover. But if your ISBN is inside, be sure to change that before making the PDF file.
I format my books in paperback to the same professional standards that a major traditional publisher would use in designing any trade paperback...... with one exception. I didn't force every new chapter to start on an odd page, which is customary. My book is already long (440 pgs), and it has 46 chapters. When I looked at starting every new chapter on an odd page, it added 34 pages to my page count, which was already high. So I made the decision to let new chapters start where they naturally fell, on either an even page or an odd. I can live with that.
I made mine look like a regular paperback too, fair bit of white space above the chapter headings etc etcLike most of us yeah, I sell more ebooks online, but I sell a fair amount of paperbacks by hand so it's always been worth it for me to start off having the paperback approimately how a regular one looks
Can someone help me here? I looked at LuLu and it looked to me like a standard vanity press - you pay up front for each book, in contrast to CreateSapce that prints on demand. Do I have tha tcorrect?
Bernard wrote: "Can someone help me here? I looked at LuLu and it looked to me like a standard vanity press - you pay up front for each book, in contrast to CreateSapce that prints on demand. Do I have tha tcorrect?"
No, Lulu is print on demand. It's free if you sell only on Lulu, but you have to buy a proof copy of your book before you can expand to the other markets. My books are distributed beyond Lulu, and the only cost has been the purchase of a copy of each of my own books.
No, Lulu is print on demand. It's free if you sell only on Lulu, but you have to buy a proof copy of your book before you can expand to the other markets. My books are distributed beyond Lulu, and the only cost has been the purchase of a copy of each of my own books.
I'd agree that there's certainly a degree of aesthetics involved when putting together a physical book. Honestly I'd pay a little more for a book I'm proud of so long as it looked pretty on the outside.People do judge a book by its cover (and even inside formatting) so it should be sensible that this would work fine.
Interesting discussion here. I've never tried Lulu but I've heard some good things. I'm thinking of doing a hardcover as a special edition to my novels, If nothing else it is only the cost of the book itself (which I would like to have on my shelf as well. I'm wondering if anyone has done anything on IngramSpark? I am Hoping to illustrate each episode of my Novels (each book contains % episodes 65-100 pages each episode) for a high quality Graphic novel. (More of a high quality picture book really. I was surprised at the cost per book considering the quality. The premium quality/ full color on gloss stock for 70-100 page book 8.5x 11 run about 8-9 bucks each. Pretty afordable in my opinion for full color.
D.J. wrote: "Interesting discussion here. I've never tried Lulu but I've heard some good things. I'm thinking of doing a hardcover as a special edition to my novels, If nothing else it is only the cost of the b..."
I looked into Ingrams, but they do charge an upfront free. Lulu charges no fee, and distributes to Ingrams as well as Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
I looked into Ingrams, but they do charge an upfront free. Lulu charges no fee, and distributes to Ingrams as well as Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Ken wrote: "Bernard wrote: "Can someone help me here? I looked at LuLu and it looked to me like a standard vanity press - you pay up front for each book, in contrast to CreateSapce that prints on demand. Do I ..."Thanks for the clarification!
Christina wrote: " I picked my font size based on the trade paperbacks I own and yes, just like with my ebooks, each chapter begins on a new page (though I noticed that with several of my older scifi titles, this was not typical back in the day). The only thing I did differently was choose the 6x9 size from Createspace, which is slightly larger than a standard trade paperback..."I've formatted one novel for paperback and I did exactly the same, only I put the size at the smaller traditional trade paperback size. 6x9 just looks too big to me.
I did not put chapters starting only on odd pages, though. I let them fall where they would. I've seen all kinds of formats used in traditional publishing as far as chapter starts go, so I kind of compromised.
April wrote: "I format my books in paperback to the same professional standards that a major traditional publisher would use in designing any trade paperback...... with one exception. I didn't force every new ..."
Since pretty much the only use of our print editions is for us to hold and feel proud of, we make them pleasing to us, so (yes) “spare no expense. (It's also nice to give them to interested parties.) We haven't done hardcover yet, because we actually prefer paperback.
We are switching to letting the chapter breaks fall where they may. I noticed that more and more books I see do this, and some don't even start a chapter on a new page. Word can get finicky about starting a chapter on an odd page, and it's much easier not to fight with it.
I like all of my chapters to start recto, but you are right, it is certainly not required and there are plenty of paperbacks that don't even start a new page for a new chapter. I find that makes it a bit dense for reading, I prefer a new page for every chapter, but left or right doesn't really matter to me as long as it is consistent.
Would hardcover even really sell with self-published authors? I mean we have. hard enough time selling our paperbacks and digital copies never mind a hardcover of an unknown for $25 a pop. Don't get me wrong I love the idea and always wondered why SP companies don't make hardcover but I imagine the cost to produce is great and again not many people would buy a book by a SPA for so much.
Justin wrote: "Would hardcover even really sell with self-published authors? I mean we have. hard enough time selling our paperbacks and digital copies never mind a hardcover of an unknown for $25 a pop. Don't ge..."
That's the point. Since you won't sell many anyway, you might as well make it pretty for your own bookshelf, cost be damned. It's free except for the cost of your own book, which you get at a discount.
That's the point. Since you won't sell many anyway, you might as well make it pretty for your own bookshelf, cost be damned. It's free except for the cost of your own book, which you get at a discount.
Hear, hear. I conceded slightly to the cost gods by going with a "classy" paperback with a nice cover and back cover blurb, and made special efforts to get my paperback just the way I wanted it, even though I'd been forewarned I and a few close friends were likely the only ones who would ever hold it in their hands.
I write YA and have won an award through a school/library network. Schools and libraries expect to be able to by your books through Ingram, and they like hardcover because they are more durable and last longer. So yes, even as a self-published author, there has still been a demand for hardcover books through Ingram, albeit very small at this point.
And what is the basic reason for offering paperbacks and hardcovers? Most of us just want to give the customer as many choices as possible, and hopefully sell a few more books. But how many paperbacks and hardcovers will a little-known or unknown author sell? For my four books combined I've sold fewer than a half-dozen, and I've never sold one to a face-to-face customer. My sales are overwhelmingly ebooks, and I'd bet that most of us experience the same thing.
So why not format it a little less cheaply so it looks a little better on our own bookshelves? That brings us to option two, and moderate a little from "cheap"; begin chapters on the next page instead of cramming them under the end of the previous one, and select a font size that matches the print you see on traditionally published books.
I recently chose a third option: Price Is No Object. If the only result of going with paperbacks and hardcovers is for that extra customer option, and to get a representative sample of your work on your own bookshelves, why not make it beautiful? The cost is really not that much more, considering how high it is to begin with. If a reader won't buy your paperback at $13 they still won't buy it at $11.
I've reformatted paperback versions of all of my books for a better look. You can see one of them right now on Lulu, at http://www.lulu.com/shop/ken-doggett/...
Just click on "preview" beneath the cover display.
The fonts I used for this book were the following: text, Cambria, 11 pt; title and chapter numbers, Felix Titling, 24pt. (title page) and 72 pt. (chapter numbers); French Script MT for the drop caps (space to text after the drop caps is usually .05, but altered in special cases). I started each chapter on a new page, making sure that each one started on a right-hand, odd-numbered page. I also gave extra space between the scene dividers within the chapters, and did a little kerning touchup on the title and elsewhere. I know that trad publishers don't always use these techniques, but I also think the combination of these things will give it a much more professional look.
The result? When I uploaded it to Createspace the page count for the book went from 318 page to 373, and the minimum list price allowed went from $11.65 to $13.33.
I know that doing all this work won't sell any more paperbacks or hardcovers than before, and with this book I've sold none at all, but it'll certainly look nice on my bookshelf. And at the moment that's the primary objective.
What are your thoughts?