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Formatting question...
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I've used Fiverr for a few different thing, although never thought to use it for formatting, which I do myself using InDesign. I always look for someone with a lot of 5 star reviews of Fiverr. I've yet to be disappointed.
Is InDesign difficult to learn? I'd prefer to do it myself, but at this point, it's all about time. If I can learn your program quickly without too many difficulties, that's what I'd prefer. So... 8-)
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But saying that, you can probably find a tutorial online for exactly what you want to do. If you follow that word for word you can probably fake it well enough to do it!
Not sure this applies to your situation, but if you have a digital copy of your first paperback book in its finished format, you can try stripping the text out of it, save the result as your second book, and then paste in the new text. It requires care when doing the changeover, maybe a little repair of the chapter pages, and you have to check it thoroughly, but I've done it and it worked out fine.
Shannon wrote: "Is InDesign difficult to learn? I'd prefer to do it myself, but at this point, it's all about time. If I can learn your program quickly without too many difficulties, that's what I'd prefer. So... 8-)"InDesign, and all of Creative Suite in my experience, is the most intuitive of all the tools (except maybe Pxlr, but that is pretty limited.) The nice thing about InDesign is that there are SOOO many Youtube tutorials to teach you any and everything! There are also tons of templates available (Createspace will give you a template for your book cover IN InDesign with the measurements already laid out!)
A lot of others try to mimic Creative Suite, and so if you are clever you can extrapolate what you learn from a video on Indesign to, say, Gimp, but it is not intuitive at all. It takes some experience, and a lot of effort.
I looked up InDesign and found it only has a 2 star rating on Amazon. I understand that people like to complain, but now I'm not sure if it's a good idea!I very much like the idea of having a program which will allow me to do what needs doing, but I'm legally blind, so my learning curve is...a little slower than most. With that information, which would you guys recommend, paying someone to do it, or buying InDesign??
Pay someone to do it. The InDesign learning curve can be daunting. I think you may be surprised by what Fiverr can do. Unless the person is asking for a LOT more than $5. for the service. But I saw something yesterday (Reedsy, I think) that said the average cost for interior text block design is around $800. (US) so whatever you pay on Fiverr should be well below that. And you said other people gave this person 5 star reviews, so that's a good starting place.
I think I will. 8-) Just found one which looks good and will cost less than half what the woman who did book 1 charged me. Thanks for the advice! Now...back to writing... 8-)
About fiverr: Choose someone with a decent amount of stars and also check their results in the last 1-2 months. Fiverr is a freelancer place and activity changes depending on the person's other jobs. Choose someone who is currently active. About editing the book yourself: If you have a deadline, chose fiverr (outside help). You may consider working on book three, where you have time. Also take into consideration how much time, effort and possible licenses you need to do the task yourself and how many books you plan to publish. If you do not take pleasure in doing it, it may not be worth the hassle. (Just my 2c.)
Ken wrote: "...if you have a digital copy of your first paperback book in its finished format, you can try stripping the text out of it, save the result as your second book, and then paste in the new text..."I too have used this method. Thankfully my editor really went all out for me and helped me out with formatting on top of the edit, and then he gave me pointers and I learned how to do it myself for my second and third books. I've only ever used Word for formatting though (never had any issues with it either), so I couldn't speak about how hard it would be on other programs.
As for Fiverr, if it's only headers, I'm sure the person you found with the many 5 star reviews would probably be the best bet if you want someone else to do it. It's $5.
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I am a very satisfied Fiverr customer. I found a guy who has done all the art for my website; we're now doing the revamp. I just got my new logo and I love it!
So here's my question. I found a person on fiverr who has 200+ 5 star reviews of her formatting. All I really need is to have the headers done properly and make it look like book 1. Would you use someone you found on fiverr?? Is it too big a risk that it'll be bad, despite all the good reviews? Have YOU ever used fiverr? Ok, it was more than one question, but hey. 8-) So...thoughts??