- Are you self-publishing and you wanna know
what software to use?
Stick around.
We're gonna have a great conversation about that.
(upbeat music)
Hey there, I'm Julie Broad
with havemoreinfluence.com.
Today, I'm answering a question that came in from Samona.
Samona's asking..
Oops on the wrong page.
Samona asks, "Is it better to have my book in Word
"or some other software,
"or do I just need to get it into a PDF?"
This is an excellent question
and it is something to think about
because as she notes in the rest of her question,
she doesn't wanna have to redo things
because who likes that?
Doing a book in self-publishing it is enough work as it is
if you're not redoing things.
So let's tackle this.
Now, before you can answer this question,
there's some things that you have to figure out.
First, what format do you want to publish your book in?
Hardcover, softcover, or digital book?
The next question is where do you want distribution?
Because if you don't care about distribution
and you just want printed copies
or you don't even care about printed copies,
this is a whole different conversation
and a PDF might be just fine.
But if you want Amazon distribution for a printed copy
or you want iBooks or Kobo or whatever it might be
to carry your book, then you're going to have to
kind of back things up and plan accordingly.
So, first of all, if you want a hardcover,
your best option for self-publishing,
if you want distribution as well,
is probably going to be Ingram Spark
or Lightning Source.
They have a hardcover option.
They also have access to lots of bookstores.
If you're just worried about getting it on Amazon.com,
CreateSpace is probably your cheapest, easiest option
for doing that.
Now, CreateSpace also recently came out with the option
for you to apply to get it onto Amazon.ca,
so for us Canadians that makes CreateSpace
a lot more accessible and a lot better option
for people who really wanted Amazon.ca distribution,
but weren't going to get it easily
through CreateSpace before.
So the software you're going to use and the requirements
is going to vary and depend on which publishing house
and which format you're using.
Okay, so let's cover those really quickly.
Now, Amazon, if you're going to just print to KDP,
which is Kindle Direct Publishing,
then they make it super easy for you.
They will even accept a Word document.
So they accept Word, HTML, Mobi and ePub formats.
Now, here's the trick, Samona mentioned
that's she's including a lot of images, maps and graphics
into her book.
I don't know about you, Samona, but Word
is a giant pain in the patootie to work with, with images.
It is a great word processing tool,
but when your file starts getting big and clunky
with a lot of images, sometimes I find
that a picture that was here,
is all of a sudden all the way down there.
Like, why?
And so (laughs) I hate using Word
when I have a lot of images.
So even though KDP will accept it,
I bet you there's a very good chance your book
doesn't end up looking as good as it could
if you stick with Word.
So my recommendation is to consider using something else
that is meant for page layouts,
so that you can create the layout and the format
that you want and have it graphically very appealing.
The most common software that is used
is Adobe InDesign.
There are other options out there,
but that is the one that I'm familiar with
and that I know most people doing book layouts will use
and some authors will even write their book InDesign
and the argument for doing it,
is that yes it is a somewhat complicated piece of software,
but if you're trying to create
a very visually appealing book,
so a coffee table book or a more artistic book,
then you can create it right from the start
choosing your fonts and layouts and adding the pictures
and the sidebars right from the start.
So there is an argument for it.
For me, it's hard enough to get coherent thoughts
to come together to create a book (laughs).
I don't need the added distractions of trying
to make it visually appealing at the same time.
Kindle has a great guide.
I recommend you check it out,
'cause if you do stick with Word,
there's some really important tips
to set you up for success.
For example, you don't wanna copy and paste your images,
you want to insert them.
You don't want to use header and footers,
but you do wanna use their heading one tagging system.
Okay, so CreateSpace, fonts must be embedded into that PDF
and there's some other criteria that are stated here.
Again, because it is a PDF,
you might be able to do it using Word,
however, you have to make sure the layout will work
on a printed book and the bleeds
and the margins are appropriate.
So you're probably better off to create this book
inside of a layout software like InDesign.
There's lots of Word templates as well as InDesign templates
out there that you can get your hands on
that will allow you to create a book
that you could then PDF,
but you need special PDF creation software
because the feature of save as PDF inside of Word
will not work for CreateSpace.
So read this document carefully so that you know exactly
what you need.
Ingram Spark, this is Lightning Source's company
for self-publishers, independent publishers.
You'll have to carefully consider what size
your book will be so that the layout, the trim,
the bleeds all match what they need.
Ibooks is also in ePub or PDF
with specific requirements
and I never actually went with iBooks, but again,
a great option.
So just look up their requirements and see.
The big question you have to ask yourself
is how professional do I want this end product to be?
If you are planning on selling it
and you have grander visions
for what this book might become,
you want it to be as professional as possible
and to do that, you wanna be using professional programs
like InDesign or in my case, I just hired somebody
because I had zero interest in learning how to use
another piece of software
and I really wanted my book to look like
a traditional publishing house was behind it.
And that's just the interior considerations by the way.
We haven't even talked about how to format,
create, upload, et cetera, for a cover (laughs).
But hopefully, Samona, that answers your question
and gets you started.
Bottom line, Word might work for the options that you want,
but you probably are much better off
to get your hands on Adobe InDesign
and lay out your book in a professional fashion.
The shortcut that you can probably take
is to find a template for the book size that you want.
If you have a self-publishing question,
come on over to havemoreinfluence.com.
Sign up for my Broad Thoughts Newsletter.
Lots of tips on personal branding influence
and of course self-publishing.
See ya next time.
Bye.
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