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How to Make a Book|Easy-Medium-Advanced

by Deborah S. Nelson, Author-Book Coach-Speaker

Three Ways How to Make a Book Online

Digital publishing has brought some new developments. Now. it is easy for an ordinary person to learn how to publish a book. If you are creative and have always wanted to make a book, this article will give you an overview of the options and steps to make that possible. To simplify the process, I have divided different ways into three categories. These include, The Four-Color Gift Book, Print on Demand Paperback, and Short Run Book Publishing. With these options, your creative spirit can soar.

Easy|Color Gift Book

If you want only a one-time book project with no need to market your books, the four-color hard cover book is fun and easy to do. For this option, I feel that the the best company is Blurb.com. I love Blurb! You can learn how to self publish a book with the greatest of ease using Blurb.

The beautiful thing with Blurb is you can create full-color books with a hard cover. If you want to publish a children’s book, a book of art, a photography portfolio, or anything that requires full-color on the inside and outside, Blurb.com is your best choice to learn the beginning basics of how to make a book online. With their proprietary software, BookSmart, you can easily create books without the steep learning curve of professional book publishing software.

Easy User Friendly Book Publishing Software

Blurb software automatically does page numbering, the copyright pages, and the right blank pages, and a few pages of optional front matter. Blurb has no option for marketing your book through online booksellers or the book publishing industry.

This is a great option if you want to create a gift book or legacy book or a book to use for presentations in your business. The books might seem pricey, but the fact that you can print just one book using their print on demand system for under $25-$500 is phenomenal (depending on how many pages).

Stunning Full-Color Gift Books

My daughter created an epoch 400-page book following her friend’s romance which led up to marriage as a wedding gift. Another book she created was a photo-journal of her best friend’s cat, about 250 pages, in memory of “Jet Boy” who had been lovingly euthanized. One of my students collected old Italian recipes from her beloved grandmother and published the recipes in memory of her.

If you prefer creativity and minimal technical frustrations, you can learn how to make your book with the greatest of ease using Blurb’s proprietary book software.

Medium|Print on Demand Books|Sell on Amazon

The next option, especially if you want to sell books, is to print on demand. This option is great if you want to buy books in small quantities to provide for workshops or seminars you may teach. Additionally, The easiest and least expensive print on demand option is to use the paperback format.

The paperback format offers multiple size options, depending on which print on demand company you choose. All of them offer four-color front and back covers with black and white interior, up to as much as 400 pages. Basically, you will need to create two digital files, one for the cover, and one for the interior of the book. Most print on demand companies require the file to be in a print ready (300 dpi) PDF format.

For a professional look, initially the layout is usually done in In Design. Next, the graphic artist will export that file to a print ready PDF, required by the printer. Lastly, upload these files to your print on demand account.

Advanced|Short Run Book Printing|Book Store Sales

Finally, search Google for short run printing companies to print your book. Depending on size, color (or black and white), hard back cover, type of paper, number of copies required, and shape, you will gather different quotes. They will quote you based on “camera- or print-ready art.”

For starters, find a graphic design specialist for the cover, and one for the book interior. Next, in order to sell in book stores, register as a publisher at Bowker Books. Once, registered, purchase an ISBN number, so your book will be listed in BOOKS IN PRINT. Notably, this is the main source from which book stores order their books.

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By Deborah S. Nelson, Author-Book Coach-Speaker

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Experience the Exhilaration of Being a Published Author

Steps 6–10 of Publishing a Book Yourself

Thinking of publishing a book yourself? Bravo! I urge you to do it. There is nothing like experiencing the exhilaration of being a published author. But before you begin, get a clue. Publishing a book yourself isn’t that hard! But, publishing a book yourself isn’t that easy either. Get the facts.

As a publishing coach, I have led writers through the self-publishing process to publish 100+ books. The steps below make it easy to conceptualize the big picture of publishing a book yourself.

COMPLIMENTARY BOOK COACHING

BOOK COVER

Create a concept which is a compelling graphic rendering of the idea of your book. Provide cover art or photo to a graphic designer to design your cover. Hire a book cover designer using one of the online freelance services.

Be prepared with your concept, your cover photo, graphic, or image. Also, supply an author headshot for the back of the book. Supply a sales copy synopsis of the book, and a short author bio. You will need to offer the book cover template for the size of your book along with the estimated number of pages (to figure spine width), and the ISBN number assigned when you initiated your title in Step Five. Consider that your book cover may be an important piece and best done professionally when publishing a book yourself.

INTERIOR DESIGN

Like building a home, your architect creates an outer design with components such as a front porch, entryway, terraces, patios, driveway, landscaping and the overall exterior of the home; which is compared to your cover design.

Once you enter the home or open the book, the interior design is clear. Selection of colors, floors, finishes, woodwork, windows are interior design components of a custom-built home. For the interior of your book, select the overall look and feel using fonts, font sizes, illustrations, images, headers, and subheads, dividers, photos, and footers, page numbers, and other graphic elements.

Is your book scholastic, non-fiction, playful, serious, fiction, dramatic, informative, professional, technical, or fantasy-like? Create the look, feel, and tone that you want to convey in the interior of your book. Supply the designer (choose a specialist to avoid nightmares) the IBN for the copyright, all front and back matter, body, and chronological order. The Once Upon a Book Video Series outlines the ten basic steps of how to self-publish a book.

SUBMIT FILES

Submit interior and cover files for approval.

Once you upload these completed files, submit for approval by the print on demand company. These files most often are required to be in the form of a “print ready PDF.” Files in this format are widely accepted by most print on demand companies and will result in a high quality output. Be sure and insist to the cover and interior designer that all components be at least 300 dpi and that all be exported to a print quality PDF. This is the technical part of publishing a book yourself. Get help from professionals to be sure your files are built to specifications, or they may be rejected by the printing company.

PROOFREADING

Once your files are approved for printing, order a physical proof. Do not skip this step. So far you have been looking at digital files. A physical proof will show things undetected on the computer screen. Be sure to hire a professional proofreader make a last check for typos, spacing, punctuation, missing and duplicate words.

Hire a specialist from E-lance.com or Freelance.com. If you know someone who does proofreading for a living you want to hire them instead. Be sure to choose a style manual for them to use as the basic of their corrections, as there are many ways to proofread and make corrections on a book, and they are not all in agreement. This is as much an art as it is a science. Consistency is the name of the game, and using a style manual for proofreading and editing will get the most accurate corrections and consistency possible. Professional proofreading is of the most important steps in publishing a book yourself for getting a professional look and feel.

PUBLISH

Once the proofread is complete, make corrections to your interior file and upload the corrected interior file to your print on demand account. Submit “publish.” With a print on demand account, you won’t need to buy an inventory of books. Order 1 or more books and your POD company prints them as ordered. Congratulations! You are a published author! BRAVO! If you would like a publishing consultation Deborah S. Nelson, offers them for $20 on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

See the following articles: How to Market a Self-Published Book | Top 7 Self-Publishing Questions Answered | Self-Publishing Companies to Avoid

How to Make a Book | Three Types

How to Make a Book|Easy-Medium-Advanced

by Deborah S. Nelson, Author-Book Coach-Speaker

Easy|Color Gift Book