Make a
Business Out of Creating and Publishing Your Own Book
A few weeks ago a friend in Illinois
sent me a copy of his 10th text book. A little over a year ago, I sent a review
in to his publisher and nine editors later, the book is available. There was an
acquisitions editor; front page editor and on and on. None of them added
anything to the project, as he had submitted it in their format ready to print.
The textbook retails for $130, of which he gets $7.
He lives in a university
retirement home and one of his friends, an octogenarian physicist had written a
text, but instead of sending it to a publisher she got online and sent it to
lulu.com; she had a proof back in a week. Bill told me about this, so I
researched it online. I found several publishers who will publish text books,
novels, calendars and photo books. I did not feel up to writing another text
book, so I decided to try some photo books. Last time I looked into this I
found you could get a 100 page photo book (10 by 8 inches) for about $15 each,
provided you ordered a thousand of them, from Indonesia.
Most of the online printers
charge about $20 for text books and novels; photo books cost $25 to $50,
depending on the number of pages and whether you order a soft cover or a hard
cover, which costs about $10 more. You can download the software to create the
book. The photos are displayed in a film strip along the bottom or side of the page.
You then “drag and drop” the photos to a page. You can
insert text comments, chapter headings or pages of plain text. Once complete
you can print off a proof and then upload the completed project. Uploading can
take several hours; the last step is to order a copy of the book and pay for
it. The book is then printed within 10 days and shipped by USPS or U.P.S.
Here’s a partial list of publishers
www.Lulu.com
www.blurb.com
I found lulu to have the best
program for marketing your finished product but the photo books were not as
good as those from blurb.com. Picaboo has more layout
options but costs a little more. They will also do leather covers, which
brought the cost of one of my books up to $145.
These books and calendars are
great for birthdays and special occasions. The cost is about the same as
printing your own 8 by 10-inch prints and binding them together in an office
binder. Although it is easy to create a book it may take several attempts to
get your own workflow going smoothly. Here are some tips for creating a book.
First, organize your thoughts
and get maps and other information on the subject. Decide on the purpose of the
book, is it for yourself or do you want to market it? One of the early books I
created was of Ashford Castle in Ireland; the photos were mostly of things we
liked. When I discovered this publishing process I realized I needed a lot more
photos of the rooms and various facilities that we did not use, if the book was
to be used as a guidebook. Next time I will be prepared.
1.
Decide on the purpose of the book and collect background data.
2.
Take lots of pictures and include road signs and other signs identifying the
location. Edit the pictures and choose slightly more photos than the number of
pages you want.
3.
Organize the photos into a sequence and number them 01mypic; 02mypic…up to
99mypic, then copy them into a separate folder. Using numbers insures that
Microsoft Windows and other programs keep them in the correct sequence.
4.
Crop photos to the best size and shape, check on the book formats available
first e.g. 4 by 5 inches, 4 by 6 inches, 8 by 10 inches, most book publishing
programs do not handle unusual sizes like panoramas or tall and thin. For this
you need Adobe PageMaker or a similar program.
5.
For low-resolution pictures use smaller print frames and add text. You can also
add multiple small pictures to one page.
6.
Sometimes several related images have more impact if they are grouped together.
An example would be a group of relatives at a family event. If
they are not the main story, mix several portraits on one page. The
bride and groom should probably have their own page.
7.
Try changing the page layout from time to time. This may include images plus text,
more than one image or a chapter heading with a smaller image. Picaboo has lots of different page layouts and background
themes.
In some of the programs it is
possible to add captions over the photos, in others they will only do this
above or below. You can always add captions to the photo itself in your photo
editor.
Finally, pick a cover picture
that reflects the theme of the book and don’t forget to add a title, fill in
the copyright page and also the back cover.
Last but not least, have fun.