Okay, this is not a "should I or shouldn't I" thread, mostly because I've obviously made the decisions I've made. I do plan on eventually doing a professional formatted and edited omnibus of my sci-fi series through Lightningsource, as soon as I have the funds to do so.
I do not have those funds right now. I'm saving up for it, but I don't have it now. And I want to see what releasing a print book will do to the e-book sales, because a lot of people have told me that it will do something. So I've elected to go through createspace one time, just to see what would happen. Because I don't know. And I'd like to.
And...personal reason? My grandmother wants to read my books. She's having health issues, and the computer equiptment she has can't run any of the e-reader apps out there. She's a huge sci-fi fan and I'd like to give her my books to read as books.
Justifications for my decisions aside, I do not expect to have a professional looking print book because I know that would be impossible for me to do on my own. I also do not expect it to sell. At all. (It's a 100 page book) But I DO want to have the print book, and I do want to make it as good as I possibly can.
So...uh...help?
Here is what I have put together so far:
-Paper is cream.
-Front cover is this image:
Only it's six by nine inches at 300dpi and not, you know, the forum size.
-Back cover is a chunk of the background, heavily heavily HEAVILY modified. And if it doesn't print well we go to plan B, but it looks like it will print well.
-The font is one that I purchased for commercial use (And I spent five hours tracking down everything I could to make sure that "licensed for commercial use" meant licensed for commercial use" so I'm confident that part is okay)
-I downloaded the template that Createspace uses for that trim size. (Mostly because I hate Word, every time I use it beyond the utterly basic stuff it piddles the carpet and whines, and if I don't have to set it up I can't screw it up)
-I want to keep the same feel throughout the book, so Title page is a graphic with the cover font and a tiny square of black and white grunge (think rust on a starship bulkhead) at five inches by two inches and 300DPI. If it prints bad I'll drop the graphics, but so far nothing's kicked it out as overtly bad.
-Chapter headers are graphics with the same font and the tiny square of black and white grunge. Chapters start with a drop cap. Every chapter begins on the left side of the book and ends on the right side of the book.
Headers look like this:
only at 300DPI and not 72.
-I tried to fix all the obvious ugliness in the paragraphs, but I have no confidence whatsoever that I did a good job. I did have to screw with kerning and line spacing to get the chapters to fall on the right pages, so I've probably borked that to hell and back and will now have to fix it.
So. Everything is put together and I've ordered the proof. Probably prematurely, but that's what I did. And then my mother and I, and whoever else she can rope in at the print shop, are going to thoroughly kill the proof with a red pen, and upload whatever we correct as the final product.
But I don't know what I need to fix and what I don't. So as somebody who is totally clueless, who absolutely cannot afford professional help, who is going to do this no matter what...how else can I minimize the suck?
In other words...what do I need to be looking at?
I do not have those funds right now. I'm saving up for it, but I don't have it now. And I want to see what releasing a print book will do to the e-book sales, because a lot of people have told me that it will do something. So I've elected to go through createspace one time, just to see what would happen. Because I don't know. And I'd like to.
And...personal reason? My grandmother wants to read my books. She's having health issues, and the computer equiptment she has can't run any of the e-reader apps out there. She's a huge sci-fi fan and I'd like to give her my books to read as books.
Justifications for my decisions aside, I do not expect to have a professional looking print book because I know that would be impossible for me to do on my own. I also do not expect it to sell. At all. (It's a 100 page book) But I DO want to have the print book, and I do want to make it as good as I possibly can.
So...uh...help?
Here is what I have put together so far:
-Paper is cream.
-Front cover is this image:
Only it's six by nine inches at 300dpi and not, you know, the forum size.
-Back cover is a chunk of the background, heavily heavily HEAVILY modified. And if it doesn't print well we go to plan B, but it looks like it will print well.
-The font is one that I purchased for commercial use (And I spent five hours tracking down everything I could to make sure that "licensed for commercial use" meant licensed for commercial use" so I'm confident that part is okay)
-I downloaded the template that Createspace uses for that trim size. (Mostly because I hate Word, every time I use it beyond the utterly basic stuff it piddles the carpet and whines, and if I don't have to set it up I can't screw it up)
-I want to keep the same feel throughout the book, so Title page is a graphic with the cover font and a tiny square of black and white grunge (think rust on a starship bulkhead) at five inches by two inches and 300DPI. If it prints bad I'll drop the graphics, but so far nothing's kicked it out as overtly bad.
-Chapter headers are graphics with the same font and the tiny square of black and white grunge. Chapters start with a drop cap. Every chapter begins on the left side of the book and ends on the right side of the book.
Headers look like this:
only at 300DPI and not 72.
-I tried to fix all the obvious ugliness in the paragraphs, but I have no confidence whatsoever that I did a good job. I did have to screw with kerning and line spacing to get the chapters to fall on the right pages, so I've probably borked that to hell and back and will now have to fix it.
So. Everything is put together and I've ordered the proof. Probably prematurely, but that's what I did. And then my mother and I, and whoever else she can rope in at the print shop, are going to thoroughly kill the proof with a red pen, and upload whatever we correct as the final product.
But I don't know what I need to fix and what I don't. So as somebody who is totally clueless, who absolutely cannot afford professional help, who is going to do this no matter what...how else can I minimize the suck?
In other words...what do I need to be looking at?
After much staring at it I *think* the first part is "Star," but I have no idea what comes after that. I can tell your first name is "Chelsea," but I can't read the last name at all. I also can't read the chapter header you posted.