Self-Publishing Secrets 2 Self-Publishing Secrets
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PDF 1 Self-Publishing secrets 2 Self-Publishing Secrets Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one. ~ A. J. Liebling 3 Self-Publishing secrets 12 Steps to Success Jonathon Donahue 4 Self-Publishing Secrets For Michael and Peter. SELF-PUBLISHING SECRETS: 12 STEPS TO SUCCESS. Copyright ©2011, 2012 by Jonathon M. Donahue. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any man- ner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews, and short excerpts for educational purposes. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Donahue, Jonathon Self-publishing secrets: 12 steps to success/Jonathon Donahue P.cm. ISBN 978-0-9833191-0-8 1. Self-publishing -- United States I. Title. 2. Desktop Publishing -- Computer publishing, etc. 3. Publishers and Publishing -- Handbooks, manuals, etc. 4. Printing, Practical -- Handbooks, manuals, etc. 5. Authorship -- handbooks, manuals, etc. Z285.5.P69 2011 070.5’93’0973--dc21 Library of Congress Control Number: 2011901791 Printed in the United States of America. 5 READ THIS FIRST This book assumes that you, the reader, are somewhat familiar with computers, and that you know how to use a word processing program like Microsoft Word, Open Office Writer, or Apple Pages -- even at a basic level, you don’t have to be an expert. Not you? Hate PCs or Macs? Don’t want to learn how to use basic text and graphics programs? You can still self-publish your book... without a computer. Read pages 159 to 161 first. The rest of the book’s informa- tion --about self-publishing -- still applies, even for handwritten or handdrawn books. 6 Self-Publishing Secrets Contents Introduction . .11 Self-publish? Why? . .13 Revolution -- POD and ebook . .17 POD -- Print On Demand . .17 E-books and the internet . .19 Is an ebook a... book? . .20 Ebooks and the self-publisher . .22 Quick start -- 12 steps to success . .23 Write your book . .25 Free writing programs . .26 Illustrate your book . .27 Images for POD printing . .28 Images for ebooks . .28 Graphics tips from a multimedia designer . .28 Free illustration software . .31 Art software worth buying . .32 Price your book . .33 Pricing printed books . .33 Pricing ebooks . .34 Make a website for the book . .37 Get an ISBN number . .41 Books In Print . .42 Get a Library of Congress listing . .43 Contents 7 Copyright your book . 47 Ebook: DRM and Epub . 49 DRM - Digital Rights Management . 49 Adobe Digital Editions and PDF DRM . 50 The DRM dilemna . 51 Ingram Digital PDF ebooks without DRM . 51 Kindle ebooks and DRM . 52 Epub ebooks and DRM . 52 Ebook: publishing to Epub . 53 A format in flux . 53 Sssh. Here’s a secret . 54 Ebook: publishing to Kindle . 55 Jutoh to Kindle . 55 Fonts . 56 Font sizes . 57 Unicode characters . .57 An HTML line . 58 Paragraphs . 59 Lists . 59 Tables . 60 Images . 60 Links . 62 TOC time . 62 The hard way . 63 KF8, Epub 3 and the future . 64 Can ’o corn . 65 The writer as multimedia designer . 66 Print: format and PDF the interior . 67 Printed book interior layouts . 67 Page size for printed books . 68 8 Self-Publishing Secrets Book length . .68 Print margins . .69 Justification . .69 Headers, footers, and page numbers . .70 Paragraphs . .70 Interior fonts . .70 Page count . .71 Editing . .71 PDF creation for printed books . .71 Acrobat Pro setup for printed books . .72 Font embedding . .73 PDFs from Word or Writer . .73 Print: design and PDF the cover . .75 Cover fonts . .75 Cover art for your printer . .76 Cover artwork on a printer's template. .77 Cover artwork elements . .77 Cover art for printing: PDF output . .78 Cover art for printing: editing and proofing . .78 Cover art for printing: CMYK color-check . .78 Print: work with a POD vendor . .79 Lightning Source . .79 Lightning Source POD manuals and guides . .80 Estimating printing costs . .81 Uploading your book files . .82 Ebook: make a PDF electronic book . .83 PDF – the universal ebook format . .83 Making ebook PDFs . .84 Three ebook possibilities . .85 Ebook margins and pagination . .86 Contents 9 Ebook color . 86 Selling your PDF ebook on Amazon (not) . 87 Make a PDF ebook for Kindle and other ereaders . 88 Ebook: make a multimedia PDF . .91 Flash animation . 93 Embedded video and audio . 95 Setup an online store . .97 Online vendor order fulfillment . 97 Online printed book payments . 98 Improve your website . .101 Metadata, SEO, and SMO . 101 Free web development programs . 103 Revised webpage design . 103 Advertising . .105 Publicity . .107 Who to contact . 108 Sample press release . 109 How to write a press release . 110 Press release tips . ..