While e-books are likely the wave of the future, many people I know have no interest in adding a Kindle or Nook or whatever to their electronic library. Some don't like e-books for what are to them, perfectly valid reasons. And some reserve their savvy for other than computer-based work. Probably, you have friends in one or more of those categories. And there are potential readers out there who also fit. Given the small amount of additional work needed to create paperback copies of your wonderful novel, doesn't it make sense to do so? No, I'm not acting as a shill for Amazon; it just seems like a no-brainer to me.
Of course, the decision is yours. I'm relating my experience to give you an idea about the effort needed to take a book already available in e-book format to
CreateSpace. If you do it, and sell enough to clear the (low) royalty hurdle, congratulations! If not, at least you didn't close off the path.
I spent about ten hours over the past
several weeks formatting and proofing Mercenaries; A Love Story for
the print on demand service
CreateSpace. Most of that time was spent
on learning the (admittedly few) ropes needed to select a trim size -
I based my selection on a survey of the paperback books in my library
and the page count estimates from the processor. That was probably
the most difficult task.
For printing, the things you need to choose are the
trim size (the actual page size) of the book, the font and size of the interior text, and the line spacing. Assuming you are not planning a different edit for print, these are
the major determiners of the page count, which drives the
cost, and therefore the sell price.
I went back and forth a few times in
making these choices for my book, and I plan to keep them for other
books in the series, to keep them cosmetically the same.
I asked my wife, an avid reader, for input on the font
and size by printing a few pages in the same size and layout as the
book in different fonts and sizes, and having her review them. Between us we selected Georgia in
10 pt for the font, with 1.1 x line spacing.
CreateSpace takes PDF files for the
internal text. I created these directly from
Scrivener, using their
compile option to override the project page set-up with a specific
one for pdf. Along with the page size, I set up the headers and
footers as I wanted and ’pressed the button, Max!’ (Apologies to
Dr. Fate.)
After a review of the resulting PDF file,
I selected it in the internal file section of the CreateSpace process. It was
then a matter of waiting until their review process ground its
wheels. Any errors are flagged. The first time
I tried this, I didn’t understand the requirement that the size of
the pages in the PDF file had to match the page size selected in
CreateSpace. I know, I know, it's obvious, right?
I fixed that in the Scrivener options
by choosing the 6 x 9 page size with margins* to fit CreateSpace
suggestions, and lo, my file came back error free!
I would note that while Scrivener makes
the process of changing the page set-up easy, your own experience may
vary. I believe that it would be as simple if using Word, but my
experience with Word is several years old. I have been unable to
accomplish this with Open Office, since they tie the page size to
Styles, and I haven't ever figured out how to use Styles. My guess is
that LibreOffice is the same as OO. To be fair, since Scrivener does
the job, I've spent very little time on it.
Other choices affecting page count are
requiring chapters to begin on "a recto page" (the right
hand side), the font size of the Chapter headings and the padding
used to lower the Chapter heading toward the center of the page.
These, however, won't affect the page count by more than five
percent, in my experience, if you make reasonable choices. Starting
on a recto page will have the biggest effect; with optimal bad luck,
it could amount to an extra page per chapter. Plan on half that.
Here are photos of the interior, showing a chapter opening, and a two page spread. Focus isn't too good, sorry.
The second hurdle was creating a table
of contents. In the ebook version, I had entries only for
individual sections, but I wanted to add the chapters in the print
version. This was more trouble, because of the various options for
TOC creation in Scrivener, and rather than detail it here, if you need or want more detail on that, contact me.
The last item is the cover. Once you've
chosen a trim size, it also defines the cover size, and therefore the
requirements for the image. For the 6x9 trim size, the
image you select must be 6.25" x 9.5" with a resolution of
300 DPI. Another requirement is that there be no useful information
within a quarter-inch of the edge. This typically means the title and
the author's name must be well within the finished printed area. Other
trim sizes will have their own requirements, determined when you
begin the process. You will select one of the templates that allow
you to add your own cover image.
An Author photo is nice to include, but
not required. The image should be 1.5" x 1.5", again with a
300 DPI resolution. I haven't checked, but this requirement probably
fits all trim sizes.
You'll need the text for the back cover
(the book description may be what you want), and if you choose, an
author biography to go with the picture.
That's really about it. The CreateSpace
process is dead easy to follow, and it gives you feedback at every
step to keep you headed true.
Once everything's been approved, proof the result. I suggest you order the physical book at least once. When you receive it, make sure it's what you expect. Check the cover: front, back and spine. Check the front material to make sure you got the one for the printed version! Inside, make sure the chapter first pages look the way you want, including whether they start correctly, and have the font and size you expect. Make sure the padding is the same from chapter to chapter. Several places through the text, check the page numbers and the other header/footer text you added. Make sure it doesn't overrun the text.
Before finishing the process for
Mercenaries, I did the same process for an editing copy of my WIP,
Freedom Does Matter. For this copy, I printed it myself, on my
overworked HP inkjet printer.
Because I didn't want to cut the sheets
down, I bought a ream of legal paper and set Scrivener for a trim
size of 7" x 8.5", half a sheet. I used
Cheap Impostor to
do the imposting (the re-ordering of pages into signatures). It makes
a nice package... especially if a duplex printer is available. For
Freedom, 292 pages the way I printed it, I had 73 sheets of paper
(four pages per sheet) to fold, which took something over an hour.
Because my printer is not duplex, I
first printed the even pages, then turned them over and printed the
odd pages. For whatever reason, the HP printer doesn't pick up
freshly printed pages as well as it does unprinted sheets; I had to
help the printer pick up each of the sheets when printing the odd
sheets. That added about an hour, so the marked-up copy in the photo
required three plus hours to put together. You can tell that it is
not glued--much better for editing.
I was glad I went through the exercise.
Not only did I get a different format (making editing easier for me),
I got additional experience in the process of making input files for
CreateSpace.
If this seems like it would be useful
to you, feel free to experiment. At the least, if
you decide to have someone else do this work, I hope you'll have some
insight into the work they will be doing for you. If you’d like
more details on any part of the process, contact me. And as usual, comments are welcome!
*The inside margin (the left in
Scrivener) is determined by the page count, to allow the text to be
read when the book is bound. As the page count increases, so does the
depth of the inside margin.
