How to get your manuscript ready for publication, and then get it online.
What is Printing on Demand? (POD) It means that your computer file is stored on the company's hard drive. When somebody wants to buy your book, they order it directly from the publisher and at that point the publisher prints them a copy and mails it to them. You get your "cut" of the sale via email.
I'm going to assume you have already written your book, and had it edited by somebody who isn't your mother or wife or husband or child, and that you have had it proof-read carefully for errors.
Do NOT publish a book that nobody has proofread! You will be sorry!
Of course, it's not as bad with a do-it-yourself POD system, because if you find an error you can upload a new, corrected file and subsequent customers will benefit.
The picture here is of my young friend Jeimy - I am her mentor through the Blue Ribbon Mentor Advocate program in the Carrboro school system. We have done some little English-Spanish books together and I'm thinking of putting her books up on CreateSpace, too. Why not? It's free!
I'm going to give you the step-by-step process for printing at CreateSpace. It's very similar at Lulu.
It COSTS NOTHING to upload a book to Lulu.com or CreateSpace.com! You will pay your author's price to order a proof copy of the book, to make sure it's right. After that you can buy copies at your author's price - as many as you want or as few as zero.
A link to all my songbooks
♦ The Triangle Jewish Chorale Songbook ♦ The TJC Hanukah Songbook ♦
♦ A Christmas Songbook: Three Log Night ♦
♦ The Laduvane Songbook: Balkan music ♦
♦ Let Memory Keep Us All: the Solstice Assembly Songbook ♦
♦ Songs Anyone Can Sing! Songs for Non-singers
How to publish your own book on Createspace or Lulu.com ♦
Now that you have a completed, edited, proofread manuscript, you must format it for printing.
First step: go to CreateSpace and figure out what format you want to use.
Choose a book size and then do some subtraction at CreateSpace
Hover your mouse over the size you like - you'll see a popup box with details and the opportunity to "create one."
Once you choose a book size, figure out how wide and long to make your pages when you format your manuscript:
Subtract the correct margin from the width of the book size to find the correct line length for your manuscript.
Subtract the correct margins from top and bottom of the book size to find the correct length for each page Page numbers must fit inside that margin so subtract enough to leave room for them.
Here's some of the info from the submission requirements tab:
Creating Your Book
Format your book's interior to the exact final trim size of your book with one text-page per PDF-page. (One PDF-page per page number.)
Margins
When formatting your interior, there are two types of margins to consider, inside margins and outside margins.
1. Inside margins (the ones that disappear into the book's binding)
Up to 150 pages, minimum inside margin is .375"
151 to 400 pages, minimum inside margin is .75"
2. Outside margins (margins at the outside of the book, away from the binding, and also the top and bottom margins)
All live text and images must have an outside margin of at least .25" -- but we recommend an outside margin of .5"
Bleed
If you want your images to bleed to the edge of your book, be sure they extend at least .125" beyond the final trim size from the top, bottom and outer edges and submit your PDF .25" higher and .125" wider than your selected trim size to accommodate the full bleed area. (Remember that all live elements must be at least .25" away from the trim lines.)
Images cannot bleed across the middle of the book without a small white line in the book's gutter.
Note: An additional page with a manufacturing-related barcode is added to the back of all books. Books may also have blank pages at the end. Neither the barcode nor the additional pages may be eliminated.
If your book is simple, you can format it in your usual word-processing program.
You must start on a right-side page, and where you want there to be an empty page - you have to leave an empty page. If you want your chapters to start halfway down the page, if you want big bold headings, if you want nice footers or headers, you have to figure out how to do it yourself.
Nobody is going to fix anything for you. You have to do it all yourself. Be patient, take the time to do it the way you want it.
If you find you are so impatient you're ready to send it out before it's really ready - take a walk. Come back to it tomorrow.
Another option: give your manuscript to some freelancer or out-of-work geek and pay to have it formatted.
Update: I just realized that some of these services will create a .pdf file for you, from your Microsoft Word document. If your book is very simple, maybe that's the best way to go!
Option two: use real publishing software
The program I use now is Adobe's Indesign. It's an expensive program, but if you can prove you are a teacher or student, you can get a huge discount. You can also buy older versions of the program sometimes on eBay and they will work just fine.InDesign is a very complicated program and I can't tell you how to use it here. The manual is 2" thick! I've only learned about 15 percent of what the program can do, but don't be discouraged, because that's enough.
I like it because I can import my music files into it, and pictures, and I can do columns and complicated layouts if I want, and I can shift pages around easily, and it can make organizing a project which is not just text much easier. But if you can manage without it, go ahead!
It exports a publication-ready pdf very easily. After all, it is an Adobe product and so is a pdf file.
InDesign on eBay right now.
Be sure what you bid on is the software itself, and not a book, and not a dvd tutorial.
Fetching new data from eBay now... please stand by
If you used InDesign to format your book, you're done: just export your file as a pdf and that's what you'll upload to the site.
If you used a word-processing program, and don't own professional Adobe Acrobat, you'll need another software program to generate a pdf file.
The free program PrimoPdf will make you a pdf file.
At primopdf.com you can read about and download this FREE and wonderful program.I have used this program without problems for a few years now, but I just now realized it can be used for prepress preparation of a manuscript.
How it works:
- Install PrimoPDF and restart your computer.
- Format your book, in WordPerfect or Word or whatever program you prefer, precisely as you wish it to appear (see below);
- Save it in a dedicated folder (I do this to keep my mind clear);
- Use the "print" command in your word processing program, and when the dialog box opens look in the drop-down list where your default printer usually appears. Choose PrimoPDF instead and click "print."
- The PrimoPDF dialog box will open.
- Of the five choices offered, choose "prepress."
- Fill in the document info (author, title etc);
- Choose a location to save the pdf file (I suggest the same dedicated folder ou created for the book) by clicking the three dots and hunting for the correct location;
- I suggest you, in the Post Process box, "Open PDF" so you can check it, but it's not necessary.
- Choose "Create PDF" at the bottom of the box.
You now have a pdf file you can upload at CreateSpace. - Of the five choices offered, choose "prepress."
When you have a correct pdf file, you can upload it to CreateSpace.
Upload your interior file and then get to work on your cover.
There's a cover generating widget at the site, so if you don't have the capability of doing it yourself, you can create your cover at the site.
After you've signed in and been chugging along through the click progression on site, you'll get to a place where you either create your cover on line with their widget, or you submit your cover as another pdf file.
There's a template and I suggest you use it. Otherwise, you can get your file rejected because, for instance, you forgot to leave space for the bar code.
My most recent Createspace title: "The TJC Hanukah Songbook"
Incredibly fast and perfect service from CreateSpace.com
To be honest, these songbooks would be be better if they had spiral bindings, and I could get spiral bindings at Lulu, but I am so addicted now to the speed of Createspace I can't bear to go back.October 26: I painted the cover of the book and scanned it
October 26: uploaded files to Createspace
October 26: book approved same day
October 26: I ordered my proof copy
October 26: the proof copy shipped
October 29: I approved the proof copy and the book was listed for sale.
THREE DAYS! From wet paint to an available book. Do you realize what a miracle this is?
How fast did I get my previous book, The Three Log Night Songbook?
On October 15th I submitted my files (one pdf for the whole contents, one pdf for the book cover front and back).I had to make one change (they caught an error - I hadn't updated the ISBN number! Wow, good catch! and I resubmitted the files on the same day.
On October 16th, the next day, my book was ready for me to order a proof copy, so I did. It shipped to me the same day!
On October 22 I received the proof copy (it came via the cheapest shipping method). I realized I wanted to add two pages, so I re-submitted the book file.
On October 23 - the next day - the book was ready for a second proof copy.
I received the second proof copy on October 26, approved it, and the book was posted for sale. So if I hadn't made changes, the book would have been ready to order one week exactly from when I created it.
Any glitches? My only beef: there's something wrong with the thumbnail sketch for this book (the cover really looks like the picture in this module, not like the one on their page). I probably could get it fixed but I haven't gone to the trouble.
Visit my Christmas songbook, "The New Three Log Night Songbook: Unusual music for the holiday season" at Createspace.
Cost breakdown: The New Three Log Night Songbook
When I buy copies for myself, it costs me a mere $3.66 per book. If I paid $39 for the Pro Plan (that's a per-book charge with $5.00 per year afterwards), the copies would cost $2.15 each, but I don't anticipate selling many so I don't think it's worth it. This is a fixed rate for books between 28 and 108 pages - all sizes.
I listed the book for $10.90. That's pretty cheap, but I wanted to encourage sales and of course the customer pays shipping costs ...
The "minimum publish-at" price for my Christmas songbook: $6.10. That means if I charged $6.10 for it, I would get nothing. Createspace takes $6.10 per book plus 20% of the cost over that - or 40% of the cost over that if I sell a book through Amazon.
So in my case - if I sell a book on Amazon I get only $2.88. If I sell the book directly from the Createspace site, I get $5.06.
Another, smaller songbook I made on CreateSpace: "The new Laduvane Songbook"
I suggest you choose the cream pages, as I did this time, because they are a little thicker and more opaque.I found the process much, much faster than they said it would be, and I'm very pleased with the quality of the book. (If you'd like to read about it, even purchase it, check out my lens on The New Laduvane Songbook.)
An advantage of CreateSpace over Lulu is that they are part of Amazon, and supposedly the books get listed at Amazon very quickly. I'll let you know if that's true.
Visit my Slavic music arrangements, "The New Laduvane Songbook" at Createspace.
A book I did at Lulu.com: "The Triangle Jewish Chorale Songbook."
I did this book at Lulu because they offer a spiral binding and I like that much better for music books which are going to be used at the piano. If you want to see what a lulu listing looks like or even, gasp, buy the book, try this link: Triangle Jewish Chorale Songbook at Lulu.You can also order hardcovers at Lulu, which you can't do at CreateSpace.
Lulu has had to lay off a lot of employees in the past year and as a consequence is having a hard time keeping up with the problems its authors are having. I have found Lulu unresponsive.
Worse - although I got an email saying Amazon had decided to list my book (it's Amazon's choice when it comes to Lulu, but all CreateSpace books are listed, I think), and although the book does appear at Amazon, it says there's only one copy and they're charging $27, almost twice the cover price! So I would say Lulu's got some problems right now. I think I'll forget about the spiral binding and move this book over to CreateSpace.
"Let Memory Keep Us All: the Solstice Assembly Songbook" - Lulu.com screenshot
I had intended to publish this title at CreateSpace, since it's cheaper, but when I went to upload the files, I realized the largest book size at CreateSpace is 8 x 10 and I had formatted this book for a full 8-1/2" x 11" page size. So I uploaded it to Lulu instead. This book, 102 pages, SPIRAL bound (better for sitting at the piano), will net me $5 at the price of $15.80. If I want to buy copies, they cost me a whopping $9.55 each.
If you want to visit the book at Lulu, here's the link: Let Memory Keep Us All: The Solstice Assembly Songbook.
Comparison: screenshot of Createspace storefront
When I realized I could charge more than a dollar less and still get the same profit per book ($5 is the figure I set, arbitrarily) - and that I could purchase the copies for only 3.55 each! - I went to the trouble of re-formatting the book 90% smaller and uploaded it to CreateSpace. For a songbook, it's not as good because a perfect binding won't sit flat on a music stand, but it's just as good if you're a singer holding the book in your hands...
If you want to visit the book at CreateSpace, here's the link: Let Memory Keep Us All: The Solstice Assembly Songbook.
Cost comparison, Lulu.com vs CreateSpace.com
One case study: my book, "Let Memory Keep Us All: The Solstice Assembly Songbook."
In order for me to make $5.00 per book at Lulu, the full size book, with a spiral binding (it's much better if you use the music book at the piano), I must charge $15.80 per copy. If I want to buy copies myself, they cost $9.55 each.
So later I re-formatted the book to 8 x 10, the maximum size at CreateSpace. This meant I had to scale back the size of the music 90 percent - and it had to have a paperback binding.
In order for me to make $5.00 per book at CreateSpace, the smaller book (8 x 10) with a perfect binding, I must charge $14.50 per book. If I want to buy copies myself, they cost $3.66!! ?? How can it be so much less?
The turnaround at CreateSpace, in the dog days of August, was spectacularly fast. Unlike Lulu, CreateSpace requires that you order a copy of your book and approve it before they will release it for general publication. I got that proof copy in less than a week.
Newsflash: Blisteringly fast service at CreateSpace!
Tracking one of my CreateSpace.com orders:
Sunday, August 24, morning: I uploaded the exterior pdf file and the interior pdf file of my 102-page songbook to CreateSpace.
Sunday, August 24, midday: I got an email saying my files had been examined and that I needed to reload the interior file because I had mismatched ISBN numbers (the CreateSpace copy of "Let Memory Keep Us All" needed a new ISBN number and I had mistakenly left the Lulu.com ISBN number in my front matter). So good on them for catching that, and so soon!
Sunday, August 24, afternoon: I fixed the file and re-uploaded it
Sunday, August 24, evening: I got the email that the book was ready for me to order a proof copy. I ordered a proof, it cost $3.66 plus $3.65 handling.
Monday, August 25, morning: I got an email that my proof book was printed and shipped.
Wednesday, August 26: I received the proof copy! And approved it.
From upload to book-in-hand: three days
Lulu.com order:
August 20: I order four copies of this book (at Lulu, it is a slightly larger format and spiral bound) . The four copies cost $38.20 ($9.55 each), plus Shipping $7.21 and tax $3.07 for a total of $48.48.
August 25: I got word that the order had shipped. It arrived on August 31.
From order to arrival: 11 days.
As promised, all four of these titles are listed at Amazon.com and findable in search
I also have an author page!
It's HARD to find the place to do this! So be glad I found the link:
Amazon Author Central.
It used to be called AmazonConnect.
As soon as you have one book listed on Amazon, you can get on this program.
Lenses on my books
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The Laduvane Songbook - Balkan singing for everybody
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This songbook was published by the a cappella Balkan ensemble Laduvane in 1977, after we'd made our first recording. It's amazing the difference one person can make. Recently a woman named Chris emailed me and said she'd lost her original copy of th...
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The TJC Hanukah Songbook
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I was music director for the "Cantor Corps" at Temple Judea Reform in Durham and directed the Triangle Jewish Chorale for fourteen years. Before that, I directed a group called the Solstice Assembly which put on many winter shows incorporat...
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Let Memory Keep Us All: a songbook, and a remembrance
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This is a picture of Mitzi, Mona, and Sandy at the Medieval Fair at the Castle McCullough in Jamestown, NC, back in the 1990s, wearing nice outfits we sewed out of cloth we dyed ourselves. There were usually about sixteen people in the Solstice Asse...
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A Christmas Songbook: Three Log Night
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Now you can own a collection of holiday music you don't often hear; this book is a compilation of my favorite non-standard Christmas and Hannukah songs - by which I mean, not the top fifteen Christmas tunes that cycle endlessly through the mistle-toe...
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Music for Jewish chorales: The Triangle Jewish Chorale Songbook
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My boss, Gayla Halbrecht, says it was 1994 when I took up the job of conducting our chorus; that means I spent fourteen years at the helm. I love the people in the group very much, and I love the music. This lens showcases the songbook I put t...
What people are blogging about self-publishing:
Lulu vs. Createspace: see what other people say
- How to Find the Best Publisher For Your Book or Novel | Comic Book Art
- ... ten years in favor of helping aspiring authors self-publish their books with little or no cost. Book authors have more options, thanks to the Internet, and such online publishing services offered by Lulu.com and CreateSpace.com. ...
- Comparing Lulu and Createspace - Home - Webcomics tutorials and advice
- I've registered with both createspace and lulu.com. I just hope that createspace doesn't charge me anything!!? I have no money . I write all day. I did self publish at lulu.com, but the prices seem a bit high. And to self promote is very hard. I've been published for 4 ... Suzanne: With Lulu, createspace and every other form of pod/selfpublishing you have to do the marketing and promoting yourself. If you don´t go around telling people about your book, go to conventions, ...
- Ask the Publishing Guru: The Thumbs Down List of Vanity Publishers
- Pagefree Publishing Pleasant Word Publish to Go Sirius Publications Trafford Publishing Wings Press Xlibris Arbor Books. West Bow Press A true self-publishing service provider will charge reasonable fees for editing, design, printing set up , ... CreateSpace.com is a legitimate company owned by Amazon.com that offers great quality printing, best price, but distribution is limited to Amazon.com. I recommend to my clients that we set their book up with LSI and CreateSpace. ...
- POD, Self Publishing and Independent Publishing: Createspace ...
- http://www.createspace.com/ US based POD self publishing company now owned by Amazon Accepts all genres. Publishing fee for a paperback - $39 (if it is your ISBN), set up cost, (no hardback available) Titles on Amazon.co.uk ? 1165 .... Q4. Many good self-publishing services offer worldwide online distribution (Lulu, Createspace). What can the real negative is the amount paid in shipping a book if only a US printer/fulfilment to the rest of the world. 4 October 2009 17:08 ...
Sites that may be helpful
- Burtonia Blogs: CreateSpace vs. Lulu
- Publish-on-demand is a big driver of these changes. Instead of keeping stacks and stack of books in a warehouse, ready to ship out to bookstores, a manufacturer just prints off a single book when an order comes in. This works great for virtual bookstores like Amazon. On the internet, two of the biggest players are Lulu and CreateSpace (a subsidiary of Amazon). I've used both services, so this post will be an effort to compare the two.
- Amazon's Createspace versus Lulu - RPGnet Forums
- Createspace's book pricing example uses a 100 page B&W soft cover book with a MSRP of $25. Of the $25 charged to the customer, $12.35 would pass on to an author and Amazon would get $12.65 for the printing fee and share of royalties. With Lulu, if you sell the book through their market place for $21.97, then your profit would equal the profit you get on Amazon (i.e. it would be $12.35) and Lulu would get $9.62 for the printing fee and share of the royalties. Although the consumer would pay less at Lulu for the book, they'd have to pay shipping which would be free from Amazon because the book hits the $25 Super Saver minimum.
- Self Publishing - CreateSpace vs. Lulu - The Switchboards Forum
- ... The Createspace book is the hands-down winner for me - the quality of the printing is slightly better, plus it's much cheaper and faster. The only negative is that Createspace does not have a hardcover option (so I'll continue to order from Lulu if I need hardcover). I've also tried Blurb in the past, but they're the most expensive, and I didn't find the print quality to be all that fabulous either. Plus, you have to use their software instead of uploading a pdf, which is a major PITA....
- Improvements to Customer Service - at the Lulu Blog
- This starts with a paragraph from an employee about how customer service is going to be improved and continues with 245 (as of now) comments from customers (and a few responses from Lulu)
To send me an email click this "contact" button:
What do you think? Do you have a question I should have answered?
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- AppalachianCountry AppalachianCountry Sep 25, 2009 @ 8:18 am
- Fantastic lens. Thank-you for all this info. 5 stars*****
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- Photahsiamirabel Photahsiamirabel Sep 3, 2009 @ 5:20 am
- I know remember why I emailed you! I shall look into Createspace myself 5* Favourite :)
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- Sylvestermouse Sylvestermouse Aug 20, 2009 @ 10:52 am
- This is great information! My son wrote a short story in college that I would love to see in book form. I am definitely going to share this lens with him. Thanks
Some of my other lenses
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I love Yiddish music!
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First, I fell in love with Yiddish folk and theater songs I've been singing music in Yiddish since the early 1980s, when I heard one of the first concerts given at the New England Conservatory by Hankus Netsky and his Klezmer Conservatory Band. ...
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Making Uncle Shlomo's Pushcart
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This lens is the story of three people's project to revive an old form of retail merchandising - the pushcart. I read "The Pushcart Wars" to my kids when they were young, and thought the whole idea was utterly wonderful. So when my frie...
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More different than is absolutely necessary.
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This is a collection of the lenses I've built, and it reflects my lifelong attraction to things which are obscure or forgotten, or difficult, or unpopular. I was a queen of the "long tail" before it was ever invented. In 1984, when I was a part-time...
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I've been a Pratie Head for many's the long year... (Celtic Music)
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I'd been living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, singing Balkan music with the acappella women's ensemble Laduvane,and singing American folksongs in a band called "Rank Strangers." In 1981 I married and my husband moved us to Chapel Hill, NC. This lens i...
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The Peppler Sonnet Service: a history
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Or, how I supported myself for three years churning out iambic pentameter at home. You, too, can surely figure out something unconventional that will pay the rent! I graduated from Yale in 1975, completely perplexed about what to do next. To put of...
by ChapelHillFiddler
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