Sept. 12, 2016

That’s Leah Weir, who has been a tremendous help holding the two self-published books for my Children of the Myth Machine Series: Sylvia and Ruby.  Only a limited number of hard copies were printed so they  are not available but they are available as e-books through Kobo or Chapters.  I’ll discuss e-books in another Blog.

A Printing Company might use Microsoft Word, often they prefer PDF files and now it’s easy to convert a Word Document to a PDF file.  There is a list of things you want to think about before you bring your book to a Printer:

• You want an ISBN number (the Library of Canada likes 2 copies)
• Hire someone who is a real editor to go through your book, and work with you on any grammatical or storyline corrections.
• How many pages, what type of paper, what type of bonding?
• If you’re going with 5.5×8.5”or another dimension convert your document or make a copy of it at those dimensions so you know how many pages will actually be printed based on the font size and type of font.
• You want your fonts to be easily read.
• The more copies you get the cheaper each book costs.
• If you’re getting the story printed to give away to an organization, family, or friends that will limit the number of copies you want to make.
• If you’re planning on selling the books, make sure they’re appealing to the readers you’re trying to attract (non-fiction: autobiography, historical, text; fictional: drama, sci-fi, fantasy, horror, romance)
• Make an attractive, exciting front and back cover
• Some Printers have artists you can hire to design your front and back cover, or you can try it on your own (that’s another story)