Things to do #1: Make friends with your computer

This blog is devoted to helping you publish your own work. No clever musings or deep insights. Just a how-I-did-it step by step tutorial.

I am not going to linger over the reasons to self-publish rather than choosing the traditional agent/publisher route. I'm going to assume you are a grownup, you've read the stats. and you've come to the conclusion that for one reason or another you don't want to deal with the traditional publishing world. For many writers, their first question then becomes,"Which of the big P.O.D's should I choose?"( If you are a true novice and don't know what P.O.D means, you should look that up.) You may have a list: Author House, Xlibris, Publish America, etc. Throw the list away. You will pay outrageous fees and waste a lot of time. Some waste more of your money than others (Publish America comes to mind) but will make you think you must pay them large sums of money to do what you can do on the most minimal computer with the help of an independent printing company.

"How am I going to get a slick looking book with all the goodies like a classy cover, ISBN numbers and barcodes if I don't use one of those money-sucking publishers ?" you ask. Because you are about to become a publisher, format your own book, find a printing company, and put out a product that looks just as good as the big guys for a fraction of the cost. That means, for the math impaired, that instead of having to charge $20 and up for your book because the publisher says so, or pay over $11 per copy to buy your own books from your publisher that you then have to mark up to sell, you can bring a full length novel
( my most recent was 385 pages) for around $4 or $5 each and keep your sale price low. You sell more that way, I promise. And my cover is gorgeous, the paper quality is excellent and I had no restrictions on fonts or layout.

The first thing you need to do is become friends with your computer. Take a piece of your writing, (not your manuscript - a couple of pages long is fine) that you have created on Word. If you don't know whether you have the Word program in your computer, you can look at your icons(mine are at the bottom of the screen) for the W. If you have a PC, you have Word. I have a Mac and I have Word too. If you don't have it, you can install it. You need to use Word rather than Appelworks because A'works sometimes creates problems. Don't ask me for details. Just accept the fact you need Word.

Now that you have your written piece and you are on Word, look at the strip at the top of your screen which will list functions. One of them will be File. Put your cursor on File and run down the options. Stop at Page SetUp. Under that, run you cursor down through your choices. One will be Paper Size. Under that, choose 6x9 (the why of that size later) Click on 6X9. Zzzzzip - your page on the screen will shrink, your print will jump around, and you will have created 6" x9" pages. You will have to move some of your paragraphing, headings etc around to accommodate the new size. You have just formatted for a standard paperback.

You should note that Formatting may be listed as an option under other functions, such as Edit. This is why you are working with a sample, so you can try each of these choices, and any others that look interesting. On my computer, the Format under Edit allows for limited options and does not include 6X9. It would seem to make sense that all formatting choices be in one place, but they aren't. With your sample page you can experiment and not lose your manuscript for all eternity. (You won't, but you're always afraid of that, aren't you?)

Do not panic if your Formatting function is not under File. They change these things and a new version may have it somewhere else. You can experiment. Take a deep breath. It isn't as scary as it seems. I knew absolutely nothing when I started this, and as soon as you lose your fear, it's easy. And if you are a young whipper-snapper, you probably aren't afraid anyway.

Next Blog: When to format: While you are writing your ms. or when it's complete? And why are you doing this now, anyway? Shouldn't other things come first? WW