publishing

Create Space . . . Wow

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Well as I continue my quest to move my Focused Fandom books to print, I’m trying out Create Space.  I just got the draft of “Cosplay, Costuming, and Careers.”  Ahem – WOW.

It’s pretty much as good as any other POD I’ve seen, which is pretty much Lulu.  Paper quality may be slightly higher.  I’ll go through it with a fine-toothed mind later this weekend, but on the surface I’m at least pretty impressed.

It’s not so much easier as it is more powerful.  The cover maker is distinctly less advanced (though theres a 3D visualizer that helps), whereas the internal inspection tool where you can see what the book would look like, which includes formatting warnings, is fantastic.  You are more likely to get a book done right the first time, overall, if you use the tools right.

So if all looks well, time to move a few other books over . . .

How Blogging Helps Your Career #11 – The Rough Draft

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(The roundup for the “How Blogging Helps Your Career Series” is here)

Show me a person who never edits their writing, and I’ll show you a liar, an incompetent, or someone who walks on water recreationally.

It simply doesn’t happen.  We have to try things out and screw them up.  We have to experiment.  We have to get writing out of our head so it’s out and then we can improve it.

Show me a person who writes but never has to just “get something out of their head” and I’ll show you a rarity.  I have to keep a book of ideas just to keep myself from getting preoccupied.

We have to get our ideas out of our head.  We have to see them.  We have to look at them once they’re not rattling around inside our skulls.  Once they’re out we can refine them.

This is where a blog comes in.

Your blog is a rough draft – and a socially acceptable one at that.

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Editing Print Books

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Well I got the beta print copies of Focused Fandom: Cosplay, Costuming and Careers, and Focused Fandom: Fanart, Fanartists, and Careers.

One of the things I love about eBooks is what you see is what you get.  Print books, not so much.  Here’s just a few things I found:

  • The cover may not quite print as you expected – and any colors, graphics, etc. may not be what you expect in a solid version.
  • You can forget things on the cover period.  I’ll have to adjust one of the covers, in fact.
  • There’s breaks.  A paragraph you don’t have to break up in an eBook format may be damned hard to break properly in print.
  • Chapter formatting.  I love chapters that are on odd pages, so you have to get that right.
  • A lot of book elements like Table of Contents, Credits, etc. just seem “different” in print – and you have to make sure the breaking and formatting is right.
  • A re-scan of the print copy may help you find issues.

So I’ve got  . . .  about 600 print pages to scan.  I think I’m gonna be busy for a week or two on this.

Now as much as I complained here, I think you should consider print versions of your eBooks, if only for the sheer experience of doing one and discovering you don’t want to.  It’s pretty educational all around.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.