Is this POD stuff really possible?
Nothing is eve as easy as these guru's pitching their systems would like you to think. At some point you have to know what's really going on if you hope to make the most of the "opportunity". To be fair to the gurus, they have to simplify or everyone would be afraid to try.
Amazon/CreateSpace have extensive pages explaining their print on demand system and how to use it. After reading through it we have a better understanding of how a publisher earns their fee. At the same time we came away with the feeling this is something we could learn to do ourselves. We might not get quite as good a product on the first try, but it should be good enough. It's another example of the 80/20 rule in action. We can get 80% of the benefit of a publisher at no cost except our time. In fact, given the inevitable communication issues when and author and publisher try to communicate, it will probably go quicker if we can do more of the work ourselves.
The cost savings and elimination of the up-front cost is icing on the cake.
Amazon/CreateSpace have extensive pages explaining their print on demand system and how to use it. After reading through it we have a better understanding of how a publisher earns their fee. At the same time we came away with the feeling this is something we could learn to do ourselves. We might not get quite as good a product on the first try, but it should be good enough. It's another example of the 80/20 rule in action. We can get 80% of the benefit of a publisher at no cost except our time. In fact, given the inevitable communication issues when and author and publisher try to communicate, it will probably go quicker if we can do more of the work ourselves.
The cost savings and elimination of the up-front cost is icing on the cake.
Getting Started Overview
We learn best by reading though directions until we have a mental picture of what we are attempting. Below are links into some of the Amazon/CreateSpace help files to get you started. The links will open in a new window so you can just close that window when you are finished and return to this page.
Even with good instructions there are still going to be a lot of unknowns for our first print on demand book. It's not worth spending a lot of time writing the perfect book because it is unlikely the first attempt will work well.
We know we want to have some color pages so we can see what kind of quality we get and how we need to adjust the exposure of our images for the best results. The smallest book possible is 22 pages so that is probably what we will go for. Because we already have InDesign we will use that instead of Word to format the manuscript. InDesign has more power and therefore the potential for a more attractive book. That also means there are more ways to mess up.
We had first thought we would do a full bleed picture book but then found out the upload to CreateSpace is limited to 100 megs. With 300dpi images that will go fast, so that idea is on hold.
Even with good instructions there are still going to be a lot of unknowns for our first print on demand book. It's not worth spending a lot of time writing the perfect book because it is unlikely the first attempt will work well.
We know we want to have some color pages so we can see what kind of quality we get and how we need to adjust the exposure of our images for the best results. The smallest book possible is 22 pages so that is probably what we will go for. Because we already have InDesign we will use that instead of Word to format the manuscript. InDesign has more power and therefore the potential for a more attractive book. That also means there are more ways to mess up.
We had first thought we would do a full bleed picture book but then found out the upload to CreateSpace is limited to 100 megs. With 300dpi images that will go fast, so that idea is on hold.
