The intention of this guide is to provide you as new author information required in order to publish and print your book professionally with total success.

The degree of assistance and the degree of DIY is ultimately up to you. At Love of Books we believe in tailoring your self publishing requirements to suit your individual needs.

So, get your manuscript out of that bottom drawer dust it off, polish it up and lets go!

Please feel free to contact Love of Books with any questions you may have after reading this guide. We are here for you.

For more information on setting up your book visit our:
Self-Publishing Book Formatting Guide page.
Download Margins in Word here. 

All you really need is a true desire to make your dream of becoming a published author a reality

The production process

Planning is the key to making the publication of your book an enjoyable process! Read as much information as you can to familiarize yourself with each step of the production process before embarking on the process itself. Set out a schedule that is realistic and allows a margin for unforeseen circumstances. It is better to take a little longer to produce a good-quality product than make costly mistakes as a result of rushing the project. In very general terms, the main stages in the production process are writing, editing, design and printing, and there are various steps within each of these stages.

Writing Your Book

To make editing easier, your manuscript – the text of your book –should be typed (on an electric typewriter but prefer a computer. If a professional is managing the production of your book, ideally you should provide the text on disk, as retyping manuscript will incur additional costs.

Editing Your Book

Whether you are managing your book’s production yourself, or using a professional to copyedit at least copyedit your manuscript. The level of editing that you pay for depends on you: if you only want an editor to check for basic grammar, spelling, typographical errors and inconsistencies in style – copy editing – stress that that is all you want.

Love of Books offers a FREE report summary on your manuscript structure.

Love of Books has excellent professional editors available if you require this service.

If you want the editor to make more detailed suggestions as to how you can improve your text and ensure that you are making your message clear for your readers – structural editing – tell them. Editing costs will vary depending on the size of your manuscript and the level of editing required. Use a professional editor – ideally, one with experience or interest in the subject of your book.

There is a Society of Editors in most states in Australia local contact details – www.thorpe.com.au  many of them publish a ‘freelance register’ which provides contact details for editors and lists their areas of expertise.

The editor will provide a ‘marked-up’ copy of your manuscript for you to look at before any changes are made. If you are unfamiliar with proofreading marks, the editor can also be asked to make the changes that you agree with. If you make the changes yourself, you can ask the editor to proofread the corrections against their original marked-up copy.

Design For Your Book

If you are managing the production of your book yourself, you will need a designer to design either the cover or the text, or both. Again, use a professional designer; Love of Books has an excellent cover designer on staff if you need a cover design, you will need to know whether the cover colours will be printed in one, two or four colors; what size book you want; what the book is about; what wording and other elements there will be on the cover; and what sort of ‘look’ you want for the book. Colours can look different according to the type of paper they are printed on. For the inside of your book, the designer will need to know the extent of the book – how many pages it will be; whether it contains colour, illustrations, photographs, tables and charts, or an index; and, again, what sort of ‘look’ you want. (To work out the extent of your book, you need to ‘cast off’ – that is, to calculate how many words will fit on a page of a particular size, and using a particular typeface. A good designer should be able to do this for you, but you should have an idea of what physical size you want the book to be.) If you have desktop publishing software and choose to design your book yourself, there are a number of publications that go into great details.

Despite the saying that ‘you can’t judge a book by its cover’, what your book looks like is important. A book that looks professional is more likely to appeal to readers than one which is poorly designed or produced. It also stands a better chance of being supported by retailers – the easier your book is for booksellers to order and sell, the better. As a self-publisher, you have three options for producing your book. You can pay a professional to manage the entire process for you; manage part of the process yourself and pay a professional to manage other aspects; or manage each step of the production process yourself – dealing directly with editors, designers, printers and others.

Which option you choose will depend on your own skills, and your finances. Paying a professional to manage the production of your book might sound expensive, but companies that do this kind of work will often be able to get better rates from designers and printers than you will as an individual. Here at Love of Books we do just that. You will, however, have to pay for their experience and expertise, so be sure to shop around – get at least three quotes, and ask as many questions as you need to. Even if you do choose this option, it is still important that you understand each step of the production process, so that you can be comfortable with handing your book over to somebody else. Even though somebody else might handle the production, you are still the publisher of the book. While it may appear that handling all aspects of the production process yourself offers a cost advantage, think carefully about taking on the task.

Consider how much time you can commit to the project, and what that time ‘costs’ you, and whether you will need to spend money on equipment to do the job effectively. However, if you do have the time and resources, have good computer skills and are confident about your abilities, the greatest advantage of ‘doing it yourself’ is having complete control over the production of your book. Detail about design and typography. Most importantly, your design should be easy to read, and take into account any special needs of your book’s audience.

Printing Your Book

The decisions you must make with regard to printing are what sort of paper uncoated or glossy will be used for your book, and how many copies will be printed. Uncoated or glossy paper used will depend on what sort of book it is you need a ‘coated glossy, ‘art’ paper for a full-colour photographic book, but inexpensive ‘uncoated’ paper for a novel.

A good printer will make suggestions as to the most suitable paper and binding (there are many different types within the paperback and hardback options) for your book, and will be able to provide you with paper samples to choose from. Check with your Love of Books Consultant. To provide a quote, the printer will need to know the size of your book; the extent of your book; stock – what sort of paper; quantity – the number of copies required; use of colour – whether one, two or four; whether any scanning (reproduction) of photographs or illustrations is required and if so, how many pictures there will be; whether the text will be provided in a printed form (camera-ready artwork) or on disk; and where to deliver the printed books (one delivery point only is most economical). You should ask the printer what the job ‘turnaround’ will be – how long it will take.  Generally, the more copies you print, the cheaper ‘per unit’. However, it is not economical to print more copies of your book than you will be able to sell! Request A Quote

Structure Of A Book

Generally, a book can contain the following elements, although not always all of them, in this standard order: