POD Self Publishing how to Room

Formatting your book.
Like me you probably wrote your book in a standard word processor which is formatted to print out on standard 8 x 10 paper. However books are not published in the same format as you typically print via your home printer. Therefore step 1 is either configure your word processor for the correct settings for: gutters (margins) and headers (top & bottom of pages) and page numbering etc to conform to POD printing specifications, or you can just go to Lulu.com. Once you register there you can go to their marketplace and download for free from their providers a completely formatted MS Word template for your book. Then all you have to do is copy and paste your pages into the template and you are done. The only hitch with this approach is if you require more chaptersyou're your book. What I did with mine was to break it into four sections and then instead of making separate chapters, I simply put up a heading for a new topic. Fast and very easy. The reason why you might care about the chapters pertains to your footnotes. I had all of my footnotes at the end of each section and I found that approach worked fastest for me.

Making the covers
Once your book has been put into its final state you can make a cover but not before. That's because the page count affects the size of your cover. The width of the spine changes with the page count of your book. What I did was to go to Lulu's website and design my cover online. First I tried a one piece and only put the books title and my name on the spine. I then saved the file to my PC. Then I used PDF manipulation software to customize what I wanted to try for effects on the cover. Fonts, colors, images etc. After I was done customizing the cover I uploaded it back up to Lulu. I decided against this approach for my final cover which you can see here, because Lulu provided all the function I needed online with their tools for a two piece cover. On the URL for my book you can look at the both the front and rear covers. This is the absolute easiest way to go. Every POD company I found accepts PDF files for upload as book covers. I recommend Bluebeam standard edition product for manipulating covers if you want to make your own custom one piece cover. See my resources tab for more information on Bluebeams standard edition product.

Publishing and distributing your book
After your cover is complete and the interior of your book is complete you can then publish your book. My book is available for purchase from Lulu and is also now for sale on Amazon.com at this link. If you want to simply have the book available for purchase from Lulu then there is no cost and you are done once you press done on your project. However if you want it for sale in a larger market, like Amazon's, then you need to buy a distribution package as I did if you go the Lulu route. I paid $50 for distribution which allowed me to publish the book under a name of of my choosing for the publishing company. I chose Hallister Press as the name of my publishing company. If you go the route of Createspace.com then it would cost you nothing but the book is only available from Amazon.com. Finally going the route of Lulu or Createspace – like most other POD companies, you will not be able to have the book for sale in local bookstores. They require return rights for unsold books which no POD company I have heard of allows. Since my book is currently going through the distribution process, I don't have all of this information yet. I will update this paragraph once the book is available for sale on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

If you have been into the self publishing tools room then you may have already seen these tips and instructions in a PDF file at the bottom of that page. If however you have not seen them on this site yet I will include the link to the file below. The file instructs you how to configure and convert MS Word into PDF file as well as has instructions on how to make covers for a book using the Paint.Net program. There are other tips as well embedded in the PDF on publishing as well. If people tell me they are finding real use from this information then I will update these how to processes along with any other tips and tricks I have learned in the mean time. For now here they are in two files.

Link for a file which has all of the above information in the PDF file.

Link for a file which only has the information on making covers for books.

To aid you in navigation the following links are provided as a quick way back to the entrances:
self publishing entrance
writer entrance
philosophy entrance
history entrance
art entrance
genealogy entrance
A to Z entrance