How to Publish Your Own Book Using Print-on-Demand

I’ve gone through the do-it-yourself process three times to create my medical suspense thriller, a collection of short stories and an illustrated children’s book. I’ll give you a general outline of how I created them without spending much money. You can decide if this process is right for you.

I’m assuming you’ve written and rewritten your work several times. You’ve saved backup copies on your computer periodically. You’ve had people read and comment on your stories. Your editing and proofreading is superb. (A note on proofreading: use only hard copy-printed paper for proofing—not the computer screen.) There are free-lance editors out there, too. Look at the back of writer’s magazines. I relied heavily on my supportive spouse—who proofreads often on her job and is a voracious reader.

I chose Lulu for my print-on-demand books (www.lulu.com). It’s easy to use and has no minimum and no start-up fees. They have two small paperback sizes that I’ve tried—but beware of their pocketbook size. I love the convenient size but they do not offer a distribution package for it. In other words, you can’t get an ISBN and you can’t link to Amazon, etc. You have to go up to 6 x 9 inches to qualify for that. So you need to decide. Am I going to create a book that will follow traditional publishing guidelines? Lulu has those guidelines on its website. Or am I going to create a book for just my private selling and selling through Lulu? If you make the latter choice, then you can do anything you want inside your book—forget numbering the pages for example.

So I chose the pocketbook size for my new collection of short stories, TROUBLE AHEAD. I set up the page size and margins based on that size in Microsoft Word. Use mirrored margins with a gutter. I looked at several paperbacks to see the standard words per line—about eleven—and the number of lines per page—about thirty. Then I typed up some mock pages in a variety of fonts and font sizes and compared them. Choose the most readable for your book size and format your story.

You’ll need to create section breaks and possibly insert blank pages where needed. This will take a little practice, especially when it comes to getting the page numbering to start and finish where it’s supposed to. Books are printed in total pages as multiples of four. Because the title page, etc. is not numbered, your total pages are more than your last page number. Lulu will add blank pages to the back if your total is not a multiple of four.

A pointer on formatting a children’s book: for THE UNSOLVED MYSTERY OF A DOG NAMED COOKIE, http://www.lulu.com/content/1418695 I used a larger page size and decided to use a full bleed for the picture pages (artwork covers entire page). That necessitated alternating the page sizes to achieve this. In other words—the picture page and its JPEG were bigger than the copy pages so that the printer had a margin to trim.

Designing the cover is fun. If you use Adobe Photoshop or your digital camera software, then first get the dimensions in pixels for your book cover size from Lulu. This size will include a small extra border that will be trimmed (called a bleed). These days, people have thousands or photos on their computers. Try one with a strong vertical axis. Tweak the colors if you wish. Look at paperback covers and note the large lettering, the drop-shadowed fonts. Pump up your title with outlines and contrast. The final design should be a JPEG of correct pixel dimensions and 300 dots per inch. If you prefer, use Lulu’s cover design program. I used my scanner software to create the cover of ART & ARTifact, my medical thriller.

Convert your book interior to a PDF. Microsoft Word has a converter to download from their website. Lulu can convert it, too. I prefer to do it myself and check it over.

You’ll be selecting binding, page size and paper type. Upload your interior PDF. Upload your cover JPEGs. (you can design the back cover & spine, too.) Check everything before ordering your first copy. Just order ONE book for now. There will be corrections to be made.

You’ll wait with excitement for six days or so. Finally your book arrives at your home! It's quite an amazing experience. But you’ve still got work to do. The entire book needs to be proofread, again! Have a few people look it over and mark their corrections. This is not a time for rewriting, however. That should have been done before. Be extremely careful making your final edits and saves. You don’t want to accidently erase anything. Evaluate how your cover printed. Does the title pop enough? Does the font capture the mood? Show it to several people. Ask them to be honest. Even though I have a strong background in graphic design, I still got great ideas from others and then revised my cover several times based on their suggestions. One example is how the photo of New York has been tilted to make it more exciting—that wasn’t my idea. Get help on this! Now just order ONE book again-- unless, of course, your first copy was perfect. Check over the corrections you’ve made. Are they all there? Yes? Congratulations! Now, if you want, go put together a bulk order to bring to book signings and readings. Or spread the word that your book is now available—to be printed and shipped on demand.

I know this article is an oversimplification, but it will get you started. Message me if you have specific questions along the way. I’ll be glad to help.