I always do this with my poetry volumes and nearly never with Serena. She’s nearly done with Illumination and has decided to let the masses pick the next poetry volume she will pen.
choices
Category: publishing
Artsy Fartsy Thursday
Titled: Deathday Cake
Artist: Serenity Rose
medium: pencil Drawing
Creativity options
So The next topic in the group is Front and Back matter.
Okay… Let’s start with the front matter. Every book has certain things. 1. A title Page. 2. A copyright page. 3. when appropriate – a table of contents.
The Title page is fairly basic. It should have the title and the author’s name. You can add details or graphics if you choose but they aren’t necessary. The Copyright page is often simple. Here is what I use:
Copyright © (YEAR) (AUTHOR)
Publisher
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This is a work of fiction, any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Names, characters, and places are products of the author’s imagination.
Publisher
(Address)
Publisher’s website
Some add the ISBN to the copyright page. I do not choose to because each version is supposed to have it’s own ISBN and I don’t want to have multiple document files for the same book.
The Table of Contents is not always appropriate. Some books are not laid out in a manner that have multiple points of Content. So if it is necessary it is simple. You can simply list the contents and if you are feeling inclined add the page numbers where said content is found.
That is literally all of the front matter. Now for Back Matter…
This is up to the author/publisher what to include but some options are:
- About the Author – a simple Bio perhaps with a picture. (I recommend the Bio be in 3rd person)
- About the Publisher – much like the About the Author but focusing on the Publishing company.
- Other Books published by the Author.
- Ads – Some people sell ad space in their books. This is put in the back matter.
- Teasers – If the book is part of a series then you can put a teaser for the next book in the back matter.
- Other books by the publisher…This is a rare thing but when I have done it I listed the Anthologies we did.
Front and Back matter can help get the page count up if the book is smaller. There are occasions that you do not want to add pages though and it should be considered. Amazon will not allow words on the spine unless there is 75 pages. However, Children’s books are not a place where some of the back matter is appropriate. Books need a minimum of 24 pages for Amazon to allow them to be made as a paperback. That is difficult for Children’s books to achieve sometimes. There are other options than Amazon but Amazon also has the widest reach customer wise.
I will discuss the Epub with you Next week. And I am planning on discussing the places that you can publish(that I am aware of.) Soon.
Artsy Fartsy Thursday
Titled: Ice plain
Artist: Serenity Rose
medium: Digital Landscape
Program Used: Krita
Creativity options
So The next topic in the group is formatting.
There are a lot of software that are used for formatting and some are good though expensive. I have been using Libre office for a while now.
First priority is to set the page and margins. All the books from Fae Corps Publishing (except for the children’s books ) are 6×9 and have 1″ margins all around. I do that for convenience purposes. The children’s books are 8×8 with the same margins.
After the page specs are set up you choose the font. Many publishers will go with Times New Roman. I personally don’t like it. I go with Book Antigua or Garamond. Both are easy to read and are still slightly different from the other publishers. I enjoy the idea that I am unique in my books. If you choose a different font be sure it is an easy to read one .
Once you have the basics you can put in the other details. this includes setting the pictures you want to use and setting the chapter settings and front and back matter.
I will focus on the front and back matter next week. The fun reason for using this program to do the formatting is that when it is done you can print it to pdf and export it to epub. you will have to fix the epub but it is a step forward. trust me when I say you will need both the epub and the pdf. I have also found having the doc format useful.
I will discuss the epub with you on another day.
Artsy Fartsy Thursday
Titled: Lace fan
Artist: Serenity Rose
medium: pencil abstract
I do things like this when I am overwhelmed.
Creativity options
So The first thing I will talk about is Covers.
Obviously I use Canva. I also use the feature that Barnes and Nobles has. I upload the front and rear cover and get the spine from them. The cover option in Canva is slightly too small. The dimensions of the cover need to be 1600×2268 and the base size is 1400x…
The temptation to use the templates should be avoided. Everyone sees those. I made the mistake of using the template with no modification once. There were at least 50 other books with the same cover. If you see a cover in the templates that you love…modify it and make it suit your book more. The rear cover should not be busy. You want your blurb to be visible.
Amazon has templates that give you a pdf cover. You merely add your image. The easiest way is to use Libre Draw and remove the text and lines. These will flag as unembedded fonts if you don’t. Then save it directly as a PDF. This is what you want for the feature at Barnes and nobles. They ask you for the title, the author name, and the text color and spine color. They have a limited font selection but it is a good one.
If you are good with art programs(such as adobe or gimp) you can do the spine yourself. I just don’t know how to get the text to lay right on my own, so I use the tool.
The idea seems to be floating around that you have to match your cover to the genre. There is some cases where I would argue that you should personalize the cover to match the book. If you do, then it should fit the genre.
Now I am of the belief that doing the creation process does not have to be expensive. That being said, I do have the pro version of Canva. It costs me $13 a month to have my pick of the photos. Could I do it on the free version? Yes but I enjoy the options. Otherwise I will be recommending freeware or software that is not costly.
Artsy Fartsy Thursday
Titled: Wind in Flight
Artist: Serenity Rose
medium: Digital Landscape
Programs Used: Krita
So I decided that I needed some new brushes in Krita to play with. This was my test art. I like how it turned out.
Creativity options
so I have been trying to consider the Saturday thing and I came across multiple people this week asking for ideas for cheap covers or ways to do things cheaper when Self Publishing.
I am firm on my beliefs that you should hire an editor for your work. That being said, you can do everything else for yourself to save money. I am not saying you will be able to do it as well…but it is possible. I am going to start talking about self Publishing and some of the snarls.
I will talk about each step of the process. I will give advice on how I have been doing this. I don’t know how long this series will take but I think it may be fun.
Artsy Fartsy Thursday
Titled: Demon Kitty Melt
Artist: Serenity Rose
medium: pencil Drawing
Pattimouse 