After your writing nears completion and you are ready to design your pages, look again closely at the details listed on this page. And call us if you are unsure about what to do.

But read this first. if you plan to submit your book on a Disk or CD to be printed, what is very important right now is a technicality that will make publishing the book a smooth process or a very unsmooth one.  If you have a computer, you likely also have a printer connected to it.
     And whether you know it or not, the type of printer you have sends a little message to your computer about how to position pages of any file you are working on. When you wrap up your book project, you will need to postscript it to lock in all your positioning choices, and that requires a special kind of action on your part. But if you don't do that special action NOW before you begin designing, then later it can easily change the positioning of your pages and you will have more work to do. So read this now and then begin the design process.

You can design your own interior pages. Look at other books and decide what style you like. You can create a photo section or place photos on text pages. See examples of design and examples of formatting. 

(We offer design services if you need it. Read more.)

1. When the design process is complete, you can provide us a PageMaker or Quark disk with stories, illustrations and/or photos. If the book was created on a PC, then you must "postscript" the disk. Some Mac programs do not have to be post-scripted. See the When Ready To Send section for more info.

2. If you create your book in Word or WordPerfect and plan to put it on a disk for printing and binding, the file when finished must be post-scripted, and we are happy to walk you through the process. It only takes a few minutes and is not hard to do.

Post-scripting is a way to lock in every positioning and styling choice you have made in your file. During this process, your completed file is "printing to a disk" rather than printing to paper. This is the disk for the publisher. If you do not have the particular "print driver" for printing to a disk, it can be downloaded from the Internet. We can tell you how.

If you have the Adobe Acrobat program that allows you to PDF your file, do so. Then you can see each page from start to finish. We are always happy to receive a PDF file. And when we receive a postscripted file, we then do a PDF file (like an e-book) and e-mail it to you so you can see exactly how the pages look, before we send you the printed proof to approve.

3. Design your hard cover and spine. See an example.

HIRE A PAGE DESIGNER

If you hire a page designer, you can provide him or her a computer disk on a program like Word or WordPerfect. Your file is pulled into a publishing program where professional layout and design of the book can be performed. PageMaker and Quark are publishing programs that perform many tasks that provide a professional look to your book. The entire book is created digitally and this is the method that produces the highest quality print image and thus a more professional-looking book.

•The author should be given design choices to make during this process. The designer should design the Front Matter and first chapter and provide a proof to review before he completes the entire book. Each book has its own personality and the design should communicate that.

•You should be given a printed pages proof when finished, plus the disk that holds the digital book. You always need to know exactly what the finished book will look like. If you plan to send the Disk for printing and binding, keep a second copy of the disk in your possession.

•If you have a book with an interior design you like and you feel it fits your book, provide this as a guide to the designer. Trying to take an idea from your mind and translating it to a designer’s mind can be problematic. Eliminate as much misunderstanding as possible in the beginning.

•If you ask for changes to work already performed, expect to pay for the designer's time.

If you have questions, do not hesitate to call us 1 800-360-5284 or submit them on our Question Form. 

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