Publishing Tools

 

Software:

• Book Design Wizard
  This program is for easy text formatting (toggles the table of contents to the chapters and automatically updates page numbers for the table of contents; sets up the proper mirror margins; and the alternating even/odd headers, plus a lot more).
  About $40
  http://www.bookdesignwizard.com
• Book Cover Pro
  A cover design program -- formats the cover (front, back, spine) properly for any size book. Very easy to learn.
  about $80.
  http://www.bookcoverpro.com

Publishing Sources:

• Create Space
  Create Space is a subsidiary of Amazon for self-publishing books, cd's, and dvd's. There are NO set up fees at all. Very cheap printing costs. Book goes instantly to Amazon. You can submit changes to your files (and to the book) at any time without extra cost (except the cost of another proof, i.e. the minimal printing price).
  https://www.createspace.com
• Lightning Source
  After making sure the book was exactly as I wanted it, I spent around $100 total to put it through the hoops with Lightning Source. You have to sign up as a publishing company (but that can consist of just you :) and they accepted the same files that I'd sent to Create Space. It costs here to make changes, so that's why I wait until everything is just right. LS puts your book out through Ingram -- a wholesale distribution company that is nationally respected and well-known. At that point your book goes everywhere (Barnes and Noble, Borders, etc.) and is available to any bookstore or library at the wholesale price (which does not happen through Create Space (though Create Space is working on that angle and may come up with something soon).
  About $100
  http://www.lightningsource.com

Putting your files into a PDF:

• All files have to be submitted in pdf form. I use the free pdf creator  <www.pdfill.com>
• And, for some reason, I had trouble with the free Adobe reader opening my pdf's. I tried switching pdf creators first but that didn't help. So then I switched to another free reader -- Foxit Reader-- and had no problems after that. http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader/

ISBN

• Create Space (and other publishers) will give you a free ISBN, but then YOU do not own it. If you switch to another publisher, you have to get a new ISBN which leads to confusion, a "second edition" and most self publishers giving advice online say buy your own. It's a scam if anyone other than the US ISBN agency, Bowker, tries to sell you one, too. (people buy blocks of a hundred or more and then sell them off piece-meal for more, but they still own the isbn and it is in their name, not yours or your company's] There's only place to buy:
  http://www.bowker.com/index.php/supportfaq-isbn
• The other thing you need -- this one is free -- is a Library of Congress Number. Find out all about that here:
  http://lcweb.loc.gov/loc/infopub/publish.html

  The Library of Congress number must be requested prior to the publication of the book so that the number can be printed on the copyright page. What you need is called the Preassigned Control Number (PCN) available to US book publishers.