I am a huge fan of CreateSpace. This Amazon owned company has helped me not only get my books into print, distributed to online retailers, but has done a lot of my covers, interiors and provided editing for several of my books. The author services I have used, cover design, interior design and editing have, I believe, been fairly priced.
But who doesn't want to pay less for the same product?
Cover design and editing are something I will probably continue to farm out. Interior design I will probably do myself from now on using Microsoft Word for Mac to create my interior.
Word is designed to be used as a word processing program, something it does well. It is not a professional publishing software.
Since part of the reader's experience in using a book is the readability and aesthetic appearance of a book's interior, it would make sense not to use Word to create the interior. The flaws in the final product, particularly in regard to spacing of letters and words, makes Word a less than desirable tool to create the level of interior design expected by most readers. Readers who will often go to the trouble to leave a negative review on Amazon for a poor interior design.
If you don't want to pay to have a professional book designer to craft your book's interior and you are the do-it-yourself type, you can invest in expensive publishing software and tackle the tough learning curve to master using the software.
Or you can save money, do-it-yourself, use Word and create an appealing interior for your beloved book.
This is made possible by a new product designed and sold by Joel Friedlander, The Book Designer. I had reviewed Joel's new interior book design templates earlier and really liked what I saw.
I have since had more time to utilize the template I have and like the product event more. First, let's take a look at the cost comparison between using a professionally designed interior, with its two to four weeks time frame for production, and using one of Joel's Book Design Templates.
CreateSpace offers two reasonable priced options for a professionally produced book interior design. The less expensive option, Author's Advantage Book Interior, uses a variety of predesigned interiors for the author to choose from.
Let's compare the pricing options for a Book Design Template. The template I have been working with is a 6 x 9 version of the Britannia template. A single, one time use template can be purchased for $37. For $97 a multi-book license can be purchased, allowing the template to be used repeatedly. For those who are interested in providing design services to other authors, a Commercial license can be purchased for $197.
But who doesn't want to pay less for the same product?
Cover design and editing are something I will probably continue to farm out. Interior design I will probably do myself from now on using Microsoft Word for Mac to create my interior.
Word is designed to be used as a word processing program, something it does well. It is not a professional publishing software.
Since part of the reader's experience in using a book is the readability and aesthetic appearance of a book's interior, it would make sense not to use Word to create the interior. The flaws in the final product, particularly in regard to spacing of letters and words, makes Word a less than desirable tool to create the level of interior design expected by most readers. Readers who will often go to the trouble to leave a negative review on Amazon for a poor interior design.
If you don't want to pay to have a professional book designer to craft your book's interior and you are the do-it-yourself type, you can invest in expensive publishing software and tackle the tough learning curve to master using the software.
Or you can save money, do-it-yourself, use Word and create an appealing interior for your beloved book.
This is made possible by a new product designed and sold by Joel Friedlander, The Book Designer. I had reviewed Joel's new interior book design templates earlier and really liked what I saw.
I have since had more time to utilize the template I have and like the product event more. First, let's take a look at the cost comparison between using a professionally designed interior, with its two to four weeks time frame for production, and using one of Joel's Book Design Templates.
CreateSpace offers two reasonable priced options for a professionally produced book interior design. The less expensive option, Author's Advantage Book Interior, uses a variety of predesigned interiors for the author to choose from.
The Total Design Freedom Custom Book Interior is the more expensive option but the author, after consulting with a designer, will receive a custom designed book interior.
Let's compare the pricing options for a Book Design Template. The template I have been working with is a 6 x 9 version of the Britannia template. A single, one time use template can be purchased for $37. For $97 a multi-book license can be purchased, allowing the template to be used repeatedly. For those who are interested in providing design services to other authors, a Commercial license can be purchased for $197.
A print and eBook option is available as well. For the paper edition and an eBook template the price is $47 for a single use license. The multi-book paper and eBook version is available for $107. The commercial license paper and eBook option is available for $207.
The most expensive option for the Britannia template, which is priced the same as all of the other Book Design Templates, is less than the least expensive option from CreateSpace.
How easy is the template to use? I have finished several chapters by cutting and pasting in just under 30 minutes. Most of that time was spent thinking about how to do the first chapter, which was as simple as cutting and pasting. I was making the task much more difficult than it needed to be, I simply could not believe it was that easy.
The customer support is excellent. I had one small visual issue I could not figure out how to resolve. One e-mail initiated the help I needed to solve the problem, complete with step-by-step instructions with screen shots to provide me with directions I could not misinterpret.
I am so sold on these templates I am now an affiliate for Book Design Templates! If you want to purchase one of Joel's templates, please consider going through the icon on this blog to make your purchase.
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