Writing Coach jennifer lancaster
book creation apps review
Book Design

3 Book Creation Apps to Bring Your Writing Dream to Life

Dear Googlers, I know you’re prone to expecting a magical tool that whips up your book merely from thinking the thought “this is my idea for a book”. So let’s adjust expectations. There are a few software book creation apps but, like a Ferrari, they require a fairly good driver. Unlike a Ferrari, a couple are free, so we’ll start with those. 1. Reedsy Editor Online Tool The top online book creation tool for hobbyist self publishing authors is Reedsy Editor. I wrote a review on Reedsy already, which goes into the pros (easy to use, free) and cons (unable to control table of contents look) I found. 2. Blurb BookWright Personal opinion only, but Blurb’s app has wasted many of my hours. Blurb’s BookWright tool takes a bit of time and RAM. Close other applications. My patience did wear…
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Types of Interactive eBooks
Book Design, Selling eBooks and Media

eBook Formatting Service for Kindle

These days, once you get your file cleaned up and ready for upload to the Amazon Kindle platform (KDP), it often can go through straight up. But for specially designed, image-laden eBooks, there is a software to get your ebooks formatted. On this, I would not bother trying to get an eBook converted and designed in these ways: Calibre – absolutely the hardest way for novices, but it is a free option Kindle Create – free, but you have to start again if your charts/graphics don’t appear correctly and thus you lose ALL your changes. It outputs KPF – a Kindle Publishing only format. Oh, What to Do for my Ebook? If you want to do-it-yourself in designing ebooks more than just once, Atticus is the software for you, at US$147. It takes in your .RTF or .DOCX file and…
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All About Reedsy
Book Design, Self-Publishing

All About Reedsy

Online Book Editor to Save on Typesetting One of the major costs of book production is typesetting and design. The art of book typesetting is a lofty one, with things like chapter rules, widow/orphan rules, and page bottom alignment. Reedsy Book Editor is an app to do your own layout and make the PDF artwork–for free!  Let’s say we don’t mind too much about rules, we just want to get our book formatted with simplicity. Then online tool ‘Reedsy Book Editor’ is your tool. I tried it out, and some of the issues were: Inability to expand the type size, as it is set in the template style Difficulty aligning the table of contents (heading 2’s only would not auto-align) Not yet sure if PDF is compatible with IngramSpark, but Reedsy claims that it is. Background of Reedsy Reedsy was established…
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how to use book design templates
Book Design, Self-Publishing

Save Time (and Money) with Book Design Templates

This post is about saving time and how to use book design templates yourself. But, if you’re a professional, you’ll probably want to hire a book designer. Why? Because great book designers match the typeface to the cover and they think about the whole book’s look and feel. They can’t use a template for that, except as a starting point for size and margins. The other reason is because they are pros at it. First of all, I can’t mind-read whether you are using MS Word, InDesign, or Pages. (If you’re considering another program, like Publisher, for book design, it’s probably not a great idea). For fairness, we’ll talk about each one. Personal Fave: InDesign Yes, there are some benefits to subscribing to Adobe InDesign, and one of them is a selection of instantly downloadable ‘sort of free’ fonts. (The…
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Author Assist Packages Comparison Review
Book Design, Book Marketing, Self-Publishing

Author Assist Packages Comparison

If you’re part way into writing your book, it’s time to think about who is going to help put together your book and administrate it. This is a giant step but is often left to emotion and chance. So read our Author Assistance Package comparison review (Australian based). Check down the bottom for DIY administration + freelancers option, which is the model for intrepid independent types. Most author assistance packages leave out the most important service—editing (and writing support). Book publicity and launch planning is usually either an add-on or ‘find your way in the darkness’, but really important for you, the author. Remember, no matter how little you may know about the publishing process, you are in control of the path before you. Let’s make it a good one. Publicious: Package 3 + Editing added Gold Coast, Australia. Book…
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Book Design MS Word vs InDesign
Book Design, Self-Publishing

Book Design Knockdown: MS Word vs Adobe InDesign

Lately, a few talented writers have contacted me with their pre-press production problems. Now, most new authors want to typeset their non-fiction book in Word, but Word is designed for word processing and not so much for book design. However, some authors want to be able to access the file again — and if they are not worried about the colours (inside) not being controlled, then there are workarounds. But Adobe InDesign is the industry standard for book design, so let’s discuss MS Word vs Adobe Indesign. Remember, the interior of any book is completely separate to the cover. To dispel another myth, you can print bleed images right to the edge of your file (when setting up for IngramSpark or CreateSpace) and no, you don’t need to have a border. Bleed means going beyond the page (e.g. 3mm beyond). What you need…
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