I would strongly recommend this book for anyone who is looking to self-publish. It is comprehensive, understandable, and for the most part, easy to follow. It helped me get my book ready much, much, MUCH faster than I could have done it on my own.
Here's what I really appreciated:
-Instructions were easy to follow and complemented by actual screengrabs from Microsoft Word so that I could completely visualize what I was supposed to do
-There was a focus on preparing fiction books (although I'm sure non-fiction writers would get just as much out of it; it's just nice to see a formatting book that pinpoints fiction works)
-There is an example book to follow in the formatting process so we can see not just the actions to take but what the result should look like
-The language is clear and simple so that I didn't get confused
-On a personal note, it was nice to see that Tim C. Taylor was a Blake's 7 and Doctor Who fan
That said, there were a couple places where I got confused (not that everybody would have), but here they are for anyone interested:
-Using set Styles in the book. Maybe it's because I'm stubborn, but I need solid reasons to do something. Tim C. Taylor says that styles are important, and he explains why a bit, but I'm still not 100% sure why I HAVE to use styles. That said, I have followed his advice on styles, so I guess that shows how much the rest of the book made me trust his advice. Very much.
-I wish there had been a bit more on how to resize images as that is still a bit of a headache for me
-I'm still getting error messages on style embedding in the Createspace Interior Reviewer, but unlike the way it is described in the book, I'm not getting any suggestion on where the embedding issues are. However, considering that Taylor and Createspace both give the same suggestions to fix this, I assume it is not his fault.
-I would have appreciated some ideas on choosing which Createspace ISBN option to go for. This isn't really fair because it goes beyond the scope of the book a bit, but after searching, I found the following information, which was very helpful to me, so I'm going to share it here. Createspace offers the following options on ISBNs: 1) Free provided ISBN. Free sounds good unless, like me, you want to use your own logo and publishing name as opposed to having the publisher listed as Createspace. The free option will list Createspace as the publisher. If you're just publishing for friends or a small, focused group, no problem. If you're publishing to look as professional as possible, having your own logo and publisher name might be better. One nice thing about this option is that your book will be listed in library catalogs, which is what Createspace uses as an incentive. However, I don't think that's much of an incentive (at least, personally). It's not really like libraries only order from their own catalogs. 2) $10 ISBN. This is what I chose. I get to have my logo and publisher name, Createspace is never and nowhere mentioned as the publisher, and the only thing I really lose out on is being listed in library catalogs. Oh, and with this option, I'm not allowed to publish anywhere else under the same ISBN. I don't know where else I'd be publishing with the same ISBN (if you get a book deal with a company, there will be a new ISBN assigned), so this didn't concern me, though it could concern others. 3) $99 ISBN, gives you everything from the $10 level, but lets you publish anywhere with that ISBN. WHY IS THERE AN $89 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO? Quite simply, you are actually buying the ISBN for $99, but at the $10 level, you are kind of renting it from Createspace. In other words, for $10, Createspace lets you use their ISBN and say it's yours.
All in all, though, my little gripes are small. This book is awesome, and, for me, it was absolutely essential. It has made my life much easier over the past few days getting everything formatted.
OR
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- Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2013
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Top reviews from other countries
- Sir G.Reviewed in Australia on April 20, 2017
Very good book, you'll learn editors' tricks the easy way
- Dorothy PodmoreReviewed in Canada on June 3, 2016
This is a great step by step guide to preparing your book for ...
