THE SELF-PUBLISHING WORKBOOK
FREE 
DOWNLOAD
From Initial Concept to Production, a tried and tested handbook for emerging self-publishers. 88-Pages
WHO IS IT FOR?
This workbook is designed for those wishing to gain skills and knowledge of the publishing process.
OBJECTIVES
- Formulate a clear idea of one's personal book format
- Gain a basic understanding of the technical requirements and bureaucratic procedures involved in book production
WHAT TOPICS ARE COVERED?
- Book Genre: initial concept and preparation
- Identity, trade logos
- Industry standard (DTP) Desk Top Publishing software
- Principles of cover, page and book design, thumbnail sketches
- Size, type, quality of paper
- How to handle illustrations, photographs, etc.
- Methods of book binding,
- Finding a suitable printer
- Typical print runs, printer specifications, dealing with printers
- Typical price schedules for standard book formats
- Pitfalls of the printing process
- Audiotape and CD production, audiobooks
- Acquisition of ISBNs and Barcodes
- Copyright issues
- Official book title registration,
- Cataloguing in Publication Data,
- Legal Deposit requirements
- Advance information sheets and press releases
- Personal or commercial distribution
- Getting your book into the bookshops
- Book launches
What people say
Your Self-publishing workbook is really helpful.Good show, the material you assembled looks really good.
Thanks a bunch for the workshop
Another big thank you for the wonderful presentation. It was an amazing day.
Thank you very much for all the effort you put into the workshop. I came away knowing a lot more than when I walked in, and am already incorporating a number of suggestions…
'I enjoyed the seminar and got some idea what self-publishing means,
This has really opened my eyes.
'Thanks for a great exposé on the challenge of self-publishing.
Thank you for the Self-Publishing Workbook. I followed it step by step when I was preparing my first book. I couldn't have managed without it.
The session inspired me to take courses in desk top publishing...
Thank you for such a wonderful and informative day last week during your ‘self-publishing workshop’! I walked away with more than just a wealth of knowledge on how to approach publishing my next project, I also walked greatly inspired...
Just wanted you to know that your day seminar on self-publishing helped.
Thanks for the great workshop.
Your workshop was very helpful. Of course I am still digesting alot of the information and I am also surprised at how much I remember. You are truly an inspiration and a great teacher, thank you so much for your passion, determination and commitment the self publishing process, it really came through for me during the workshop.
I wanted to actually write and thank you so very much for such an in-depth, extensive as well as intensive workshop. I have to tell you again just how impressed with your knowledge and your ability to impart it so clearly. Kudos to you!
Thank you very much for the nice day, we learned a lot and we were very pleased with all the information we obtained today, it will help us a great deal.
Thank you for the pleasant and very informative afternoon.
Thank you for the day and attention. You brought me to a whole new level in this process.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge, it was truly a lovely day.
I really enjoyed your workshop. It really inspired me.
Thank you so much for the entertaining and informative evening.
I really enjoyed...the Self-publishing workshop...I now have direction and the info I need to proceed.
I would like to thank you for opening my eyes to the possibility of self-publishing this book...memoir...and it was by attending your one-day workshop that I was able to envisage that it would be possible. Many thanks for your knowledge and encouragement.
THE SELF-PUBLISHING WORKBOOK
THE SELF-PUBLISHING WORKBOOK, Third EditionFrom Initial Concept to Production, a tried and tested handbook for emerging self-publishers, by Christina Manolescu. 88 pages. 8.5" by 11" ISBN: 1-894967-51-8. SCREEN version PDF.
PRINTERPHOBIA: How to & How NOT to get your book into print.
Had I known all that lay ahead of me, would I have had my first baby? Self-published my first book? The answer is a resounding YES; although, since I now know some of the potential pitfalls of publishing, I am developing a mild case of Printerphobia which, in the vernacular, translates roughly as:
WHAT WILL THEY INADVERTENTLY MUCK UP THIS TIME AROUND?
A word of advice: When those densely packed boxes arrive on your doorstep, containing your literary lovechild, cloned 500 to 1,000 times over, should you break open a bottle of bubbly, after having trustingly handed over to your printer a wad of promised cash, without first carefully scrutinising the contents? The answer is an emphatic NO!
I should have had some inkling when my most recent printer (who for the moment, at least, shall remain nameless) smiled at me in a sanguine manner, acknowledging quite openly that: PRINTING IS NOT AN EXACT SCIENCE. At the time we were discussing the expected end-results of a certain Pantone shade to be printed directly onto a neutral base colour.
"We can't guarantee that your frontispiece line drawing will come out Maroon, exactly matching Shade Number XXX you have just chosen. With a bit of luck, it might; but, on the other hand, I should warn you that it might also end up resembling a murky shade of cadaverous leech-eye. You see, (continued my printer, grinning all the more broadly) we've never actually blended those two shades before, so we won't really know until we try!"
"Then cancel Pantone Number XXX, let's go for the black print instead," I replied. Conventional, but safe. Given the substantial cost of even a small print run, a risk-taker I cannot afford to be. Now what else, I wondered, could possibly go wrong? To my dismay, over the course of my brief self-publishing career, I have had occasion to find out.
SOME ABOMINATIONS TO AVOID
- Ragged edges caused by a blunt trimmer, or because the total number of bound pages is too bulky for the saddle-stitch binding.
- Varnished covers that are soiled too easily by drops of moisture or grease. Please note: Laminated covers are more expensive, but far superior.
- Flimsy casebound covers which split apart in your hands.
- Faulty registration of colour images, causing a nauseatingly blurred effect.
- Inadequate scanning of half-tone images, causing flatness, lack of depth, essential contrast between light and dark.
- Permanent smudges around the borders, caused by insufficient drying time during the printing process or because the images contain too many large, solid black areas that are difficult to print accurately.
- Grey anemic-looking typeface that is almost too faint to read
- Interior pages bound out of sequence and/or back to front.
- Sporadic blank pages (which have inadvertently failed to receive an impression) in amongst the correctly printed text.
- Individual pages bound double, i.e., two copies of page 37, bound one after the other.
- Text margins too narrow; text & images printed too close to the inside fold.
The Self-publishing Workbook from Prince Chameleon Press will guide you on your way to Self-publishing.
2017 © Christina Manolescu, Publisher, Prince Chameleon Press, Invisible Cities Network: http://www.invisiblecitiesnetwork.org
From July 24 until August 14, 2006. Dialects Program on RADIO CKUT Christina Manolescu discussed some of the tasks in Self-publishing with host, J.J. Locke, on RADIO CKUT, 90.3FM. Monday, July 24, July 31, August 7 and August 14, between 11.30am and 12noon.