Self-Publishing – Not For The Squeamish

Introduction:

Perhaps one day you will wish to publish your own book of poetry. Here are a few things to consider. It seems like a lot of work, but the product is worth the effort. Basically, it is a series of decisions and executions of decisions over the course of six months to a year. Give yourself the time because otherwise you will become frustrated and lose interest and never hold your book in your hands, which is the real goal and prize.

It is highly recommended that you consult a publisher at your local college or university for an over coffee meeting to discuss the do’s and don’ts of publishing. Consultation with an English professor (the rule is publish or perish) with the request for them to write the introduction serves to keep them interested in the progress of the project over time. Three contacts meeting and 1 phone call, and a look at the project to date should be enough unless they suggest more meets and calls. They have resources – in house copy services and access to professional photographers. They know the best place to sell the book, poetry readings, literary venues for promoting the book. Editing services – ask them to review the master before submitting it to be printed and follow all of their advice. If unable to buy services, do without and file at the back of the brain for use another ,time. Having a consultant is good to help you catch all the novice blunders before they happen and if the consultant reads the manuscript, they will have eyes-on for any typos, typesetting errors, and formatting corrections or suggestions. Things you won’t notice or be able to see, they will identify readily at a glance (from experience). Get a consultant on the project. Colleges have publications, magazines that they publish annually in literature. Call them, ask for a meeting, explaining you are self-publishing and would like to talk to a professional in the business about it and could they look it over. Offer honorable mention for their services, a small line or two on the inside page acknowledgments section:

                          Acknowledgments:

Special thanks to Susan Johnson for her

guidance and professional consultation during

the production of this book.

That constitutes a “credit” that she/he can put on a resume. Thanking everyone who gives you those kinds of services is always appreciated. It is called professional courtesy.

Photo of Author on Back Cover:

This is required because of the advertisement recognition factor. And your friends relatives will be impressed enough to actually pay for the book. Give no copies away unless to reviewers – that is hard to do. Sell it. Tell your friends you have to recoup costs, so $20.00 bucks please. This is the way professionals advertise their poets with a photo on back, but the editor’s picture goes on the back of an anthology.

Prose books also have a photo of the author on the back cover in high gloss. Be sure to have the photo half-toned (broken up into tiny dot) to avoid shiny or glossy reflection effect. With computer photo shop packages this is easily done now.

If a photographer takes your picture, give them credit with the notation under the photo in a bold 8 point italic print, chose a nice font, and write yourself a short biography to place below the face.  Black and white photos are both nice and cost effective. Nothing else should go on the back cover except the name of the press, Month/date/year of publication works well here and on inside first page “title page”

___________________________

Photo by Susan Johnson

Kind of cover stock:

Depending on how fancy you want to go and can afford, the cover stock should be at least three times as heavy as the paper used for the inside of the book. If you are having the cover done professionally, a heavy card stock with a paper weight of #24 or more will do. If self-publishing and compiling at home, this is printed on color card stock from am office supply store. If you select a high gloss cover (with 3 or more colors) the cost will be considerably more and will have to be done by a printer (check out any photo copy store, they often provide this service cheaply).

Paper stock comes in textures, high rag content, every color imaginable. White is nice, but off white is classy. I have self-published using bold colors, deep reds, greens, gold, blues of print paper available at office supply stores. Pastels are also nice, but not as striking as deep red and bird egg or turquoise blue for pages. The stock is heavy enough to use as a cover, not as permanent, but inexpensive and you can run a lot more of each book.

Layout & Design:

This is tricky so do no proceed without a “dummy” as a guide. A dummy is an all white paper mock-up of the book. It is used to experiment with layout of poems and other elements of the book, i.e., introduction, photo, copyright notation, name of press and address (no phone # please), date of publication, table of contents. Type up poems using 2 column format to accommodate each published page unless you have a book publishing ap/

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Count the number of pages you need for the poems (do not include cover in the count). If using 8.5 x 11 paper fold in half and staple in the center from the back so smooth edge of staple is facing outward. A collating stapler is a must purchase if you are doing your own assembly (collating) of the book. It is about 24 inches long and my last one cost me @ $30.00. Cut and staple poems to the front and back of the inside pages. You will be printing back and front of each page so paper stock must be thick enough to avoid “bleed through”. White low weight paper shows the poems from the other side of the page.  With heavy color stock, there is little bleed through. Utilize the inside page of the cover, front and back – to save space, but leaving them blank, while losing space, is standard. If needed, use inside back cover only to accommodate anything other than poems. Poems on the inside back cover is tacky. If the number of poems run into the back page, delete a number of poems to bring the size inside or add poems and pages. Remember, if you add one page you add four poem worthy sides to the book at the new first page and new last page. When you do your mock up with your poems placed on the pages, you will see how this works.

If using full 8.5” x 11” size for book or larger (or smaller), use paper that size to create your dummy copy. Do not change the size later - you will hae to start from scratch. Staple pages together but remember the allowance taken up by the staple where the glued, stapled or other binding (spirals) are placed mean that the “text” will be pulled in toward the center of the book. You want the text to be centered and will have to “offset” it on the page. Alternate pages, page 1, ¼ inch to the right of the set margin, page two ¼ inch to the left of the set margin and continue this throughout the book. Most word processing packages will offset pages for you or you can do it manually based on what the first dummy looks like. Add space pr decrease space based on whether or not the pages are “visually” centered. If using a publishing program, this is done automatically, but follow the instructions exactly, one error will throw off the entire layout. I prefer the 2 column format for 8.5” x 11” landscape view for more control and ease of inserting poems and adjusting margin allowances as offsets.

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If using a professional graphics designer, let them provide you with choices for layout to select from.

Page Format:

Decide page format: ~1~, page one, I, and center at bottom or outside border of each page. At top center detracts from the title of the poem and by not putting anything there keeps the upper spaces visually “clean” .

Table of Contents:

Listing your anthology poets in alphabetical order works best for easy reference. If a poem is too long for one page, it will only continue on the next page. Best to place one long poemon the cengter page. easier to control where the inside of the staple appears. From the dummy, you will see where the poem will continue “inside” the book. This is tricky, and practice teaches you where to put the balance of a poem to keep it continuous.

If just your poetry, list any way you like, just so long as it is aesthetically pleasing on the page. Try not to use over long lines that interfere with the visual centering of the page.

You can use only one font size for the poetry, one font type, so word wrap controls the centering of the text. Or not, some people like the free graphic look without consistency. Look at layouts of poetry books by profesional companies for a variety of ways to chose and use type fonts. Experimentation is not recommended.

Numbering the pages of the dummy will tell you readily where continued text will go. Cut and paste (with sissors and actual paste) poems and other text to dummy. This is your guide as to where your text will appear on the computer word processing virtual pages. If you add pages or more poets, dummy will have to be re-paginated and lain out fresh from scratch – trying to bypass this process is a headache. There is absolutely no way to add one page or three or five without reconfiguring page numbers and (continued) pages. To keep track of what is continued, repeat the title at the top of the page with (Cont.) after it, as a "place marker" and to let reader know there is more to the poem. Author's name goes at the bottom of the poem, above the page number if an anthology (moe than one poet in the book).

This will make sooooo much sense, once you get the dummy completed. Reminder: if you add a page, you are inserting 4 blank pages in front and back inside. Thus the need to re-dummy the “displaced” poems and continued poem pages. The numbering is absolutely corrupted and have to be erased and renumbered manually, then re-done on the computer “master manuscript” or the galley. Galley - copy that is final and to be sent to printer.

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This is the true function of the dummy, to keep the text nailed down to a space. Change the spacing, you have to change the dummy and make the galley conform to the new layout. It is best to make all decisions during the first dummy layout process to avoid having to do it again. Hold off on printing out the galley. Study the dummy for a few days. Make changes, all decisions about fonts and size of fonts, and placement of numbers and text are done at this stage. Take extra time to “see” it. Stamp it finalized, then go on.

Cover:

Use a picture from an artists, words only format, (fancy lettering) simple line border from "lines and borders" ap or use wingdings or webdings to create extra emblems repeated as a border or anchor on either side of the page number, along the top, along the bottom or down the outer side of the page or framed using just thin and thick lines are options.

Wngdings in alpha order:

abcdefghijklmnopqurstuvwxyz

Wingdings 2:

a b c d e f g h ijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

Wingdings 3:

a1bcdefghijklmnopqursuvwxyz

Example of use of Wingdings:

tttttttttttttttttttttttttt

Title

POEM TEXT

POEM

TEXT HERE AS

SPACE FILLER FOR

THIS EXAMPLE

c Page One d

Be creative with the graphics. There are graphics available on line for free use also. Avoid using photos or art on line – it is copyrighted or is some one else’s property. Tempting, but you could be sued. The more you use, the more ink you consum with graphics. Graphics use a lot of printer ink.

Font Selection:

Using the same font or varying the font is the editor’s choice. Usually “like” text (ex. The poem text) is the same. All of the poems should be in the same font. Experimenting is not clever, it is novice and the mark of inexperience with layout and design. The Introduction could be another font, but use consistently

Example:

Introduction

This book is made possible by….etc…

Goudy Old Style text not bold, with only “Introduction” bolded. If you start in one font, most of the other text should follow the same format.

Table of Contents

About The Editor

Special Acknowledgements

The font choice should be the same (consistent ) as bold underlined title with non bold text throughout the book. It looks professional and is just easier to remember. A larger font size for titles is acceptable, but not too much larger. This is time consuming but classy.

allets

09-03-14

12-27-16