Have you bought the ebook yet? If not … cough… why not ? 🙂 Even without a kindle you can read it on any device. Go on you know you want too 🙂
I decided once the ebook was published for Reconfigure it would be interesting to explore the print on demand options from CreateSpace. It was some more formatting work to do and also create more than just a cover page. It needed a back page and the blurb associated with it. It also needed a more physical form of typesetting. ebooks are really HTML and reformat themselves. Physical books have to consider the gutter spacing when the pages are bound so you can read all the words.
The first proof arrived today.
It was very exciting to see the thing in actual print. I had selected the 6x9inch format as that was the recommended one. However now I look at it it looks a little large, more like a text book than a novel. So I am just working out how to reformat it down to 5×8 a normal paperback size. I also removed all the page numbers, which was something I thought it asked me to do. I realise it was asking that you remove page numbers on the preamble pages. ebooks don’t have any footers for page numbers as the device generates those based on the users font size choice.
Now I have page numbers, I tightened the spacing from the double spaced to 1.5 and I am now resubmitting it all. It means buying another proof copy, but the other book is handy for promo shots being a little bigger 🙂 It is possible to do an awful lot with the support tools that are provided. Each PDF upload is checked that it fits in the correct area and formats correctly. You still have to visually check each page just in case of course. The physical instantiation being the final decision on what goes live. The cover art needs to be in a suitable high resolution (mine already was). It even shows the mouse pointer arrow that is a tiny detail mid cube that is hard to see on the digital covers as they are at the moment.
So onwards and upwards. Of course the print version will be relatively expensive as it is a print on demand. I do not have the economies of scale to produce cheaper versions (yet). I will probably do the Kindle matchbook scheme where physical get a digital version too. It seems very fair to me. I can’t do that until the book is physically live though.
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