Instructions for Self Formatting a Manuscript (MSS), Downloading Templates and Uploading your Book
This page is for authors with a good knowledge of MS Word (or equivalent), graphics packages such as PhotoShop, CorelDraw, InDesign and Acrobat PDF, who wish to prepare their own layouts and uploads to our site.
OVERVIEW
Authors On Line are now able to offer an economical service that caters for Authors who have a degree of technical ability, using software to correctly lay out their book text and or cover design. If for example you are fully conversant with laying out and formatting text files, producing Acrobat PDF files or using graphic pages to produce your own cover, then you can greatly reduce your costs by preparing the work and uploading directly to our site, at no cost to you. If on the other hand you feel you would like some help then you can choose to go so far, and then pay us to do the rest. Please read our Price List and Publishing Packages pages (see menu on the left of this page) to help you decide if this service would help you.
Before you attempt to prepare anything for us however you will need to send us an e-mail to let us know some basic details: Your name and contact details (telephone, physical address and e-mail address), the title of the book, what you would like to upload ready prepared, and which of our services you need to purchase. We will then contact you either by e-mail or telephone to authenticate your details, confirm your requirements and arrange any payments that may be due. All services must be paid for in advance, either by Credit or Debit Card or by cleared funds into our bank (Bank Transfer, Cheque etc.). Once we have those details we will issue you with an ISBN if required and a web address to upload your book and or cover.
Much as we hate to be negative, we must stress at this point that we offer this upload facility in good faith and unless there is something wrong with our procedures or downloads, our staff are not able to give telephone or e-mail 'tuition' on how to format books, layout covers or convert to PDF files. We simply offer this service to authors on the strict understanding that it is for those who have the technical knowledge to carry out these procedures or follow our written instructions. We do put up help menus, which will be expanded and changed as experience dictates, but if you cannot operate within our guidelines, then I'm afraid you need our 'chargeable' services, and our staff will advise you accordingly. This system is not fully automated and a certain amount of human interface will be necessary as we expand and develop this new exciting service. Please therefore bear with us, we will do our best, but do not ask our staff for FREE expertise and guidance, as a refusal often offends! Thank you for your cooperation. - Ed
Please also note that offering this service does not mean we will publish everything submitted. For private publication only we are not interested in the content or its literary standard, but for books intended for distribution all work must still meet our basic literary standards. Pornography or any material contravening the laws of any country in which we print our books will not be published in any circumstances, for either private publication or public distribution.
PREPARING YOUR TEXT FILE
If you would like to upload either your MS Word Document ready for us to turn into a print ready PDF file, or upload a PDF file ready for us to publish, then PLEASE FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS BELOW.
1) LAYING OUT YOUR WORD-PROCESSED DOCUMENT
We offer our POD books in the following sizes and you will need to either download its equivalent MS Word Template below or setup your own template for the appropriate sized book. When choosing your template please remember that the smaller the size, the more pages it will have, and therefore the cost per book to print will be greater.
Please therefore choose your book size from one of the following:
Most Popular
1) 5" X 8" (127 X 203 mm)
2) 5.5" X 8.5" (140 X 216 mm) - DEMI
3) 6" x 9" (152 x 229 mm)
4) 6.14" 9.21" (156 x 234 MM) - ROYAL
Other sizes
5)
5.06 x 7.81" (198 x 129mm) - B Trade Format
6) 6.69 x 9.61" (244 x 170 mm) -Pinched Crown
7) 7 x 10" (254 x 178 mm)
8) 7.44 x 9.69" (246 x 189mm) - Crown Quarto)
9) 7.5 x 9.25" (235 x 191mm)
Other Sizes with higher print costs per page
10) 8.25 x 11" (280 x 210mm) - American Letter
11) 8.268 x 11.693 " (297 x 210 mm) - A4
EITHER
Please RIGHT CLICK on the appropriate link above and save the template to your hard drive. Then lay out and format your book exactly as you want it, using your downloaded template. Please do not alter any of the page or margin settings.
OR
Alternatively you can use the settings within MS Word or equivalent word processor to make your own template using the dimensions above and setting all the margins to 1.7 cm, plus the header and the footer at 1.0 cm.
AND
If you are publishing for distribution (as opposed to private use) and are using our imprint, you will also need our preliminary pages and our publishing logo. Please therefore download:
Our Title and Imprint pages - NB. They are laid out in 5 X 8 size.
2) CONVERTING TO ACROBAT PDF
Once you have laid your book out to your satisfaction you can either publish it to PDF or upload it to our website and we can convert it for you (cost £25), or you can convert it yourself if you have the software. The latter can be purchased from www.adobe.com or off-line at any high street computer software store.
If you do not want to buy the software, you might like to try these options (We are not recommending them we are just pointing out that they exist:)
| Adobe offers an online subscription service that allows you to pay a fee to turn a set number of documents into PDF files at http://createpdf.adobe.com). | |
| CutePDF http://www.cutepdf.com/ is a free PDF-creation program | |
| PDF Creator is installed as a printer driver. To create a PDF, open your document, then print to the PDF Creator "printer." The result is a PDF file. |
FONTS (Text)
Please note that all Fonts must be embedded. Our printers do not keep fonts, so embed them. You can check this on the 'Properties', 'Fonts' tabs in Acrobat reader once you have printed to PDF. If the list of fonts doesn't have 'Embedded' or 'Embedded subset' against each one of them, then they are not embedded.
PICTURES & ILLUSTRATIONS
Please ensure all pictures and illustrations inserted into the text have a resolution of at least 300 DPI (Dots per Inch), otherwise the quality will be greatly reduced. The same resolution applies to pictures used for the book cover. Please note that all pictures and illustrations within the text will be printed in black and white only.
NAMING YOUR FILES
If you have an ISBN please name you text file using the ISBN as for example, 1234567890_text.pdf and the cover file 1234567890_cover.pdf. If the book is for private publication and doesn't have an ISBN then just use the book name e.g. My_Book_text.pdf and My_Book_Cover.pdf
PREPARING YOUR COVER FILE
Once you have designed your cover you will need to place it into one of our templates. But before we can supply you with a template, we will need to know the final number of pages in the book and the book size. Therefore you will need to have prepared your text file first before asking us for the template.
TEMPLATES
Cover templates are supplied by our printers and laid behind your cover design to ensure that it fits the required book size accurately. They can be supplied by us, or downloaded from www.lightningsource.com, clicking on the 'Resources', 'Designers Resources' tab and then 'Cover Template Creation' link. You will however need an authentic ISBN to use it. We supply them in either CDR, PDF, EPS, Quark Express, or InDesign formats. Once you know your final page count and book size, either e-mail us the details and we will send you one or go and collect your template from Lightning Source - They don't supply CDR (CorelDraw) files, we can, but only if asked! HINT - If you want to just experiment at this stage then any ISBN will work, including the one from the best seller currently on you bedside table!
If you want to know what it should look like once you have finished then download an example of the initial template, and then what the final cover should look like- Low (72 DPI) Resolution.
BARCODES & ISBNs
The template comes complete with the ISBN bar code you entered and is correct to international standards for the cover, so there will be no need for you to find software or use any software you may have to insert one. Either we can supply one of ISBNs (The cheaper and easier option) or, you can also purchase one (They usually come in blocks of 10) from the appropriate agency (e.g. Nielsen Bookdate).
LOGO FOR IMPRINT
If you are using our ISBN imprint, we will also supply you with one of our imprint logos to put on your cover. It is a legal requirement to show the publisher's mark or details somewhere on the cover.
FONTS (Cover)
Please note that all Fonts must be embedded. Our printers do not keep fonts, so embed them. You can check this on the 'Properties', 'Fonts' tabs in Acrobat reader once you have printed to PDF. If the list of fonts doesn't have 'Embedded' or 'Embedded subset' against each one of them, then they are not embedded.
PICTURES & ILLUSTRATIONS
Please ensure all pictures and illustrations inserted into the text have a resolution of at least 300 DPI (Dots per Inch), otherwise the quality will be greatly reduced. The cover is printed in four colour, so any suitable pictures or illustrations can be used.
COLOUR IMAGES
Please make sure all images etc are inserted in print colour as CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) and not as RGB (Red, Green Blue), which is screen resolution. Book printers use 4 ink cartridges (CMYK) and not RGB as in the three cathode ray guns inside a monitor or TV!
If books are submitted in RGB there may be some colour differences from the original image. All top quality Graphics packages have the facility to convert between the two. Photographs taken on digital cameras will automatically be RGB and will need converting.
DISCLAIMER
All information supplied is given in good faith, but all files submitted by authors or anyone else are the responsibility of the author or the person submitting. You are strongly advised to order a sample copy before proceeding to order any quantity of books, as we will print precisely what we are supplied and incorrectly printed books will not be replaced unless it is clearly a manufacturing fault by the printer. We also reserve the right to refuse material submitted where we feel it will be detrimental to Authors On Line Ltd in any way whatsoever.