SquarePeg Books

One of the things a self-published author must do is take their manuscript after editing, and then format it according to the rules of the distributor service.

Epub isn’t so bad. Mostly spacing and the use of Heading Styles. Make sure you rip out all the random bits of commands hiding in the script, so it doesn’t accidentally tell the viewer to show the manuscript in the wrong way.

I thought formatting for print wouldn’t be too much harder. I was feeling confident in my skills. I can bang this out in a few hours.

No.

I was rather harshly disillusioned as I researched deeper. I now understand why formatting manuscripts to be ready for print for authors who don’t want to get their hands grubby is an actual business.

It isn’t overly difficult, it’s just not as easy as I thought it should be. I foolishly though I could just generate the template for the pdf, establish margins, the print page size and all that, then import the document. The software would do it all for me.

Oh, how wrong I was. I watched a few youtube videos, trying to determine what kind of desktop publishing software (Scribus), I spent several afternoons just trying to correctly generate my templates. (I’m lazy–I don’t want to create a bespoke template for each book every time. Romance will look like this. Fantasy will look like that. Save. Click. We’re done.)

Part of this is because the Scribus software has been updated and slightly changed over time since the youtube videos first came out. Part of this is because it takes me a while to grok new technology and the procedures of use. I’m still getting used to how fussy/picky Scribus can be. Things must be done in a specific order or it will all be gross and irritating. Screaming in frustrated rage may be involved.

I would not belabor this point so much except for one point of order: one cannot import one’s document into the desktop publishing software template that one has created.

No, no.

One must <Copy> and <Paste> sections of A Page, that you think will fit on the pdf template. Then you have to go back into the template to identify your indents, where there isn’t an indent, italics, bold, center, left-right justification, all of that. Because they don’t make the transfer in the <Copy><Paste> process. You have to go in and re-do them all.

Once again, not impossible. Not even difficult, once you get the hang of it. Just time consuming. And I have to be very aware of how tired I’m getting as I’m doing it. I’ve maxed myself out on 3 chapters a day. Any more than that, and I start making huge mistakes that are just a pain in the ass to correct.

This is frustrating to me. I remember when I could spend almost 10-12 hours working on something without fear of fatigue.

Not anymore. Now I’ve got, maybe?, 3 hours before I have to tap out for the day.

On the plus side, I have developed a deeper appreciation for the services formatters offer.

Now I have to figure out pictures.

ugh.

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