Discussion

By Jim Hamilton on Mar 18, 2022

I've used Word for all of the books I've self-published. It works great if you are okay with a fairly simple single-column design. And the tools for outlining, creating design templates, and making a table of contents, headers & footers, and an index all work well. Twenty or so years ago I started writing a book called "From Microsoft Word to Print" and actually finished a version of it, but then Microsoft updated Word and actually made it harder for a novice to use those tools, so I gave up on the idea.
One last point: any self-published author should consider using a service like Lulu.com. For no upfront fee you can get a book set up to print on demand and sell through a web interface. Of course they do take a percent when the book is sold, but that is to be expected.

By Vincent Mallardi on Mar 22, 2022

Good interview Frank, and more printers should be jumping onto the self-publishing boom. Every town has bookstores, libraries, and groups of designers and writers all of whom could be brought together in regional tabletop shows and how-to seminars. One can broker out the VSR (very short run) work to the several trade-only providers but do the design, file-formatting pre-media, e-book versions, every-door direct mail, ROP co-op advertising, event graphics, and fulfillment post-media work. And, since everything in any business is a numbers game, some of these self-published books will go viral and require a pressrun or two. If any WTT! reader wants to open a new page in their business, get in touch with me. I would be happy to help gratis.