Contributed by John Chudleigh
You have an idea for a great book.
With the help of a computer this can be achieved.
With the help of a publisher, you can get it published in hard copy or online.
One way for all this to happen:
- Figure out what you are going to write about and who/what is the target audience – family, friends, anybody who is silly enough to buy it.
- Decide what format you want your work to be produced in – A4, B5 etc.
- Give yourself a timeframe and try your best to stick to it.
- Bask in the glory of your final product.
Here is one method that may suit small time publishers. You have your story line in your head so time to commit it to paper.
If you like spending your time physically writing it on paper know that it will require some extreme dedication. Having a program like Microsoft Word can make this process a little bit easier. You can talk to it and it will do your typing for you (including punctuation etc, etc.). You can use one of several specialist programs for this task as well. It really comes down to availability, cost, and personal preference. The really good thing with using software is that you can keep everything in one place (your computer) but you can also save copies to other devices such as USB sticks and External Hard drives.
With a program like any of these programs you can also get your device to read your efforts back to you. This helps overcome a major problem with self-editing. We tend to read what we think we wrote and not necessarily what is written on the page.
If you need to include graphics, photos or any kind of illustration make sure you have complementary software that will enable you to resize or edit these graphics. Also have an illustrator if required and you are a woeful artist/sketcher.
Once you have your draft put together get someone from the intended audience to check it out. This may be the stage at which you realise your ideas and thoughts may be quite different from those of the people around you…
If you have plenty of money and are really serious you may use a professional editor…your choice.
Or else you may, depending on your publication’s size, format and length get a local printer to produce a hard copy for you. In Murwillumbah you have printers such as the Print Spot and The Print People. Being able to give them your masterpiece on an USB stick of similar makes things a hell of a lot easier. The usual format that they are looking for is PDF or DOC(X).
If you want to publish to the world for relatively little expense, then you can consider Amazon Kindle (Kindle Direct Publishing) or Apple Books. To publish on Apple Books, you need to use an Apple device and software.
Once uploaded to Kindle people can download your e-Book to the Kindle App and pay electronically. There is a Kindle App that works on Apple devices.