Now in Print!
About a month ago I wrote about the print version of my new book being in the works, and now I’m proud to announce that the first copy has rolled off the press, and I’m holding it in my hands.
This is my first foray into print. Historically I’ve focused on ebook versions and I’m glad that I’ve cut my teeth on going digital first, without getting confused and side-tracked by rushing into print versions.
Although my Freewriting for Travel Writers was my fourth ebook, it’s my first print book. It has always been my plan to create print versions of my travel guides, but because those guides need updating so regularly, I need to have a strategic plan in place before I dive into print versions.
Page Count and Spine Width
The key consideration is that if the page count varies too much from one version of my travel guide to the next, I’ll need to get a new cover design version created because of the different spine width requirements.
My Freewriting book content is static and comes in at 100 pages, so I decided to covert this ebook into a print version first, so that I could get some print experience under my belt and get familiar with the process on something pretty straightforward.
Print on Demand Publishing Outlets
I chose two different print outlets – Amazon and Ingram Spark. Amazon because it is the industry leader, and Ingram Spark because of it’s distribution network (outside of the Amazon universe).
Historically Amazon ebooks have been set up and distributed via your KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) account and print books have been set up and distributed via CreateSpace. But earlier this year Amazon created the tools to release both ebooks and print books via your KDP dashboard.
Vellum ebook and print formatting
Another impetus behind coming out with a print version was that the Vellum, which is the software I use to create my ebook interior files, introduced the capability of creating print book interior files as well. So now there’s a one-stop-shop for creating and managing your source files.
It’s getting easier and easier to create beautiful books and error-free files to create both ebooks and print books.
I learnt a few print on demand lessons during the process to create my Freewriting for Travel Writers book, and I’ll cover those in another post.
More Resources
Here’s some helpful articles from the Self-Publishing Advice Center about using Amazon and Ingram Spark together:
What’s the Best Print on Demand Service for Self-published Paperbacks?
Print version of Freewriting for #TravelWriters is available Click To Tweet
Book Formatting
If you have a manuscript you’d like formatted for MOBI (for Amazon) or ePUB (for all the other distributors) – visit my formatting services page here.
