Self Publishing Software - Microsoft Word or Adobe InDesign?

Are you self publishing and you want to know what software to use? Stick around. And I have a great conversation about that. Hey there. I'm Julie Broad with havemoreinfluence.com today I'm answering a question that came in from Simona. Simona's asking whoops on the wrong page. Simona asks, is it better to have my book in Word or some other software, or do I just need to get it into a PDF? This is an excellent question, and it is something to think about, because as she notes in the rest of her question, she doesn't want to have to redo things. Because who likes that? Doing a book and self publishing, it is enough work as it is if you're not redoing things. So let's tackle this now. Before you can answer this question, there's some things that you have to figure out. First, what format do you want to publish your book in? Hardcover, softcover, or a digital book? The next question is, where do you want distribution? Because if you don't care about distribution and you just want printed copies, or you don't even care about printed copies, this is a whole different conversation. And a PDF might be just fine. But if you want Amazon distribution for a printed copy, or you want ibooks or Copy Kobo or whatever it might be to carry your book, then you're going to have to kind of back things up and plan accordingly. So first of all, if you want a hardcover, your best option for self publishing, if you want distribution as well, is probably going to be Ingram Spark or Lightning Source. They have a hardcover option. They also have access to lots of bookstores. If you're just worried about Getting it on Amazon.com, createSpace is probably your cheapest, easiest option for doing that. Now, CreateSpace also recently came out with the option for you to apply to get it onto Amazon CA. So for us Canadians, that makes CreateSpace a lot more accessible and a lot better option for people who really wanted Amazon CA distribution but weren't going to get it easily through CreateSpace before. So the software you're going to use and the requirements is going to vary and depend on which publishing house and which format you're using. Okay, so let's cover those really quickly. Now, Amazon, if you're going to just print to kdp, which is Kindle Direct Publishing, then they make it super easy for you. They will even accept a Word document. So they accept Word, HTML, mobi and ePub formats. Now here's the trick. Simona mentioned that she's Including a lot of images, maps and graphics into her book. I don't know about you, Simona, but Word is a giant pain in the patootie to work with. With images. It is a great word processing tool, but when your file starts getting big and clunky with a lot of images, sometimes I find that a picture that was here is all of a sudden all the way down there. Like, why? And so I hate using Word when I have a lot of images. So even though KDP will accept it, I bet you there's a very good chance your book doesn't end up looking as good as it could. You stick with Word. So my recommendation is to consider using something else that is meant for page layouts so that you can create the layout and the format that you want and have it graphically very appealing. The most common software that is used is Adobe InDesign. There are other options out there, but that is the one that I'm familiar with and that I know most people doing book layouts will use. And some authors will even write their book inDesign. And the argument for doing it is that, yes, it's a somewhat complicated piece of software, but if you're trying to create a very visually appealing book, so a coffee table book or a more artistic book, then you can create it right from the start, choosing your fonts and layouts and adding the pictures and the sidebars right from the start. So there is an argument for it. For me, it's hard enough to get coherent thoughts to come together to create a book. I don't need the added distractions of trying to make it visually appealing. At the same time, Kindle has a great guide. I recommend you check it out because if you do stick with Word, there's some really important tips to set you up for success. For example, you don't want to copy and paste your images, you want to insert them. You don't want to use header and footers, but you do want to use their heading one tagging system. Okay, so create space. Fonts must be embedded into that PDF and there's some other criteria that are stated here. Again, because it is a PDF, you might be able to do it using Word. However, you have to make sure the layout will work on a printed book and the bleeds and the margins are appropriate. So you're probably better off to create this book inside of a layout. A layout software like InDesign. There's lots of word templates as well as InDesign templates out there that you can get your Hands on that will allow you to create a book that you could then PDF but you need special PDF creation software because the feature of save as PDF inside of Word will not work for CreateSpace. So read this document carefully so that you know exactly what you need. IngramSpark this is Lightning Source's company for self publishers, independent publishers. You'll have to carefully consider what size your book will be so that the layout, the trim, the bleeds are all match what they need. Ibooks is also an ePub or PDF with specific requirements and I never actually went with Ibooks but again a great option. So just look up their requirements and see. The big question you have to ask yourself is how professional do I want this end product to be? If you are planning on selling it and you have grander visions for what this book might become, you want it to be as professional as possible. And to do that you want to be using professional programs like InDesign or in my case I just hired somebody because I had zero interest in learning how to use another piece of software and I really wanted my book to look like a traditional publishing house was behind it. And that's just the interior considerations. By the way, we haven't even talked about how to format, create, upload, etc. For a cover, but hopefully Simona, that answers your question and gets you started. Bottom line, Word might work for the options that you want, but you probably are much better off to get your hands on Adobe InDesign and lay out your book in a professional fashion. The shortcut that you can probably take is to find a template for the book size that you want. If you have a self publishing question, come on over to havemoreinfluence.com Sign up for my Broad Thoughts newsletter. Lots of tips on personal branding, influence and of course self publishing. See you next time. Bye. Oh, if you like this video, give it a thumbs up. Makes me happy. Makes me want to film more videos for you. And if you don't want more videos, then just go on your merry way. Bye.