Okay, so actually most of these were only asked once, or I thought of them myself to try to save you the trouble of emailing me.
Why use BookSurge instead of some other Print on Demand (POD) publisher? I chose BookSurge because they are owned by and tightly integrated with Amazon. That doesn't mean this is the best option for you. I did not want to buy a lot of books myself. I did want to be charged for book printing. I wanted book sales to be entirely handled by Amazon/BookSurge. The simplicity of the setup and the convenience to the ultimate book purchase (Amazon ships the book within 48 hours of purchase) appealed to me. The thought that I could make my book available for $99, and everything from that point forward would be paid for by the book purchasers gave me peace of mind.
What PDF creator did you use? PDF Factory Pro.
Why did you use Century Schoolbook 14 point font? I like the way this looks in the 5.5 by 8 print format. Originally I used 12 point instead of 14 point, and my father suggested the larger size would be easier on some people's eyes. I like a font that is accessible and doesn't tire the eyes when you read with it page after page. You are welcome to use whatever font you want, of course.
I wonder if providing the full text of the book on your web pages will detract from sales? The experience of authors who have published their entire texts to the web is that it increases sales. This may seem counterintuitive to some people, but it makes a certain sense. A book buyer's concern that they will not like the book is probably the single greatest negative factor in reducing sales. The classical printed book format is still the easiest way to read an extended text.
All this formatting and PDFing is too complicated for me, is there something else I can do? BookSurge has another publication option, for about $600 they will take your document and produce the formatted results for you. They also have a lot of other promotion assistance, etc., at different prices.
Why did you choose 5.5 by 8 inches book size? I wanted to be able to print and proof an actual size copy of the text and cover. The largest cover you can lay out with a standard laser or inkjet printer is 5.5 by 8, printing to legal landscape format, acording to the BookSurge specifications. It's also easy to print the PDF of the book contents two-across landscape on my HP laser printer for proofreading purposes. This results in the pages being side-by-side, approximately the same size they will be in the actual printed book.
Why did you use Microsoft Word instead of a 'real' desktop publishing program like 'xxx' ? I plan to do a lot of books. I want to make it easy on myself, and I am giving up fine-tuning control over the layout for speed and ease of use. I also wanted to help lots of other people get into print.
You book cover is just basic text. Can a book cover have pictures, a background
color, etc? Sure, you can do all of those things. You can easily add a picture (use 300dpi)
to the layout I give you.
My books now have a background color. You can click on the image behind the text and change the color for your own book. It would probably be better to use Photoshop
if you want to make a very detailed and professional-looking cover.
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