In a nutshell, how do I format for POD paperback?

[The Bass Bagwhan]

Hi everyone, my books are in KU but getting good demand for a paperback version. I have decent skills in Word (latest version). I'm told that D2D's paperback formatting is excellent, but I can't use it if I need to stay exclusive to Amazon, right?
What's the best way for DIY POD formatting, given I'm not scared of a steepish learning curve? To be released through Amazon?

Cheers for any help.

[alhawke]

You can still release a paperback on Amazon in KU. You're exclusive only for ebooks with KU.

As far as formatting, I use Vellum which is super easy. It formats word essentially for you. I've heard good things about D2D as well.

[TimothyEllis]

2 things.

1. You don't need to publish on D2D. Just upload, get the format right, and download the PDF. Nothing more required.

2. KU exclusivity doesn't apply to paperbacks. You can publish through D2D as well as Amazon. But if you do, you end up with 2 differently priced versions of the paperback on Amazon.

So use D2D for the format selection and download of the PDF. Upload the PDF to Amazon.

Use Amazon's cover template to assemble the cover with. D2D's is totally different. All you need from D2D is the number of pages to feed into the template generator on Amazon.

[RiverRun]

I did everything Timothy said:)

I used D2D to format the file. Then used Amazon's cover creator.

I think the D2D formatting is kind of ugly. You don't have much control over font or size. But its easy and free, which works for me. (I'm a very non technical person.) If you want an aesthetically pleasing, trade paperback style book then you might need Vellum or something.

[Hopscotch]

I'm nontechie and hate a steep learning curve for something so simple as ppbk production, so I use Joel Friedlander's book templates at thebookdesigner.com and add a premade cover from GoOnWrite.com, both very reasonably priced and often on sale.  Takes me about an hour to get it all matched up and loaded to the Zon.

[Post-Crisis D]

For the best results, you want to use something like InDesign or QuarkXPress.  Page layout applications give you more control over typography and other elements to create a good interior.

But, with Word, Pages and probably other word processors with some page layout capabilities, you can get "good enough" results for the interior.

Once you know the number of interior pages, then you can figure out your cover dimensions.  As others have said, you can use Amazon's template as a base.  I've finished my paperback covers in Affinity Designer v1, but you can use Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, QuarkXPress or any number of applications to do your cover.  And, you might end up using several.  As an example, on my most recent cover, I did the type in Adobe Illustrator CS3, the background in Filter Forge 9 and final layout and assembly in Affinity Designer.

[The Bass Bagwhan]

Thanks for all this info, everyone. I don't expect to make much, if any, money from the exercise, but it's worthwhile I think to have a ppbk version available for those who just don't do Kindle. I have my ebook covers professionally made and normally the designer includes a ppbk version, but I'm hoping to mock something up myself for this first attempt. Talking of which, I'll use one of my low-sellers as a guinea pig, I think.

Cheers again for the advice.

[Bill Hiatt]

I second the Vellum recommendation. In the interest of full disclosure, I haven't used D2D formatting, but I get the impression from reading about it that Vellum offers more options.

As Post-Crisis D points out, page layout applications give more total control, but there's also a learning curve and probably a higher price tag. (Vellum is a one-time purchase, but I think a lot of large software companies have embraced the subscription model. With Vellum, the only time I had to pay more was when the company added paperback capability. If I had only wanted the ebook setup, I wouldn't have to have paid anything else. In general, upgrades to the core product are always free, and the same is true for the added paperback functionality once you purchase it.)

Vellum doesn't do everything--but what it does, it does well. There are several different style and font options, and style features are individually configurable. In particular, it manipulates spacing so that there aren't wider spaces on some justified lines, the way there are in Word. It also does spread balancing (making sure facing pages have the same number of lines (except for the last pages in chapters, naturally).

It used to take me a week to do my own layout in Word. The same process takes me less than a minute with Vellum. There may be a little fiddling after manuscript upload, and I copy-paste the generic stuff (like bio) from an earlier Vellum title. Still, it takes very little time.

Vellum is a small company, but it's very responsive to suggestions. In the beginning, it was extremely fiction-centric, but now it's added routines for nonfiction as well (footnotes, endnotes, bibliography, etc. It also fixes bugs fairly quickly when they occur.

The one drawback--it's only available for Mac. I'm a PC guy, but I used to have a Mac laptop for work. When that got to be outdated, I bought the cheapest Mac laptop I could find just so that I could keep running the latest version of Vellum. Yes, the program is that good.

[Post-Crisis D]

As Post-Crisis D points out, page layout applications give more total control, but there's also a learning curve and probably a higher price tag. (Vellum is a one-time purchase, but I think a lot of large software companies have embraced the subscription model. With Vellum, the only time I had to pay more was when the company added paperback capability. If I had only wanted the ebook setup, I wouldn't have to have paid anything else. In general, upgrades to the core product are always free, and the same is true for the added paperback functionality once you purchase it.)

FWIW, here is a chart of page layout software and their pricing schemes:

Adobe InDesign		Subscription
Affinity Publisher		One-Time
iCalamus		One-Time
iStudio Publisher		One-Time
PageStream Pro		One-Time
QuarkXPress		One-Time or Subscription
Scribus		Open Source
Swift Publisher		One-Time
Viva Designer		One-Time

With Serif (makers of Affinity), they usually give you free upgrades for the same version you have.  For example, their version 1 apps were current for like 4 or 5 years and you received every update free.  When they went to version 2, then you had to pay to upgrade to version 2.

With Quark, if you buy a "perpetual" license, you get free upgrades for a year.  You can also subscribe or get their maintenance plan or whatever they're offering now.  They keep changing things so who knows.  But, as of this writing, you can still choose between a subscription or a perpetual license.  Downside is that you have to connect to the Internet every five days to keep the license active.

Scribus is open source and free unless you choose to pay them something.  Updates are slow but there are currently only two developers working on it.

Of these, which are best suited for doing paperbacks?  InDesign and QuarkXPress should be fairly equally capable.  I've only ever tried in InDesign but Quark has the features to do it too.  I've done some things in Scribus but haven't tried doing anything lengthy so I don't know for sure.  All would have a learning curve.  I started with PageMaker 4 so I can't speak to learning curve anymore because I can usually figure out page layout apps pretty quickly.

The rest on the list, I don't know.  I've used the demo of Viva Designer and it appears as though it should be able to do a paperback but I can't speak from experience.  PageStream Pro hasn't been updated for the Mac in years and I've only tried the Mac version.  Should be capable but, again, I can't say for sure.  I think I've demoed some of the others on the list but I don't remember for sure which ones.

At any rate, there are a lot of options.  InDesign, QuarkXPress and Viva Designer are among the most expensive.  PageStream Pro is around $150.  Scribus is open source.  I believe the rest are under $100.

[The Bass Bagwhan]

I actually scored a freebie iMac last month and loaded my Word 365 onto it. Last night I spent a long time creating a Word Template and the results were eventually pretty good, but I'm inspired by Bill's comments to check out Vellum. Especially if ppbk sales can justify it, and Vellum has a demo download.

[Bill Hiatt]

I don't know that it has a demo, but it does have really thorough documentation, if that helps.

[alhawke]

Vellum for formatting paperback is just super easy. I've formatted around twenty books--probably upwards of over "fifty" when you consider all the variations for each type (ebook/paperback/hardcovers and the like). It's literally point and click after it snatches your book off word and it produces a real nice looking product. But there is the initial expense.

[R. C.]

Vellum for formatting paperback is just super easy...

If you have a MAC...

R.C.

[Post-Crisis D]

What can Vellum do that you cannot do in Word or Pages?  From what I've seen, you're limited to the built-in styles which means your paperback is going to look like who knows how many others.

I write most of my stuff in Pages and I use styles for titles, chapter headers, body type, etc.  (Word can do the same.)  If I want to change fonts, sizes, etc., I can simply edit the styles and that changes all instances in the book.  For paperbacks, I have a basic template so I can either copy and paste into my template or edit my document to match my template.  It doesn't take too long at all to format for print.

So, I'm not seeing the benefit to buying Vellum for paperbacks when Pages or Word seem to be able to do everything needed.

[cecilia_writer]

What can Vellum do that you cannot do in Word or Pages?  From what I've seen, you're limited to the built-in styles which means your paperback is going to look like who knows how many others.

I write most of my stuff in Pages and I use styles for titles, chapter headers, body type, etc.  (Word can do the same.)  If I want to change fonts, sizes, etc., I can simply edit the styles and that changes all instances in the book.  For paperbacks, I have a basic template so I can either copy and paste into my template or edit my document to match my template.  It doesn't take too long at all to format for print.

So, I'm not seeing the benefit to buying Vellum for paperbacks when Pages or Word seem to be able to do everything needed.

I very much agree with this - I use Word for writing and for all my formatting. My whole process is just routine now - my first document is for Smashwords and is formatted according to their style guide, including making a TOC with bookmarks and links (groan). Then I make the Kindle version from that - it has to have page breaks for new chapters, which the Smashwords one doesn't, and an automated TOC as I've found by trial and error. Then I make the paperback version from the Kindle one by going through a series of steps that are always the same for re-sizing, changing the margins and adding page numbers, also usually updating the font and changing some of the layour details. Now that I've done it a few times (30 or so) it takes me about 30 minutes to make the paperback version.

[The Bass Bagwhan]

What can Vellum do that you cannot do in Word or Pages?  From what I've seen, you're limited to the built-in styles which means your paperback is going to look like who knows how many others.

I write most of my stuff in Pages and I use styles for titles, chapter headers, body type, etc.  (Word can do the same.)  If I want to change fonts, sizes, etc., I can simply edit the styles and that changes all instances in the book.  For paperbacks, I have a basic template so I can either copy and paste into my template or edit my document to match my template.  It doesn't take too long at all to format for print.

So, I'm not seeing the benefit to buying Vellum for paperbacks when Pages or Word seem to be able to do everything needed.

I very much agree with this - I use Word for writing and for all my formatting. My whole process is just routine now - my first document is for Smashwords and is formatted according to their style guide, including making a TOC with bookmarks and links (groan). Then I make the Kindle version from that - it has to have page breaks for new chapters, which the Smashwords one doesn't, and an automated TOC as I've found by trial and error. Then I make the paperback version from the Kindle one by going through a series of steps that are always the same for re-sizing, changing the margins and adding page numbers, also usually updating the font and changing some of the layour details. Now that I've done it a few times (30 or so) it takes me about 30 minutes to make the paperback version.

Cecilia, do you have any hassles with converting PDF for the paperback? The KDP guidelines seem a little paranoid about settings for this, especially if you're using a Mac.

[cecilia_writer]

Cecilia, do you have any hassles with converting PDF for the paperback? The KDP guidelines seem a little paranoid about settings for this, especially if you're using a Mac.

I just save the final Word file as a pdf and although KDP usually has a token grumble about fonts not being embedded,  that doesn't seem to affect anything.  However I use Windows for everything - no Macs in the house!

[The Bass Bagwhan]

Well, today I did it ... turned an existing eBook into a paperback version and released a new book in both formats. In the end, despite a lot of time fixing gremlins, they were gremlins of my own making and now that I understand the process, it's relatively easy. Formatting a Word Doc into a paperback-friendly shape is just that -- an exercise in page setup and margins. Creating a cover design was also quite straightforward when you're not intimidated by the technicalities. It's simply two 6X9 panels separated by a spine that's determined by a "page-counter X paper choice formula" and just make sure you don't go near the edges with text or important illustrations.
KDP has all you need to know on its website, and in the effort to be exact in the information it can be unnecessarily overwhelming -- at least when you're only talking text-only novels.
One piece of advice I can offer, stick to one computer and one instance of Word. I was swapping between several (don't ask) and the formatting, styles, etc, didn't translate well between the different installations of Word. And whatever you do, don't trust everything has worked. Physically scroll through your MS to check for missed Page Breaks and stuff (annoying, but worthwhile). Also, the end result is printed pages, so when you convert to PDF open the Options Panel and turn all the stuff related to making a PDF searchable, Bookmarks, Chapters, and so on. Optimise, but otherwise keep it simple and basic.
Pricing was interesting. At the end, the process tells you how much the printing will cost, but when you actually go to the pricing dialogue the minimum price is almost twice that (shipping, etc, I suppose). I decided to price the book(s) so that I got roughly the same royalty payment I get from the eBook ... so an eBook for $5.95 is a paperback for $14.95. But I see the paperback as an added extra, or a convenience, if you like, for readers who demand print and I see no reason to cut the price to no profit for me just to make it look attractive ... and I'm not making a million bucks on the price either.
Bottom line -- once you know and understand the process, as others have said, it's no big deal. Worst chore is the endless scrolling through your MS to check it, and then if you DO fix anything, it likely changes the TOC page numbers which are a manual input and you have to redo them all again. Do your TOC absolutely last.
Now I'll sit back and wait for the enormous sales.

[alhawke]

Congrats and good luck!

I decided to price the book(s) so that I got roughly the same royalty payment I get from the eBook ...

A lot of authors price this way. That mixed with taking a gander at other book pricing in their genre.

[Post-Crisis D]

. . . and then if you DO fix anything, it likely changes the TOC page numbers which are a manual input and you have to redo them all again. Do your TOC absolutely last.

In Pages, I use styles to determine what goes in the TOC.  If I make changes that affect page count, I just have to click on the TOC and it updates automatically.

I would think Word must have a similar capability.

[Vijaya]

. . . and then if you DO fix anything, it likely changes the TOC page numbers which are a manual input and you have to redo them all again. Do your TOC absolutely last.

In Pages, I use styles to determine what goes in the TOC.  If I make changes that affect page count, I just have to click on the TOC and it updates automatically.

I would think Word must have a similar capability.

Yes, I use Word and it works similarly. Though I've shifted to LibreOffice because I can't stand the subscription model.

Bass, good luck!

[Post-Crisis D]

Though I've shifted to LibreOffice because I can't stand the subscription model.

I tried LibreOffice for a couple weeks but gave up on it because it would not "remember" where I left off in a document like Pages does.  There was a "trick" I found online to get it to work, and it worked for a few days, but then it started to slide.  For example, the next time I opened a document, the cursor would be a few words before where I left off which was okay, but then it would be a sentence, then two and then, finally, it would be a page or more prior to where I left off.  It got too frustrating so I went back to Pages.

The downside with Pages is that, well, downsides . . .

1) Nothing else can open a Pages document.  So, if I one day switch to a different program or switch to Linux and can't run Pages, I've got tons of documents I can't open, which means I would need to mass convert them or something.

2) The newer versions of Pages are meh.  The best version is Pages '09.  Modern versions, ugh.  Apple keeps dumbing things down and making Mac applications and OS more like iOS.  If I wanted my Mac to be more like an iPad, I'd buy a new iPad.  But, I digress . . .

3) Also, you can export from modern Pages to Pages '09 but if you then edit it in Pages '09 and try opening it in modern Pages, modern Pages can't open it.  So, that makes sharing between old and new computers a challenge.  The only way I figured out to do it was to create a new document in Pages '09 (or take an existing Pages '09 document that was not a document exported from modern Pages) and copy and paste from the downgraded version into the non-downgraded version and then modern Pages could open it.

But, I haven't yet found anything I like better than Pages.  (Or, rather, Pages '09.)

[writeway]

The absolute easiest way is using Draft2Digital Print. I've been using them for years. I stopped using KDP a long time ago. D2D will generate a paperback from your ebook manuscript. Only takes a few minutes. You have the option of doing it the manual way but D2D does all the work if you let them generate the book. D2D is distributed by Ingrams and you can do preorders through their print service. Can't do that with KDP.

[Bill Hiatt]

What can Vellum do that you cannot do in Word or Pages?  From what I've seen, you're limited to the built-in styles which means your paperback is going to look like who knows how many others.

I write most of my stuff in Pages and I use styles for titles, chapter headers, body type, etc.  (Word can do the same.)  If I want to change fonts, sizes, etc., I can simply edit the styles and that changes all instances in the book.  For paperbacks, I have a basic template so I can either copy and paste into my template or edit my document to match my template.  It doesn't take too long at all to format for print.

So, I'm not seeing the benefit to buying Vellum for paperbacks when Pages or Word seem to be able to do everything needed.

The primary reason would be speed. As long as you remember to do a few simple things (like using the Heading 1 style in Word for chapter titles), you go into Vellum, select a few settings, and click on the right menu item to generate books. Done! The actual process takes a very short time, far shorter than anyone could possible do the processing manually. (This is especially true if you're fussy about the way the justified text looks. The spacing in Word does vary from line to line, though usually the variation isn't enough to be really jarring. The spacing in Vellum is identical to the naked eye. It used to take me a week to get the spacing to be almost as good as what Vellum does in a couple of minutes. Everyone wouldn't feel the need to do that, though.)

It is true that you are limited in style choices, but there are 26 basic options, and you can individually configure a lot of elements within each style. You can also configure the font (14 choices, including 2 accessible choices) print size, line spacing, etc. for the print edition.

Even so, there will be occasions when two books might have the same interior layout. But honestly, so what? I've read a lot of print books over the years, and many of them had the same or similar format. It made absolutely no difference to me. Readers certainly want clear, readable text, and they want a layout without obvious errors or distractions. Beyond that, I doubt most care.

That said, there will certainly be authors who want total control of formatting. Anyone who thinks that's the most important consideration and is willing to spend the extra time should do that. I suspect that, like you, such authors would probably be very proficient at formatting their own material. Not everyone falls in that category, and for many, the time saved would be worth more than creating a unique format.



I do check the generated books afterward, but I've yet to find an unforeseen formatting issue created by Vellum.

[She-la-te-da]

Amazon has free templates. Pick a trim size, download, copy/paste your content in the appropriate places.

In my opinion D2D templates are plain, or look weird. I don't like any of the styles they offer, but that's just me.

[Post-Crisis D]

Also, keep in mind that, after you get it formatted and looking the way you want, you can count yourself lucky if it ends up being printed that way.

I ordered the first copy of one of my first paperback last fall.  As I recall, it turned out pretty good and alignment, while not perfect, was also pretty good.

Today, I received the paperback for my latest as well as a second copy of the first.  The cover of one is cut just a hair short so you can see a sliver of white from the interior showing through.  Additionally, on both books, the interior is printed high on the page such that the page is not centered like I designed it.  I mean, it's off by about 5/16".  That's bad.  That's really really bad.  I just double-checked because, well, it's just hard to believe and other pages in the book are off by 3/16".  So, it's not even consistently off.  Granted, you can have some bounce between sheets, if these are sheetfed and not paper rolls, but this is a lot.  At least the front to back alignment seems good.

Also, it appears that this run was done by a POD printer using an inkjet process.  And not a good one.  Black print doesn't appear solid black.  Under a magnifying glass, you can see the dots and that the letters did not print solid black.  The type is not crisp and clear.  Even without the magnifying glass, you can see the type is a bit fuzzy because of the dots.

At any rate, you can only do what you can do.  You have no control over how badly whatever POD printers/systems Amazon uses end up printing your book.  You just have to hope paperback readers will rate your book based on the contents and not the package.

[Bill Hiatt]

That is a really high variation. The ones I've gotten from Amazon have always come out all right, but you certainly aren't the only person who has had problems. I don't know why results vary so widely, but Amazon needs, if not to use the same printer, at least to use printers with the same processes.

Amazon will exchange a product like that. Perhaps if we all started asking as a regular thing every time an unacceptable variation pops up, Amazon will clean up its act.

[Gessert Books]

Also, keep in mind that, after you get it formatted and looking the way you want, you can count yourself lucky if it ends up being printed that way.

I ordered the first copy of one of my first paperback last fall.  As I recall, it turned out pretty good and alignment, while not perfect, was also pretty good.

Today, I received the paperback for my latest as well as a second copy of the first.  The cover of one is cut just a hair short so you can see a sliver of white from the interior showing through.  Additionally, on both books, the interior is printed high on the page such that the page is not centered like I designed it.  I mean, it's off by about 5/16".  That's bad.  That's really really bad.  I just double-checked because, well, it's just hard to believe and other pages in the book are off by 3/16".  So, it's not even consistently off.  Granted, you can have some bounce between sheets, if these are sheetfed and not paper rolls, but this is a lot.  At least the front to back alignment seems good.

Also, it appears that this run was done by a POD printer using an inkjet process.  And not a good one.  Black print doesn't appear solid black.  Under a magnifying glass, you can see the dots and that the letters did not print solid black.  The type is not crisp and clear.  Even without the magnifying glass, you can see the type is a bit fuzzy because of the dots.

At any rate, you can only do what you can do.  You have no control over how badly whatever POD printers/systems Amazon uses end up printing your book.  You just have to hope paperback readers will rate your book based on the contents and not the package.

The issue with blacks is a fairly common one for a source file that contains rich or RGB blacks rather than 100%K. For some reason, rather than condensing the extra color info down into the black channel, KDP instead discards it, leaving you with a very dark grey (with visible dot screen).

[Post-Crisis D]

The issue with blacks is a fairly common one for a source file that contains rich or RGB blacks rather than 100%K. For some reason, rather than condensing the extra color info down into the black channel, KDP instead discards it, leaving you with a very dark grey (with visible dot screen).

I received a second copy of my poetry book today and, along with the interior being better aligned, the print appears black this time.

I'll still double-check my PDFs.  I know there shouldn't be any rich blacks in there but, as far as RGB black, I don't know for sure.

That is one of the hazards of not using InDesign.