Looking for advice on Self Publishing.

[Delmette2.0]

My sister and I have done a lot of research into our family histories. My sister has worked long hours writing and rewriting the stories and adding photos. The final product will be about 100+ pages, printed on both sides 50+.

Which printers are the most reliable? Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

[Nictuku]

1. I helped a friend publish a book using KDP

This is not printing out yourself, and putting the pages together yourself. the printing is all done by the system after you create (upload) the files for the book.

So here is some advise on using KDP = Kindle Direct Publishing.

You can select various sizes for the final print out, as small as a paperback, and as large as what I'd say most songbooks are printed.

Once you decide on the size, you get all your documents formatting in place to match.


The text is in one file (Word or .pdf) - this should include your Title page, publishing info, Acknowledgements, Table of Contents (all of those are optional) and page numbering, headers, footers. etc.

The Cover Art is in another file, this final was submitted in .pdf, but we used Gimp (kind of like photoshop, but free) to get all of the measurements correct, and then generated the .pdf. The cover art should be pretty good quality in terms of resolution (if you have photos or art) for printing.

You will select whether or not you want the inside of the book to be in color or black and white (color is very expensive). We had a lot of photos in one book, many were already black and white, but we did not go with 'color', instead, I was able to make all the photos in B&W.

There are lots of help files and information. We didn't set up our own Kindle Publishing account because we actually had a publisher (a lot of good he did -not!) The Publisher is the one supposed to help generate interest in your book, but I think it was the author's facebook friends who really helped push its sales.

But this sounds like it is more for a family type of thing, KDP might not be the way to go. You can set the price (I think maybe as low as $5.00? to cover printing costs perhaps), once it is on Amazon, send the link to your family members, they order it and it gets shipped to them. Will other people buy it? Maybe? Not really likely, but it is possible. Just some things to consider.

Here is a link for the KDP. It is the only one I'm familiar with, otherwise I would give a comparison. I know that if you don't have the login for the Kindle Publishing account, then you can't see the data (how many sold, etc.). That is kind of a bummer if you don't have a good reliable publisher.

Here is a link: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/

Good Luck!!

[Delmette2.0]

2. Thank you.

I know we haven't numbered the pages. We do have both black and white photos and color photos. That is a big consideration.

We only need about 10 copies and really want it printed.

You have been very helpful.

[Nictuku]

3. In that case....

I don't think that with only 10 copies that KDP would be the best way to go.

Instead, I think you might be better off going to a UPS store, or (I don't know if they have Kinkos any more?) or some kind of service where you can take the files (should be in .pdf for printing), get them printed out, then you can assemble. This vs buying a new printer. For photos, they look crappy unless printed on an ink printer made for photo printing, and then be prepared to go through a ton of ink.

Laser would be my preference, but color laser printers are quite expensive, and coupled with the cost of toner.... expensive!

This is why I would use a printing service. If there are a lot of photos, I would suggest a larger size paper (where each page is like 8 1/2 x 11 vs the size of a paperback which is often 9 x 6) and then I would print the cover on thicker paper, maybe glossy? One large sheet (11 x 17 Tabloid) that serves as the front and back, then the book contents on a normal thickness of paper.

If you are printing photos, then be sure to select a bright white paper (vs cream), as they look better (in my opinion). Of course it costs more (as does color printing)

[Delmette2.0]

4. Thanks, again!