Bronycon Bookstore - So You Want To Print A Book But Have Questions · 5:08pm Jun 4th, 2019
That’s ok. I have questions too, and I’ve been through the process several times now. Anyway, I got a question by email, and rather than send a response to *one* person, I thought I’d blog it and let everybody see how screwed-up I made the process… I mean what is involved in the technical process of making your own paper book copy.
Q: Hi Georg! I was recently reminded that the BronyCon bookstore deadline is right around the corner, and I’ve been trying to decide if it’s still feasible for me to get something in. I’m leaning towards no, because the process seems pretty overwhelming. But I figure you’ve done it a couple of times now, so I wanted to ask what you think about what’s involved.
A: As with all things, it depends. One warning: This is entirely *my* opinion. Others have put books together much better than me. Let’s break this question down so I can give you the slapdash process that I’ve used.
1) Assuming you have a story in FimFiction that measures out at 50k words or so, and assuming Lulu for your printer:
Let’s pick on Her Royal Morning Coffee as an example.
1a) Do I have the artist’s permission to use the cover on a *printed* copy? No, I’d have to re-shoot it.
1b) Is it long enough? 80k words, so yes but thin.
1c) Is it picked through for typos enough that I won’t die of embarrassment when it prints? Yes.
1d) Do I have enough time? Yes, it takes just over a week from sending the thing to Lulu before you have a copy in your hand.
1e) Can I make a cover measuring *EXACTLY* x pixels by y pixels for the thing, OR do I know somebody who can do it for me? In my case, Iisaw volunteered, but he’s busy as the dickens with real world stuff so I’m not sure. Actual size of the cover depends on how many pages it works out to.
2: What do I need that I don’t have on my story already?
Well, a few things. The cover for one (1e), a good disclaimer page that fulfils the legal step of establishing Hasbro’s copyright over MLP while retaining your own copyright over your words, and some errata. My document for Tutor (taken from the Lulu paperback template) looks like this:
A few blank pages
A ‘teaser’ page
Credits page
Thank you and Disclaimer
Author notes
Title page
index
Document
a last page thank you
A few blank pages
Link to an older example copy of my PDF for Tutor
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10Q7c8wqilzgHw-R7hPzOJWhRl-GYK36m/view?usp=sharing
Link to an older copy of my Word file for Tutor
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yfYY2LzJArAL4I7xrYCeUTqjndfRSZBf/view?usp=sharing
My first base document was complicated. I downloaded the Lulu template for paperbacks, 6” x 9” plain white paper. Microsoft Word hates me. After stripping out all of the stuff I didn’t need (unless I was making a real-real book) I wound up with a blank document, all the fonts forced to Garamond 12, single-spaced, first line indented by .4, etc…
Then I ran a HTML export of the FimFiction story, imported it into Word, changed the typeface to Garamond (again), ripped out the parts that got stuck in front of the first chapter, manually removed all URLs, and had to do a top to bottom editing pass because FimFiction puts in invisible spaces that need nipped out, sticks in the occasional extra carriage return in the middle of things, and such.
Oh, and Word also highlights a bunch of typos I missed when I did the story in the first place arrgh need to go back and fix those and re-import sigh.
End result: A pretty Word document. A few puddles of blood on the floor. A pile of empty Pepsi cans. Shattered nerves.
3. Very well, so now we publish it, right?
Close. You can use Word’s export function to create a PDF file, or you can use Lulu’s converter. One trick, you have to be on the LULU page to use the converter, not the Luluexpress side. Open up a new template, pick the 9” x 7” size, perfect binding, white paper, and put in your precious Word file into the importer.
It chews for a while, then takes you to the cover page screen, which you haven’t done yet since you didn’t know the exact size you needed. Woot. Copy down the *exact* pixel count. Let your cover artist know. Pray a lot. You have stuff to do while waiting.
Take the generated PDF, open it in a PDF editor of some sort, and make SURE that the ODD pages fall on the RIGHT side of the document. (I.e. odd pages should have the gutter margin on the left side of the sheet, even pages should have the gutter margin on the right side) You may have to blow away one of those blank pages at the beginning. Make sure to leave at least two blanks at the front and back of the PDF or Lulu may not print it right. Your PDF will probably have a bunch of blank pages stuffed in random spots at the beginning (or mine did at least). Make sure you delete them out in *pairs* so the Odd-Right, Even-Left status of the document is maintained. Make sure your page numbers (I centered mine on the top) run from 1-300 or so, not 1-50, 1-25, 1-30, etc… because Word likes to start new numbering at each section break, darnit.
3a. Ok, NOW it’s ready to print, right?
Yep. Log into Lulu, create a project, 9” x 7”, perfect binding, white paper, upload your new PDF (not the old one you started with or it still has all those blank pages. Voice of experience here), upload the new cover that your talented artist has produced to the exact dimensions you told them before, finish out the project and done! Check each section on the project page to make sure it looks right, then order a dozen of them.
NOTE: Do not use the Lulu "Put this on the Lulu marketplace" option unless you've gone through the whole process of copyright and ISBN numbers, which you haven't. Use the "Make available only to me" option, or at least until you're all the way done, then you can use the "Me and anybody who I give this link to" option.
Well… Order *one* at first if you still have time before the con. Then when you open it up, you get to start the “Oh, I need to fix that” process. I’ve been through that loop a few times now. So far, it has been taking Lulu about a week to print my order, and four days to deliver it, so assume two weeks from “Click” to “Open box”
Until June 6, Lulu has a 10% off code for orders: LULU10
This is very useful, thanks!
Oh good, I've been doing it right thus far. And I have more time than I thought given the delivery back-and-forth.
Thank you, this is much more concise and less daunting than I’d been able to piece together elsewhere. I still don’t know what my odds look like, but this might give my courage a shot in the arm.
5069385 Note: You *never* have enough time. If you try to subtle it, Lulu will suddenly not be able to deliver the books for another week.
5069355 Sometimes I consider my experience as Custer staggering back into the fort with a few hundred arrows in his back and gasping, "There's a few more of them than we thought."
5069439 Chopped down, Lulu makes it so if I really wanted to, I could take the entire of Admiral Biscuit's Silver Glow's Journal, hack together a cover in MS Paint, and print a copy in about an hour. Maybe two. Admittedly, it would take a truck to deliver to my doorstep, but....
You know, if I was really cruel, I could take all of Monster in the Twilight, and Letters From a Little Princess Monster, print like five copies, and sell them as a limited edition. It would probably run about 990 pages and 20 bucks in paperback, like War and Peace with unicorns. Somebody would probably kill me, though, because Letters stopped at an arc end with Discord's return.
5069451
Egad, 990 pages?! You're a writing machine!
So uh, as it turns out, in the time since I PM'd you, I also had a short-notice cover artist request come through. So I might be in this thing after all.
...do you have a good copyright notice thing that I could
copydraw inspiration from?5069504
Yep. Look at the linked document
5069629
Sir, I must thank you again, because thanks to your clarifications I was able to hammer through a manuscript in ten
secondshours flat. I’ve now got a proof copy on the way, and God willing, it might even look pretty legit.Remind me to buy you a beer or a coffee—your choice, full frou-frou options accepted—at BronyCon. Dead serious.
Do you have any tutorials on how to use the cover art wizard on LuLu's site? My art keeps getting cut off...
5074808 Um, I'd check with Iisaw. Every attempt I've done has ended... poorly. I like to think it's because I don't have photoshop, but I know better. I don't have 'skill'
5074934
And should I be printing on cream paper or white paper?
5075113 I've been using white paper and getting just fine results out of it.