Getting Ready…
A Bunch to Learn or Relearn…
Just to get ready to start this challenge of writing a novel every two weeks. And do collections. And other books.
I got to relearn all over how to find art that is not AI. I got to relearn InDesign, which I have already started on and having a blast.
Double column layouts of Smith’s Monthly issues will be a challenge. Using Vellum for regular books will seem easy people tell me.
Getting my learning back up to full on Shopify will take a little time, but looking forward to that this coming year.
None of that is the writing side, just the publishing side. I am no longer going to be dragged down with waiting for someone to do something with one of my books. If I manage to publish 75 books in my 75th year, it will be 95% me doing all the work.
So the more I get comfortable on the publishing side, the more that will send energy to my writing and the more writing I will do that will send energy back to the publishing side.
Can you tell I am excited? (grin)
This is the full spread I showed here a while back forwhat I hope is the November issue. Depends on my learning curve for the interior with InDesign. Got the covers knocked out just fine. (grin)
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5 Comments
Timothy Hicks
Great looking cover, Dean! Looks very noir!
Marc Meaney
If you have an established workflow using InDesign – a subscription service that includes licensed fonts, then this is a good solution and I don’t intend to convince anyone otherwise. But there is a subscription cost I can’t afford.
So I made a one off payment for the Affinity suite for photo editing, graphics, and book layout. Everything that InDesign does – I just need to license fonts separately (generally a one off purchase for very few fonts). But I got an email today saying Affinity’s new application suite will be free to use. Plus existing users will get a whole lot of licensed fonts included as a thank you. I generally use Google’s free licensed fonts for books anyway, but more free fonts is even better.
I highly recommend Affinity for Indies – it’s been a one off purchase in the past. No subscription. But the new Affinity app – including the Publishing tools for InDeisgn style book layout will be free (supposedly forever).
The caveat is that Canva owns Affinity now, and they want you to pay for their AI service subscription (Like Adobe provides). But the AI tools are addons and you don’t need to pay for the Canva AI subscription. I’ll never use this.
I’ll not link to the download – this is just my personal opinion. But I think Affinity Studio will be a game changer for Indies. Favorite new feature is reflowable ePub export from your print book layouts.
Another is data merge – use a template for all your books – then just add new book names, blubs etc… in a connected spreadsheet – and the layouts will be automatically updated. Great for series and magazines as a way to easily create new editions, or manage data across books – say keep your author bio automatically updated across books.
Highly recommended. And definitely worth considering to see if your existing workflow should change.
djmills
I love the cover.
D2D has recently advised me to not add the RRP to the back cover in the Publisher area of my POD book covers.
Your cover not showing the RRP answers my question on removing the RRP to the Publisher area.
So I guess I will remove the RRP from all my print covers as I get time to do it.
Mangala McNamara
Just out of curiosity… if you’re already doing so much with InDesign, why are you switching back to Vellum
dwsmith
Vellum is a ton easier when standard formatting. Vellum would run screaming into the night if it tried double column format with adds and drop quotes and so on. In other words, not possible in Vellum for some things.