WORD VS. INDESIGN and other common first-time questions from our design customers
Q:I spoke a few weeks ago about laying out my MSWord file into 5.5×8.5 book format. I would like to get some clarification on a few things: Other publishers or printers are telling me that typesetting is needed because a number of glitches could occur with the file conversion from my Word file to whatever you use to work in. True or not?
A: Word is not a layout program. If you can find one book from one major publisher in a major bookstore that’s done in Word then congratulations. If you don’t care about looking a little self-published, or your book is not going to be for bookstore distribution then fine — go ahead with whatever you have if you’re happy with the way it looks. Just convert to PDF.
Q: Apart from file glitches, why is it felt by printers that typesetting is needed? Does it have to do with character spacing, kerning and those types of technical details of design that my Word file would not be able to do?
A: Yes. Its like using Powerpoint to make a bookcover. Powerpoint is 72dpi presentation software. If you want professional results, then you need to use professional tools.
Q:Is the difference between typesetting or using my Word file with Times New Roman going to be noticeable to book buyers, distributors, etc.?
A: Can’t answer for the book-buying public. We live in a super-designed age. You can go to a place like Target and buy inexpensive items designed by some of the top designers in the world. Everyone is more discerning these days. If you’re asking whether you should invest years of your time and a good amount of money printing something that might look as sophisticated as my high-schooler’s book report then… What we don’t want to do is give bookstores reasons to say no to your book.
Q: Reading about proofreading on the SelfPublishing.com site makes me think that what a proofreader and what you do would overlap quite a bit. Isn’t widows and orphans, end-line hyphenation, etc. something you look for when designing the interior?
A: There’s a certain amount that good programs catch — and look for, but even the best program is not a physical person, reading and checking.
Q: I don’t know if you also incorporate the cover art into your design or not, but, if so, a question: If I send a file with the cover art, but my designer and I have estimated the wrong page count, can you adjust the spine size on my art file before it goes to the printer?
A: Probably — depends a little on how its done, and what’s supplied — and how much things might need to be adjusted. We want pdf files for print. If you’re willing to pay to have us make any adjustments, then fine, otherwise our program does work very well if followed carefully. Link for spine size calculation (which could not possibly be any easier once you’ve checked it out) design.selfpublishing.com/spine.php5.
Q: I guess I will need to get my ISBN, EAN, SAN, LCCN numbers to my designer or do you provide a service to secure some or all of these numbers? I guess the ISBN I need to secure separtely since you are not a publisher. (I’m still trying to decide whether to self-publish wholly or let a small publisher with an imprint do some of the work.)
A: ISBN is crucial, but you might not want to worry about EAN and SAN unless you’re planning on selling tens of thousands of copies to big chains. ISBN is publisher specific — you’re the publisher and you need to get it. SelfPublishing.com is authorized by Bowker to sell one-at-a-time, and the link is on our home page. If you’re doing more than one book, then its much more economical to buy a block of 10 numbers directly from Bowker: www.isbn.org/standards/home/index.asp. LCCN looks good on your copyright page, though it has nothing to do with whether a reader will pick up your book in a bookstore.
Q: Will a library buy my non-fiction book without an index?
A: Good question. I use our library regularly. It’s a brand-new enormous state-of-the-art building, but to be honest, some of the stuff in it is looking really old-school. If your book is local history – the library will take it. If you’re a best-seller, the library will take it. Libraries can be all sniffy about whether something is “up to their standard” or not, but our digital world is beginning to look like its going to leave them in the dust. I just bought “Brain Rules” (great book) and all the references in this are on the book’s website – not in the book. This may be happening a whole lot more in the future.
Last 5 posts by Jonathan Gullery
- Design Crimes - February 5th, 2007
- Maybe you don’t judge a book by its cover… - November 11th, 2004
- What to Expect When You Hire a Designer for Your Book Project. - March 11th, 2004
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May 30th, 2008 at 10:59 am
Some people think that Microsoft Word IS the computer. If you’re going the self-typesetting route, I’d recommend Corel WordPerfect (yes, it’s still available). WordPerfect has more typographic tools than Word and while it probably won’t replace a professional typesetting program, it does a pretty good job. I’ve always prefered WordPerfect’s tab and indent features. You might, however, prefer Word when it comes to generating Table of Contents and an Index. Word is also generally better when dealing with placement of graphics and seems to have a wider latitude in graphics formats that it will import.
May 30th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Or, just hire a designer. Don’t ask them to do spec work (www.no-spec.com/). instead, have them quote you a rate. Remember, you are asking a professional, so be prepared for professional rates. Averaging between $50.00/hour to $100.00+/hour; or whatever flat rate they decide is appropriate.
Professional designers will have an understanding of the visual elements and how to apply them as well as what will enhance the appeal of your literature. They understand color theory, scale, shapes and relationships on a level that most people are keenly unaware.
If you’re serious about publishing, don’t treat your project as anything less.
June 16th, 2008 at 11:53 am
We publish only about five books a year–academic or speciality books–and we usually layout in Indesign. We have recently tried the open source Scribus (free) and it works almost as good. We have had book’s text sent to us in Word and OpenOffice and they don’t look too bad, but it is much harder to manipulate text and position pictures/graphics with Word processing programmes. Nevertheless, if someone thinks carefully about layout, I am convinced that they could do a very good book with a word processing programme these days.
July 10th, 2008 at 11:51 am
I am a designer, having keen knowledge of softwares like photoshop, illustrator and indesign.
With experience I can tell you that in long run using softwares like photoshop or indesign works far well.
If you are going for black and white novels or non fiction with negligible graphics go for Indesign. CS3 has got all the paragraph styles options which makes editing and formatting the book very easy with one click function.
If you are working on magazine, art, or children books best option is using illustrator or now days even photoshop, thanks to the advanced printing technology available.
You can also get this done in indesign but as a designer it is double work for me as I have to first work on the graphics in photoshop and then take it into indesign.
kerning, tracking and all technical details are not much for children and illustrated books thus it saves time to do everything in photoshop with almost similar quality results.
But MS word is a no, never, unless I have no other option.
August 17th, 2008 at 3:56 am
Personally I can’t imagine doing the layout on a serious sized book (100 pages plus) in anything but InDesign.
I am not familiar with QuarkXpress or other competing products, but no doubt they also get the job done.
Professional layout software is relatively expensive, however, so for those on a limited budget I would recommend checking out Scribus. I’ve got it and have played around with it. It’s free and it’s a far cry from programs like Word and WordPerfect and OpenOffice Word, etc.
I do all my copy creation in Word, because it has great Review Mode functionality which means my copy editor and I can get through the editing process easily and smoothly. Once the copy is ready for layout I then import the word content into InDesign. The template I use in Word will have all the style names matching the styles used in the InDesign template. That way when importing the text into InD I can map the styles directly over to the correct ones in InD. This work flow works really well, it yes it does involve using word, BUT not for layout / desktop publishing…. just as a word processor which is what it’s designed for.
Regards,
Jonathan