Writer's Wednesday: Large Print Books

At the request of my mother (and the librarian at the retirement home), I have created a large-print edition of Death By Ice Cream, with more to follow if this one flies. In case others are thinking of doing the same, I thought I'd share what it took.

Cover: In the best of all worlds, you'd probably do a new cover just for the LT book. Since I don't have the funds for that (the more so as I'm dubious about this making the money back), I opted to use my okay Photoshop skills to enlarge the regular cover. Why enlarge? Because to make a LT book work, you probably need to use a larger format, unless you are already at the 6x9" size. Even then you'll need a much wider spine--something I didn't adequately account for when doing this one (I decided it's good enough, though, and am not going to change it).

For the next book, I will probably try taking the separate pieces and enlarging them individually to assemble a proportional cover according to the specs for the size book. I think that will be only slightly more work, and will look more professional. One problem I had here was that there wasn't really space to put the words "Large Type Edition" on the cover, and I ended up having to stretch the bottom of the cover a bit to make room. That resulted in a less-than-optimal design, which a fresh cover design would avoid.

Interior: Here's where you really need to put in some effort. First, I chose to make the book 6x9", which seems to be a pretty standard size for the LT books at our library. That's a bit larger than my usual books, which means that I could get more words on a page. That's important: not only do POD books cost per page, but a super-thick book won't stay open well, and may be heavier and more awkward.

A note here on a limitation we author-publishers using POD printing have: a traditionally published LT book will use thinner, lighter paper to keep the bulk and weight down. We don't have that option.

So here's the nitty-gritty: a book counts as LT if the font is at least 14 points. I thought that wasn't enough (my test is to see if I can read it without my "cheaters"), and used 16 points. Of course, the font you use will make a difference, and here's the thing: a lot of the more popular typefaces aren't great for the visually impaired. The recommendations call for a sans-serif font (without the little extra lines at the bottoms or tops of many letters): APHont, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica (the first is not included with word processors, but is free. I didn't try it). I experimented and found that Arial gave me the lowest page count but still very clear and easy-to-read type.

At least one recommendation I read suggested block type with double-spaces between paragraphs (as this blog post has), but I don't see that in most of the books I looked at, and I didn't do it. But what I *did* do was increase the space between lines, setting it to "at least 20 pts." That really helped readability by creating a little more white space between lines of type so the eye isn't so easily confused.

To reduce the overall length, I took out "extras" in the book, combining a couple of the front-matter pages into one, and adding the "other books" list to the "About the Author" page. I also moved the chapter headers up to just a couple of lines below the top of the page (instead of 1/3 of the way down), and removed the headers so the top margin could be a little higher.

The end result is a book that I think can be much more easily read by someone with limited vision, without being too large and heavy to hold. The page count increased from 291 to 435 for my 82,000 word novel, which still allows me to price it under $20.

Is it worth it? I won't know this for a while. In financial terms, my only investment was time (plus the cost of purchasing a few copies so I have them available for sale when I do talks). So I'm not really out anything if it doesn't sell. But if no one buys it, I may not think it worthwhile to do the other books. On the other hand, maybe I can do some direct marketing to other retirement homes and build a market. With cozy mysteries, older women are a significant part of the market, so taking a little thought for their needs seems worthwhile.

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In other news: Check out this great trailer for Tick Tock A Stitch in Crime, which will be out on Tuesday!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnYfD2zPRP0&feature=youtu.be

Writer's mechanics: publishing a picture book

This is the cover from the paperback, 8.5 X 8.5"

 

Smashwords cover.  You can see I trimmed it on the left and shrunk and moved the title.

Constructing a Picture Book with CreateSpace.com

Since I managed to print a reasonably successful copy of my new picture alphabet book, my friend Dixie Goode suggested I share what I learned about working on it through Createspace and Kindle (as well as Smashwords).  As it took me about a dozen attempts to get the file right, it does seem that I might be able to offer some insights that could smooth the way for others and save them from pulling all their hair out.  I will say that using the Createspace automatic conversion for Kindle seemed to work fairly well, though I had to tinker some.

1.  Images.  This was a huge pain, because images had to be extra-high quality and resolution for Createspace (in order to print well), and highly compressed for electronic publication.  Happily, this isn't as bad as it might be, especially if (unlike me) you do it right the first time.
    a.  Use Photoshop or similar to edit the images to the right size (actual size in inches) as well as to save them to at least 300 dpi.  You have to start with pretty high quality images for them to come out well in print.
    b.  Don't resize images by dragging the outline in the document.  If you do, you will have to fix messes when you convert to electronic.
   c.  Read the Smashwords formatting guide carefully.  The key thing, though, is to compress the file to make the electronic version.  Just as you need very large, high-quality images to print, you need small, web-friendly, quick-loading images in the e-book.  Happily, you can resize the whole lot at once by selecting the entire document, then using the "Reduce File Size" option in the pull-down menu under "File' (sorry--this is for the Mac.  The Smashwords guide shows how to do it on a PC).  Select the smallest setting under the options pull-down, and apply to "all pictures in Document" and hit okay.  This should shrink the whole shooting match adequately.  I had to do it a few times before I got it right, though.  I think it was only shrinking single pictures.

2.  Fonts.  For the printed book, great big fonts are fine.  I used huge ones for the initial letters for each page, and very large type for the rest.  That doesn't cut it for e-books.  For my Smashwords publication, I had to cut the size of fonts down to 18 pt. or less, so I used 18 for the initials, and 12 for the rest of the text.  If people want it larger, of course, I think all e-readers allow them to enlarge it.  The best way to do this is to redefine the styles, since otherwise underlying styles and fonts can mess things up.  This was more trouble than it should have been.

Those two elements were the primary issues with the picture book.  Oh, and I'd chosen a square format for the print book, and designed the cover to match.  Smashwords uses a standard vertical rectangle for cover thumbnails, so I had to make a modified cover.  If you are using non-standard shapes, you will need to think about this too.  It was easy for me, because I designed my own cover, had the files, and can use Photoshop enough to make the necessary changes (see images above).

Because I had initially done my images without paying attention to size/quality, as well as doing some re-sizing in the document, I discovered an interesting quirk with CS's review process.  Basically, each time I uploaded the file, it pegged another two or three pictures as being too small (and not in any rational order, either).  I'd fix those, upload again, and be told some others were too small.  Eventually I got smart, changed all the pictures I hadn't yet done, and got past it.  I have no idea why it couldn't just tell me from the start that all my pictures were wrong.  

Finally, I am working to resolve a problem with spacing on the first picture page, which appears correct in my Word file, but puts the photo off-center in the CS version. I have examined everything I can think of to examine, and it should be correct (as it appears in the Word file).  But it doesn't.  Anyone with insights should let me know, or I'll go mad.  Meanwhile, I'm going on selling it with one picture slightly off center, in order to prove that I am human, not divine.