Making a book, or self-publishing, is not easy. Especially if you have no idea what you are doing. Hopefully this set of pages can help demystify the process and help you make your own book. Going from pages of art in a sketchbook to an actual printed book was a huge project and I would like to share my experience with you. Below is the outline of the project and links to pages explaining each step. Read on to learn how I did it and how you can do the same.
The Idea
- Wanting to share, put together a book
- What would the audience be?
- Contacting various people for info and resources
Printing Options
- Cost estimation, catch 22
- Unable to compare printing companies due to different sizes
- Looking at local printers
- Print Ninja quotes helped solidify costs
Offset vs Short Run Printing
- The decision to go with short run and why (unsure of sales)
- My realization about the two types of printing
- Contacting local printers
Self-publishing
- What it is
- What it means
Funding
- Kickstarter
- Go-Fund-Me
- Grants
Making decisions
- Book layout, size, how many pages
- The to-scale layout and how useful it was
- Front and back matter
- Text on pages, decisions
- Fonts, numbers, details
Putting it together
- Meeting with the Printer
- Scanning and cleaning
- Page templates
- Placing drawings
- Adding text to pages
- Making a cover
- Writing up pages in Word (and how to export a strange size)
- Making one big pdf
Final steps
- Proof reading
- More cover prep and problems
- Printed proof and scan resolution
100 Gryphons 