If you're like me part of the fun of writing a book is designing the cover. This can be a daunting task or you can go to a free web site and just pick design, add your name, and basic information. View it at full screen and hit "Print Screen" on your keyboard. Copyright is just insurance for when your book is made into a movie and someone else is trying to steal your book. Formatting can also be a daunting task, unless you download a free template. I like to print out my book on my local printer at different stages to get a good feel for how the book is going to look.

Cover Design

Free self publishing web sites will now walk you through setting up a free account and designing a cover. You can also upload your own as well as selecting the best format. They often provide free templates for the size book you wish to publish. I like the 5.25 inches by 8 inch formats just because I can print my book using standard copy paper and trim down.

This format is not accepted by all publishing houses, so if you plan to sell a lot of books you may want to select a different format, like 6 X 9.

Open up your favorite photo or paint software and paste the image as a new image. Only because I enjoy printing the book myself, I spent quite a bit of time cleaning up the image and saving it in four special formats to use later. A front cover 600 X 800 pixels for advertising. A front and back each of 378 X 576 pixels for inserting into a PDF. And with my chosen format of 5.25 X 8, I reformat the image to 2376 X 1782 pixels and save it at 600 dpi. This image is as close to the self publishing wed site saved cover as I can get.

I print this image on 8.5 X 11 Photo paper with a.25 inch margin. Fold it half for the front and back of my book. There are some other details explained, such as spline dimensions you my need to consider as your book grows in size. You can simply leave your cover design saved on the web site until you finish your book and it will be ready when you get ready to publish. The printing is not quite free, they will charge a modest price based on the number of pages and color content. However a good self publisher will only charge for the number of copies you order, starting with only one! My first Proof copy was only $7.99 plus shipping for a finished 52 page book with color pages!

Copyright Issues

Copyright occurs the moment you put your words on paper or in the computer, however you may have trouble proving that it is yours and when you wrote it. I write for fun, but I also like to have a little insurance, just in case someone likes my work. So for $35.00 at the Copyright office, I am as protected as much as is possible in this age where copying someone's work is as easy as a mouse click.

At least if I wanted to go to court over a copyright infringement, I have the US Government on my side! Their web site is easy to use and you can copyright multiple works packaged in the same request for the one low charge. I like the fun of getting a letter from them for each book, so I give them a little extra. I even got a call from them to clarify my birth date after I listed it as my date of death! The copyrights can be handed down to your children and are good for seventy years after your death.

Formatting

I recommend downloading the self publishing web sites free templates for the book size you are going to use. Then just type in your book or paste it into the formatted pages. When you are through having fun, writing your book, you can have fun publishing it. Just upload the interior to the self publishing web site and order a proof copy.

Putting it together

By now if you have received your first proof copy, you should be having all kinds of fun. Showing off your new book to all your friends and relatives. I am not sure how long this great feeling will last, I guess until they have had the time to read your great work and start to offer their suggestions. This is not however a bad thing. If you get any input at all, it is great, take it and work on improvements, if not for this book then for the next one. Don't expect any sales, remember you are only writing for fun!

And whatever you do, don't make the same mistake that this person made. "I made that big mistake and sent my copyrighted work to them. It was three to four weeks later when I received this confirmation in the mail that my work would be a great seller. Also, included in the paperwork was some contract information to the tune of $30,000 just to start the ball rolling." Vanity and subsidy publishing companies will be sending you offers that will turn out just like the example above, wanting you to send them money to get the ball rolling. They will get your name from the Copyright office or off the web, they will even post large web post disclaiming reports of a scam under search headings of their name and scam.

A letter I received while writing this article started out like this:

One of our researchers has discovered your manuscript registration with the Library of Congress and has forwarded your name to me as a possible candidate for publication with our company. Etc. the only problem is that I have never registered with the Library of Congress, only the Copyright Office. They are very pushy, this is the second letter in as many weeks. You will never get a check from them and you may be paying for nothing for the rest of your life!

In the next article "How to write for fun part 3", we will talk about how much fun we will have formatting your book for e-book and offering it for sale.

For a Free sneek preview of the fiction Drawn to Darkness

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