In the past few years, the Quail Creek Writers and Poets Club has observed vast improvements in home computer applications and monumental changes in how books are published. With the help of some of our members’ talents in these areas, we have made all our members aware of these developments and encouraged their use.
On the home computer side, spell-checking is standard in all word processing systems, and there are now myriad grammar-checking, synonym-finding, and rhyming applications.
But besides the improvements in home computing, the change in how printed copy books are published, to this writer, is as significant as the invention of the printing press. Before the recent changes in printing, books were printed in large lots. Authors were required to come up with an advance payment for the large production quantity of their books to cover the lot’s setup, printing, and storage costs.
In today’s publishing world, a book’s text matter, cover, and layout instructions are all stored electronically in the publisher’s computer system. This information may be recalled and sent to modern printing machines, much as one sends something to a home computer printer.
Today, no finished books are inventoried. Books are printed in any quantity, starting with one, and are immediately shipped as orders are received. The author’s cost in this environment is typically around $5 per copy for one 200-page book in black and white on standard paper.
Publishing a book to be viewed electronically (eBooks) using a Kindle device or a computer is an additional way for authors to make their work available for public viewing.
There is a downside to the new system. To publish without costly professional help, authors must present work to the printer in a specific format. The process, which must be learned, is called self-publishing, and until you order the first copy of your book from the publisher, the process is mostly free. The word “mostly” was added in acknowledgment that the writer’s home computer and software might need significant upgrades to take advantage of the new system.
The learning part is where the Writers and Poets Club membership comes in. The formatting requirements for electronically sending your book to a publisher are relatively simple once learned, and we can assist in that learning.
The foremost example of formatting is page size. Very few books are printed on 8.5×11-inch paper. A popular size of a paperback book is 6×9 inches. Many casual home computer users have no idea how to change the paper size, never needing to do so. Why would they, since 6×9-inch computer paper is not even readily available at Costco or anywhere else, and no one prints on 6×9-inch paper? Yet to submit material to be published in a 6×9-inch book, it must be formatted to fit on a 6×9-inch page size.
Together Works is the coined name of the Writers and Poets Club educational and help activity. You may view what the two keywords in Together Works mean by visiting the Writers and Poets Club’s website at www.QCWAP.org and clicking on “Self-publishing.” You will also find extensive directions on self-publishing your works on that same page.
The Writers and Poets Club meets on the first and third Thursdays each month in the Kino Center Conference Room at 1 p.m. Join us and let the creativity begin.