Just Lorem Ipsum, my project book for open-source publishing, is now available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. You, too, can own your very own copy for the low, low price of just $14.99. Don’t buy this book if you are looking for something to read; it is 100 pages of pseudo-Latin gibberish. Later in the post, I’ll list some reasons to buy the book anyway! Remember, I’ve promised to spend the profits on good beer!
The Project
The goals of this exercise were to publish a book using open-source software and minimize the cost. In an earlier post, Twelve Tips: How to Reduce the Cost of Your Self-Published Book, I discussed how to reduce your costs to near zero if you used open-source software and were careful. Previous posts also covered the development of the cover and interior files. Just Lorem Ipsum, is now available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
The cost for producing the book was $29.95 for the ISBN and $10.00 to license the cover image for a total of $39.95. These costs were self-inflicted. I could have made a cover with a free image and I could have used a CreateSpace ISBN or AISN. If so, the costs would have been zero. CreateSpace does not charge to upload your book, so no cost there. Normally IngramSpark charges you $49.00 to upload a book title, but I had a coupon so I didn’t pay for the initial upload. Unfortunately, I needed to upload a new file to correct some mistakes on the back cover and the coupon didn’t cover the corrections. IngramSpark tagged me for a $49.00 fee.
The Books
Front Covers: CreateSpace (left) and IngramSpark (right).
I ordered proof copies from both CreateSpace (CS) and IngramSpark (IS). The front covers are shown at right. The first thing you notice is that the CS book (left) is a little lighter than the IS book. This is noticeable when you hold the books side by side, but if you just see one or the other, you’d be hard pressed to say which is which.
If you look carefully at the left edge of the IngramSpark book (right), you can see that the red bands do not quite make it to the edge of the book. This is because of slop in the printing. CreateSpace says to allow for 0.0625 ” and IngramSpark says 0.03125 ” on books with a spine less than 0.35 “. In both cases the slop has come into play. In order to avoid this problem, both companies recommend that your cover not have sharp edges near the spine to alleviate these problems.
As is turns out, both books have the graphics rotated and in opposite directions. See the view of the spines of the two books. The CreateSpace book (top) has the graphics rotated toward the back, which produces a light stripe on the back. The IngramSpark book (bottom) is rotated to the front, which produces that white stripe on the front, as mentioned above.
Note the differences in the size of the type on the spines. In the beginning, they were the same. When I first uploaded the CreateSpace book, they allowed me to use the larger type. I found some errors and needed to upload a new cover to correct them. When I uploaded the book the second time, CreateSpace made me reduce the size of the printing.
View of the spines: CreateSpace (Top) and IngramSpark (bottom).
I measured the offset on both books. On the top, CS book it is nearly 3 mm or 0.118 in. This is almost twice the CS specification. I guess we can consider this the worst-case scenario. The offset on the IS book is 1 mm (0.0393 in.), which exceeds the IS specification. So both books are out of spec. I’ve had this happen before with proof copies. The regular books turned out with small offsets, but still, you would hope for better in the proofs!
Back covers: CreateSpace (left) and IngramSpark (right).
Have a look at the back covers. Not surprisingly, the CS book is lighter on the back than the IS book. On the CS book (left) you can just make out the white to the right of the red boxes. This is a consequence of the shift mentioned above.
Notice the bar code areas. The IngramSpark book is coded for the price, $14.99. The price could be scanned in a bookstore. The CreateSpace book is coded “9000” which means a variable price. The variable price option is convenient if you want to change the price on Amazon, but it is classier to have the marked price in the bar code. For the CS book, I left a white rectangle in the back cover and let CS make the barcode. On the IS book, I provided my own barcode.
One way to cope with the slop in the cover location is to shrink the red areas to make a clear band around them all. Another way would be to use the same red areas front and back and allow them to cross the spine. I fear that this will substantially change the look of the book.
Interior
Book interiors: CreateSpace (left) and IngramSpark (right). Apologies for the ugly clamps.
There was a strange problem with the IS book interior (see the interior figure). On the left is the CS book turned to the beginning of Chapter VIII. Note that the type is much darker in the IS book on the right. The CS book (left) looks like I expected. At first I thought that the IS book was just rendered darker but it is more complicated that that. The type in the IS book is light until the beginning of Chapter III, page XVII, where it changes to the dark version and stays dark to the end. This is puzzling since both were made from the same interior file. There is no variation in type density in the original PDf file.
Conclusions
Both books are available to the public (that is, to you). I am going to order production versions of both books and see how they look. I will hope for the best. I may explore changing the cover to make it less sensitive to slop in the positioning, but no guarantees. I will make a report on the results.
Fourteen Reasons To Buy Just Lorem Ispum
Gift – For that person who has everything except a book full of gibberish!
Insomnia – If one hundred pages of pseudo-Latin babble won’t put you to sleep, nothing will!
To keep John in good beer. – I promise to spend any profits on good beer. That is, on good hand crafted, microbrewery ales and porters.
Doorstop – Buy ten.
Tease your intellectual friends. – See if they will admit that they don’t read Latin.
To match your decor. – Just Lorem Ipsum is a great decorating accessory!
Emergency TP – The pages are soft (sort of).
Fire starting materials – Just Lorem Ipsum, matches, and a little kerosene – all you need.
Self publishing – There IS that one chapter about book formatting…
Fahrenheit 451 Party – Why take a book you can read to a book burning?
Pet parrot – Handy for cage lining.
To fill up your book shelf. – You have a 9 mm gap on that almost-full shelf. Perfect fit!
To throw – You are a drama queen and occasionally need things to throw. Throwing books is very dramatic. This one is small and not likely to cause damage. Just the thing to use on your boyfriend!
Dog – Give him or her something to chew!