The goal of this new series of articles is to feature some products and services that would help an author in self-publishing a book. Instead of just writing a laundry list of generic steps, I thought it would be helpful if each step was detailed enough to see why certain recommendations were made. To make this practical however, I personally felt it was necessary to actually perform the steps myself and document my progress.

Featured in the October 2003 issue of Self Published Authors Newsletter

Certain decisions have already been made for the purposes of this series. I plan to describe how an author can take advantage of a print-on-demand service to self-publish a book. The same steps can easily be applied if you choose to prepare a manuscript for submission to a publisher, printer, etc.

For most POD services, the primary requirement is that you have a manuscript ready to present to them. Most are flexible as to how they'll accept it. The trick is in knowing how they will in turn be setting up your document to be printed. The closer you come to their requirements, the less chance for introduction of errors into the final galley.

In many cases, they will either strongly suggest, or flat out require, that you submit your manuscript as a PDF file. I decided therefore to make this the topic of my first article because having a file ready to send out, regardless of your publisher, can save you some time. There may still be specific differences between services, but if you have a tool at your disposal for generating PDF files, you'll be a big step ahead of the game.

So, what is a PDF file and why is it becoming the standard for manuscript submissions? About ten years ago, Adobe software created a new Portable Document Format for files that could be created from any application and read by anyone without having to have that same application. Only a free Adobe Reader program is needed to open and print a PDF file. PDF files maintain the exact fonts, graphics, and layout of the original files. This makes them the perfect format for sending someone a document and guaranteeing it will print out on someone else's computer exactly as you intended. It therefore is the de facto standard that publishers use today for creating and printing manuscripts.

Time was though, that only by purchasing Adobe's Acrobat software could you generate a PDF. The $299.00 price tag was great for businesses but prohibitive for the average consumer. An author who wanted to publish their book on their own did not have much choice if they wanted to send their manuscript in. At first then, many POD publishers allowed files to be submitted in standard word processor formats, like MS Word or WordPerfect. However, in turn they charged more money in order to do the conversion and make layout corrections.

Nowadays, thanks to the popularity and standardizing of the PDF format, some companies have been successful in creating "print drivers" for Windows that will allow you to print from any application to a PDF file. The good news for us is that most of them are shareware or even free to use. Now we have the power to create PDF manuscripts with the right dimensions, fonts, and layout as we see fit and can send them to POD publishers. Some POD services will discount their fee if you submit your manuscript as a PDF, because it means less work for them, and also means less chances for the galley to be returned with corrections.

Along my way of trying to find the right PDF creator, I've found only three strong contenders. One of them is a free service from Adobe.com itself, but has limited use. The other two are shareware programs with very low registrations and have all the features we really need.

First, if you want to make a PDF and insist on using Adobe's tools, you can use a service available from their website. If you visit http://createpdf.adobe.com you will have a couple options available to you. You have to sign up for an account, but you can use their try-it-before-you- buy-it option which lets you make up to five files for free. The other option costs $9.99 a month for unlimited files. Basically, you upload your file to the website, it converts it on the fly, and it then lets you download the PDF version.

This works with many file formats, but you have no room for error if you make a mistake. Once a file is created under the five-for-free plan, it's done and you now have one less file allowed, and one useless file on your hands. It can easily take five tries to get a layout right sometimes, if you are a perfectionist; which you have to be before submitting to a POD who will turn around and charge you to submit a corrected file. If you really want to go this route, I'd recommend trying it for a month so at least you have unlimited access to the server for 30 days. I give it 8 out of 10 for Adobe making this service possible.

The second program is called PDF995 and is just one of a whole suite of products that work together to maximize your PDF creation abilities. They can be downloaded from http://www.pdf995.com and their chief selling point is that they are free, but supported by pop-up ads. If you get tired of the ads, which only appear once when you generate a file, you can pay the $9.95 registration fee. Very reasonable for everything it does.

PDF995 works as a printer driver on your Windows computer. Essentially, you create your document and then print to the PDF995 driver instead of your normal physical printer. There's very little setup, which makes it easy to use, but gives little control to some features. This little catch is where they encourage you to download PDFEdit995, also free, ad-supported, or $9.95 to remove the ads. The only option this editing tool gives you that you really are going to want is the ability to imbed your fonts into the PDF file.

By default, the names of the desired fonts are saved in the PDF. If the viewer has that font on their system, it will be used. If it doesn't, a substitution is used, usually Times New Roman for example. If you use that font anyway, this is not a big deal. Just pray your POD service also has your font. If you want to use fancy fonts and guarantee they are used in the final galley for publication, download and use PDFEdit. The rest of the tools it comes with are great but are icing on the cake for needing the ability to imbed fonts. No doubt in my mind they designed it this way. But hey, if you don't mind the ads, both programs are absolutely free to use.

My experience with PDF995 was great and I was all set to give it 10 out of 10 for use, until I tried to use it on my WinME computer. Previously, I had played with it on Win2000 and WinXP with no problems and perfect output. Then I installed and used it on my WinME PC. First, I was not allowed to change the size of the output pages I wanted to use. As I'm trying to generate a 5"x8" document for a POD publisher, and this is a non-standard size, I discovered what seems to be an oversight in WinME. I also noticed that it looked like my letters were bunched up in places; in tech-slang the font kerning was misaligned. This could have been caused again by some problem with WinME's print functions.

I wrote to the PDF995 support staff for answers. They wrote me back within 24 hours with a response of different things to try, but nothing has worked. I'm still hoping to find the answers. This leads me to suggest that if you have WinME, well you probably already are aware of some of its more annoying quirks. Add this one to your list, but sadly this means I will not recommend PDF995 for WinME users. Everyone else, give it a try. You'll download probably 5 different files for the entire suite of products, but you can't beat a price tag like FREE, or a total of $19.95 to pay the registration fee. Because of WinME's problems with this program, I give PDF995 Suite 9 out of 10.

Finally, I discovered and fell in love with PDF-Xchange. This is another shareware PDF printer driver, but it does everything in one program, including encryption for securing your PDF. You can download the trial version from http://www.docu-track.com and take a look at everything it offers. The trial version is fully functional, but it prints a watermark of their copyright onto any files you create. The registration fee is $39.50, which is twice as much as PDF995 Suite, but the ease of use and complete set of tools it offers makes it worth the extra cash.

I had no problems running this program under any version of Windows. I could set up within the properties the exact page size I wanted, and was even able to create a PDF that allowed printing only of my PDF. I set up security to deny copying and pasting, editing, etc. This way, I can be assured that the POD service is only going to be using the file for the express purpose of printing on demand. These functions work well if you also want to create a PDF eBook version to distribute that doesn't even allow printing and requires a password to read it. The possibilities are endless. For ease of use and completeness and still maintaining a fair price tag, I give PDF-Xchange 10 out of 10.

In my next article I am going to discuss a few different POD services. I will review my experiences with them and tell you what you can expect to do to prepare for working with them. Now that you know how to make a PDF file, you will be ready to create the perfect submission.