Friday, April 9, 2010

LSI Manuscript Formatting for Print Ready PDF Files

Why am I blogging about this? I thought I had everything down. I was ready for my revised edition through both Createspace (CS) and Lightning Source (LSI). I got a rude shock. LSI kept sending my interior files back. Initially I had sent the pdf file the same way I always did for CS and they had said the text was centered from left to rigth and not top to bottom. Ok. So I sent another that was set to the postscript size of 6 X 9 and not the standard letter size the pdf will usually default to. Rude shock. They sent that back as well. Now the words were running off the edges on their printer because I didn't have space around it. I could not figure out how to fix it. I asked around and couldn't find any answers immediately or anyone who could help or who understood. I finally did get help however (yes there are still good people in this world) but there was also an answer already waiting...

I love Google. Finally, I did a Google search and there it was: an article with the answers from someone who had encountered a similar problem along with another friend of his. The article is titled Step by Step Formatting for Your Manuscript and is posted on the website for Independent Authors Guild. This lifesaver article led me to a page on Self-Pub.net where I was able to purchase a pdf conversion service for $15! It's called the pdf creation service. Kudos to Selp-Pub.net for doing their thing and to the person who posted the information about it. They are the same people I bought the Book Design Wizard from to format my revised edition and it actually looks professionally done now.

This is definitely a good deal, considering I have the revised edition published through CS and dated for a few days back! My Ingram distribution and subsequently being carried by big bookstores hinges on LSI.

I love the internet. Someone out there has had the same issue you are having. You just have to play around with the search terms on Google till you find a post about it. Go Google!

Have a great weekend y'all.

Folake.

2 comments:

  1. Folake you are indeed a God sent. LSI sent back my manuscript ten times until I gave up. I had no idea what to do or where to turn until I saw this article on your page. I couldnt understand how I kept sending it in PDF only to have it returned to me. I was so frustrated and didnt know what to do. Thanks for posting this sweetie, now you know why you did. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. You are so welcome honey. I'm glad you stumbled on it. Sometimes, we don't even know who to ask or where to turn! That's exactly why I posted my experience. You go fix that pdf and publish another book...lol.

    ReplyDelete