Quote:
Originally Posted by 1eduard
Sorry, I don't agree with you!
To sell a book good it has to look good (= attractive).
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Hi:
Okay, well, look--I'm a pro. I do book design and eBook formatting for living and have for over a decade now. And yes, IF you were goign to sell your services to someone else, I would tell you a) license and LEARN to use InDesign (I wouldn't waste time on Scribus, myself, for a longer-term goal) and b) learn book design, which is not magically imparted WITH a license for InDesign, Scribus, or Bob's Big Book-making Magic SoftwareŽ.
See, that's the thing--book design is NOT the software, solely. Sure, having software that has built-in kerning, leading, etc. matters, to SOME extent. But it's not...it doesn't just DO IT for you. I see lousily-laid books, in InDesign, every damned day, blood
literally.
Got a year? During which you can learn fundamentals of design, first? Take some courses at Parson's, or the like? and THEN learn to use one of the pieces of software, out there in the world, with the steepest learning curve (INDD, Scribus, Affinity Publisher, et al)? No? Well, then...????
There are perfectly usable "templates" out there, in WORD or docx format that you can use that will get you a viable print layout and eBook. I would strongly consider, were I you, starting out with one of those and working my way up from there.
Joel Friedlander's TheBookDesigner Templates site is still going. (Joel sadly passed.) You may spend relatively few shekels and buy a decent, viable design and use it. Thsoe are here:
https://www.bookdesigntemplates.com/
There are usable templates, again affordably, all over the net, including places like Envato Elements, DesignCuts, MightyDeals and the like. GET ONE OF THOSE first.
Because trust me, book design
ain't just slapping in a relatively clean docx file and pushing a button.
There is stuff to learn.
That, truly, is my best advice. If you have the time, can afford the software, have the burning desire to really LEARN book design, and other design aspects,
great! Then have at it. But if all this
Sturm und Drang is about your own books looking professional and commercial--an impulse with which I completely agree, mind you!--then take it in manageable steps.
Again--it's a bit like saying that if you buy Adobe Illustrator, then tomorrow, YOU TOO can design kids' book illustrations! Wait, what--you can't, because you can't draw? Well, rats, then.
That's the same with Book Design. Lumbering yourself with an expensive, harder-to-learn program (especially when you don't yet understand what it means when it says tracking or kerning, for example), and then trying to cram in design principles and elements--you're just making it harder than it needs to be. A LOT HARDER.
That's MY $.02 for today. It's worth exactly what you're paying for it, mind you, but...I hope you'll listen, for your own sake.
Hitch