Whether you’re wanting to go with print on demand, offest printing or ebooks, you’ll need to have properly prepared PDF files. This preparation is at the core of a good publishing service. 

Exporting a PDF from a Word document of your manuscript is not a wise option. The Word document needs to be first imported into Indesign typesetting and prepared with close attention to detail. Frontmatter needs to be typeset, inner and outer margins need to be set up, ‘widows’ and ‘orphans’ need to be dealt with and, where relevant, a table of contents needs to be set up. 

An ISBN number needs to be assigned to your book. This is the product identification number used globally to identify your book and generate its barcode. We purchase our ISBN numbers in bulk, allowing us to supply them to you at a cheaper rate when preparing your files than you would overwise have to pay. 

Illustrations and photographs may need to be digitally acquired, that is, scan or photograph them. Whether supplied physically or digitally, they’ll more than likely need some degree of preperation work in Photoshop before importing into the Indesign file. With over twenty years experience working with these software packages, Rack and Rune know the pitfalls and work around that typically pop up enroute to preparing print-ready files.

There’s also the all important cover files. There are strict parameters that need to be met and each printing company may have slightly different requirements. A cover prepared to be printed through IngramSpark will have a slightly different spine width when printed through Amazon’s KDP Publishing. The book’s ISBN number and barcode need to be placed correctly and the title needs to be easily read.