Self-Publishing Basics

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Self-Publishing Basics Syllabus

Instructor

Tamara Marnell
tkm256@gmail.com

Course Materials

All lessons are available online at tkmarnell.com/cocc

Course Description

Self-publish your novel, memoir, book of poetry or artwork. In this workshop series, you’ll learn how to format your manuscript for a professional-looking interior, design covers that catch readers’ eyes in print and online, and use print-on-demand (POD) services to distribute the finished product.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, you will be able to...

1. Identify and use the publishing service most appropriate for a given project.
   1. Describe the key differences between publishing services.
   2. Locate and download all files necessary to format book interiors and covers that comply with a chosen service's requirements.
2. Format manuscripts for publication.
   1. Construct documents in Microsoft Word that comply with a selected service's requirements.
   2. Modify and apply styles, headers and footers, and sections to manuscript contents.
3. Design book covers for use in print and eBook publications.
   1. Use publisher-provided templates or specifications in Photoshop to design covers.
   2. Produce (a) JPG files for use in eBooks and (b) flattened PDF files with correct color profiles for printing.
4. Create and distribute print books and eBooks.
   1. Write bibliographic metadata for print books and eBooks.
   2. Use a publishing service to produce and distribute finished print books and eBooks.

Technology Requirements

To complete this course successfully, you should have basic Internet browsing and word processing skills. We will use the following software on COCC computers in class.

Microsoft Word

• Office 365 is a subscription service with all Office programs. The programs can be used on any device. Subscription fees are $70 or $100 per year, depending on the number of users.
• Office 2019 is one-time purchase software with three Office programs (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) that can be installed on a single machine. The current cost is $150.
• LibreOffice and Apache Open Office are open-source alternatives that can be downloaded for free. The interfaces are different from Microsoft Office but contain largely the same features.

Adobe Photoshop

• Adobe Creative Cloud is also a subscription service. You can download one or more Adobe programs on up to two devices. Photoshop alone has subscription fees of $20-30 per month, depending on the payment plan.
• Other free image-editing programs are available, like GIMP. Web-based alternatives include Canva and PicMonkey.

COCC Barber Library has two computers with all Adobe CC programs that anyone can use during open hours. For information about getting a community patron account, visit cocc.edu/library and click "Community Members."

Schedule