Documents, Storage, and Software
Lesson 1 Module 1
Setting Up
To get your book written and published you need to be organized, efficient, and keep your project backed up. The following list may seem a little daunting at first. Relax even though all this stuff is listed in the first week's lessons it might take some time to get it all into place, tested, and working for you. But will be worth it because you'll have a writer's system that will make being creative super fun and fast.
To Do List
The following list is the master To Do List of all the major steps in getting your book done. There's lessons on all this stuff and we'll be walking through it in class. Think of this list like a map of your book publishing journey.
- Write a basic single paragraph description about your book, what topics and people it covers, and why it's likely to be interesting to it's intended audiences.
- Setup online synchronized storage for manuscript, documents, and photos
- Review image resolution requirements and test scanning of paper photos, developing, and importing of jpgs to Manuscript document as thumbnail placeholders for cutlines.
- Create organizational structure and naming system for paper print photos and digital images.
- Setup free online family tree and share with project partners.
- Create and share with project partners main Manuscript Document where text can be added, written, edited, reviewed, and queued up for inclusion in the book layout document.
- Employ automatic Table of Contents function using Headings for Chapter Titles and subsections.
- Determine Editing, Suggestions, Re-Write, and Review process.
- Schedule some writing sessions, alone or with a project partner.
- Determine printed book specifications and set up page layout design program or outsource designer.
- Review Final Proof Print before sending to Printers.
Materials
BookMakers Course Materials Folder on Google
Lots of the items to help you tell your family history story are in the BookMakers Course Materials folder on Google. The Google Docs in the folder cannot be edited (they are set to View only). So make a copy of the document.
To make an editable copy of a Google Docs document open the document and go to FILE|MAKE A COPY. Then edit the name in the first field and in the second field navigate to your Google Drive folders and select (and/or create) the folder where you want to keep your working copy.
Manuscript Document
Your Manuscript Document is the most important document you will initially have in this book writing endeavour.It's the place for your book text. Write, paste, or dictate text using Voice Typing.
Make an editable copy of this document and move it into you own Google Folder structure.
In the Google Doc just chose go to Tools | Make a Copy.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Rr4023gvk72u-PUtAZf1PV4xedaSm7lL9dlq9crzeCo/edit?usp=sharing
Book Specs & To Do List
Your master list of what needs to get done during your bookmaking project is in the Book Specs & To Do List document..
Make a copy of this document and move it to a folder in your own Google Drive folder structure.
Google Drive
Create or login into your free Google Account and check out Google Drive, your online storage location for your book, text, and photos. This is also super useful during your 1:1 Coaching Session with Cory if you want him to look at specific photos or other project related items.
Google Backup And Sync
https://www.google.ca/drive/download/
Download and install free Google Backup And Sync so you can store images locally to your Mac or Windows computer harddrive and then have them automatically backed up online in Google Drive. This also synchronizes with Google Photos so any digital photos on your phone or tablet can be automatically uploaded and developed.
Ancestry.com / Ancestry.ca
Setup a free account or login to your existing account. Start setting up a family tree as a basic way to keep track of your family members AND to create a fabulous visual graphic that can be added to your book. You don’t need to subscribe to Ancestry’s services but if you did, you might find relatives who have already created your family tree inside of their own. You can just import those people, photos and source documents to your tree.
Blurb.ca / Blurb.com for book printing.
Check out their book styles & sizes. Pick one!
Design Software?
Choose either Blurb BookWright (free) or Affinity Publisher (regular $69 CAD, sometimes on sale and with an extended Trial Period, fully functional!). You could install both and fiddle around with them for a bit to know which one is best for your needs.
BookWright is awesome free book design software that interfaces directly with Blurb so you can easily upload and publish your book. It's got lots of features and it's easy to use, packed with dozens of pre-designed page layouts of text and picture boxes. It will print a low res Proof PDF but the only way to get your book design printed from BookWright is to print it with Blurb. Blurb prints affordable high quality books. And there's other online book printing companies that do great work also.
Affinity Publisher is professional level but easy to use complete desktop publishing application comparable to Adobe InDesign, the industry standard in book printing and publishing.Publisher does cost $69 CAD to own the program and updates. That is significantly less than Adobe's monthly subscription fee for their suite of software which is about $80 CAD every month. Affinity Publisher has advanced Styles, automatic Table of Contents and Index, and interfaces fluidly with Affinity Photo (similar to Adobe Photoshop) and Affinity Designer (similar to Adobe Illustrator) to give you endless creative possibilities.If you design your book with Affinity Publisher you can print it anywhere.