Just because I haven’t been posting here lately doesn’t mean that I’ve lost interest in this blog. Not on your life! It just means that I’ve been busy, busy, busy trying to figure out how to transform my ebook on college success into a paperback. It was a frustrating process with a steep learning curve, but I finally figured it out with the help of Tim C. Taylor’s book, Format your Print Book with Createspace.

Here’s the review I posted on Amazon a few minutes ago, something you might be interested in if you have even a passing thought of writing and publishing your own hard copy book without paying a third party. If I can do it, you can do it.

This reasonably priced little book is a virtual goldmine of information for a person trying to figure out the “how” of developing a book for CreateSpace. At one point, I was so frustrated with formatting issues that I was tempted to take the advice of one of my friends who said that paying someone to format some of her work was the best $250 she ever spent. That’s when I bought Taylor’s book for my Kindle and pretty much kept it open throughout the preparation and uploading processes.

What makes this book even more appealing is the way the author presents the material. Along with step-by-step guidelines on trim size, margin settings, page layouts, odd and even pages, headers and footers, sections, and so forth, the author manages to convey a “You can do it” attitude to the reader. Just when I’d feel like dishing out $250 to someone to “handle it,” I’d come across another tip and the underlying assurance that I could master creating the book as long as I didn’t throw in the towel.

Because of Format Your Print Book, I developed the know-how and confidence to self publish with CreateSpace without the paid services of a formatting expert. As I write this review, the hard copy proof of my book is on its way to me. I’ve looked at the digital proofs, but there’s nothing like a tangible paper and ink version for helping one to spot errors. Without Taylor’s book, it wouldn’t have happened. I now know that anyone with a desire to publish her or his own work who has patience and determination can do it.

If I can do it, you can do it!