Print on demand at Draft2digital (D2D)

It's incredibly easy to get bogged down in technicalities when producing a print-on-demand book. So let's look first at the easy way using the services of Draft2Digital.

Let's assume that all you have of your book is the actual content text. No title pages, copyright page, contents pages, epigraphs or other 'front matter'. No author biography or other end matter. Perhaps you have some of these items but are not confident you have them correctly done. If that's the case then simply make a copy of your manuscript, DON'T WORK WITH THE ORIGINAL! and you can delete those sections so that Draft2Digital can help you do them properly.

Step 1 - Cleanup your book file

1. Create a COPY of the book file you produced in MS Word or your word processor docx file. I suggest you add 'd2d_print' at the end of the filename.
2. Load that copy into Word and choose the file > Info > Inspect option. If you are not using MS Word your word processor should have a similar option to remove hidden data, headers and footers.
3. In Word's document inspector make sure ALL the check boxes are selected even if you spent ages adding headers and footers, you're going to remove them!
4. Confirm you want to remove these items and then re-save the document.

Step 2 - Starting a new book

1. Go to https://draft2digital.com and create an account (free) or logon if you already have an account. You'll have to use your real name, not a pen name.
2. Click the button 'Add new book'.
3. On the next screen select 'START PRINT BOOK'
4. You'll get this screen (you can click the image to see it full size):
   
5. Select the button 'I have front cover art' then add the image you have for the front cover of your book. This will be used to produce a thumbnail of the book at e-retailers so if you only have an image showing front, spine and back covers then crop it to size. I've added as an example the front cover of a short story collection.
6. Add the title of your book. There isn't a subtitle field so if one is essential add it as part of the title. In my case I've used 'It Was A Dark And Stormy Night - Time After Time' rather than just 'Time After Time'.
7. If your book is part of a series then enter the series name.
8. If you have a publisher, you would enter it next. If you leave this blank then your name will be used. In my case I entered the publisher as 'Jaydax'.
9. Next enter the book's author/s. If you have multiple authors then the order you list them in will be what is displayed. Use pen names if you must but it's much simpler to use your real names.
10. Enter the language the book is written in.
11. If the book is part of a series then enter the series/volume number. This should be a whole number. If you later revise the book you can add a single decimal point to show revisions e.g. 1.1
12. Next add the search terms/keywords you have worked out in order of priority. If you have not already looked at the page on that - do so now before you waste time. Amazon allows only 7 keywords but other retailers allow more. For my book of short time travel stories, I use 10 in this box.
13. Check the appropriate button for with or without mature content.
14. Next select your book's BISAC category/s. BISAC stands for Book Industry Standards and Communications. It's the category your book would be placed under in a library catalogue. Probably the easiest way to find it is to use the subject list D2D offers. In my case I chose 'Fiction / Science Fiction / Time Travel' and a second category of 'Fiction / Short Stories (single author)'
15. Once you are happy with your selections click the START PRINT BOOK button to go to the next step.

Step 3 - Set details and upload your book files

You'll need your book manuscript document produced in Step 1. You'll also need a book description. If you haven't got one yet I suggest you go back and read the page on producing a book description.

Draft2Digital doesn't appear to offer colour illustrations inside books. In my short story collection I had colour illustrations of the individual short stories at the start of each story; boring without the colour so I deleted them. Draft2digital doesn't handle epigraphs positioned opposite title pages very well so I deleted these. Neither does it handle Section break (odd/even pages) well so if you've used these then change them to normal section breaks. Each short story title page should then appear on the right hand side of an opened book. The easiest way to achieve that is to set all chapters to start on a right hand page as in the next step. This unfortunately will produce several blank pages.

I wanted Draft2Digital to produce a contents page for the stories. To make it easier to use I added the short story title before each chapter heading. Most fiction doesn't need a contents page.

1. You're now going to be given a choice:
   I want to make my print interior from my ebook manuscript.
   OR
   I want to upload my own print interior.
   This is supposed to be the easy method so, unless you've already created an ebook at Draft2digital, I suggest you choose 'I want to upload my own print interior' and upload a file containing the book's chapters only
2. You now need to add a book description. This text is crucial in getting sales so make it as enticing as possible. Your aim is to leave readers with an "I have to read that!" impression.
3. The next section is for co-authored books and allows you to split royalties earned by the book. If you are the sole author you can ignore it.
4. If your manuscript starts at 'Chapter 1' you'll now be given the opportunity to have D2D generate a title page, a copyright page, add a dedication or Epigraph and promotional pages for any other books you have. You can also add an author biography and details about the publisher if you wish. I chose to get D2D's help to produce a title page, copyright page, an epigraph and an 'also by' page. 
5. You'll need an ISBN (international Standard Book Number). This identifies the book and is used by retailers and libraries. Each one is Unique. You can't use the same one for an ebook. You can buy these online but you can also get D2D to give you a free one. I usually ask for a free ISBN since the only disadvantage is that it identifies D2D as the publisher. ISBN prices vary from £93 for a single ISBN to about £1 each if you buy 1,000. You probably don't plan on writing a thousand books though.  In Canada - ISBN numbers are free.
6. Once you are happy with this section click the 'Save and Continue' button to preview your book in the next section.

Step 4 - Preview the book

You'll be given a preview of a simple book layout in the Draft2digital D2D Simple style. There are a number of settings at the right hand side of the page that can be changed.

1. You can choose between cream and white paper. Cream can be easier on the eyes of the reader and is better for the environment. White is better if your book contains illustrations and is usually a slightly thinner page. I chose to change to white from the default cream.
2. You need to set the size of your finished book. The most common size for books is 5½ inches by 8½ inches - Digest size. However if you have a book of less than 40,000 words then I suggest you use the smaller 5 inch by 8 inch Novella size. There are lots of other standard sizes available which I described on this page. Choosing a smaller size will increase the number of pages and that will give readers the impression of better value.
3. Draft2digital offers a number of book templates; you don't have to use the D2D Simple default. You can select a different template and then click the APPLY CHANGES button. When you do so, you'll see the chapter headings change and so too the page count will also change. I chose to use the Classy Mystery template which produces a fancy chapter heading, an initial drop capital and increased the page count by two pages. How to select a template? You can step through them one at a time or get a preview here of what each looks like. Hover over the image to get the template name. Click the template to see it full size. Close the window to return here.
4. Next decide if you want a contents page. Usually this is only needed for non-fiction, anthologies or books in parts.
5. At the right hand side of the page you may need to make some changes to the Advanced settings
   
   
   I usually start page numbers at the start of the first page of content and place them at the bottom.
   In the Chapters and scenes section, since my chapter headings are always in 'Heading 1' style I select that as Manuscript Chapter Detection. In the Classy Mystery template you can't change the other values in this section.
   The final 'Body Text' section allows you to hyphenate line endings and control widows and orphans. In my example I chose not to hyphenate and to set widows and orphans to a minimum of two lines of text. If you are still not sure what these are then click the '?' next to them to get examples.
6. You can step through the book using this page or download a PDF copy to look in greater detail.
7. Once you are happy with the chosen template and options click the SAVE & CONTINUE button to set up the cover.

Step 5 - Produce the book cover

The next page will attempt to put together your front cover, already uploaded, your book description and whatever it knows about you to make a cover. The illustration below shows what it did for me.

There are several customization options to tweek the D2D cover. You can stretch or contract it. You can change the font and add text effects

I can do better than that I think. If you feel the same then your first step should be to download the blank template of the cover as a png file. This should be loaded into the photo editor of your choice and the cover images loaded on top or below it in layers. Make sure you don't accidentally resize the template layer! By making the layers slightly transparent you can see where the edges and forbidden areas are. Make sure you hide the template layer and restore the other layers to no transparency before you save the final image as a png file.

Here's the cover I produced

The original description I supplied to D2D was optimized for book discovery online. For the cover I changed it to one more suitable for someone with the book in their hands. It's longer so the author biography had to go to make room for it.

As you can see, the front cover image has been extended to make a background for the text and my name on the spine has been coloured to match the front cover text.

There's only one important extra to set. I find a matte cover looks much better than a glossy cover - it doesn't show fingerprints.

Once you are happy with the cover layout click APPLY CHANGES and then SAVE AND CONTINUE.

Step 6 - Set the price

Paper books are understandably more expensive than ebooks. Draft2digital will set a minimum price which will earn the author nothing in royalties. It is up to the author to adjust this. Personally I set this to the amount which gets me the same royalty as the ebook edition. I don't expect to sell many print books but on a retailer web page, having a high priced paper book for sale makes the ebook price look attractive.

Type in a price and D2D will calculate the royalty you earn.

In this section also you will need to declare that you have the right to publish the book. 

Step 7 - Get a proof copy

You can now get a proof copy of your book either by downloading a PDF of it or as a real paperback copy. I make a point of always odering a paper copy since book covers are often not quite what you expect. However if you are in a hurry, then by all means examine the PDF version.