This tutorial will cover using OpenOffice.org to produce a pdf of your book interior. You’ll be able to take that pdf (depending on the page size you choose) and upload it to places like CreateSpace, Lulu, or UniBook.
Why?
Most of the self published books I’ve read look completely unprofessional on the inside. No headers, bizarre margins, and funky spacing are not only common, but seem to be the standard. Fortunately, it’s easy to format things in a way so that it doesn’t detract from your work. Yes, you may get a little extra something if you pay the $10 a page (or $500 flat rate) some people charge. However, You can do pretty well by yourself with free tools.
The Plan
We are going to take a plain text file (this short story by Mark Twain) and turn it into this pdf. Of course you can use your own work. This method is by no means the only way to do this, and you’re pretty flexible as far as fonts/sizes go. We won’t be working with graphics for this tutorial, but it’s not that hard.
Before We Start
If you want to follow along with this tutorial, you need to go download and install OpenOffice.org.
Here we go.
Part 1 – set up the file
Part 2 – insert the text
Part 3 – export/upload/profit
Conclusion
Pretty easy, huh? If you have any questions or comments, just leave a comment below.
Very helpful. Thanks for the info.