AboutCathy Clamp Expertise I'm happy to answer questions about any aspect of getting published through commercial publishers, ebook publishers and self-publishing I can help with writing a query letter and synopsis to an agent or editor. I can explain publishing terminology, acronyms and manuscript formatting. I can also assist with questions about verifying the credentials of agents/publishers and how to proceed once you've been accepted for publication.
Experience I'm a USA Today bestselling author of romance fiction in the Tor/Forge Books paranormal romance line. Along with a co-author, I've published eight novels (combination of mass market and trade softcover) since 2003, and have contracts for six more books through 2009. I've also published short stories in regional and national magazines as well as freelance feature articles.
Organizations Romance Writers of America, Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, International Thriller Writers, Western Outdoor Writers, Horror Writers of America.
Publications Books: Tor/Forge Books, Western Reflections Publishing; Magazines: Rocky Mountain Game & Fish, Guns & Ammo, Fur-Fish-Game, many others.
Education/Credentials My educational background is limited to real life experience of publishing novels commercially for the past five years.
Awards and Honors USA Today bestseller, Waldenbooks Mass Market Paperback Top 20 bestseller, Nielsen BookScan Top 20 bestseller, Book Buyers Best Award for Paranormal, 2007, Romantic Times Best Werewolf Novel, 2006, Write Touch Readers Award, EVVY Best Historical Chronicle Award, The Lories Best Paranormal. Many others.
Question What is the best and easiest typesetting software to learn to set up a book for BookStore Standards...Thanks.. Will Microsoft Publisher or Adobe In Design be acceptable?
Answer Hi, Angie!
I asked a publisher friend of mine this question. Here's his answer:
*************
If the goal is to become a publisher, including cover art, etc, you have to give serious consideration to the Macintosh platform which still stands heads and shoulders above Windows when it comes to publishing, including print metrics, anti-aliasing, kerning, graphics, and color syncing and matching.
One of the reasons PDFs became important to print shops was that they would get funky output, and if the files were PDFs, they could point to them and say, "See, that's what you gave us." If color management and font graphics are unimportant, than it makes less difference which platform (PC/Mac) to use. Vista remains an unknown, but If ePublishing for proprietary eReaders is the goal, look more carefully at PCs (or Intel Mac) which uses more common (and less expensive) technology.
Quark Xpress and Adobe InDesign are more or less equivalent in price and features. I'd give inDesign a slight edge in friendliness. (Adobe has virtually eliminated their PageMaker product which was a friendly product, if a bit buggy.)
Either Xpress or InDesign will set you back big dollars. There's a couple of competing products out there that may run a bit less. One that comes to mind is Ragtime (love that name), which has been around for ages, longer than InDeisgn, for example.
I would not use Microsoft Publisher which is kind of an industry joke. It grew out of a low resolution kids' product for constructing greeting cards and while it vaguely resembled PageMaker, its metrics were sloppy and crude. Also, it's unlike Quark Xpress and InDesign which are built around Postscript technology which is built into professional printing RIPs (and incidentally is built into Macs).
A lot depends upon your publishing targets, the quality you're aming for, your local printer or service bureau, and whether you're willing to oursource parts of the process.
