It’s also, given the tentacular reach of Amazon into the interwebbing, available on their French site, German site, Spanish site and the Italian site.

It’s taken far longer than anticipated but at least it’s been a learning experience.

First and foremost there’s been the hard-learnt lesson of the perils of paper. The problem being that, at the only quality on offer for the square format and size required, there was very distracting bleed-through from the line drawings clearly visible on the other side of the page. All unsuspecting your neophyte (and naive) publisher ripped the first proof from its packaging, hands trembling with uncontrolled excitement and hubristic pride.

Total bummer.

In a preliminary move akin to seeking a black cat in a coal cellar an effort was made to tone-down the bleed-through (aka “am I drunk or are there really two of everything?”) effect by making the colour of the lines paler, lightened to a totally arbitrary mid grey. Once the new proof arrived the ripping was less enthusiastic, the disappointment not quite so keen but a certain amount of off-pissedness was experienced – it was clear there was no discernible improvement at all.

So the bullet was bitten, the size (and therefore production cost) of the book considerably increased and each cartoon placed on one side of its own page. The result, dear potential reader, (after a false start of considerable annoyance, the more so because it was entirely publisher error) was finally acceptable. And the cover price remains the same. Because by that stage it wouldn’t have mattered if the royalties were a penny a copy as long as the damn thing was legible.

Producing the epub was, in comparison, the proverbial doddle thanks to the extraordinarily useful free, open source, multi-platform, WYSIWYG ebook-making software Sigil and their comprehensive tutorial. A chunky donation is headed their way for all-round awesomeness.

Also, I confess, it was probably very easy to start off converting a book almost entirely composed of images and with very little text to wrestle into the correct formatting. However this can perhaps be viewed as recompense for the paper-bleed issues those same images provoked in print.

All that now remains is finessing the kindle edition which will be available through amazon.com thanks to their KDP (kindle direct publishing) facility. The holdup there is not the file, that’s all done and dusted (see the awesomeness of Sigil, above). No, it’s filling in every last box and field, counting (and accounting for) the hairs of one’s head and signing away the inheritance nigh unto the seventh generation. Or something like that.

There are, I have discovered, a number of variables and limitations to take into account (surprise!!) before ever venturing into the dread realms of cost, quality and distribution. Let alone e-publications, which is a whole kettle of different (but related) fish.

So, for the purposes of this post, we’re talking paper.

First decision – paperback or hardback?

Secondary decisions – binding, size, colour/b&w, number of pages, quality of paper.

The first decision is (relatively) easy. It’s an either/or. But that having been made, things become far more complicated. Not every size is available in every binding. Nor is either a full-colour or a b&w interior. The possible minimum/maximum page count differs too. And then multiply that complexity of options across the differing offerings of the most popular POD companies.

So let’s take Words on the Street (WotS) as an introductory case study. It was essential that the format was square, and preferably small. It was essential that the contents were black and white. It was desirable (but not essential) that the cover was colour.

In the end the choice was no choice. Square formats on Blurb were only offered with colour interiors. Createspace’s b&w square offerings were either  8.25 or 8.5 inches. Lulu offered “small square” at 7.5 inches and “square” at 8.5 inches. So Lulu’s small square it was.

For my own interest I’ve decided to put together some form of aggregated information about what’s available on which platform. No doubt it’ll rapidly go out of date, probably even before it’s posted, but it will serve as an indication of the boundaries of the playing field. When I get round to collating it.