What is publishing? July 31, 2009
Posted by doctorhowie in e-book, e-journal, e-zine, internet/web, PDF, printing, publishing.Tags: e-book, e-journal, publishing, writing
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Seems a ridiculous question perhaps?
Well in days gone by, publishing referred to getting a book or magazine printed so that it would reach a wide audience. In some cases this was done for educational purposes, in some cases it was done to make money.
The concept of getting your ideas to reach a wide audience is as valid today as it has ever been. The purposes of publishing for education and for income remain.
However, the audience can now be wider than ever and is more easily accessed, thanks to computers and the internet.
These days, publishing is not restricted to physically printing something and making it available to others. Publishing includes material posted on the internet (like e-journals*, e-zines*, e-books*) and material available in digital or electronic form (PDFs** and CDs).
So let your creativity roam free, and get publishing!
* e-journal = electronic journal; e-zine = electronic magazine;
e-book = electronic book
** PDF = portable document format (does not care what operating system you computer uses)
Hi Scott,
I was wondering about publishing an e-book to offer to visitors on my site. I’m reasonably good with setting out pages on Word. Can I just change my Word document into a PDF and publish? Or would you recommend some further steps?
Thanks for your time.
Hello Euphemia
It’s fantastic that you’re quite good with setting pages out in Word. That doesn’t mean that you’ll automatically create a great e-book, though. Here are a couple of things for you to consider.
Think about who your target readers are are likely to be. For example, if your readers may be older people, you’ll need to make the font size (text size) larger (possibly 13 or 14 point) and have more white space (known as leading) between the lines (possibly 16 or 18 point), so that your material is easier to read.
You’ll need to keep the line length (number of words on each line), short enough that readers don’t get “lost” trying to reach the end of each line. Your page length also needs to be considered, especially as the e-book is most likely to be read on screen.
Keep things simple and not too fussy or “decorative” or “arty”. Keeping things simple makes for easier reading.
I hope this helps. Contact me for more information.