I have written a lengthy book using Pages and want to print it as hard copies as well as an ebook.
Should I transfer it to Scrivener or can it be done using the Pages software, which seems to be geared towards digital versions only?
So the question is: can I successfully print out a hard copy from Pages?
Mac mini, 10.15
The best thing to do is to export as PDF, then re-export as a PDF-X using Acrobat, then upload to lulu.com, thebookpatch.com, or similar Print On Demand (POD) service. You can select among various sizes, B&W vs color options, create custom covers if you like, and print a single book with professional binding at costs of typically around $5-$8 a book for color cover with B&W content pages. Naturally, you can print a thousand copies if you want, but it's nice to print a few proof copies for additional spell/grammar checking, wordsmithing, etc. before you go final.
Some POD services also give you a free ISBN number and option to offer it for sale on their site or make it private. (No, I do not work for any of these places, but have printed many books this way.) It is the absolute best way for newcomers to get started. It's also great for books with highly complex professional content.
PhD's and other subject matter experts sometimes self-publish really expensive books this way because large publishing houses are not interested because they know that only a dozen or so people in the world would have an interest in some of the highly detailed topics about which experts write. So these authors self-publish at high cost knowing that only a handful of books may be sold. Once you've dedicated years to amassing this knowledge, you wanna see it in print! Even if no one else buys a copy!
On the other hand, lots and lots of amateur self-publish novelists and musings for a few cents over printing costs.
The best thing to do is to export as PDF, then re-export as a PDF-X using Acrobat, then upload to lulu.com, thebookpatch.com, or similar Print On Demand (POD) service. You can select among various sizes, B&W vs color options, create custom covers if you like, and print a single book with professional binding at costs of typically around $5-$8 a book for color cover with B&W content pages. Naturally, you can print a thousand copies if you want, but it's nice to print a few proof copies for additional spell/grammar checking, wordsmithing, etc. before you go final.
Some POD services also give you a free ISBN number and option to offer it for sale on their site or make it private. (No, I do not work for any of these places, but have printed many books this way.) It is the absolute best way for newcomers to get started. It's also great for books with highly complex professional content.
PhD's and other subject matter experts sometimes self-publish really expensive books this way because large publishing houses are not interested because they know that only a dozen or so people in the world would have an interest in some of the highly detailed topics about which experts write. So these authors self-publish at high cost knowing that only a handful of books may be sold. Once you've dedicated years to amassing this knowledge, you wanna see it in print! Even if no one else buys a copy!
On the other hand, lots and lots of amateur self-publish novelists and musings for a few cents over printing costs.
Thanks heaps for your answers. I really don't want to abandon Apple after decades by having to learn Scrivener. I did publish one book with Lulu but just as an ebook, and I think I had to do it all in Word, not Pages.
This one started off as a PhD thesis, but three quarters of the way through I thought what the heck, just write it anyway. So I used Pages because it is easier, and now I'm faced with a bit of a dilemma as to how to proceed to publishing. Now I just want to get this out there, in case I get the virus and all my work will have been wasted.
From what I remember, Lulu required everything to be in one single document, not separate chapters, does that sound right?
Again, many thanks.
Pages can export to PDF, yes. Also to Word, which can be handy for importing into other apps.
Most printing services suggest or employ a “preflight” function for their printing services.
Look for and try that, with your preferred printer.
Here’s an intro to what usually happens: https://www.prepressure.com/pdf/basics/preflight
As mentioned, Pages can export PDF, as well as ePub, and some other formats.
Whether that Pages PDF containing your particular contents and images and such will be acceptable to a particular service?
Lulu apparently does this preflight check transparently: https://blog.lulu.com/how-to-make-a-print-ready-pdf/
Scrivener is intended for books, as are some other available apps. Pages really isn’t good for books, or documents of any serious size. Having used both, Scrivener is well beyond what Pages offers.
Understood. There are always tradeoffs. My last serious, complex publishing effort was using PageMaker, way back when, before it was scrapped. Pages has it's limitations, but it's so user friendly that it greatly removes the layout complexities and lets you concentrate on content. If you have complex pages you want inserted that Pages can't deal with, create them in a separate app and export them as a PNG, then import into pages to place them where you want.
All the POD services are constantly upgrading and offering new functions. It's been at least 6 months since I printed there, so I can't give you an answer. Go check it out and tell everyone else interested in this thread!
Cheers
Very true. Preflights are absolutely necessary else you may end up with getting a "what the heck is this?" kind of result.
The best is probably Adobe's Distiller.
I printed a 270 page letter size technical document (that was not created or pdf'ed by me) at lulu and resized it to 6" x 9", which left about an inch of note taking space at the top and bottom of each page which was useful. But geez, each time I uploaded it, lulu's preflight kept finding problems. This is where Distiller was the magic touch to re-trim the pages to all be exactly the same size, insert missing fonts, and other details. It took me a few hours to straighten out all of the problems in the original pdf, but the final result was great, inexpensive, and useful in the field. At first I printed just 1 for me. Then after everyone else at work saw it, everybody wanted one. I think I printed about 50 or so copies at this point. Getting ready to start print a revised version in the next few weeks.
There are other books there that started out as a PhD thesis, as well. Some are really expensive, but you know the old saying, "one man's trash is another's treasure". And when you discover hard to find info that is right up your alley, the cost is unimportant.
So I say go for it. Put it out there. Anyone who is really interested in it won't complain about having to pay for it (as long as you give a good summary on the content). It's only the bored stiff types that don't know what to do with themselves that expect a free copy of everything.
Normally for printing a hard copy book you would send a digital file to a self publishing company and follow their directions regarding the file format they want, most likely pdf or Word.
How to print a book from Pages document?
