Yesterday, I e-mailed two files to my publisher for my next book. Pretty standard stuff; a PDF for the text of the book, and a PDF for the cover.

Today, I get an e-mail from them saying that there are a couple of problems. One of them has to do with the "bleed" for the cover, meaning I needed to add 1/8" of space on all four sides of the cover image. It's a minor pain to do this, but it's doable. It's just math -- 6" x 9" cover size, .70" for the spine (the formula for spine width is page number x .0025 if you're going with the cream-colored internal pages) plus 1/8" on all sides.

I had to do a little rearranging of some of the text boxes, but it was nothing too excruciatingly difficult.

However, also in their e-mail, they informed me that "The interior file contains images at 272 DPI, which may appear blurry and pixelated in print. For optional printing, we recommend all images be at least 300 DPI."

And that makes sense, EXCEPT for the fact that there are NO images in the book itself. It's all text.

I called their office and talked to someone who was very pleasant and helpful, but who could not really explain why they think there are images in this book.

This is why I want to become unconscionably successful at this, so I can hire somebody else to handle all of this little piddly stuff for me. The world contains so many other, more important things to complain about and make fun of!

the only thing i can think of is that a PDF file is an image file. perhaps re-pdf'ing at a higher resolution will due the trick. if not, throwing stuff has it's advantages too! good luck with the book!

Get a high-quality publishing/layout program like Quark or InDesign, and you'll be able to customize your work to your publisher's standards quite easily. (there's a learning curve to these kind of programs, though, so beware of that)

Sorry to " hear " your frustration level rising .... I don't throw things per se... I just shoot PUCKS harder .. way more invigorating

I'm sorry; a friend of mine is having issues with his publisher as well. Don't ever go through "Publish America."

I asked her about that, and she checked the interior files to verify that there were no images, per se. Apparently there were no DPI issues with the pictures on the cover. The bleed was really their only major concern.

Yeah, and I have the attention span of a hamster on crack, so that could be an issue!

The covers for the first two were so much easier! (My ex did those for me!)

Definitely! I'd be playing hockey today if there was anyone around to play with!

I've heard that, too! Sounds like a good one to stay away from!

Target practice with knives always helps!

what!! no pictures

what sort of booky thing is this

sounds boreing

Not if the author's any good, like Lex here. Then you read the words and they paint a picture in your head. You should try it some time. What a novel idea!

And Lex, wish I could offer a helpful suggestion but I'm computer illiterate. I only comprehended the wanting to throw things part.

While this is completely besides the point, 272-300 dpi probably wouldn't really even be noticeable to the naked eye LOL

That's what I figured -- I mean, at that point, the difference should be negligible....

I LOVE this topic..Its how I feel most days..LOL..I always wanna throw something..lol..usually AT somebody..LOL..and usually its something painfully..like lately I have wanted to throw something at my ex..lol..knives!

I know absolutely nothing about publishing so take this with a grain of salt. Is this a border, etc that may not show the exact cream color when printed & show a blurred color image? All I can think of! :shrugs:

No, the cream color is for the inside pages. They offer cream or white pages, and I've found that the cream is easier on the eyes.

The "bleed" has to do with the borders of the cover. Even though the book is 6 x 9, they need an extra 1/8" on all sides; it has something to do with when they cut the covers out....

Because I've got a solid orange spine on this one, they told me I would need to extend the orange to the top and bottom of the "bleed" measurements in order to ensure that the color made it to both edges.

Perhaps the images that they are referring to is the text itself? If you sent it as a pdf when they convert to the format that they us for printing it may f with the font, thus causing a blurred image.

OH...a PDF file, I thought it waqs about POF...the other dating site.
Now I have thrown things over there.