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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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23/01/2010
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This forum is for anyone with an interest in publishing on Lulu.com. Post questions and messages here.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 23/01/2010 : 16:59
Right, come on Tommy and Colin, get posting!
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk  |
colsack
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Posted - 23/01/2010 : 18:54
Excellent idea Stanley. I was intending to keep it to myself for a bit, or at least until i was well under way, but all those who have read "steeplejacks corner" will know that i have done allot of research into the origins of steeplejacking and have dug up lots of interesting information, so i got to thinking that if i have enough material i could put it into book form and maybe get it published. After looking at the lulu site i can see that is the way to go but i still need an "idiots guide" to actually doing it, so i contacted Stanley for some advice and in response he has started this thread to help me and anyone else who is thinking of publishing a book. At the moment I'm still in the planning stage so it won't happen over night although i've no idea just how long it will take. So Stanley, here is my first question, is it best to get every thing written down first and then look in to the lulu site?
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 24/01/2010 : 06:54
I don't think there is any best or worst. Let's put it this way, you write best when you are enthused and fired up with ideas buzzing in your head. It doesn't matter if you leave Lulu until the text is finished, it doesn't do any harm if you fancy a poke round on the site. I've never looked at it but they have a sample publication you can follow through to get an idea of the process. You will designate this as a private publication, buy only one copy and delete the project when you are satisfied. Nobody else sees it.
I've always said that if I was starting again I'd publish something small on Lulu just to find out what the quality was and how the actual process worked. I forget the minimum number of pages but you will soon be able to fill it. It doesn't matter about the text and don't forget that blank pages count so you could do something with crap text but do things like try different fonts and sizes of text. I use Times New Roman and 11pt text but if I had fewer pages I might go for 11.5 or even 12. Peter will have advice on this. I send all my texts in as MS Word docs, Lulu has no problems with this.
On of the essentials is to get your page setup right before you start to construct a text for publication. Basically, for the standard size book I use a 9" x 6" page. 1" header and footer. .5" margin at each side. set the document type to 'normal' and the first line indent to abouit .5". The effect should be that when you start a new paragraph the cursor drops to the next line and half an inch in. Set text alignment to justified.
I can see that if you aren't au fait with word processing the above could fill you with terror! Don't worry, if this happens just ask and I'll mail a sample page to you, Delete the text and use it for your template for the whole book. Once the setup is entered it will repeat on each page. Once again Peter can stick his oar in here because he knows more about this than I do.
There is more about pics but let's leave that for a while. There is something else I'd like you to do on the grounds that it made such a great difference to the way I write and the quality of the text.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 24/01/2010 : 06:59
Don't groan! Just read this until you understand it and put it into practice. At first the raw edges will show but eventually you'll modify it to suit yourself and it will improve bothy the way you think and the way you set it down on the page. DO IT!!!!!
THE OBLER PACKAGE DEAL FOR SUCCESSFUL COLLEGE WRITING.
I have a daughter who must be infected with the same bug (or perhaps genes) as myself. She is a successful and highly regarded engineer but has decided that an MBA would be a Good Thing. Whilst making preparations for a third assault on the heights of academe she remembered something I sent her years ago but when she looked she couldn’t find it. What follows is father’s attempt to rectify this sad evidence of middle-aged forgetfulness.
First, the back story as they say….. For many years I was convinced I would die at the age of 42. Funnily enough, this was the age at which I re-entered education and got myself into university after being rejected by the world of commerce, they shut the mill down where I was the engineer. So I suppose for ‘death’ read rebirth. I had many problems, one of which was that I wrote as I thought, not a bad thing but when your thoughts lack discipline, so does your writing. My ‘essays’ drove my tutors mad. My old friend Dr Robert Bliss was convinced that I didn’t understand the meaning of the word conclusion. The problem was that my writing gave evidence of joined up neurones but didn’t bridge the gap between the thought and rational communication with the outside world.
All this changed when the excellent Dr Susan Obler gave me a copy of a paper she had written for her students at Rio Hondo College to guide them in the basic principles of essay and report writing; ‘THE OBLER PACKAGE DEAL FOR SUCCESSFUL COLLEGE WRITING’. I read it and put it into practice and after reading my first essay on my return from California another friend and tutor, Dr Stephen Constantine asked me where exactly had I gone for the operation.
I still have Susi’s original document, 70 pages of good advice and examples. I’m not going to transcribe the lot, most of it is hand written and as we used to say in those far off days, mimeographed. So to aid daughter Janet and anyone else who reads this I am going to paraphrase the basic rules. Take note, reading this and applying the knowledge could alter your life. It will certainly improve your writing.
THE BASIC RULES OF THE PACKAGE DEAL.
GLOSSARY
THESIS STATEMENT- (T.S.) A complete sentence that states the main idea of the whole paper. It appears FIRST in the paper.
TOPIC SENTENCE- (t.s.) The first sentence in a supporting or body paragraph that states what the entire paragraph's main idea is. This sentence follows upon the Thesis Statement and supports it. It appears as the first sentence in each paragraph.
TRANSITIONAL SENTENCE- A sentence designed to connect two paragraphs. It appears at the end of a paragraph, alerting the reader to the topic of the next paragraph and it serves as a “hinge” between the two.
INTRODUCTION- The first paragraph of a five-paragraph paper that tells the reader what the paper is about. It introduces the main idea (T.S.) and the supporting sub-topics.
BODY- The central three paragraphs of the five-paragraph paper that support the main idea (the T.S.).
CONCLUSION- The final or fifth paragraph of the five-paragraph paper that
serves to interrelate the three sub-topics of the body and provides the paper with a sense of “closure.”
SUB-TOPIC- Three sub-topics are developed into the supporting paragraphs that are the body of the paper. These sub-topics serve to support the main idea as it is stated in the T.S.
EXAMPLES- Concrete support of the sub-topic appears in the body paragraphs in order to make your ideas convincing. Sometimes these come in the form of published sources requiring documentation (footnotes and bibliography).
SUB-TOPIC A,B,C- An easy way to refer to the three body paragraphs so as not to confuse them with their placement in the paper as the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th paragraphs.
Right, those are the concepts, here’s the structure of a short five paragraph paper:
INTRODUCTION.
Paragraph 1. The thesis statement is the first sentence in the paper hence it is the first sentence in the introduction. In one sentence it tells the reader what the whole paper is about. The introduction will then go on to introduce the main sub-topics of the paper and inspire the reader’s interest….
Paragraph 2. The body of the paper begins with the second paragraph and it’s first sentence is the topic sentence for this paragraph. The remainder of this paragraph and others in the body of the paper will present concrete examples (evidence) to support the topic of this paragraph……. No doubt, since this paragraph will be so thoroughly developed it will be continued on page 2 and will end with a brilliant transitional sentence that will lead the reader into the next paragraph.
Paragraph 3. The body of the paper continues with the second paragraph which will begin with a flawless topic sentence, proceed through examples and evidence and end with another snappy transitional sentence.
Paragraph 4. This is the final paragraph of the body of the paper and contains topic C. It will begin with a topic sentence, give examples and evidence which will remove any doubts in the reader’s mind, should there be any left. This paragraph should have a definite ending but need not have a transitional sentence.
Paragraph 5. This is the conclusion and the writer will presumably bring together the sub-topics discussed, summarise the skeleton of the argument and get the reader off the page. It is permissible, indeed attractive, to leave her/him wanting more but convinced that enough has been doe to advance the Thesis Statement.
There you are, that’s it. An Oxford Don once summarised this method as “Tell them what you’re going to tell them. Tell them. Finish by telling them what you have told them. In other words, the introduction is the road map, the body is the route and the conclusion is the report on what you have seen.
ADVANCED WRITING
What I have described is a very simple and mechanistic way of writing a paper. Remember the stabilisers on your first two wheeled bike? That is exactly what this is. As you absorb the principles and gain confidence you will expand the scope of your writing but be sure that when you do you do not fail to incorporate the structure I have described. It is the foundation of all writing and can be used for a humble cottage or a palace. Here are a couple of pieces I wrote many years ago when all this was fresh in my mind:
THE WHAT DEAL? A NAIVE OCCASIONAL PAPER.
[Yes, that’s right, I was writing NOPs 25 years ago!]
Those of us who have been lucky enough to meet the formidable Ms. Obler during the course of our academic career know only to well 'what deal'.
The Package Deal was, to many of us, the first time we were ever taught a methodology of writing papers, essays and reports. As a tool it transcends these fields and in effect becomes a basis for a logical way of ordering our thoughts and communicating them to other people.
So far, so good. However, like any other good idea it can be criticised. One criticism that has been made about it is that it is rigid, confining and predictable. A paper written using the precepts of the PD is almost stereotyped; only the content distinguishes it from its fellows from the same stable. I consider this to be a harsh judgement but must admit that there is more than a grain of truth in it. It merits a considered answer.
It would be difficult to find any evidence of adherence to the precepts of the PD in a work like ULYSSES or in the sonnets of Shakespeare. They had evidently not met Ms. Obler. We are forced to admit nevertheless that these men did turn out good writing. What are the chances that a student of the PD could rise to these heady heights?
I believe that there is every chance. I believe it is a mistake to see the PD as rigid or confining. It would perhaps be more fair to describe it as pedestrian. By this I mean that it is a first stage. It is walking before running. It is learning to float before attempting to swim.
Perhaps the greatest benefit that the PD confers on its devotees is that it gives them the ability to write a piece of prose that is concise, comprehendable and has a logical structure. This is no mean achievement and is a level not reached by most mortal men, no matter how 'good' their education. Practiced conscientiously the PD encourages the use of logical thought patterns which is the first essential to any sort of writing. Our subject matter must be clear and well-ordered within ourselves before we can present it to others. Once we have mastered these arts it may be that we will write a piece which does not contain thesis statement, body paragraphs and transitional sentences in neat Oblerian fashion. One thing is certain; whatever this masterwork of prose is it will be better for having mastered the PD than it would have been if we had never met Ms. Obler.
So take heart. When all about seems grey and gloomy and the dreaded body paragraphs and transitional sentences assume an importance in your lives comparable to the draft and communications from the IRS, be sure that the universe is unfolding as it should, what you do is worthwhile, and when you meet an opponent of the Obler PD system, ask them to show you the last thing they wrote. You may be in for a surprise!
SG/31-7-80 Rio Hondo.
USING THE PACKAGE DEAL IN AN EXAM. SITUATION.
Perhaps the first thing to say on this subject is that the package deal is not being used to its fullest until one realises that is not simply a methodology for essay writing.
Perhaps even this statement is not correct. The Package Deal might be just that; it may be that the concept which requires clarification is the 'Essay' itself. Why do we write essays?
The essay is an attempt to communicate a concept or an argument to another person in a logical and hence, clearly understandable form. The process of committing this communication to paper and the effort to achieve clarity often aid our own understanding of the subject we deal with. How often we find as we write an essay and marshal our facts that the conclusions we may have reached before are modified and sometimes radically changed. It seems that the process of rendering our subject more easily understandable to the person we communicate with has fulfilled the same function for us. The essay is then as much a communication with ourselves as with some outsider.
If we accept this concept the Package Deal assumes a larger significance than just an effective way of writing essays. It becomes an effective tool in the struggle to bring some order into the way we think. It becomes an aid, not only to logical expression but to logical thought.
Use of the PD during the day to day work of writing essays encourages the student to clearly marshal the facts, decide what evidence is to be deployed in support of these facts and set the whole down in a logical sequence which is easily readable, comprehendable and acceptable. Surely this is what we seek to do in an examination? Once the habit has been formed of working in this way the application of the PD to an exam situation is relatively easy. The main difference is that the student has to work out the Topic Sentences in his or her head instead-of having the luxury of time and paper enough to write them out and juggle with them. Once the topic sentences are worked out the introduction has written itself and the only real discipline needed is to confine ones efforts to the subject in hand during each paragraph and not drift off into irrelevancies.
Perhaps what all this boils down to is the fact that before we can be clear to an outsider we have to be clear to ourselves. The classic example of this is when we try to explain something to another person when in fact we know nothing about it ourselves. If we can't give facts in a logical order we can't explain or present an argument. The PD is an indispensable tool in this area. The examination is the classical example of the communication situation. Therefore the PD is an excellent tool in an exam,
SG/30-7-80.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 24/01/2010 : 07:06
Sorry about sending you back to school but it works. For your book regard each chapter as what Dr Obler calls 'the paper', your finished book is a collection of papers (chapters) on different topics. You will eventually need an Introduction and a concluding paragraph to get the reader off the page.
Right, that's enough for the time being! TOMMY! Are you awake there at the back? Peter, shove your oar in.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Tizer
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Posted - 24/01/2010 : 11:18
For a moment lets' just go back to Colin's question above: "Here is my first question, is it best to get every thing written down first and then look in to the lulu site?" The short answer would be "It doesn't matter which way you do it". But here is a longer answer!
If you want to write a book and get it published you need to decide what sort of book it will be. By the sound of it, Tommy's will be an autobiography, and Colin's will be a history of steeplejacking, so they should both fit the style of Stanley's Lulu books - easy-to-read stories with some pictures to illustrate the stories and to break up the text. Decide what you will do about including photos because if your book has colour pictures (or any other colour such as coloured text) then your book will have to sell at a much higher price to cover the cost (that applies whether you use Lulu or any other printer - colour requires fancy glossy paper and different print machines). All Stanley's books are black & white inside pages. Of course, you can convert your colour photos to black & white for incorporation in the book (Stanley can advise on that if you need to know how well it works). On Lulu the book covers are done separately and you can have colour covers on any book, even if you have chose the B&W route for the interior.
So if your books are going to be like Stanley's they can be published on Lulu and you can get on with writing them. Although Stanley has suggested 6x9 page size, that doesn't matter at the first stage - just open your word processor and get typing in whatever page size it is (probably A4). You can change the font, font size, margins etc at the end. Concentrate on writing your stories in simple text, choosing any font size you wish - I always use 12 point Times New Roman font to do my writing. Times NR is a serif font (it has the extra squiggly bits at the top and bottom of letters) whereas Arial for instance is called `sans serif' (no squiggly bits). Those squiggles are not just ornamental, they make it easier for the human eye to read the letters so you will probably find that it is easier to do your writing in Times NR (web sites like OGFB use sans serif because computer noddies adopted it as theirs a long time ago!).
Don't try to put pictures/photos into your document at this stage but you can insert a `comment' to remind yourself later, such as:
INSERT PHOTO - Bancroft chimney
Put your headings in bold text (highlight the heading with your mouse then press Ctrl B).
I won't go on any longer here for now. The main thing is to get writing, constructing your stories and getting them down on paper. Word processors give you plenty of scope for changing what you've written later and adding more material. If you keep it simple, all the formatting ready for Lulu can be done at the end.
Tizer (Peter)
Edited by - Tizer on 24/01/2010 11:20:01
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colsack
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Posted - 24/01/2010 : 14:17
Thanks for the info lads, I'm in the process of trawling through the entire SC site to copy all my relevent posts in to a "my book" file so i can see how much material i have, then i will take things from there.
I've started to write now on microsoft works document, times new roman, size 18 for headings and 12 for normal writing, looks a bit small on the page, is this OK.
Edited by - colsack on 25/01/2010 2:26:17 PM
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Tizer
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Posted - 25/01/2010 : 17:10
Use whatever you like Colin because you can change the font size and type (and other formatting) as many times as you like, then set it finally before sending to Lulu. Just get something suitable for your eyes. For on-screen typing you can change font size and/or set the zoom in your View menu to make it look bigger or smaller.
The really clever way is to use `Styles'. Stanley or others can probably tell you better than me because I don't use Microsoft software. But the basics are that you create one style for your main text and one for each type of heading. You can also do ones later for other things like captions to photos. You can have character styles (which do individual letters or words) and paragraph styles (which apply to a full paragraph). For example if you make a style for main headings you can `apply' it to a heading by simply clicking. The really big plus though is that if you want to change the style (e.g. put it in bold) you only have to do it once - change the style itself and all paragraphs you applied it to will change as well automatically. So it's worth learning more about styles.
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TOM PHILLIPS
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Posted - 25/01/2010 : 17:44
ABOUT THIS BIG FOR ME COL,HEHE
"Work,the curse of the drinking class" |
Tizer
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Posted - 25/01/2010 : 20:14
Tom, just the man, when you are you going to start writing your memoirs? Or the Observer's Book of Chimneys? Or the Record Book of Guinness?
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 26/01/2010 : 07:45
That's all we needed....
Text size. I use Times New Roman 11pt. Headings in same size but bold caps. Picture captions at 10pt. Mind you, I'm funny, I like uniform text without the distraction of different fonts just because they are there. I remember all to well the wonderful concoctions we got when people first discovered 'Desktop publishing' before WP progs became so versatile. The text was the equivalent of white noise for me!
If anyone wants a sample couple of pages to see what they look like on the screen send me a mail. 11pt is certainly a good size on the printed page, sometimes difficuly to gauge this on the screen.
I often think that styles of fonts etc are a reflection of the book designer's personal preferences. I am reading a book at the moment that has four different fonts at the head of each chapter. My version is that anything that gets in the way of or distracts from the information I want to convey is a no-no. But then I'm an engineer.... Tom's would have small pics of flowers on each page.......
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
colsack
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Posted - 26/01/2010 : 09:44
Stanley, Pete, thanks again for the info but remember when talking to me I'm a really thick, so what is a font, apart from the things you wet the baby's head in, and what is pt? I've planned the layout and started writing, took over an hour to do one paragraph, but I'm doubting if I've got enough material for a whole book, think it will be more like a pamphlet.
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Tizer
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Posted - 26/01/2010 : 11:44
It's difficult to know how much the other person knows when communicating via web posts so keep on asking if we don't make things clear. `Font' is the same as typeface. It's simply the design style used for the letters and numbers in your text on screen or printed on a page. `Pt' is short for `point size', which is the size of the letters and numbers. You can have any font in any size (too many choices!)
This is in Arial font.
This is in Times New Roman font.
This is in Antiqua font (which is far too fancy and difficult to read!)
Your word processor will offer lots of choices and sizes but it's best to stick with a well-known font and, as Stanley says, don't use any more fonts than absolutely necessary. Times New Roman is a great font for the text in books, stick with that. You can put your headers like Stanley's in the same font and size but make them bold so they stand out from the rest of the text. A lot of people prefer to put their headers in Arial font and bold.
Have a look in your Help menu under `format' and `font' for more info. You said you've already got your font (Times New Roman) and the point size (12), so away you go!
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 27/01/2010 : 08:01
Bold capitals in an 11pt header stand out well.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 27/01/2010 : 08:06
PS. Colin, don't worry about how much you write or whether you have anything to say. Start off by telling the story of how you got into jacking etc. This will trigger your brain off and you'll soon be remembering things and going back to insert text. Believe me you have more than enough material. Don't try to 'write', just imagine you're sat with your mates and telling them your work history. Don't worry about how it looks or whether it is 'writing'. You're telling your life story and you certainly have one of them. You are unique and nobody else can tell the same story.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
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PUBLISHING ON LULU.COM
