If you’re a writer, then chances are you’d like to have a book out someday.
If you’re like I was until this week, then you probably never think about the design of a book.
That’s a mistake. There are some books which could be great but are let down by their design.
The scariest thing about this is that it’s really simple to design a book when you get down to it. Sure, there are loads of choices that you can make and there’s a bit of a learning curve, but with a little knowledge, you can get the hang of it pretty quickly.
I took a Tutsplus course called Book Layout in InDesign, because that’s software I already own. This is a review of that course.
Background
Years ago, when I was a student, I actually took a course on modern publishing and was “taught” to use InDesign. Being the naïve person I was back then, when there was a reading list or a recommended purchases list, I actually bought the stuff.
That included InDesign.
InDesign, for those who don’t know, is basically the publishing industry’s version of Photoshop. It has bells and whistles that probably four people on the planet actually use and a whole lot more practical uses that a lot of people actually use.
As for me, I never learned to use it. I could blame the staff or whatever at the University, but I can’t actually remember anything about what I was taught, so they might have done a great job.
Whether it was their fault or mine, my lack of knowledge of InDesign is troubling. I work in Publishing (sort of) and would like to create paperbacks now that I’ve successfully worked out how to sell digital books.
Because I have that specific purpose, I hunted down a course which has exactly what I want in it: How to Layout Books in InDesign.
Book Layout In InDesign Review: The Good
We’ll start off with the title – Book Layout in InDesign. That’s what the course is about, that’s what it’s called; all in all, great title.
It might seem stupid me mentioning that, but a lot of people try and think of overly catchy titles and miss out on long-tail purchasers. If this course had have been called, “How To Be An InDesign Superstar” or “How To Make A Million Dollars With InDesign” then I wouldn’t have bought it.
Moving on, the course is about two-and-a-half hours long. It covers how to plan your book, how to set up the documents, how to important text and pictures, and various other things like Cover Design tips and how to work out the spine width of your book.
It’s pretty comprehensive for the narrow topic it covers.
Also, there’s a lot of the instructor’s talking head in the videos, but when the video is showing a screen capture, the screen is clear and you can see where the cursor is. (A lot of videos are terrible for this… they’re more like, “Here’s some blurred text I’m gonna click on. If you squint really hard, you’ll maybe be able to work out where my cursor is.”)
Finally, the price is low.
I don’t know if that’s standard for Tutsplus or other online courses, but when you figure this is the sort of stuff that’s taught in degree programs which costs thousands in tuition fees, $9 is practically free. (Of course, if you’re a pro-writer, then courses like this are better than free: They’re tax deductible.)
The Bad
This course is solid. There aren’t really that many things to complain about, just a couple of irritations.
The first one is nothing to do with the course itself – it’s to do with the site it’s hosted on.
The videos on Tutsplus play on an automatic “skip to the next lesson” loop. That’s irritating itself. But to make it more irritating, if you are on full screen, it’ll load the next video in the series but kick you out of full screen for the next one. That’s irritating (or I’m too pedantic, pick one!)
Secondly (and this is about the course,) there’s a lot of repetition in the script. All the information is there, but in a nine minute video I don’t need two minutes of telling me what I’m going to learn, five minutes of me learning it and then two minutes of what I learned… I can just play the video again if I want to know that. I don’t want to knock Nicki Hart (the person on the course) because like I say, the information is all there, it’s just a quibble.
What You Can Do With This Course
This course will lead you to a lot of possibilities (Provided you have InDesign.) Sure, you can write a book.
But it gets you thinking about the format of your work… If you’ve got digital books already, you can turn them into two products: physical and digital books.
If you’ve got a load of articles on a topic or a lot of short stories, you can compile those into a book too.
You could start a magazine or journal.
Anything where you’re designing a printable, book type product can be added to your list of offerings. Just doing a bit of brainstorming will bring you loads of ideas.
Closing Thoughts
I know this review isn’t going to be for everyone. Some people don’t care about writing books. Others won’t care about print copies. It’s a bit of a “limited audience interest.”
But if you’re thinking of writing a book that you’d like to hold in your hands one day, or you’ve got digital books that you’d like to turn into multiple revenue sources, or if you’ve got an Adobe membership and your InDesign is sat there uselessly, then this course will help you get started with creating a book that’s ready to enter the real world.