title: Youtube Formatting and Writing Notes 001
tags: dtp formatting writing typesetting

These are notes on videos not particularly about Scribus, but relevant
to the tasks one undertakes with Scribus. They probably need a better home
on this wiki than in the scribus notes folder, but for now they're here.

# Abbie Emmons
## Top 3 Formatting Mistakes
[Abbie Emmons - Top 3 Book Formatting Mistakes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X25MO1ycP7w)

1. Font Choice. Aim for ease of reading, not space efficiency.
    * Garamond (e.g. [Adobe Garamond Pro](https://fonts.adobe.com/fonts/adobe-garamond) or [EB Garamond](https://fonts.google.com/specimen/EB+Garamond) if you want something [freely licensed](https://fonts.google.com/specimen/EB+Garamond/license))
    * Baskerville
    * Cambria
    * Lora
    * (I also like [Adobe Caslon Pro](https://fonts.adobe.com/fonts/adobe-caslon)
        and there is [Libre Caslon](https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Libre+Caslon+Text)
            which is under the same [free licence](https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Libre+Caslon+Text/license)
            as EB Garamond.)
    
2. Line Spacing.
    * Not to close, not too spaced out. 1.15-1.25
    
3. Janky Justification.
    * Failing to justify properly.
    * Look for awkwardly large spaces.
    * Use hyphenation if needed.
    * Don't use automatic hyphenation. Do it manually.

# John at Falstaff Books
## 5 Things to Avoid in Self Publishing: Cover Design
[Wrong Cover Design Youtube Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wLKIDNBV_8)

There is still stigma against self-publishing. There is less now, but it still exists.

1. Paper Colour
    * Easiest to fix, least expensive. 
    * Printing on white paper. Published books print on cream. 
    * Non-fiction is white, textbooks are white, fiction is cream.

2. Interior Layout Mistakes
    * Too much space between paragraphs.

3. Stock Photo Cover Layout

4. Mediocre Cover Art
    * Good pictures of characters are expensive, and a poor character picture is worse than no character picture.
    
5. Make the Cover Art Relevant

6. Title at top, author at bottom

# Harlieigh Rose
She has a tonne of videos on [her channel](https://www.youtube.com/@AuthorHarleighRose/videos).

## 10 Things I Wish I Knew (part 1)
[Harleigh Rose 10 Things video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMrkDKvgpVk)

About self-publishing children's books.

1. Writing is the easy part.
    Real work is after the manuscript is written.
    Then you have to learn technical stuff.
    Formatting for printing.
    Marketing.
2. Illustration can make or break a book.
    Don't use AI.
3. Formatting is harder than you think.
    Bleed. Trim. Printing sizes.
    Print ready PDF.
    She used Canva.
4. Amazon KDP isn't the only option,
    and isn't the best. E.g. Ingram Spark.
    Offset printing.
5. Marketing is everything.
    Nobody will do it for you.

# Mary Kate "M.K." Williams
## Never use free ISBN from KDP or IngramSpark
[MK Never Use Free ISBN video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojSAxJzk1Zs)

Don't use the free ISBN, ever.
(There is one exception.)

### 1
Suppose our author Amy wants a paperback, a hardback, and an ebook, so she wants three ISBN's.
Now the ISBN you get from Amazon or IngramSpark
can't be used anywhere else. So you're locked
into the platform. On IngramSpark she can distribute to all three.

### 2
Amazon isn't enough.
If you use an Amazon ISBN, it will be hard
to get your book from other bookstores.
If you use a new ISBN, then it will appear
to bookstores as a completely different book.

So she needs to put out a second edition.

### 3
The one exception.
Low content books, diaries, etc.
Since you won't want to take the book elsewhere.