This slim volume helps a beginning writer to use Word's capabilities to the max. His suggestion to use columns to lay out ones book cover saved me many hours of keyboard abuse. The book is a very quick read, furnishing the writer spot solution for his most common format problems, thereby making the book a handy reference.

I have to say I'm completely thrilled with this book. It may be the single most useful self-help book I've ever read or purchased, which is saying a lot. Shepard gives you a high-level understanding of his approach to self-publishing in twenty or thirty pages, and then spends th rest of the book giving you the minutest of minute detail--effectively, a step-by-step instruction manual and checklist--to publish through Lightning Source and sell your titles on Amazon via Ingram. The book is well-written, clear, and cogent. I can't recommend this book highly enough.

The cover looked home-made and hokey, so I really only purchased this book because of the enthusiatic reviews.

I have to admit that this is a pleasant case of not being able to judge a book by its cover. The content is well organized and filled with great tips for layout and design. Definitely worth a read by self-published authors.


J.D. Mosley-Matchett, Ph.D.
Author of A month of Marketing Technology tips

I used "Perfect Pages" to format my book, "The Magi of Futurity" for print-on-demand publishing. The instructions were clearly defined and easy to follow. This how-to guide is a great addition to anyone's library who wants to use Word to design and format a self-published book.

After using one of the most prominent POD/vanity press companies (and deciding I could do better myself), I started to learn about self-publishing.

Eventually, I found Aaron's books and, more important, his recommended model for POD. The good news? They really advanced my understanding about this field--very quickly.

More good news? Using Aaron's idea (Word + POD + Amazon), this book helped me when I was at an impasse with Word (2003) and completely stumped and frustrated. (If you've ever been in this situation, you'll know this is no small recommendation.)

If I recommended 3 books for POD authors, two of them would be Shepard's.

So, why only 3 stars?

First, because Word 2007 is so VASTLY different from the previous versions that this book deals with, that the title should clearly show this ISN'T for Word 2007 (his website has information, but not enough).

Second, using Aaron's book, I was able to create a POD book that really looks "professional" to the typical book buyer. From cover design to layout, it took a long, long time to adjust all the things you need to use Word well, but...the result is very good (even librarians have complimented it).

So, this could easily have been a 4- or even 5- star review. The problem is that Aaron is advocating and representing POD and yet he doesn't practice what he preaches with his OWN books. "Perfect Pages" really DOESN'T look "perfect"--i.e. "professional". The cover isn't right, and some of the layout choices say, "amateur" and "self-published".

He obviously has the knowledge and skills to do better. This book should be an EXAMPLE of "best practices" given the goal and the readership. Sadly, it isn't.

So...3 stars for his own presentation--plus some well-deserved praise--will have to do. Hopefully, "Perfect Pages For Word 2007" will be better.

The author gets right to business. I learned a lot about Word in a few pages in a few minutes. Its a great, essential, recommended book to produce an all-text no graphics book with MS Word. There is not a single picture in the book. If you have pictures, probably you will not be able to use Word, hence this book becomes much less useful. I am still looking for the beginners book to layout a book with lots of b/w pictures and print on a high quality laser printer. This is not that book.

Perfect Pages and Aiming at Amazon are must reads for anyone considering self-publishing and/or POD. With the right software (and of course writing skills) you will be able to publish a book and get it listed on Amazon after reading these two books.

Flower, A Story Of The Nativity Every word in
this review of Perfect Pages is true. First let me say that I don't know Aaron nor have I ever met him, but like many Americans I have
long nursed the desire to write a book. Last year I decided the time
had come. The story flowed from me with little effort, but alas,
writing the Great American Novel (GAN) seemed not so hard as getting it
published. I began exploring options and soon discovered the POD
industry. It turns out that publishing a novel is even easier than
writing one. The only thing you need is a manuscript and money, lots
and lots of money. Did I mention that you need money? You do. Oh
well, investing hundreds of dollars to get my GAN out there seemed
like the only way. I had hoped to make some money on my effort, but
that seemed unlikely given the deals the POD's were offering. They
said I would make money, but after paying them for setup charges,
printing costs, and their cut of the revenue the amount of pie left
over, if any, seemed pretty meager. Oh well a slightly tarnished
dream is better than no dream at all. I sucked it up and continued
on. One day I happened upon Aiming at Amazon on Amazon and ordered
it. Do you know what an epiphany is? It is a moment of wonderous
discovery, a life changing event. Aiming at Amazon was an epiphany
for me. It changed my world view and allowed me to reclaim my shiny
dream of the GAN. After reading AAA, I went back to work on my book confident in its future success. But wait, Aaron Shephard had another book for sale, Perfect Pages. It promised to let me publish my book using nothing but plain old MS Word. The price seemed steep for a 158 page book, but I owed Shep one for AAA so I bought Perfect Pages. I figure the advice on one page of PP alone saved be $1500 and that all told the money I have spent on Aaron's books has saved me $2500-$3000. One of the reviews of PP rates it only a 2. That reviewer said that the proof is in the pudding. I agree but that reviewer did not use PP to publish a book, I DID. Using nothing, NOTHING, do you hear me NOTHING but Aaron's books, a regular PC with regular MSword, I wrote, formatted and published: Flower, A Story of the Nativity, ISBN 9781606430811 proudly for sale on Amazon.com. I did everything myself, including the front cover, spine, and back cover using the information in PP. You know, Aaron's books aren't long. In fact the page count seems low, but that is deceptive. Aaron packs his books full of information and the fact that they are slim volumes make it easy to read them and return to important information without getting lost in the forest. If the proof is in the pudding check out the link to my book included in this review. It still amazes me. There's the pudding. Buy this book.

This book was perfect for me. It gave me step by step instructions on formatting my book.One or two instructions took me a minute to understand but with time I was able to make the changes. I am very famaliar with Word but this book showed me features I never used before. And when I had any questions I emailed the author and he responded in a very timely manner. I highly recommend this book.

I was in a online group with this author. The people in the group were so rude to this lady asking information about book publishing and editiong. I never posted and never went back there, but I did look at some of the author's books. I want to design books and I hope this book will give me the proper guidelines I need.

So far, it is giving me a lot of informaiton.

The promise and premise of the book is to use Word instead of more expensive programs in designing your book, pages "no reviewer will scoff at." The acid test for most readers will be, "Does it look like a 'real' book?" Order a copy, if you want to verify for yourself, since there is no Search Inside feature with this book. When I look at this "book" I see what appears to be a Word document with "book" margins around the page. I felt let down. The book shows how to create blocks of text with correct book formatting; if this is what you are looking for you won't be disappointed. I'm not sure how helpful this would be to someone that is expecting more from a book. Good luck.

There are a lot of answers in this volume, all very helpful to the self publisher. It covers so much ground, it may not address your specific need, but it is certainly one of the best available. Formating is the most difficult part of self publishing and this book will save you a lot of time and misery in that specific requirement.

First, I have immense respect for Aaron Shepard and have learned a great deal from Aiming at Amazon. I just expected more from this book about how to typeset, or appear to typeset, a book. I don't ordinarily use Word, but could if necessary. I use WordPerfect and so much of what this book recommends is done much more easily with WordPerfect. In fact the ref. book on WP 6.1 gives even more detailed information on kerning and avoiding rivers and the like. So, I bought Perfect Pages and will refer to it, but not the way I thought I would. I'd urge Aaron to put a WP appendix in the next edition.

As I almost purchased an expensive desktop publishing software to format my self-published book, I was thrilled to be able to acheive the formatting objectives after a review of this book for a fraction of the cost. For instance, I had tried to set up headers with chapter titles using different odd, even pages and first page suppression and was frustrated when it was not working as I intended. This book clearly laid out the use of sections and the use of the 'same as previous' button enabling me to successfully format my book using MS Word. Thank you!

Very good advice, some of which I will use in my next book. Highly recommended to serious self-publishers.

Aaron Shepard's "Perfect Pages" is the best book (if not the only book) that teaches the reader the many pitfalls of desktop publishing. I published my first two books with a self-publishing company. If I had "Perfect Pages" first, I wouldn't have. I would've published them myself. Luckily, I can publish more books in the future without having to pay someone to do it for me.

I didn't actually need every bit of information that this book explains. Shepard discusses the differences between MS Word for Windows and Macs, etc. But the information I needed was well worth the money. For example, I didn't know how to resize the document to make it acceptable as a print-ready PDF file.

Shepard also explains how to create book covers in Word, something that I thought was impossible. Although he suggests setting up a document as two columns, I thought of my own way. After a little practice, I learned how to created covers in Word and PowerPoint. After creating them in PowerPoint, they can be transferred over to Word.

If you use Word 2007, you may experience trouble. Shepard explains how to use older versions of Word (which are easier to use). He recommends Word 2000 and 2003. I agree. Those are the easiest to work with, and they don't differ too much. Word 2007 looks COMPLETELY different. However, "Perfect Pages" can still help you. You will only need to do some sleuthing.

Brandon Simpson

Very specific info for a very specific purpose. Well worth the price.

Whether you are a self-publisher, author, or merely considering self-publishing as an option, this is a great book to have on your shelf.

Specifically if your work is primarily in text format, with limited photo reproduction then if you are not considering laying out your document in MS Word then you may missing out.

In my case I was using some MS Word templates I found online but I needed to understand better how to set things up. Perfect pages provides an ideal reference book.

The book is text intensive and if you are looking for lots of photos telling you specifically where to point and click, you may want to look elsewhere.

MS Word is pretty much a standard piece of software these days. Although not a page layout program, it is a great text editor.

MS Word files can be converted into production ready portable document format (pdf) files and sent off to print.

My one criticism is that Mr. Shepard on his website states that he may not continue updating this book, as MS Word keeps evolving.

That is unfortunate but I am sure someone will pick up the slack.

Cheers!

Aaron Shepard's Perfect Pages offers the best overall introduction to the use of Microsoft Word for self-publishing your book. His topically organized instructions enable you to zoom-in on those aspects of book design and manuscript formatting that you most need help with. This book presupposes that you have extensive knowledge of using Word, but assumes that you are clueless about book design. If so, you will benefit the most from Aaron's instructions. If your Word use is limited to very basic word-processing skills, you can still learn essential lessons from Aaron's book, but you may encounter terms and tasks that you can understand only after further research and experimentation.

Perfect Pages was the initial book that enabled me to launch my own self-publishing ventures. I used it as a springboard to more in-depth knowledge of precisely how to create Word-to-PDF files for Print-On-Demand presses. If you are serious about self-publishing your own manuscript, buy this book!

Edwin Scroggins is author of How to Self-Publish Your Book with BookSurge for $99, 2nd Edition: A Step-by-Step Guide for Designing & Formatting Your Microsoft Word Book to PDF & POD Press Specifications

Aaron Shepard's PERFECT PAGES gave me the courage use MS Word to format my own book for POD via our own publishing company, Ancient Otter Publishing. We produced excellent finished products, ready for printing, from MS Word to a PDF using Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional.

Aaron's directions are specific, precise, and to-the-point.

The only problem I had was I did not read all of his directions about the creation of PDF files. In one place he suggests turning off the embedded fonts when printing to PDF if you want the conversion to go faster. That will speed up the process or creating PDF files (which is fine for files going to someone with Adobe Reader that has access to the usual fonts in a computer). However, one page later Aaron makes it very clear that you MUST always embed all fonts when creating PDF files of your book. He points out that this is essential, especially if you are using a printer like Lightening Source. That is also the case for a small local printer we use for smaller projects.

Some material in this book will already be known by long-time users of MS Word, but Aaron puts it all together as it relates to book lay-outs. His excellent Index also makes this text a great reference so you can find quickly just what you need when you need it.

I have also used Aaron's suggestions to improve our parish newsletters for the two Episcopal churches where I serve as Rector.

I highly recommend this book!!!

And, if you are promoting your own book, you must also purchase another book by Aaron: Aiming at Amazon! This book is a must-read book for small publishers and for any author who must self-promote (which is every author except J.K. Rowling -- and even she does it).

One last note ... I like Aaron's style. He doesn't overinflate his ideas or himself. Anyone with hair and a beard like that must have a sense of humor, and that is critical for survival in this half-crazy book world!

The Rev. Dr. Prentice Kinser III, Author of LIMITLESS LIVING, A Guide to Unconventional Spiritual Exploration and Growth

Aaron Shepard's PERFECT PAGES gave me the courage use MS Word to format my own book for POD via our own publishing company, Ancient Otter Publishing. We produced excellent finished products, ready for printing, from MS Word to a PDF using Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional.

Aaron's directions are specific, precise, and to-the-point. The only argument I would have with him is that he suggests turning off the embedded fonts when printing to PDF. That will speed up the process, but if your publisher uses Lightening Source, they want fonts embedded. That is also the case for a small local printer we use.

Some material in this book will already be known by long-time users of MS Word, but Aaron puts it all together as it relates to book lay-outs. His excellent Index also makes this text a great reference so you can find quickly just what you need when you need it.

I have also used Aaron's suggestions to improve our parish newsletters for the two Episcopal churches where I serve as Rector.

I highly recommend this book!

The Rev. Dr. Prentice Kinser III, Author of LIMITLESS LIVING, A Guide to Unconventional Spiritual Exploration and Growth

I love the simple way this book is written. Mr. Shepard has proven, without a doubt, that a book can be written with Microsoft Word and my second book is proof of that. I wrote and designed my first book, Adirondack Nightmare, using InDesign. InDesign is a wonderful program but with a very steep learning curve. I stressed over having to "relearn" it when I began writing the sequel to Adirondack Nightmare so I decided to try this method. Using Mr. Shepard's clearly written advice, I'm enjoying the designing process a lot. Almost too much, I need to stop playing and finish the book! LOL. Thank you, Mr. Shepard.

My wife started a publishing company. I am the typesetter. I just finished typesetting her book using MS Word and Aaron's book was indispensible! I knew how to use Word to type letters, etc, but to turn a manuscript into a professional quality book is a different matter. The book helped me tremendously. I even had a question and emailed the author--Aaron responded that same day with an answer. Highly recommend to those starting out in the POD publishing business. I don't think I even need to buy one of those thick MS WORD manuals now. He taught me what I needed to know (along with a fair amount of software savvy of my own). The book assumes a certain level of competence to begin with.

I like this book and I like the author's style in explaining how to use Word to write books. The author surely has a lot of experience in book writings. I noticed that he has published a lot of children books.

Word is good for writing office documents and children books. But it is not the best book formatter! It still requires a lot of manual intervention from the writer in formatting and typesetting the book. Unless you are writing children books, you may want to check out this book: LyX! THE ZEN OF SELF PUBLISHING! Everything You Need To Write & Publish Perfect Paper Books & eBooks And Sell Them On AMAZON & Online Bookstores Worldwide In 2 Weeks Using The FREE LyX Word Processor, which I considered not just a book, but the most complete self publishing system available!

If you have not known LyX, I highly recommend that you should give LyX a try. It is free and the above book will help you master LyX in just a few days, if not in a couple of hours.

But if you already have Word on your computer and you want to do self publishing with it, then this Perfect Pages book is definitely a valuable guide for you. You should get it!

Aaron's got some good advice here for those who have ALREADY paid a high price for MS Word (often when they bought their computer). But those interested in quality typesetting and page layout would be better off looking at the free TeX family of programs or Scribus.

Dear John: Letters From a Fan in New York City: An Interactive Book I wished I had purchased this book before I embarked on publishing my own. It would have saved me a lot of money and aggravation along the way. This is the economical way to go, especially if you don't have a graphic intensive book, but it can hangle graphics, too. Practical advice, and you can contact the author an the Yahoo forums.

This is one of the best books on MS Word. If you have MS Word on your computer and want to do self publishing, this is the book you should have.

But if you do not have MS Word, then I recommend that you should not waste your money with it. Use the free OpenOffice Writer instead. Writer can generate PDF file but MS Word can't and Word is not free! Do not try to steal Word from your work. It is unethical and illegal. Why steal Word while there are much better and free software that you can use?

By the way, if you want to format and typeset your book like the pros, use LyX, instead. MS Word, Wordperfect, OpenOffice Writer, and the likes are good for office documents. But they are not designed to format and typeset books. But LyX is! And LyX is totally free. I have written and published all my books with LyX. You may want to check out one of my books below to see for yourself.

Self Publish Perfect Paperbooks & eBooks With LyX On Windows & Sell Them Worldwide On Lulu Easy & FREE!

Again, buy this "Perfect Pages" book if you have MS Word on your computer and want to do self publishing with it since this is one of the best self publishing with MS Word books in the market!

Word is good for office documents. Word is not designed for typesetting and formatting books. But LyX is! Not only is LyX so easy and powerful, it is also totally free! Check this book out for yourself: Self Publish Perfect Paperbooks & eBooks With LyX On Windows & Sell Them Worldwide On Lulu Easy & FREE!

Aaron Shepards, "Perfect Pages" is a treasure trove of 'how to's' for using MS Word to typeset and layout your manuscript for publishing. If you feared such a task would be too difficult, you will sigh with relief by following Aaron's simple instructions. Following these steps is like taking stairs to make the dream of being a published writer come true! I also highly recommend Aaron Shepards companion book, "Aiming at Amazon" to further actualize that dream. These books are the way to go.

Aaron Shepard provides the right defaults in setting up Microsoft Word so that the files are camera ready for production. With these tools, you are on your way to converting those pearls of wisdom or that wild love affair in college onto the printed page. The bad news: It won't make your book well-written or one that is in demand. It also seems to place craftsmanship low on the writer's totem pole of talents, and teaches him/her the basics of formatting. That is truly the hard part. Who said it? "Everyone has a story to tell, but it doesn't necessarily mean anyone will want to read it."

This book is but inches away from being a rip-off. It has the feel of being a one-session introductory evening community college course lecture forced into a book format.

I've reached no conclusion as to whether Aaron Shepard is actually trying to provide serious help to the self-publisher or is simply trying to make a buck by hurriedly packaging a bunch of easily acquired hints and tips about using Word into book format and selling it on Amazon. (The author also has written and self-published another book called "Aiming At Amazon" which is about marketing your self-published book on Amazon.)

Two facts immediately jump out: 1) there are essentially no illustrations, rather odd for a program like Word that has layers of complex menus and features that are best explained with graphics; and 2) no index.

Throughout the author presumes a high level of familiarity with Word, which simply may not be the case. Here's an example: "Ornments can also be made from small imported graphics. Just place them inline or float them anywhere on the page. To make them repeat on succeeding pages, insert them in headers or footers." I count at least five different concepts the reader had better know in order to comprehend this sentence. And if the reader is already familiar with these concepts, why do they need this book?

In the paragraph just above the one just quoted is another gem: "Word's support for Unicode means that many fonts have characters you can use for pure design. You can also find such characters in the old symbol and dingbat fonts." (Names uncapitalized in the original, by the way.) Again, as long as you are familiar with Unicode and its capabilities, the Symbol and Dingbat fonts, you'll do just fine. If not, you can consult the index . . . oh wait, there is no index.

Much of the content is recycled from the ubiquitous listservs and newsletters about Word.

Is it worth the price? No. You can get a full scale Word manual, such as one from The Missing Manual for a few dollars more. However, if you are already very familiar with Word and its features and just want a basic treatment of what features are most useful for setting up a manuscript for self-publishing, this book just barely may meet your needs. As for me, I am returning my copy.

Jerry

This book is but inches away from being a rip-off. It has the feel of being a one-session introductory evening community college course lecture forced into a book format.

I've reached no conclusion as to whether Aaron Shepard is actually trying to provide serious help to the self-publisher or is simply trying to make a buck by hurriedly packaging a bunch of easily acquired hints and tips about using Word into book format and selling it on Amazon. (The author also has written and self-published another book called "Aiming At Amazon" which is about marketing your self-published book on Amazon.)

Two facts immediately jump out: 1) there are essentially no illustrations, rather odd for a program like Word that has layers of complex menus and features that are best explained with graphics; and 2) no index.

Throughout the author presumes a high level of familiarity with Word, which simply may not be the case. Here's an example: "Ornments can also be made from small imported graphics. Just place them inline or float them anywhere on the page. To make them repeat on succeeding pages, insert them in headers or footers." I count at least five different concepts the reader had better know in order to comprehend this sentence. And if the reader is already familiar with these concepts, why do they need this book?

In the paragraph just above the one just quoted is another gem: "Word's support for Unicode means that many fonts have characters you can use for pure design. You can also find such characters in the old symbol and dingbat fonts." (Names uncapitalized in the original, by the way.) Again, as long as you are familiar with Unicode and its capabilities, the Symbol and Dingbat fonts, you'll do just fine. If not, you can consult the index . . . oh wait, there is no index.

Much of the content is recycled from the ubiquitous listservs and newsletters about Word.

Is it worth the price? No. You can get a full scale Word manual, such as one from The Missing Manual for a few dollars more. However, if you are already very familiar with Word and its features and just want a basic treatment of what features are most useful for setting up a manuscript for self-publishing, this book just barely may meet your needs. As for me, I am returning my copy.

Jerry

I picked this up along with the author's "Aiming At Amazon" since the small press I work with is POD and works with Word and Lightning Source (as does Shepherd) so I figured this would be an excellent educational tool for the basics of layout.

This really is an excellent introduction to the basics laying out a book in Microsoft Word (2003 and older--the 2007 update hasn't appeared yet, but it's on my want list!). Everything from properly sizing pages to tweaking text to make it look nicer is covered. The author's writing style is clear without being loaded with jargon, and he manages to describe visuals without pictures quite effectively.

There are a few things missing that I would have like to have seen covered. For example, he doesn't explain how to deal with the invisible, nonembeddable fonts that can make Lightning Source send your manuscript back to you for reformatting, nor does he explain the various formatting marks that you may have to go through if something doesn't turn out right. Additionally, his main focus seems to be the bare-bones approach to layout, rather than covering the little details that can make POD look just as good, if not better, than traditionally printed books.

However, I have found this to be an absolutely invaluable guide to basic layout. Shepherd is an expert at POD, and this is a definite plus for any POD publisher or self-publisher's bookshelf.

I picked this up along with the author's "Aiming At Amazon" since the small press I work with is POD and works with Word and Lightning Source (as does Shepherd) so I figured this would be an excellent educational tool for the basics of layout.

This really is an excellent introduction to the basics laying out a book in Microsoft Word (2003 and older--the 2007 update hasn't appeared yet, but it's on my want list!). Everything from properly sizing pages to tweaking text to make it look nicer is covered. The author's writing style is clear without being loaded with jargon, and he manages to describe visuals without pictures quite effectively.

There are a few things missing that I would have like to have seen covered. For example, he doesn't explain how to deal with the invisible, nonembeddable fonts that can make Lightning Source send your manuscript back to you for reformatting, nor does he explain the various formatting marks that you may have to go through if something doesn't turn out right. Additionally, his main focus seems to be the bare-bones approach to layout, rather than covering the little details that can make POD look just as good, if not better, than traditionally printed books.

However, I have found this to be an absolutely invaluable guide to basic layout. Shepherd is an expert at POD, and this is a definite plus for any POD publisher or self-publisher's bookshelf.

I came across this book after reading Aaron's other book, Aiming at Amazon. In that book, he referred to this one, and I found some of the tidbits he revealed in that book about typography to be compelling enough to swing for the whole book. I'm glad I did. The sneak peeks were just the tip of the iceberg - here lies the whole enchilada! From "things to do" to "things to avoid" (say "no" to the default templates, for example), Perfect Pages is a great resource for a self-publisher on a shoestring.

This little book shows you how to use a word processor to produce results that are so much better than what the usual defaults produce. The book is oriented toward Microsoft Word, but I have used the ideas both in Word and OpenOffice to produce documents that look so much better on paper. Get this book and learn how really use a word processor.

This book had exactly what I was looking for. I was writing a new set of manuals using Microsoft Word and needed to set up a new template that had all the styles and page formatting options I wanted. The book goes directly to the point and explains exaclty the options that you need to use and set for getting the character spacing or avoid typographical mistakes. I loved the fact that included information about both Windows and Mac OS versions, since I use both of them. More drawings and diagrams and perhaps a few more examples would have been nice, but all the information I needed was there. If I think about it, all those things would have made the book bigger and bulkier. I did not really skipped any sections because I thought had useless information. I read it from front to back. Note that the information provided in this book is useful for apprentice, intermediate and expert users. Some things that the author explains were common sense to me, but I did not feel they were condescending or boring. In many cases, they reinforced what I already new. Note also that this is not a user manual for Microsoft Word, nor is it the primer for book design or typesetting. It is a book that does what is says in the title. Overall, I am very happy with this book and I think that it is a great value for the price.

I enjoyed Aaron Shepard's "Perfect Pages", a clear and accessible guide for book creation using Microsoft Word instead of expensive publishing software. Shepard shows that Word actually has some advantages for publishers, tells how to make Word do what's needed, while avoiding some of Word's hazards. Thus the book delivers worthwhile Word tips for novices and experts alike---and there are more web resources at the end of the book---but it's more than that, because a book is more than a manuscript: it has to look good and read easily. "Perfect Pages" covers the details (fonts, typography, trim sizes, formatting, covers, generating PDF files, common errors . . .), showing how to make manuscripts into attractive and readable books. The book provides the ideal bridge between a Word software manual and a publishing manual (such as Morris Rosenthal's) that teaches business and strategic decisions. "Perfect Pages" is a gracefully written book that wastes few words, and minces none.
The book will be helpful to authors, in-house publishers, students preparing theses, and others.

When I decided to self-publish my first book, I was intimidated by how expensive it was going to cost to buy Page Maker and I also didn't want to spend a month learning how to use it properly. Luckily, I found Aaron's ebook on Amazon and it made it possible for me to use Word and create a professional book that was accepted by the bookstores (they have a very high standard for quality print work). Now that I'm working on my second self-published book, I'm happy to see that Aaron's ebook has been updated in a paperback format. Just like the ebook, this book is essential for learning how to use Word to professionally produce your book.

The biggest benefit of Aaron's book is his experience with using both the MS and Mac versions of Word for self-publishing. He doesn't just tell you how to set the necessary properties and list the steps to perform, he also tells you the "gotchas" that can catch you off guard. His advice can save you many hours of headaches. For example, when I wrote my last book, I didn't take the advice of "Don't use Master pages. Buy more memory if necessary to store the entire book in one file." Stupid me, I used Master pages instead and literally lost most of my hair as I watched Word continuously corrupt my documents and lose my hard work. Even some of my backups were corrupted! What I do now is that as I write the book I keep each chapter in a separate file and store it in its own folder on my harddrive (with all supporting documents). When I'm ready to print the final version I copy and paste everything into one HUGE file (over 500 pages) and print that. That works much better and I haven't lost anymore hair since. ;-)

Another benefit is that he points out the differences between using Print On Demand services versus a commercial printing press. There are important layout decisions you need to know about.

A couple things I thought were missing is that at the end of the book he lists great resources to check out, but in my opinion he doesn't empahsize James Filici's book on typography enough. I feel that this book should be read first because is has so much great informatin about typography in it. Secondly, I didn't see any mention of where to get Postscript fonts. If you check Adobe's website, they have an introductory set of fonts that give you everything you need and its much cheaper than buying individual fonts. Search for "Adobe Type Basics".

Overall, this book is just what you need to print professional quality books without using PageMaker or Quark Express. It will save money as well as future headaches.