Book Publishing Software: InDesign versus QuarkXpress

... allows you to format the pages of your book, so it will look clean, professional and improve readability. If people read your book in its entirety, they are much more likely to recommend it to others. When considering which software to purchase to layout your book, whatever you do, do not use Microsoft Word (no matter what anyone else tells you) because it is not a layout program and does not have the controls to make your book look anything but amateurish. Don't skimp here. Your book's success depends its content, look and marketing. If you're self-publishing a book, then the presentation is especially important because a professional look allows you to compete with small, medium and big name publishers. I know this for a fact, since my self-published book won a prestigious award, competing against big name authors and New York publishers to win its category.

That said, let's take a look at the book publishing software that is currently available, so you can make the choice that is best for you. First off, you must understand that this software is expensive, but it is well worth the cost. Consider it an investment that will be amortized over the cost of publishing this book and all those to follow.

In the publishing world, there are two giants: Adobe InDesign and Quark Xpress. Each has loyal followers. While Adobe has been trying to lure Quark users over to their product with new features, Quark concentrates on keeping their customer base happy, which is currently about 3 million users strong.

I own both products. I used Quark Xpress to layout my book, but I also have a copy of InDesign which I've used to layout some other projects. Without getting too heavy into the features and capabilities, here are some factors that may help you decide which book publishing software fits your needs.

Book Publishing Software

Adobe Indesign is:

• Intuitive, especially for those who are already familiar with software like Photoshop and Illustrator
• Cutting edge - Adobe is always adding features to their product line.
• The product is designed to increase productivity and workflow. (This is important for big publishing houses, but may be less important to the indie publisher who does one book at a time.
• Adobe Indesign integrates well with other products including Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, InCopy and Acrobat. Your content can be repurposed and exported in various formats from pdf (for print books and ebooks) to XHMTL and XML (for digital magazines.)
• Supports various open standards
• Interactive pages are supported. This means your ebook or digital magazine can contain movie and sound files and interactive pages that play movies or turn pages.
• Easily automate repetitive publishing tasks. This means you can create running headers and footers, advanced bullets, XML support and more.
• What you see is what you get. Graphics and color settings look the same across the Adobe line of products and most importantly, after you've taken your book to press.

When purchasing InDesign book publishing software, make sure to buy the version for your platform: Mac or PC. Also pick up a copy of the tutorial I recommend as it contains all the information you need to layout your first book. Remember that this software is complex, so just learn what you need to learn in order to create a pleasing, professional layout for your book. A tutorial will help you focus on what you need to do, instead of exploring features and tools that are irrelevant.

Book Publishing Software: Adobe InDesign for the Mac

Adobe InDesign CS3 v.5.0 - Complete Product - Standard - 1 User - Mac, Intel-based Mac Explore more creative possibilities and experience new levels of productivity using Adobe InDesign CS3 page layout software. Built for demanding workflows, InDesign integrates smoothly with Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, InCopy, and Dreamweaver software; offers powerful features for creating richer, more complex documents; and reliably outputs pages to multiple media. With its sophisticated design features and enhanced productivity tools for streamlining repetitive tasks, InDesign CS3 lets you work faster and better than ever.

Book Publishing Software: Adobe InDesign for the PC

Adobe InDesign CS3 v.5.0 - Upgrade - Product Upgrade - Standard - 1 User - PC Explore more creative possibilities and experience new levels of productivity using Adobe InDesign CS3 page layout software. Built for demanding workflows, InDesign integrates smoothly with Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, InCopy, and Dreamweaver software; offers powerful features for creating richer, more complex documents; and reliably outputs pages to multiple media. With its sophisticated design features and enhanced productivity tools for streamlining repetitive tasks, InDesign CS3 lets you work faster and better than ever.

Book Publishing Software: Adobe InDesign Classroom in a Book

Adobe Indesign CS3: Classroom in a Book: The Official Training Workbook from Adobe Systems with CDROM This thorough, self-paced guide to Adobe InDesign CS3 is ideal for beginning users who want to master the key features of this program, while readers who already have some experience with InDesign can use this book to familiarize themselves with InDesign CS3's newest features. Using step-by-step, project-based lessons, each chapter contains a project that builds upon the reader's growing knowledge of the program, while review questions at the end of each chapter reinforce the most important skills learned in each lesson. The companion CD contains all the assets readers will need to work through each project in the book. Adobe InDesign CS3, Adobe's page layout and design software, has been updated to accelerate user productivity with loads of new features: new Photoshop effects--including gradient feathering, inner shadows, and glows--that you can apply to objects on a page; finer transparency controls, which let you apply transparency settings independently to an object's fill, stroke, and content for more complex visual looks; numerous productivity enhancements; advanced find/change features; new table and cell styles; export to XHTML, and more.

Book Publishing Software: Quark Xpress

Quark Xpress has a huge base of happy users around the world. Although their software has lacked some features in the past, their most recent version has brought Quark Xpress up to date with significant improvements in workflow, features and the ability to define projects and layouts. While Quark Xpress once had most of its controls in dialog boxes, in the new version they are located on a palette for easy access and instant feedback. The software has all the features you'll need to create a professional-looking layout.

If you are a professional designer who collaborates with others on books and magazine, this product has top-notch features allowing for changes to be made across shared documents in real-time with controls in place to manage document specs, color management settings and the like.

Since I'm guessing that most of you will not require advanced features such as this, I will tell you that Quark can import Photoshop files and handle transparencies more effectively than InDesign (allowing you to use real numbers, rather than a slider bar). Quark Xpress will also allow you to add drop shadows to text or graphics and skew those shadows.

Book Publishing Software: Quark Xpress

Quark XPress v.7.0 - 1 User - PC, Mac, Intel-based Mac QuarkXPress 7 is the only design and page layout software that offers the revolutionary Composition Zones technology. Enable multiple users to collaborate on a single design at the same time from anywhere on the planet. Manage your images with in the layout image editing. Controls such as scaling, cropping, and rotation are managed by a built-in image engine. Globally set images for the correct resolution and dramatically reduce your print times.

Quark Xpress tutorial:

If you'd prefer to focus on writing content and let someone else attend to the business of book publication (including designing the cover, laying out the book, getting the ISBN, etc.), then we recommend Mill City Press - they will do all the work for one reasonable fee and you get to keep the rights and all the profits from your book sales. It's the best of both worlds for busy writers.