[scribus] PDF X/1a:2001 again.

[John Culleton]

On Sunday 16 August 2009 10:22:27 pm Murray Strome wrote:
> On Saturday, August 15, 2009 1:33 PM,  "Craig"
> <cbradney at zip.com.au> wrote:
>
>                 John Culleton wrote:
> > My old nemesis LSI is still insisting on the above PDF format;
> > otherwise they will run the cover file through a process that
> > rasterizes the file.  When it comes to access to Amazon it is
> > their bat and their ball and you have to play the game their
> > way.
> >
> > I remember that some time back this standard was in the summer
> > of code or something like that.  It is not in 1.3.5.1 however.
> >
> > If there was another way to get economical access to Amazon I
> > would surely use it, but there isn't AFAICT.
>
> Erm.. what about our CreateSpace Self-Publishing service?
> http://www.createspace.com/
>
> Craig
>
> What about Trafford Publishing?
> http://www.trafford.com/AboutUs/default.aspx
>
>
>
>      
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Trafford is a subsidy, which means the unit cost is way too high, 
the reviewers will reject it out of hand because of the subsidy 
imprint etc.  There are 58 subsidies listed in "The Fine Print"  
grouped by desirability into five groups. Trafford is classed in 
the bottom group.  If you want to know why read the book. Most of 
the subsidies use either LSI or Booksurge for the printing and 
distibution so it makes no sense to have a middleman. 
Booksurge and CreateSpace are essentially the same outfit.

The top subsidies in my study of success on Amazon were Booklocker, 
Infinity and Lulu in that order. Booklocker had a two to one 
advantage in Amazon rankings over the next highest.   All three 
will let you use your own ISBN and imprint,  an absolute 
requirement IMO.  But I don't wnat to use any subsidy, for reasons 
stated above. 

I am looking for four things in a POD printer:
1. Good quality printing.
2. Access to Amazon
3. Reasonable unit cost.
4. Ability to use my own choice of software: TeX for the interiior 
and Scribus for the cover. 

LSI meets all the above except for number 4.  LSI really want syou 
to use InDesign, Distiller,  and X/1a:2001. Createspace is more 
liberal on covers, has a reasonable unit cost,  but requires a 
higher discount on Amazon than LSI which decreases my profit 
margin. And with Createspace the jury is still out on quality. I 
will test.

See my short list below for info on "The Fine Print." 

Like Diogenes with his lamp I am still looking for the ideal digital 
printer and distribution channel. If and when I can get X/1a:2001 
output from Scribus I will go with LSI.  

It would also help mightily if Scribus had a merge layers feature 
like Gimp, so that I could use transparency, blends etc. and still 
get pdf 1.3 output. Consider that a feature request. 

Happy Monday, everyone. 

-- 
John Culleton
Able Indexers and Typesetters
http://wexfordpress.com
For books on self-publishing please consult:
http://wexfordpress.com/tex/shortlist.pdf