Affinity Publisher for Fiction Layouts: Affinity Publisher for Self-Publishing, #1

By M.L. Humphrey

Most self-publishers focus their time and attention on publishing ebooks. And when they do publish in print they tend to use either Word or Vellum or the print option provided by D2D.

For those who want to move beyond the constraints of these choices, Affinity Publisher is one of the best options available. It's a one-time purchase software that allows for a fully-customized print layout. The only limitation is the skill of the user.

This book aims to give beginners to Affinity Publisher the skills to create a basic print layout for a fiction title that includes a title page, also by page, copyright information, about the author, and, of course, the main body of the document. The layout created in this book also includes an image in the front matter, back matter, and chapter starts to add a little something extra.

To use this book you should be familiar with the basics of how to work in a Microsoft Office-type program, so know what dropdowns, dialogue boxes, etc. are. Ideally you should also know the basics of formatting for print although that will be mentioned as we go.

So if you're ready to take your print fiction formatting to the next level, then click buy and let's get started.

• Language: English
• Publisher: M.L. Humphrey
• Release date: Oct 4, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201945756

M.L. Humphrey

Hi there Sci Fi fans, my name is Maurice Humphrey.I am a Vermont native, husband, father, grandfather, well over 60, Navy veteran, retired IBM engineer, retired printer repairman, Graduated: Goddard Jr. College, VT Technical College, and Trinity College. Over the years I’ve written technical articles, taught technical classes, and presented at technical conventions.I’ve been reading science fiction for over 50 years now. First books were “Journey to the Centre of the Earth” by Jules Verne and “The Stars Are Ours” by Andre Norton. I’ve read and collected many great stories, and a considerable amount of junk ones as well. I’d say by now that I probably have a good idea of what I consider a good story.

Book preview

Affinity Publisher for Fiction Layouts

ALSO BY M.L. HUMPHREY

Affinity Publisher 2.0 for Self-Publishing

Affinity Publisher 2.0 for Book Formatting Part 1

Affinity Publisher 2.0 for Book Formatting Part 2

Affinity Publisher for Self-Publishing

Affinity Publisher for Fiction Layouts

Affinity Publisher for Ad Creatives

Affinity Publisher for Basic Book Covers

Affinity Publisher for Non-Fiction

Affinity Publisher for Self-Publishing Collections

Affinity Publisher for Book Formatting

Affinity Publisher for Ads and Covers

Data Analysis for Self-Publishers

Sell That Book

AFFINITY PUBLISHER FOR FICTION LAYOUTS

AFFINITY PUBLISHER FOR SELF-PUBLISHING - BOOK 1

M.L. HUMPHREY

CONTENTS

Introduction

A Brief Introduction to Affinity

Get Started With Publisher

Set Up Your Workspace

Set Up a New File Template

Master Pages

Simple Title Page

Add Title Page to the Document

Change Image

Also By Page

Add Also By Master Page to Document

Copyright and Chapter Start Master Page

Text and Chapter Start Master Page

Text and Text Master Page

Build the Beginning of Your Document

Text Flow Between Frames

Add Your Main Body Text

Text Styles

First Paragraph Text Style

Main Body Text Style

Chapter Heading Text Style

Apply Main Body Text Style To All

Assess Your Appearance

Section Breaks

Find and Replace for Chapter Headings

The Main Body of Your Document

Apply Text Styles

Apply Master Pages

Manually Fix Widows and Orphans

Fix Justified Paragraph Issues

Create More Master Pages

No Text and Chapter Start Master Page

Chapter Start and Text Master Page

Fix Missing Italics or Bolded Text

Assign a Page One

Tidy Up

Add Back Matter

Text and No Text Master Page

No Text and Section Start Master Page

Finalize Back Matter

Preflight

Export a PDF

Reuse An Old Book

Conclusion

Appendix A: Quick Takes

Appendix B: Create a Book From an Existing File

About the Author

Copyright

INTRODUCTION

This book is a guide to walk users through how to create a print layout for a fiction title in Affinity Publisher.

When I first started self-publishing I just used Microsoft Word to format both my ebooks and paperbacks. And there’s a certain advantage to using Word that I still think makes it a valid choice for new self-publishers. Most people are already comfortable with it, and as long as you know how to use Styles and Breaks you can put together an acceptable book.

There are obviously a few tricks involved when it comes to using Word for print, and I definitely had a few moments of struggling with page numbering and tables of contents over the years.

For example, if you are doing non-fiction and want a blank even-numbered page before your next chapter start that requires using a section break and then removing the page number in that section only and making sure the page number didn’t get edited on any other pages. Annoying, but doable.

So if you’re brand new to self-publishing and drowning in everything you need to learn to publish your books, then maybe stick with Word. Or, get Vellum. That’s where I went next in my quest to create pretty ebooks and paperbacks. I’m not even a Mac user, but it was worth it to me to spend $250 to get a used Mac to use Vellum on my books and I still use it for my ebooks.

Vellum is a nice, easy-to-use formatting option for both ebook and print. And, trust me, I looked into all those other options that people suggested at the time for ebooks, but Vellum won hands down because it didn’t require a ton of expertise to use.

When they came out with their print option I was happy to use that for my novels.

(I never used it for most of my non-fiction because they just didn’t have the level of control I want for complex non-fiction that includes sub-sections and images and indexes, etc.)

So, again, if you’re new to self-publishing and want to invest in one single software to get started, I’d actually recommend Vellum. It’s great for ebook formatting and it’ll do the basics for print formatting which is what most self-published authors need when they’re getting started.

But if you’re like me, you’re ultimately going to want more control. I already mentioned my issues with respect to non-fiction and even on the fiction side I personally have an issue with how they handle widows and orphans.

Now, the old-school recommendation is to move to Adobe InDesign at that point. But I did a trial and I didn’t like it. I also hate subscription-based software with a passion. Which ultimately led me to Affinity, and Affinity Publisher in particular. One flat fee and a great product.

I’ve now used it to format probably a hundred or more titles and am still very pleased with it. But there is a learning curve involved.

You can do what I did to learn Affinity Publisher, which is watch the videos they have for free on their website (https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/tutorials/publisher/desktop/), search for help on the internet, and use good old-fashioned trial and error.

That works if you’re the type of personality I am who likes to learn that way. I think their videos are excellent. My problem with that approach was that the videos weren’t in the order I needed them to be. I didn’t have the background to put them into context and some of the videos I most needed to start with—like Master Pages—were much further down on the page so I thought I wasn’t going to be able to learn from them.

Another learning option, of course, is this book or the videos I put together on the same topic. The advantage to having this book is that I will walk through from start to finish how I put together a fiction book so everything is in the order (for the most part) that works best for fiction layouts.

I say for the most part because ideally you have all of your Master Pages and Text Styles set up before you begin (and you will after we create your first book), but for me the most intuitive way to build that first book involves a little bit of back and forth setting all of that up. So if that occasional let’s go back and add this bit moment will throw you then I still may not be the best choice for you.

But if you stick with me, then by the time you finish this book and/or watch the videos, you should have your first fiction book ready to go and have a firm grasp of all of the steps and skills that are needed to create a basic fiction book that includes an accent font, a main body font, and an image that is used in the front matter and chapter headings.

(By the way, the videos are available for purchase at ml-humphrey.teachable.com and there’s a discount code available at the back of the book. You can also buy a template similar to what we’re going to create here at payhip.com/mlhumphrey, but I think going through the book and building your first one from scratch is the best way to learn these skills.)

So it’s your choice how to learn Affinity Publisher. However you do it, I think it’s well worth learning.

Also, if you’re new to my books, be advised up front that I am focused in on what you need to know to get this particular job done, so don’t expect 100% mastery of every little bell and whistle the program offers. I personally find books like that overwhelming and like to just get right to the meat of what I need to know, but that may not work for all personalities.

Also, the folks at Affinity are continually improving their programs, so what I say now could change. For example, there have been times when I went looking for a functionality in the Affinity suite and it didn’t exist but then it was there in the next release. So this is written as of this moment in time (September 2021).

Another note. I am working on a PC so the screenshots you’ll see are based on that version of Affinity. Where I use Ctrl shortcuts on an Apple you’d use Command instead.

Finally, I’m going to assume in this book that you can handle the basics of working in a Microsoft Office-style program that has dropdowns and dialogue boxes, etc. (If you don’t know what Control shortcuts (like Ctrl + C to copy), dialogue boxes, dropdowns, etc. are then maybe start with my book Word for Beginners which defines all of those things. It’s obviously for a different software, but that basic functionality and terminology holds across programs and having at least that level of understanding is kind of essential for what we’re going to do here.)

I’m also going to assume that you know the basics of formatting for print. If you are