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<blockquote data-quote="Prest0" data-source="post: 3367983" data-attributes="member: 13621">I guess I'll be the dissenting opinion. If your intention is to do all copyediting, proofreading, art, and layout-- basically everything involved in putting together a book short of putting it on a printing press and getting it into distribution--then by all means something like InDesign is the way to go. You can safely ignore everything below. Otherwise, keep reading.If you're writing this masterpiece without a publishing contract in hand, you need to rethink your priorities. THIS publisher wants a clean manuscript in MS Word over an InDesign file any day. Our production cycle is such that manuscripts get proofed and edited in Word by a team of people. It's a lot easier to pass Word files back and forth than it is to pass around InDesign files. If a freelancer sent me an InDesign file, I'd export the text as an RTF file, do all the edits, then re-lay it out. The fact that you don't already own layout software and are asking for advice tells me that you're not proficient in layout. Focus on what you're good at (presumably writing), and let publishers focus on their strengths.In short, don't waste your money on layout software unless you plan on self publishing. And don't try to self publish unless you've at least *tried* to get an established publisher to pick it up.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Prest0, post: 3367983, member: 13621"] I guess I'll be the dissenting opinion. If your intention is to do all copyediting, proofreading, art, and layout-- basically everything involved in putting together a book short of putting it on a printing press and getting it into distribution--then by all means something like InDesign is the way to go. You can safely ignore everything below. Otherwise, keep reading. If you're writing this masterpiece without a publishing contract in hand, you need to rethink your priorities. THIS publisher wants a clean manuscript in MS Word over an InDesign file any day. Our production cycle is such that manuscripts get proofed and edited in Word by a team of people. It's a lot easier to pass Word files back and forth than it is to pass around InDesign files. If a freelancer sent me an InDesign file, I'd export the text as an RTF file, do all the edits, then re-lay it out. The fact that you don't already own layout software and are asking for advice tells me that you're not proficient in layout. Focus on what you're good at (presumably writing), and let publishers focus on their strengths. In short, don't waste your money on layout software unless you plan on self publishing. And don't try to self publish unless you've at least *tried* to get an established publisher to pick it up. [/QUOTE]

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