Picture Book Dummy
-
I've not used it a lot, but the Affinity suite of products is getting rave reviews... I like the iPad versions of their stuff, and I know that people are flocking to it for exactly the reason you articulated--it's a one time purchase making it much much much cheaper. It's $50. Period.
They make an alternative to InDesign called "Publisher"... Might it be a possibility?
Children's Illustration Portfolio: https://www.coreyartusillustration.com
Art Portfolio: https://www.coreyartusimagery.com
Mastodon: https://mindly.social/@Coreyartus
Pixelfed: https://pixelfed.social/Coreyartus -
There’s an open source software called Scribus that I find a bit clunky and hard to use, but I’ve used it for a book dummy before. It’s free, so it seemed worth a try.
-
I just did a quick search "online jpg to pdf converter". This one pops up in the search result:
https://smallpdf.com/jpg-to-pdf
Probably worth to try if you just need to combine a bunch of images into a single pdf. -
@Coreyartus I'll check it out, thank you!
-
More and more I was doing everything in InDesign and I believe that readers much better than the publishing houses do. Scribus this open-source InDesign alternative is very popular and is used all over the world.
-
@roses thanks! I'll check out Scribus.
-
@KaraDaniel
When I’m working with a publisher on my own book (where I’m both writer and illustrator) they want to see first a pdf dummy and a word document with the manuscript. Afterwards, I’m sending them PDFs with updates, usually in 3 rounds - first clean sketches, second full colour images, third illustrations with text together (if I do the lettering).
However when I work on someone else’s book, we are sending pictures back and forth with people from the publishing house, because there could be a lot of changes and updates. It is usually also in a PDF form.
I do use indesign a lot, but I don’t think it’s a necessity if you are not expected to deliver text and illustrations together. I would always create a nice clean pdf with updates of your work to send the publisher though. But you do not need indesign for this. -
@mag thanks for your insightful response! When you make your dummy books do you include the words in your pdf images or just in the accompanying manuscript?
-
@KaraDaniel yes, I do. I usually do not stress about making the lettering super cool, I just place the words in the space where I plan to have it, and if you do not use any fancy graphic program, I think you could print the manuscript, cut it into pieces and glue it onto the pages along side the sketches maybe? Or do a nice clean hand lettering... ? Good luck with your book dummy! And if you would feel comfortable sharing a little bit of it with us here, that would be really cool!
-
@mag great ideas! I'll be sharing here soon
