Goliath

[AFY7]

I am a freelance book interior designer. I am essentially self-taught, but I love doing this, and I am learning. (Sample attached.) I try to find work via freelancer platforms like Upwork and Guru.com.

Question:  how do you deal with clients who know little about publishing books or desktop publishing and yet insist their print-ready PDF must be created with InDesign? I recently sent a potential employer, who had very modest design needs, this rather ineloquent explanation—which isn't likely to persuade him:

 

Quote

Hi, Glen!

I'd be happy to design your book's interior.

It is a common misconception that printers require the use of InDesign. I use Affinity Publisher instead of InDesign. The final output (pint-ready PDF meeting the printer's specifications) is identical regardless of the software employed. In addition, I can create a single PDF that will meet the specifications of both Amazon and IngramSpark.

If you are seeking commercial success with your book, it is advisable to have a professional cover designer do the cover, although I can do that also.

Thank you!

 

Any and all advice is welcome!

Book-Formatting-Sample-A.zip

[Andy05]

I usually ask them a question in return: "If you hire a worker to fix things in your house, do you insist that he uses the brand of tools you like most? Or do you think he's enough of an expert to know which tools work best for him?"

[NotMyFault]

25 minutes ago, AFY7 said:

Question:  how do you deal with clients who know little about publishing books or desktop publishing and yet insist their print-ready PDF must be created with InDesign?

Being of „little knowledge“ might explain why their hesitate to change a working process. Every change is a risk, and because they are no expert in that area they want to avoid a risk they cannot evaluate, and hesitate to trust unknown people like you.

Next, when i would be in the client position reading your message, i would directly put your contact on my block list and never call you again. It could be mis-read a bit bossy. Try to think from his perspective and would make him comfortable to change, assure him that there is no risk, or you will be covering the risk (e.g. if the work will not be accepted, i will re-export it from xyz)

 

You could explain the advantages, calm their fears about the risk, make suggestions - and provide evidence about your claims which can be checked by the client (e.g. giving references to client tasks you did with Affinity and were accepted by the listed platforms)

[tudor]

If you agree with the client that the deliverable is a print-ready PDF, then you don't even have to tell them what software you use.

If they insist on a certain format, it's most likely because they want the source file too.

[GarryP]

2 hours ago, AFY7 said:

The final output (pint-ready PDF meeting the printer's specifications) is identical regardless of the software employed.

I think it’s worth noting that a PDF produced by, for example, InDesign compared to a PDF produced by something like Publisher will not be identical.

The software will create the PDF containing a field named “PDF Producer” (that’s the name displayed in Adobe Acrobat) which, generally, says which software produced the file.

It’s unfortunate but some print shops will simply not accept PDFs which don’t have an Adobe application name in that field, for whatever business/personal reason(s).

If the client’s print shop will only accept Adobe-produced PDFs then the client will probably only accept Adobe-produced PDFs.

It’s not an optimal situation, but it’s one which exists.