A Few Tips
I've picked up a few PDF books here and there and looked them over, and have a few opinions:
Stop doing layout in Word. Or if you just have to do it in word, put a little more effort into it then hitting 'Save As...' and using the PDF option. There are many many options that I've seen ignored, and wonder if people are ignorant of them, or just don't care...
#1: Bookmarks. Use the bookmark feature in order to allow the reader to quickly flip back to the chapter they were reading.
#2: Hyperlinks. If you need a glossary for certain terms, having a hyperlink to that section of the glossary can be a big help to the reader.
#3: Embedded notes. Another useful feature, you can use to give the reader more indepth information on something. Use this sparingly, as if used improperly it can be annoying to the reader.
#4: Footers and Headers. For God Sake, get these right. Then can be placed inside, but bleed area is another good place to put it. However, this is a PDF, so you don't have to worry about the print. Use the header and footer option to correctly lay out both sections. Adjust it carefully so that the font is clear, and positioned correctly. Do NOT make the headers and footers into hyperlinks.
#5: Artwork. This is a PDF, full color artwork, diagrams, whatever you want to use, will not add to any printing cost. You can add chapter header artwork to pop the chapter head. Speaking of artwork...
#6: Backgrounds. You can do background either a single image for the whole book, or a different image for each chapter. You should adjust the opacity in order to make the text really pop, and with a little work you can have the image be faded almost all the way toward the center, gradually coming into focus until it is sharp and clear in the margins. Speaking of margins:
#7: Border artwork. There's nothing wrong with having a border to the text. Don't make it an overly busy artwork, and keep it specific to the story genre. (Don't do servos and wiring for a medieval story, or flowers and fairies for a cyberpunk book)
#8: Use a standard font for text, and do not alter it. Follow the rules of italics, underlining, and bold text. Since PDF reading software allows someone to focus in on the book, you can use between 8 pt and 10 pt, but avoid 11+ pt.
#10: Use a standard font for chapter titles/numbering. Don't keep swapping fonts. It looks bad.
#11: Make sure the font is easy to read. Look at it with several screen resolutions, use several different software to read it. Don't get overly fancy with fonts, if it is hard to read, you're just going to make the readers angry.
#12: Font color should remain black, although having the chapter headers be a different color can work. Same with section headers. But still stick with black.
#13: If you know how, use CYMK and e-ready colors, to make sure that the colors were same across the board.
#14: EMBED YOUR FONTS!
#15: Make sure that your graphics are correctly set, otherwise you end up with low-rez versions in your book, and it looks like crap. Know why the graphics keep coming out bad? You have to go into the properties and adjust the display options, as well as avoid doing too high of web optimization or compression. Beyond a certain point, compression is NOT your friend.
#16: Last but not least, with a PDF, you can slice out a few pages to use as a free download example.
While these aren't hard and fast rules, the days of blank white PDF's are over. If you know the right coding, and have the right software, you can even lay out your book for iPhone/iPod use.
If nothing else, even if you disagree with everyone, start using bookmarks.
IF Wildturkey.obj == TRUE
THEN Happy.obj ++4
fcall getbooze.lib
ELSE Happy.obj -- 2
IF Women.obj == TRUE
Then Happy.obj ++10
ELSE Happy.obj -- 2
fcall getwoman.lib
IF firearm.obj == TRUE
Then Happy.obj ++ 2
ELSE Happy.obj --1
END CODE
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