One of the costs to consider if you want to self-publish is the cost of the software. I publish low content books and I use Affinity Publisher to design these books.
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Affinity Publisher is great, but it does have a fairly steep learning curve.
However, it is worth persevering and learning how to use it.
What is Affinity Publisher?
Affinity Publisher is a publishing program. With it, you can create single page or multi page documents. It is not a web based program so you will need a Mac or Windows PC or laptop to download and use it.
Affinity Publisher is widely seen as an alternative to InDesign. I have never used InDesign so can't comment on the similarities, or differences, but I do like using Affinity Publisher.
What Can I Do With Affinity Publisher?
OK, so it is a publishing program but what does that mean? What exactly can you do with Affinity Publisher?
With Affinity Publisher, you can combine words and images in a document. This means you can produce magazines, brochures, and even physical books. You can't use it to produce Kindle books currently though. There are work arounds if you really wanted to do this, but I don't use it for my kindle books at the moment. It would certainly be nice when this option is added though!
Now of course you could use Microsoft Word or PowerPoint to produce a document with words and images. Affinity Publisher gives you more functionality and is more professional.
However, I know many people who produce low content books using PowerPoint and they are just as professional as those created with a publishing program. So you can certainly publish low content books without it. But like many things, it is a tool that can make things a bit easier.
Is Affinity Publisher Expensive?
One of the things that puts people off learning tools like InDesign is that they are fairly expensive. I would place Affinity Publisher squarely in the 'cheap' camp. It is also one of the rare systems that you can buy for a one off price (at the time of writing).
At the moment, it is less than £50 which is an absolute bargain. You can also take it for a spin with a free trial.
They do quite often have sales, so if you are not in a rush it might be worth waiting to see if you can buy it at a discounted rate. Check to see if they have a Black Friday Sale for example.
I loved Affinity Publisher so much that I also bought their other 2 applications which are Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo. I think once you learn to use it, you quickly become a fan!
Penny xx
Penny,
Many thanks for the four printable that are available on the Kindle, and Kindle app, that introduce you to Affinity Publisher basic use. I am about to follow your book 1 and then books 2, 3 & 4. I have read book 1 and it inspires me; I am sure I will have a couple of booklets under my belt in no time.
I’ll progress through the other books and produce printables. After that I will use the Affinity Publisher tutorials to develop my use of the app.
Ever since the nineties when I first became aware of Serif, the company behind Affinity Publisher, they have sold top class “office” software at prices the individual could afford. So I have no doubt that it is worth me getting this skill and will be able to use it for all the years to come.
Once again Penny, my thanks to you for this excellent introduction to Affinity Publisher.
Thank you Peter for your kind words. As you say, I do think the software is good and affordable. The problem with any software like this is it seems so complicated to start with. Then you suddenly realise that you are easily doing things that you used to have to use a crib sheet to do. Then you start going beyond the basics and looking to see what else it can do. I have all 3 Affinity products and probably only use about 20% of their capabilities, but I am happy that I know what I need to use.