margins of printed book different from the original's

[potetjp]

Hello. My wordprocessor is WordPerfect X5, probably the best.

I recently had a book printed in the the US Trade format. My margins are  equal and set to 1.52cm.

The left and right margins of the printed page measure 1.52cm. Unfortunately, the top margin measures about 2.3cm, and the bottom margin is 3.2cm high. What mistake did I make?

This is not a big problem, but a reader said the inequality of the margins gave an amateurish look to my book.

[Ken Anderson]

Did you set your WP page size to the same as the final book size. Did you create a PDF. Was that also the same size?

[morelandjoe]

potetjp

It has been my experience that the print shop can be the source of margin problems.  I've had a couple of books printed through Lulu that come back with really crappy trim jobs...left hand pages with virtually no outside margin while the right hand pages look great.  I've also had 6X9 books trimmed to 6X8 7/8.  When I complained to Lulu (and provided them with photos of the mess) they reprinted for me and gave me a voucher for a future order.  I'm not sure that's the problem you're having but if the margins are right on your manuscript, I'd suspect a printer goof.

[kevinlomas]

Yes, me also Joe. I now set mine to .75 inch and a gutter, to allow for it.

[potetjp]

Yes, Ken, following the advice you gave me several weeks ago, I created a metric template with WordPerfect X5 for US Trade books (6 x 9 inches): 15.2cm x 22.9cm. I formatted my book accordingly, created its PDF, and uploaded it to Lulu. Everything worked fine except the top and bottom margins that are too wide. 

[potetjp]

Moreland Joe, now that I think of it, the US Trade format doesn't exist in France. So it is quite possible that the French printer adjusted the file to the closest equivalent. Apart from the top and bottom margins, the book is well made.

A5 (14.8cm x 21.0cm) is what we have here in this size bracket. I cannot upload a A5 PDF file because Lulu doesn't accept them. I tried it, and it didn't work.

[kevinlomas]

I don't think it matters where a book size exists or not. Lulu will have them printed where it is possible and it's just shipped out to whereever.

[Ken Anderson]

Would you like to send me your PDF.

[potetjp]

This is very kind of you, Ken. Why not?

[potetjp]

Ken, for the moment I am waiting for two things.

1) the delivery of the Adobe Acrobat pro package

2) an annotated copy of my book by a friend

So the new PDF won't be ready until next week.