Beginning in the late 1980's (and early 1990's), QuarkXpress and Adobe have tussled to see who would reign supreme and become the top choice in desktop publishing. In the 1980's Aldus Inc. had a desktop publishing program called PageMaker.

Aftewards, QuarkXpress Inc. released QuarkXPress, which become Aldus's main competition. Throughout this ongoing saga, QuarkXpress became victorious in the 1990's when PageMaker could not keep up with the competition.

In 1995, Aldus was bought out by Adobe, but PageMaker was not to become Adobe's main goal—they had their sights set elsewhere. They had other ideas up their sleeve. Since QuarkXpress become victorious, they slowed production of their software, and updates slowed too. Many years later, Adobe came to release InDesign, which was meant to be the "QuarkXpress Killer".

Adobe has made many successful applications. If it is for world wide web, or print they seem to have covered everything. Adobe InDesign adds to Adobe's high-end lineup of programs. Many who currently use other Adobe products, such as Photoshop, or Illustrator, will notice the similarity in interfaces. This makes it great for switching from one program to the next, because many of the tools are the same. A great example of this is that you cannot take an Adobe Photoshop file into QuarkXpress, but you can do this with Adobe InDesign.

Those who are working on switching from QuarkXpress to Adobe InDesign. however, have faced difficulties in adjusting to the new layout and manner by which things work. If you are a die-hard QuarkXpress user and you do not feel like giving Adobe InDesign an opportunity, then you might just want to recosnider that. 

Many users are changing over from QuarkXpress to Adobe InDesign because there is a need in the market for a solution that works. With Adobe dropping new products with great new features every couple of years, you will always be ahead. To be fair, QuarkXpress has been the industry standard for desktop publishing for a long time, and it is a great layout application. I guess it really all boils down to personal preference in the end.

Like PC vs. Mac, it comes down to how you like the feel about all the pros and cons.

With Adobe striving to do new and better things all the time, I feel Adobe InDesign is the best choice.

If you are someone that uses QuarkXpress, it is a good idea for you to take a look and get familiar with InDesign. This goes the same for Adobe Dobe InDesign users, learning a bit about QuarkXpress won't hurt you, it can only help you as you move forward.

Often print-on-demand (POD) looks great. You can publish one book at a time when it's ordered.

But, think again. After many years of writers coming to me saying they did not make the return on their investment going with a POD, and my research noticing the poor returns from POD, I say consider all the options.

Some Things to consider before you go with POD

1. Take notice how many other writers and books are listed on the POD webpage.  Like a store, your audience wo not go to the POD site looking for your specific book. In fact, the people who go are other writers like you. They do not want to buy your book, they visit because they think this is a simple way to be on a webpage where one can sell books. So who will buy?
2. Take notice that when you do get listed you get only a few hundred words to describe reasons people should buy your book. That's not enough to compel yourvisitor to buy your book. Without a doubt, the writers that make real cash are the ones who put up an book webpage. Talk about easy. You can make a three-page book sales letter site that when marketed, will bring only the prime prospects to it. The ones who are already your targeted market. These kind of sites cost less than $550. That's a low outlay for a big pay off.
3. POD does not mean publishing. These places are not really publishers just because they take your book and make digital copies for you. They are publishers. If they are publishers, then they are really charging too much. And, they have control of your book and can charge you 40-50% premium before you get copies of you book. If you go POD, it's much better to go with a POD publisher such as Deharts.com where you maintain full control of the book. You or your fulfillment person takes delivery of the books and distributes as you need. Your coach advises to publish only the number you can sell in three to four months. Now, you have more cash to spend on promotion, publicity, and marketing.
4. Research the POD company well. Has it been in business for years and has a solid record? If they go out of business, your book goes out too. One popular POD company may be cheap, but you cannot talk to a real person for customer service. Automatic or email service is no service. Recently, one really fine writer researched 10 of them and was totally confused. I asked him what were the prices and service promised? Over $3000 for some. He was not sure what he got for that. Many places charge little to publish, but require extra cash for editing, proofs, art work, and marketing kits.