Red Book specs are all the unimportant stuff you need to know about authoring a CD-R that would be ready for duplication.
If you have software that you have bought in say the last year that author's CD-R's for a burner on your computer, or a stand alone CD burner, it will do it to Red Book standards by default. Nothing to worry about.
But you should be aware that if you send a CD-R to a mastering house without a detailed track sheet with all the timing information, the client will probably be charged a "mastering" fee. It only takes a phone call to the duplicator to find out just exactly what they need. Usually the track length information must be down the the frame. And they also want to know EXACTLY when the music starts, which is 2:00 on the CD. The first two minutes on a CD is reserved for TOC information and what not.
There you go, you can take the sunglasses off now!
Ed