Self-Publishing Advice from Mark Twain

Famous for more than a few pithy quotes, as well as great stories, Mark Twain once said, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble, it’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”

I was reminded of this quote the other day when I opened an email from the owner of a new website that offered designers the opportunity to “upload your works and set prices for each one of them.” A visit to the site revealed that these “works” would be offered to self-publishers who would then “edit the image in our in-browser editor, change the book cover size, and put various text on it.” Then came the comment, “Most self-published books have crappy covers because self-published authors have tight budgets and cannot afford to hire a professional book cover designer.”

There are so many issues here I hardly know where to begin. For starters, the site owner ignores the entire field of typography, and apparently believes that authors can “put various text” on a nice picture and wind up with a quality cover. He and his customers should only know how many hours designers spend on a book cover.

Once a concept is created, it’s not uncommon for a designer to experiment for quite awhile with different font combinations, in different sizes, in different arrangements, using different colors, until the look is “just so”. And that’s before we show the cover to the client, which is often followed by even more adjustments.

In the FAQ section for authors, the site doesn’t explain what happens after authors create their covers and send the resulting file to a printer. Were adequate margins left all around so that the printer will not reject the file? Was the correct amount of bleed added? Is the spine size accurate to 2 or 3 decimal places? Is the image CMYK and in the proper resolution? Does the digital file meet the printer’s ink limit requirement? Is the browser view of the file anywhere near accurate, so that there will be no nasty surprises when the printer’s proof arrives? All of these issues and more are quietly taken care of by a competent book cover designer.

Pity the poor authors who spend hard-earned money on this site because they “know” that “book cover design is easy” and “anyone can do it”. When they send these files to the printer, they’ll be informed that all of the above issues (and more) do matter. Quite often today, the printer is a large “self-publishing company” with tens of thousands of customers, so the bad news will be delivered by a software “robot” that names the problem, but doesn’t explain how to fix it. What follows is often a frustrating loop of file submissions and rejections that can make anyone question why they wrote a book in the first place.

It’s not difficult to understand why authors are attracted to free or low cost design services. Most admit that they’re not sure if the book will sell, so they don’t want to spend money. But this approach can become a self-fulfilling prophecy; a poor book cover can doom a great book to failure when buyers pass it over for another that looks more professional.

Once the writing is done, you’re not an author anymore; you’re a publisher with a different goal…generating sales. To do that, you must “package” your work so that it appeals to buyers.

My advice? Hit the pause button and consider saving up until you can afford to give your book the cover and interior design it deserves…that your buyer demands, knowingly or not.

Please take Mark Twain’s advice to heart. Forget what you “know” about book cover design and consider hiring someone who really does know. Your book will look better, and sell better, and that’s smart business.

1106 Design offers 5 levels of book cover design to meet every need and almost every budget. How can we help you?

What Do Book Designers Do, Anyway?

With the availability of text processing tools now available to everyone, book design has become a misunderstood craft. It’s not uncommon for book designers to receive a request to “convert my Word file into a PDF for the printer.” While there are certainly some so-called designers who will do just that, the result will be…um…just like your Word file and nothing like a real book.

Experienced book designers don’t just “click a button” that makes the text automatically snap into final form. We work line by line, word by word, and sometimes letter by letter to achieve optimal spacing between words and letters to maximize reading comprehension and minimize reader distractions.

Here are just a few of the issues book designers attend to during the formatting process to give your book a professional appearance:

The first step in designing the interior of your book is to create a sample chapter. A good book designer doesn’t use a template. We always choose fonts and images that are in keeping with your subject matter to give your book a unique (and appropriate!) look.

Normally, several samples will be developed, because there are multiple ways to design any book. These samples will include subtleties in the use of font styles and sizes that make a book look like a real book, and not a word-processed document. Once these initial concepts are presented, it’s necessary to work back and forth with the author/publisher on this sample until all the details are hammered out. Only then is the rest of the book layed out to match the sample.

Here are just a few of the things book designers attend to during the layout process:

We ensure facing pages end on the same baseline without the first line of a paragraph landing on the bottom of a page, or the last line of a paragraph landing on the top of a page. When the text doesn’t cooperate with these rules (which is often), we rework previous paragraphs and pages as needed.

We fix paragraphs that end in a word with less than five characters (including punctuation) or a word fragment (the stub end of a hyphenated word).

We banish “ladders” (too many hyphens in a row) and find and fix hyphenated compound words, both of which distract the reader.

We eliminate word stacks—when the same word falls one above the other on several consecutive lines of text.

We adjust any overly tight or loose lines that software often allows to slip through.

We watch for rivers of white in the text—when word spaces fall in a pattern that is distracting to the reader.

We eliminate hyphens at the bottom of a right-hand page so that the reader won’t have to hold a thought while the page is turned.

We make sure the last page of a chapter has at least four lines of text.

These items are only the beginning. Software out of the box only goes so far . . . it is this level of human intervention that turns your manuscript into typographic art, and when you see the results, we know you’ll agree that this time is well-spent.

1106 Design works with authors, publishers, business pros, coaches, consultants, speakers . . . anyone who wants a beautiful book, meticulously prepared to industry standards. Top-quality cover design, beautifully designed and typeset interiors, manuscript editing, indexing, title consulting, and expert advice. All available from one convenient source. All offered with our most important service, hand-holding. Attractive pricing choices to fit almost any budget. Prompt, personalized service. Satisfaction guaranteed. We’ll take better care of you and your book than any “self-publishing company.” How may we help you? Post your comment here or email us at office@1106design.com

E-Commerce Book Design: Challenges and Opportunities

Could anyone have predicted, even ten years ago, that the bulk of our work and social lives would be managed through electronic devices, some small enough to fit in the palm of our hand? I know I couldn’t. As with all advances, we’re presented with challenges and opportunities in equal measure.

On the one hand, it used to be a lot easier to own a design business. I’d join the local Chamber of Commerce, advertise in a few local newspapers, place a few phone calls to businesses in need of my services, make a few appointments, and pretty soon I’d have a sizable and loyal customer base.

Competition was generally limited to others in my own community, so pricing was based on the local cost of living and local client expectations. These expectations, in turn, were shaped by the condition of the local economy at that point in time…or, to state it another way, the playing field was relatively level.

Not so today. Now, with the prevalence of subsidy publishing sites, and heaven help us, freelance contest sites, book designers are hard-pressed to explain what we do, and how we do it.

The Internet has ushered in opportunities that couldn’t be imagined a few years ago. I welcome the  opportunity to work with people from other states, and other countries, who need book design services. But there’s something…well…impersonal about the experience now.

Once upon a time, I met my prospective clients face to face. When they asked a question, and I answered it, there were actually facial expressions involved. Now, they can come and go with a simple click. I don’t have an opportunity to find out anything about their book or their needs. In a world of hyper-communications, I can lose the opportunity to work with someone before I even know they’re looking.

Like everyone else, I look for the best price when I buy retail products…the supermarket that has Oreo cookies on sale this week is more likely to get my business than others that don’t. But products and services are two different things, and they shouldn’t be shopped for in the same way. This message has been lost in our new, online world.

Products are identical from one store to the next. It’s easy to compare package size and features, then conclude that the cheaper price makes sense. Services, on the other hand, are intangible. A determination of quality must be made before purchase, including how well the human beings who offer the service will treat you, how quickly they will respond to your questions, how quickly they will produce your book, and how competent the book design will be.

Asking for a price before understanding these intangible, but crucial, factors doesn’t provide enough information. Services offered at the same or lower prices cannot be objectively compared — they must be experienced. Choosing a service provider with the lowest price can easily disqualify the best designer for YOU.

Low prices usually correlate with low experience. Higher price usually means that the designer has been around the block a few times and will spend much more time creating a truly unique book cover instead of cutting corners and using a template.

An experienced book designer  understands that a great deal of collaboration and communication is necessary to arrive at a cover design that works, and they build this time into their estimate. A beginner may not anticipate this and quote a price that covers the design time alone. When you exceed this amount of time, the beginner may get cranky, or abandon the project entirely.

An experienced designer also knows what NOT to do. We’ve fixed book covers for clients who chose a low-cost designer who didn’t understand that creating a file for print is very different than creating a file for the web.

An experienced designer knows that next month, or next year, or the year after that, they’ll be spending big bucks for new computers and software. Beginning designers who charge low prices often use outdated equipment or software that will cause problems at the printer.

An experienced designer incurs the expense to archive your job safely, so that two years from now or seven years from now, when it’s time to reprint  your book, the files will be available. Beginning designers who find that their low prices do  not provide an adequate living may move on to another career, taking your precious files with them.

You’ve spent a lot of time writing your book. When it’s time to shop for the good design you need to help it sell, my recommendation is to buy experience…after you TALK with the person who will provide it, and determine if they are the partner you need. Yes, experience costs more, but you will receive true value for every dollar spent, and the process will be enjoyable rather than a nightmare.

Have questions about self-publishing or book design? Ask us! We’re happy to help. Learn more at http://www.1106design.com

Michele DeFilippo, owner, 1106 Design

Why is Professional Book Design So Misunderstood?

When aspiring publishers search the web to begin their education in the complex field of book design, they will find an astonishing amount of information. The problem is, most of it is downright wrong.

“Do-it-yourself” book layout and book cover design advice and software packages abound. You’ll be told it’s OK to lay out your book in Microsoft Word. (It’s not.) You’ll be told that all you need to do is buy a software package, and for about $100 you will be able to create book covers that are as good as those produced by pros. (Not even close!) You’ll be told that there’s no need to hire an evil book designer who will take advantage of you and charge you thousands of dollars to design your book when you can do it yourself for free. (Which means that the millions of clients who use book designers on a regular basis are all fools, right?)

The problem is, most of this bad advice and these products are offered by people who have never designed a book or been trained in the principles of cover design and typography. They may have good intentions, but they just don’t know what they don’t know. Or they do know, but they have no problem misleading you to make money.

Here’s a bit of truth: If you have written a memoir and you only want a few bound books for your friends and family, then go ahead and follow their advice. It’s the cheapest way to proceed. But if your goals are more serious, and you want a good-looking book to promote your business or you want your book to be accepted by the public, then your book design must adhere to the publishing standards that reviewers, distributors, retailers…and the public…demand, and that requires a very different approach.

Most people think that laying out a book is as simple as can be. Just open Word or a page layout application, set the margins, choose a typeface, and presto, it’s done, right? Nothing could be further from the truth.

Designers must follow scores of design, typesetting and page composition rules in the course of creating a book. Attending to these details is time-consuming and sometimes tedious work, but the result is a book that will capture a buyer’s attention and convince him or her to spend money. A book that is easy on the eyes, and text that allows the reader to better comprehend your message. Isn’t that the whole point of writing a book in the first place?

I’ll soon write a series of posts that explain what book designers do, so that the professional way to lay out a book will have at least a small chance of coming up in search engine results. These posts are not meant to be a “how-to” course, though I suppose some of you will use them in just that way. But I really hope you’ll think twice about that. Successful book design isn’t only about what designers do. It’s about what we don’t do, and about what we know and how we came to know it. It’s about the decisions we make moment by moment as we process your cover and text, and about how our experience informs our decisions. An eye-catching and beautiful book is never achieved by following a recipe. It’s about creativity. And creativity is what grabs the buyers attention and leads to a sale.

Stay tuned…

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