Publishing Wisdom from Goldilocks

We all know the story of Goldilocks and the The Three Bears. In her exploration of the bears’ home, Goldilocks judged the three bowls of porridge to be too hot, too cold, and just right. She judged the three chairs as too big, too small, and just right. Finally, she judged the three beds as too hard, too soft, and just right.

Of course, Goldilocks forgot all about her preferences as soon as the three bears came home, when she rightly bolted out the door to save her life. The Goldilocks character is a pretty good metaphor for clients, I think.

To switch stories for a moment, a few weeks ago I was listening to a financial advisor on the radio. “Visit my web site and fill out the contact form,” she said. “I’ll be in touch to learn about your needs and explore how my company can help you.” She seemed knowledgable and genuinely interested, so expecting a personal follow-up, that’s exactly what I did.

Instead, I received a postcard in the mail, inviting me to a restaurant torture session, where I and a hundred others would be bribed by a free lunch to endure a “one-solution-fits-all” lecture. What a letdown.

Like Goldilocks, or any prospective client, I was looking for a financial advisor who was “just right” when I contacted this company. No matter the product or service being purchased, isn’t that what every client seeks…and deserves?

Too many companies today, especially the dreaded “self-publishing companies,” cruelly peddle one-size-fits-all solutions to hopeful authors. Instead of a custom analysis of the author’s needs by a publishing expert, a phone room full of high-pressure sales consultants use carefully crafted scripts to steer authors into pre-defined package deals that maximize company profits.

What on earth has happened to American business, and why aren’t we all bolting out the door just like Goldilocks did?

1106 Design is a publishing services company that

* appreciates the value of a one-on-one conversation;
* will honestly tell you when you don’t need one of our services;
* works with you to craft a top-quality book that will help you achieve your unique publishing goals; and
* offers the convenience of project management.

If that sounds good, contact us today. 1106 Design is small enough to deliver quality work with all the hand-holding you need, and large enough to get the job done quickly and conveniently. As Goldilocks might say, “1106 Design is just right.”

Book Design and Self-Publishing Questions? Ask Them Here.

New self-publisher have questions. Lots of them. This post is an experiment. Ask your question here, and we’ll do our best to answer it, or find an expert who can. Your question can be on almost any topic related to book design: covers, interior design and typesetting, editing, indexing, best POD printer, whatever is on your mind.

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

The Benefits of a Professional Index

Have you ever used the index in a book and found it to be almost useless? Was the subject or term you were interested in missing? Or, was the topic listed, but not on the page when you turned there? Doesn’t this make you crazy?

Indexing is a lot more difficult than it seems. Like any other specialty, training and experience are needed to produce the best results. We talk to a lot of self-publishers who believe that they can save money by compiling their own index; usually  this is a big mistake.

Below are two indexes for a book we recently designed: one was created by an amateur, the other by a professional. Click on each link below to download the PDF of each version and compare for yourself.

Amateur-Index.pdf

Pro-Index.pdf

The difference is clear to see. The Amateur Index is just four pages long. It contains a lot of names, but very little else that’s useful.

By comparison, the Professional Index is 12 pages long, contains names as well as many topics, and also includes cross-references that will make the index truly useful to the reader.

So, what goes into a professional index? Indexer and 1106 Design team member, Doran Hunter, explains it best:

First, I go through the Table of Contents and chapters in order to get an overview of the whole book and what some of the key concepts and terms will be. Then, reading the text very closely, I mark it as I go along for entries, subentries, notes about equivalent terms, etc. As I do this, I try to think as a reader and user of the Index and structure it in such a way that it is truly useful and provides easy and convenient access to the subject matter of the book.

We have all been frustrated with inadequate and poorly-constructed indexes at one time or another. We go to look up a term and it is not there. Or we do find the term we’re looking for in the Index but the entry says the term appears on twenty or thirty pages, and we have to painstakingly check each page until we find the section of the book where the topic is discussed in the way we are looking for. By putting a lot of thought into the Index as I go along, I try to avoid these and other pitfalls that render many indexes almost unusable.

Also, I have to decide if an occurrence of a term merits entry into the Index. Sometimes, it’s just a passing mention, and including it would be annoying to a user of the Index trying to find something substantive about the concept, so I have to think hard about whether it should be included. For example, suppose this is the last sentence in a section about American foreign policy: “As Theodore Roosevelt said, ‘Speak softly but carry a big stick.’” Roosevelt, Theodore, wouldn’t be included here because a reader interested in him would be disappointed to turn to the place in the text and find just this passing mention.

In short, the process involves careful reading of the text, a lot of judgment, and great care to create an Index that will allow readers to engage more fully with the content of the book.

So why should an author care if someone reviews the index and is disappointed ? Because that someone just might be a librarian who is about to purchase multiple copies of your book. Unlike bookstores, who care most about the cover, librarians care most about a book’s content. An amateur index can break the sale in an instant.

A professional index isn’t an expense. It’s essential to your book, and your readers will thank you for it.

What do you want to know? What topics should we explore together? How can we help you along your publishing journey? Everyone here at 1106 Design wants to help. Post your comment here or email us at office@1106design.com