Children’s Book Author Asks: What Am I Leaving Out?

I’ve been corresponding this week with a children’s book author on the SPAN website: http://www.spannet.org (SPAN is an excellent resource for self-publishers.) The discussion started as a comment on my blog post there, “A Book Cover Is Everything” (http://www.spannet.org/profiles/blogs/a-book-cover-is-everything) and it touched on several topics that every self-publisher must address. The conversation has become a prime example of where many self-publishers go horribly wrong. I don’t believe that any author sets out to fail when self-publishing a book, but it happens far too often because the author is working with incorrect or incomplete information, or because the author resists correct information when it is offered.

For the record, even though I haven’t seen the manuscript yet, I think this book could have “legs” in a variety of markets. I truly hope this author heeds reliable advice, whether from me or someone else, because he’s clearly heading in the wrong direction, and my heart already aches for him. Here’s our conversation:

Author: My problem I have is my title — I find it catchy, but it doesn’t convey well what the purpose of my non-fiction book is all about.  A dilemma!

Me: Catchy isn’t enough. A title must be specific…a promise to the reader, telling them what your book is about. It’s tough (maybe impossible) for an author to take a step back into the mind of someone who has never seen or heard of the book before. Why not post your title here and test it with me?

Author: Here’s the title: Jack’s Fish Bones. Of course, you can’t figure out from the title that it’s actually a book that teaches children how to read, and write in Chinese.  On my mock-up I follow that with ‘A fun step-by-step guide for writing and reading Chinese.’  But that will have to move to the back cover. See the dilemma?

Me: I think your subtitle must be on the front, in this case. Without it,  your book sounds like any other children’s story. Remember, not everyone will read the description online or turn the book over to find out otherwise.  You told me in your message that the book teaches children, but your title and subtitle don’t say that. I  recommend working with a professional title consultant for this book, so that every word on your front cover speaks directly to the folks most likely to buy your book, and tells them what it is about.

Author: I think you’re right. I might re-title it ‘Jack and Ivy and the Mysterious Chinese Code’ or something of that nature. But I like short and catchy titles.

Me: Just my opinion, but that may be too long, and it sounds more like a novel.

Author: I will just have to let the name issue percolate in my brain for a while. I still have to connect with someone to do the illustrations — maybe in the process of doing that part of the book something will leap out at me.

Me: Yes, there are so many decisions to be made to launch any book. I wrote a blog post about children’s book illustrations that may be helpful: http://1106design.com/finding-an-illustrator-for-your-childrens-book/ Have a nice weekend! (In this post, I recommended a good site to find qualified children’s book illustrators, and explained why why a book designer should be hired BEFORE an illustrator is retained. I wrote this post because authors often bring terrible illustrations to designers, to the detriment of the final product. )

Author: Thanks for the tip — I had already checked Society of Children’s Book Illustrators, but got tired of searching through the gazillions of illustrators, ha!  (Will find time to look again). Since I’m a newbie, my book production idea is simple. I have made Word files which contain clip art. I convert these into PDFs, and voila! that’s my book! So my next step is, I find an illustrator with the right style, who creates and converts their original art work into ‘clip art’ which I can pull into my Word files. For me identifying exactly how many pieces and what to draw is no problem – it’s already by and large in the draft.  I negotiate on a price per piece, delivery dates, payment terms, etc.  Easy! Of course, this all may sound very naive to anyone with some real experience like yourself in the book publishing business.  Any comments?  What am I leaving out? Thanks, Michele.

So ended our conversation (at least as of this moment).

What is he leaving out? I’m not sure where to begin, but let’s start with this:

It’s amazing to me how many self-publishers judge their own work in isolation and not against the competition in the real world.  Even a casual trip to a bookstore will reveal that the  children’s book section is filled with top-quality books. If this author took his mockup to said bookstore, and objectively compared his efforts with any book on the shelf, I’m certain he would immediately see the difference.

It might be helpful to describe how a “real” publisher achieves this difference. First, they’ll research the market to determine if there is a demand for the book and how strong that demand might be. Part of this research involves a look at competitive titles and how well they are selling. If, and only if there is a demand, will a publisher move to the next step: determine the costs to professionally write, edit, illustrate, design, and market the book. Once these expenses are tallied, the question becomes, “can this book be sold at a price point that will attract consumers?” If not, the project ends right there. If so, the wheels are set in motion, and when the final product finally hits the store shelves, it is a masterpiece. More importantly, it is what buyers have come to expect when they shop for children’s books.

This process is far different than that taken by most self-publishers, as my conversation so far with this author reveals. Stay tuned.

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

Chap Stick and the Power of Packaging

If you spend any time reading blogs about self-publishing (including this one), you’ll see the same phrases over and over again: The Cover Sells the Book; Your Book Cover is Your Package; Your Book Cover is Not the Place to Save Money. The problem with all of these messages is that they don’t sound very convincing. They don’t explain WHY.

So, I’m going to tell you my own story about  how packaging really does work, and if you observe your own behavior the next time you go shopping, you’ll be able to add a similar story of your own.

Dry winter air being what it is (even in Phoenix), I was shopping for lip balm this weekend. The usual selection of wax-filled stubby tubes was on display. Most were labeled “lip balm”; a few were labeled “lip therapy.” Some packages were pastel-colored to reflect the flavors inside (oddly, tropical fruit flavors, perhaps to distract us from winter). With minor variations, I’d seen all of them before. Z-z-z-z-z-z.

Then I noticed something different: A slender white tube with the words Soft Lips, printed in what was probably a custom handwriting font designed especially for this product. Into the shopping cart it went, even though it cost more. The question is, Why?

Did I know intellectually that this tube contained the same waxy substance as all the others. Yes. But now I knew what I was going to get for my money. And, I was entertained. (Go ahead, add a snarky comment here, if you like.) The ho-hum task of buying lip balm momentarily reminded me that life still holds surprises, that surprises are found in the most unlikely places, and that surprises are worth paying for.

I purchased that brand of lip balm, because the small package delivered a very big message. Your book cover and title can deliver a similarly powerful message to your prospective readers, so they’ll put your book into their shopping cart, too.

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

News You Can Use: Working with a Book Shepherd

Guest Post by Gail Kearns, owner of To Press & Beyond

There are advantages to using a book shepherd (so dubbed by the original self-publishing guru Dan Poynter)—one of which is that it can save you money in the long run. A good book shepherd will help you navigate the publishing process, avoiding the many pitfalls, and increase your chances for publishing success.

Here Are 6 Tips for Working with Your Book Shepherd

1.    When you work with a book shepherd you are going into business, and the shepherd is your CEO, overseeing all the different departments of your publishing company. It’s like hiring at least eight different people: editor, researcher, designer, art director, production manager, administrative assistant, business manager, and public relations officer.

2.    Keep an open mind as you go into the project, just in case there is a really good idea you have missed. Generally the authors we work with are very good at something else . . . we are very good at getting books ‘to press and beyond.’ For example:  If the author is a nephrologist, there is no way she or he would let a book shepherd perform a kidney transplant!

3.    Book shepherds know the book business, and if they don’t know something they know where to go for reliable information.  Recognize that professionals worth their salt do know their business. This is especially true in the edit and design phases. Content and copyeditors, art directors, and professional book designers simply make you and your book look better.

4.    Deadlines are important for a variety of reasons. Be as prepared as you can be and try to keep the deadlines outlined by your book shepherd. Deadlines can involve getting your social media up and running to getting advance reading copies of your book out to long lead publications and opinion makers in your field. “Timing Makes Champions” is a favorite motto at To Press & Beyond.

5.    Articulate your book goals. Book shepherds work much better when they understand your aims and goals.  It could be having your expertise in print as a speaker for back of the room sales, your philosophy or message to share with the world via new media, a memoir or children’s book for your family, or a book to support your workshops and seminars. With your goals in mind, book shepherds can best guide you.

6.    Whether you have a publisher, a distributor, a book shepherd or publicist, as an author, you still have to believe in and promote your book yourself. Perpetual promotion is the name of the game. Very few books will sell themselves.

Here’s to your publishing success!

Gail Kearns is owner of To Press & Beyond, a full-service book shepherding agency. Visit the website at www.topressandbeyond.com

For a half-hour gratis consultation about your book project, e-mail her at info@topressandbeyond.com.

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

Four Wise Words from an “Old” Book

A couple of months ago, a client gave us a small book of quotations to use as a design model for his upcoming title. This handsome book, The Book of Excellence: 236 Habits of Effective Sales People by Byrd Baggett, published in 1990, is the very definition of a traditional book design: black leatherette hard case, gold foil stamping on the front and spine, classic fonts and ornaments, printed on textured ivory stock. We designed the client’s book in a similar style, and everyone was pleased with the outcome.

In today’s business world, where a typical day means processing a long list of emails and juggling tight deadlines, I promptly forgot about the book, until this holiday weekend, when I finally caught up with my “to be filed” pile. Somehow, it didn’t seem right to bury this lovely little book in a filing cabinet, so I decided to read it.

Most of the quotations were classic, quick tips designed to inspire anyone who provides customer service. Some were a revealing look into how much our world has changed in just 20 years. For example: “Use a beeper. That will let the office get in touch with you when a customer needs you in an emergency,” and “Carry a business card file. You never know when you’ll need a phone number.”

One quotation stood out from all the others for me:

Excellence is not optional.

The moment I read this, I realized with some sadness that our world has changed in this way, too. Today, the voices of excellence in book design and typography are drowned out by those who claim that “template” cover and interior design is good enough. That “do-it-yourself” book layout is just fine. That craftsmen in the field are quaint, old-fashioned folks who offer an unneeded product at a high price. And even worse, this advice is doled out by so-called publishing “experts”  (including some very large companies) just waiting for the next naive self-publisher to come along.

It was good this holiday weekend to take a breath, leave all the posts, tweets, emails, and updates behind,  and remember that the quiet voice of wisdom can still speak to us in profound ways. My client’s updated book of quotations is: LifeExcellence Treasury of Quotes. I promise, it will inspire you, and it doesn’t contain one word about beepers.

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

Book Cover Design: Clan Ground by Clare Bell

In any book cover design, but particularly an illustrated one, it’s important for the title and the graphic to complement each other and work together.

For this cover, a fabulous illustration was provided to us by the publisher, so our task was to build on the illustrator’s talent.

For the title, we chose the typeface Archeologicaps, to depict a sense of the esoteric and mysterious.

Rather than choosing a flat color for the title, we enhanced it with a yellow-orange gradient, so that it appears to be illuminated by the flames below.

We removed the crossbar of the “A” and replaced it with the eye of the cat to tie the title and illustration together.

The author’s name was set in a light green color, sampled from the background.

The series title at the bottom was letterspaced, just as it was on the first volume, for continuity of design.

Some folks would call this a “simple” cover design, but attention to detail is one way that book cover designers create covers that are eye-catching and appealing to the buyer.

How many of these enhancements did you notice before reading the post? If the answer was “none”, congratulations! The details of a design should never call attention to themselves. They should quietly serve the purpose of selling your book.

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

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

Finding an Illustrator for your Children’s Book

We’re often asked, “Can you recommend a good illustrator for my children’s book.” We love this question, because it heads off a very common problem faced by book designers.

The short answer: A good place to start your search for an illustrator is the Society of Children’s Book Illustrators at http://www.scbwi.org/

Here you’ll find serious illustrators who offer quality work, which is a necessity if you want your book to compete well against those released by major publishers. Good illustrators don’t work cheap, and that’s as it should be, since they possess a rare talent unavailable to the rest of us.

The longer answer: Over the years, we’ve worked on many books where the illustrations were provided by author. Often, these illustrations are not up to professional standards because they were created by a family member, or by a “cheap” provider that the author found on a freelance graphic design site.

Your book should be designed first, and then the appropriate illustrator hired to create drawings for the planned design. Often the reverse procedure is followed, which ties the hands of the designer and can result in a lesser quality book.

Your book designer can help you review illustrator portfolios to make sure they actually know how to draw (believe it or not, some don’t) and help manage the process so the illustrations provided are in the correct proportions for the page and the correct resolution and color mode for printing.

There are a lot of technical issues to consider, beyond just “liking” the illustrator’s style. Your book designer will be more than happy to help you through this process.

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

Book Cover Redo: Making Mammon Serve You by John Harrison

Recently we completed a book cover for John Harrison, “Making Mammon Serve You: A Biblical Manual for Money Mastery.”

For this book, the author wanted the image of wheat on the cover. In the “before” version it’s there, but the view from above makes it all but impossible to see the beauty of the plant. The subtitle and author name float aimlessly in white space, and the typography is dull.

For the “after” version, we found an image of gold silk fabric to symbolize wealth, and added a more beautiful image of wheat that gracefully curves from the subtitle to the author name. This connects the two elements and leads the eye from the top of the book cover to the bottom.

—

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

Book Cover Redo: The Corporate Blogging Book by Debbie Weil

Recently we completed a book design project for Debbie Weil, author of a very successful book on corporate blogging. For this assignment, Debbie wanted to update the book to more effectively promote her consulting practice without breaking the connection to her earlier edition.

To accomplish this, we filled more than half of the new cover with Debbie’s portrait, since she is now the “product” being sold. To maintain the connection to the earlier book, we retained the black and orange color scheme, chose more contemporary fonts, and utilized just a small portion of the previous illustration.

This before and after example underscores the importance of having a clear and specific goal in mind before book cover design begins.  Your objectives should drive the design, not the other way around.

Oftentimes, new publishers will spend months or years creating a book without asking one simple question: “Will anyone but me be interested?” First, research the market. Then, write to the market. Last, design to the market. Who is your target audience? (No, it’s not “everyone.”) What do they want to know (that hasn’t been said before)? What do they need to know (urgently enough to spend money)? How can you fill that need? How do you plan to cut through the clutter and reach your target buyers? Answering these questions before you write the first word will drive every other decision and put you on the path to publishing success.

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

A Peek at Our Book Cover Review Service

Some of you may already know that 1106 Design offers a comprehensive book cover review service. This service is for any author or publisher who would like an objective, outside opinion about the suitability of their cover design…in essence, a review before publication, when there’s still time to fix any problems.

We thought you might like to see an actual transcript from a recent review: The text under the headline in each of the 10 “mistake” categories details the book industry standard requirement(s) for that category. Our evaluation is below the asterisks.

First, here are the front and back covers:

Dear Charlette,

Thank you for the opportunity to review the book cover design for
Peace in the Heart and Home. Following is our review of your book cover.

1. COVER DESIGN MISTAKE #1: THE BOOK COVER DESIGN DOES NOT FIT ITS
GENRE.

Buyers, distributors and retailers favor books that “belong” in
their genre. A history book should look different than a cookbook or a
spiritual book. Most of all, the book cover should look like current
bestsellers in its category. Does this cover look like it belongs in
its genre?

***

The beautiful type and the lotus image are very much in keeping with
self-help books.

Your cover rating: Excellent

2. COVER DESIGN MISTAKE #2: THE BOOK COVER DESIGN IS NOT APPROPRIATE
FOR THE TARGET AUDIENCE.

A book cover should be designed to appeal to those most likely to
buy it. A book that contains fashion advice for teenage girls should
look different than a book targeted to CEOs. Is this cover appropriate
for the intended audience?

***

The cover is excellent in this regard as well. The overall design
does say “peace” to the prospective buyer.

Your cover rating: Excellent

3. COVER DESIGN MISTAKE #3: THE BOOK COVER ELEMENTS ARE POORLY
ORGANIZED.

A book cover is like a billboard. It must communicate its message
to the buyer quickly and efficiently…in less than 7 seconds, in
fact. A book cover that contains too many elements can confuse the
prospective buyer and fail to communicate any message at all. The
elements should be arranged so that the buyer’s eye moves logically
from the most important to the least important information. Is this
cover properly organized so that it “reads” quickly and effectively?

***

The cover elements are well organized and easy to read. The eye moves
methodically from the title, to the subtitle, to the lotus image. The
dark-colored tile at the bottom anchors the design, and makes the
reader focus first at the top.

Your cover rating: Excellent

4. COVER DESIGN MISTAKE #4: THE BOOK TITLE AND/OR IMAGES DO NOT TELL
THE BUYER WHAT THE BOOK IS ABOUT.

As the author, you know all about your book. But the buyer
doesn’t know anything…yet. We have to tell the buyer, in an instant,
what the book is about. Is the title of this book informative? Does it
encourage the buyer to learn more?

***

The lotus image is a perfect representation for this title.

Your cover rating: Excellent

5. COVER DESIGN MISTAKE #5: THE COLORS USED ON THE COVER ARE NOT
APPROPRIATE FOR THE SUBJECT MATTER OR THEY CLASH WITH ONE ANOTHER.

Color communicates a subliminal message to the buyer. Blues and
purples convey a sense of peace and stability, honesty, royalty and
devotion. Reds and oranges convey power, energy and love. Greens evoke
nature, growth and life. Yellows convey happiness, cheerfulness and
warmth. Are the colors on this cover appropriate for the subject
matter? Do they harmonize well with one another?

***

Gold and black feel a bit jarring for this genre. Self-help books
often use blues, pinks, and purples to connote calm, healing,
well-being and other positive emotions.

Your cover rating: Fair

6. COVER DESIGN MISTAKE #6: THE FONTS CHOSEN GIVE THE COVER A
SELF-PUBLISHED LOOK OR THE TYPOGRAPHY IS NOT SKILLFULLY EXECUTED (THE
SPACING BETWEEN LETTERS, WORDS AND LINES IMPEDES, RATHER THAN ASSISTS,
COMPREHENSION).

Fonts, like colors, send a message to the buyer. Serif fonts are
serious and authoritative. Sans Serif fonts are more casual, yet still
easy to read. Scripts and other decorative fonts convey formality,
levity, or a host of other emotions. Do the fonts in this book cover
evoke the desired buyer emotion about the content? Is the typography
skillfully rendered?

***

Excellent use of typography. The font is very appropriate for this
title and this genre. The typography is executed with the utmost
skill; the elements are perfectly spaced and proportioned.

Your cover rating: Excellent

7. COVER DESIGN MISTAKE #7: THE COVER DESIGN IS NOT VISIBLE FROM A
DISTANCE.

A cover should be clearly visible from a display table or a shelf
to attract buyer attention. A book cover that fades into the
background is a sales opportunity lost forever. Is this cover visible
from a distance?

***

The gold and black background would be clearly visible from a
distance, say to folks strolling in a mall, but the title may not be
visible from 15 feet away, due to the light weight of the fonts used.
Up close, when the buyer is standing at the shelf or display table
this is less of a problem, but please see the response to #8 below.

Your cover rating: Fair

8. COVER DESIGN MISTAKE #8: THE COVER DESIGN DOES NOT CONTAIN ENOUGH
CONTRAST TO BE VISIBLE IN SMALL SIZES ONLINE OR IN BLACK AND WHITE IN
CATALOGS OR ADS.

Colors that are opposite one another on the color wheel are most
visible in any design. But care is necessary to make sure the chosen
colors are still visible when the cover is converted to black and
white or displayed online in small sizes. The best way to test this is
to print your cover at 25% or less of its full size in both color and
black and white. A red title on a black background, for example, will
look very dramatic in actual size, but disappear in smaller sizes or
black and white. Does this cover contain enough contrast to be visible
in black and white and small sizes online?

***

The tiles in the background are quite busy. This makes the reader
“try hard” to read the text, even up close. I would recommend ghosting
back the tiles, or perhaps making them half as large, so that the
mosaic concept remains but doesn’t distract from the title. If this is
done, then the colors of the text will be fine. If not, then I’d
consider making the text a bit darker so it stands out better than it
does now. Also, if the dark tiles at the bottom are meant to depict a
tabletop, floor, or other surface on which the lotus is reflected,
then some perspective should be added to these tiles and the
reflection of the lotus. There would be no reflection otherwise.

Your cover rating: Fair

9. COVER DESIGN MISTAKE #9: THE SPINE IS POORLY DESIGNED AND WILL
NOT STAND OUT WHEN DISPLAYED SPINE OUT ON A SHELF.

Sometimes, the spine of a book is very small and there’s very
little that can be done to create an eye-catching design. But if your
book doesn’t fall into that category, then adding color and/or visual
elements to the spine, in addition to the title and author name, will
go a long way toward helping it stand out when it’s shelved spine-out
with many other books. Is this book spine the best it can be, given
its size?

***

No spine was submitted as of this writing, but I’ll be happy to
review it when it’s available.

10. COVER DESIGN MISTAKE #10: THE BACK COVER DOES NOT CONTAIN THE
ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS NEEDED BY THE BUYER OR THE BOOK TRADE.

The back cover text should be as short as possible, preferably
with bullet points that quickly summarize the content. Buyers are
busy, and we have all be trained by the web to expect our information
in small portions. Back covers that contain too much text, or text
that doesn’t quickly get to the point, will simply not be read.

In addition to the text, every back cover should contain a bar
code, ISBN, and sales price in U.S. Dollars and in other currencies if
applicable, as well as the publisher’s name. The back cover should
never contain an offer to sell the book directly to the buyer, as book
stores will not then carry it.

The back cover should also contain an official subject heading from
the Book Industry Study Group (available at www.bisg.org) so that book
store employees will know where to shelve your book. Creating your own
heading is not recommended. Does this cover contain effective text and
all the recommended elements?

***

The back cover is excellent, though I would repeat the concern about
the busyness of the tiles as on the front cover. All the elements are
in place (assuming you’ll place the barcode in the space indicated).
Regarding the subject code, here’s a link to the latest listings from
Book Industry Study Group:

http://www.bisg.org/what-we-do-0-136-bisac-subject-headings-list-major-subje

cts—2009-edition.php

I don’t see the specific category you have used
(Psychology/Relationships) under Psychology, but Self-Help seems to
contain useful descriptions. It’s important not to invent categories
because book store employees won’t be sure where to shelve your book.

Your overall cover rating: Excellent

I hope you have found this review helpful, Charlette. All the
suggestions are optional, of course. Please let me know if you have
any questions.

If you would like a review of your book cover, similar to the example above, please visit http://covers.1106design.com. The cost is just $75.

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