Book Design Process
Cover Design
Professional cover design is a key element to taking your book from an amateur-looking publication to a book you would see in a bookstore. With a rough manuscript and some key information about the book, I can get the cover design process underway. You will be provided with one or more cover concepts to review. I will then get your feedback and make adjustments to get a final front cover you love. At this point, I can generate a high-res graphic you can use to begin your marketing efforts for your book. In order to design the back cover, you will provide endorsements, images, and author biography. We will collaborate on any edits and changes needed to get a final cover file for your printer. (Registering your book for an ISBN and Library of Congress number, as well as creating a barcode and publisher logo would happen right around this step as well if you've enlisted my help with additional publishing services.) I will also help you decide which binding method and cover stock are appropriate for your particular project.
How important is your book’s cover?
Most shoppers will decide whether or not to pick your book up in less than two seconds. You might have written the greatest novel of your generation, but if the cover doesn’t hint at the story’s magnificence then it is destined to be left untouched, eventually being relegated to the bookstore bargain bin.
A good cover is perhaps the greatest driver of any book’s success. The flip-side of this is it can also be a book’s greatest downfall. Your book only gets one chance to make a first impression. And it only gets two seconds in which to make it. Looks shouldn’t count for as much as they do in the literary world, but the sooner an author recognizes their importance, the sooner they’ll be on the road to success.
Interior Page Design + Typesetting
You will be provided a sampling of pages for you to review the fonts and text sizes suggested for the body text, headings, and chapter pages, as well as any other textual and visual elements in the book. We'll gather your feedback and make adjustments to get a final design template (a road map of sorts) we'll use to typeset your book. It's now time to go through your manuscript page-by-page and format your book using the final, approved page design template, magically transforming your manuscript into what will ultimately be your finished book pages. Along the way, we will perform some general clean-up tasks, and provide a proof in PDF format for you to review and proofread.
Self-Publishing Support
As needed, I can help you to purchase ISBN numbers and register for Library of Congress number, as well as creating a barcode and publisher logo.