It takes just a few vital seconds for an editor or reader to decide whether your self-published book is worth reading or not, so the design of the book cover is incredibly important. If the key opportunity for selling your book exists in one tiny glance, that glance had better be optimized by excellent design elements, wouldn’t you agree? Publishers want their book covers to be unique and memorable. An excellent cover design and compelling title makes that happen. An excellent book cover is like the striking pose of a model – stunning and creative. Shown below are 3 sample covers designed by our…
Once you’ve done all the hard work of writing your book manuscript, you’ll need expert assistance to create a stunning cover and for designing interior pages. You want to make sure the book’s interior marries well with the book’s cover, target market and purpose. I am a book lover in my heart and I have been since I was just learning how to read. I love to go into a book store. I am continuously delighted with the cleverness used in book design, an area where you might think there’s not a lot of room for innovation. In this post, I am going…
Are you writing a book? Are you designing your own book cover? Here’s a case study to improving a self-published book cover. If you are a consultant, speaker or coach, you may find that publishing a book may boost your credibility, open doors to more opportunities and help you land more gigs or clients. With the Internet at your fingertips and easy access to expert cover designers, editors, illustrators and page layout artists, it is much easier to self-publish a book than it was twenty years ago. You can take the role as general contractor and hire consultants to help assemble all…
A book media kit can be a paper folder or a page on your website with the essential information and marketing materials about your book. The media kit should provide the media with all the information they need to write a story, or do an audio or video interview with the author. For a hard copy media kit you can gather the following items and arrange them in a classy folder (a solid color in gloss is good). Paste a color postcard of your book cover on the front of the folder. For an online media kit, add a page…
This month, my friend and teammate Mary Walewski of Buy The Book Marketing explains how to research your niche so you can tailor your book to your market. You can use free resources found in your library and online. Self-Publishers: Here are 7 Tips to Research Your Niche By Mary Walewski Copyright © 2009 Most authors working on a first book never really give any thought as to who their book is for. “It’s for everyone!” I’ve been told with a radiant smile. As a marketing person, this declaration makes my heart go into my shoes. If a book if for everyone, it’s…
Choose Appropriate Fonts for Your Self-Published Book Interior A quick look on your software reveals myriad choices of fonts and you can always find more! But like shopping in a candy store, you have to make judicious selections. It is important to select appropriate fonts to communicate your message to your readers, particularly when dealing with titles and headlines. Why? Because specific fonts can evoke a certain attitude and feeling that reinforces your intended message. Fonts for Headlines Choose a bold font with the right personality for your book interior. After all, fonts (like people) have personalities, and different designs…
You can design award winning book covers by using appropriate colors, imagery, symbolism, style and typography. Here’s how our team produced 7 award winning book covers at the CIPA EVVY Awards banquet. The Front Cover The front cover of your book should capture the essence of what’s inside. Smart self-publishers include an endorsement or short testimonial from a VIP on the front cover. Quality book cover design attracts potential readers faster than any other element, regardless of who you are or what you’ve written about. Large publishing houses and established authors all know a creative cover beckons to their devoted fans while also attracting new readers. Self-published authors…
My guest writer today is award-winning writer and editor, Barbara McNichol. As writers, we can get caught up in an idea or feel particularly attached to a word or phrase. Our writing can suffer as a result. When editing your own manuscript, dare to be brutally honest with yourself. To help you, here’s a list of tips and techniques for steering clear of common pitfalls and strengthening your manuscript along the way. An editor will ask these questions: Is every word, phrase, sentence, paragraph, section, and chapter necessary? Is the message clearly understood? Can your ideas be expressed more simply? Miracles do…
Last month I revealed layout secrets from typesetters of best selling books. A professional book interior layout is just one ingredient in a recipe for designing a book that grabs attention and sells. Another ingredient is to create an eye-catching book cover. Here are some things to consider before designing your next cover. A book cover is like your bait. You have four ways to get consumers to bite, which are the front cover, back cover, spine, and possibly inside flaps. E-books are changing the face of book sales a bit, which makes it even more important to have a…
Your book’s more than a collection of words on pages. It’s your baby. But will other people find it as beautiful as you do? That depends. How do you dress it? In other words, what do your pages look like? Layout makes all the difference. You can have the most riveting, meaningful, Nobel prize-worthy masterpiece in the bookstore, but it will be very lonely on those shelves if no one wants to buy it. Here’s how John Q. Citizen shops for a book. He saunters into his favorite bookshop with nothing in particular in mind to purchase. He picks up…