BY SCOTT SWAIN
Studies show that consumers spend an average of 8 seconds or less considering a book before moving on to the next one on the bookstore shelf—in other words, people really do judge a book by its cover. And your book is no exception.
Without professional editing and an eye-catching cover design, your book risks being lost among the hundreds of thousands of other titles competing for attention from the media and the buying public. Producing a quality book takes time, effort, creativity and knowledge of the industry.
Here at IBJ Book Publishing, we supply the design services and expertise necessary to put a professional face on the book you’ve worked so hard to create.
How does this process work? Let’s take a look.
The type of book you’ve written determines the amount of design required. For standard fiction titles, design is usually limited to typography and cover design.
For books containing illustrations or images, design takes on a much larger role in laying out how the page looks, how chapters begin and end, colors, typography, cover design and ancillary materials such as posters, order forms and other sales/marketing materials.
Non-fiction illustrated titles are the most design intensive books, requiring extensive use of images and illustrations, captions, typography and a deep involvement and consideration of the reader experience.
The design phase may also include photography from a professional photographer. This service, in limited capacity, may be available to you as part of your contract.
After meeting with our design staff for an initial consultation and establishing a production schedule, a sample layout will be designed and given to you for approval, which enables you to review the layout, to fit copy, to gauge the appropriateness of art-to-text—and to make changes, as necessary.
Once the design style is established, our design team will prepare a first-draft layout proof. At the same time, you may choose to have your book reviewed by an editor or a proofreader. Typos are then corrected and minor changes made. There also may be additional back-and-forth and fine-tuning to the layout and design at this time.
If, however, you wish to make extensive content corrections requiring layout changes, additional fees may apply. Additionally, you are permitted three rounds of draft layout corrections before additional costs are incurred.
During the final stages of production, an index is created, typeset and proofread.
After you have completed editing and proofing the draft layouts, you will sign-off on a final layout and the files are prepared electronically for the production of your book.
The files are then reviewed by our design staff and the selected printing company for any issues and prepped for manufacturing.
In some cases, copies of the final, clean files (including artwork) are simultaneously prepared for e-book conversion.
When the book has been printed, a small number of advanced copies are delivered to us and the rest of the finished books are distributed to you.
Next is selling and distributing your book. Successful distribution is not as simple as getting your book onto the shelves of Barnes & Noble or other book stores and watching it sell. The best success comes with marketing your book to an already existing network of followers you may have. Utilize the resources have readily available, and keep your eye out for new business opportunities.
Most of all, stay positive and patient. The road to becoming published may be bumpy at times, but with perseverance and a great book publishing team, you will produce tremendous results!
Scott Swain is the lead graphic designer for IBJ Book Publishing. You can reach him at sswain@ibj.com.
