Chicken Scratchings

by Bill Ruesch

Maybe two seconds is generous. It’s really a second or less. No one will even pick up a book if it isn’t appealing. No one. A glance is all you will get–if that.

What is the first thing a reader sees when they decide to look at your book? Think about it. That’s right–the cover.

If your mind jumped to cover art–Stop!–and back-up. There are at least nine other things you need to consider before exploring cover art.

I’ve spelled out  nine basic cover and binding methods self-publishers  would be wise to consider before printing their books. Before choosing a binding method there are three basic questions to explore:

• Who will read this book? How old are they? Do they come from specific regions or have a common ethnicity? What is their level of education? Is it intended to be educational or entertaining?

• What do they expect to see in a book? If sitting on a bookstore rack what would attract the reader’s attention over your competition?

• Is the intended cover and binding method in harmony with the intention of the book? For example, I once saw a book that looked like a how to book. It’s cover announced that it would be informative. The title of the book was Everything Men Understand About Women. I opened the book and all of the text pages were blank. There wasn’t a line of type to be found. It was a joke, of course, and everything worked together perfectly to set the reader up for the humor.

The first two questions have to do with the demographics (external features) and psychographics (motivations and values) of the prospective reader. Once you understand who and why, it is vital to determine how. Give them what they expect. If you are too far afield of what they are looking for, they may not recognize it when they see it. For example, it would throw a reader off to discover an in-the-shop trade manual with a premium hard cover. Alternatively an autobiography of a respected person printed initially as a commodity paperback. It would be as discordant as seeing a well-heeled gentleman drive away from Beverly Hills mansion in a 20 year old beater with car cancer.

Elements of a Premium Hardcover

1. Premium Hardbound. Could include expensive features like leather, gilt edges, bookmark ribbon, foil stamping, printed end sheets, and premium text paper. Could be sewn as well as glued. May or may not have a dust jacket.

2. Good to Fine Hardbound will have features like cloth wrap, foil stamps, maybe PUR glue, burst bound. Almost always has a dust jacket.

3. Hardbound with a printed wrap. Children’s books are often printed this way with pictures or art on the cover. Some will have dust jackets, but it isn’t necessary.

4. Commodity hardbound. Most self-publishers will never order enough books to make this a viable option. These are the types of hardbound books sold by book clubs in mass. They are hardbound books but made with inexpensive materials.

5. Perfect bound Trade Paperback. The text pages are glued directly to the spine and the spine is squared. This method is highly favored by self-publishers. The book size is generally larger than paperbacks on the rack and the materials are of higher quality. Selling enhancements could include foil stamp, foil emboss, and high gloss cover coatings.

6. Standard perfect bound. This method is very similar to Trade Paperbacks but made with less costly paper and cover material to minimize cost.

7. Commodity or rack paper backs. These books are printed as cheaply as possible and generally in larger runs. When an author sells paperback rights to a publisher this is the production method utilized. These books romance novels, murder mysteries, sci-fi thrillers, are meant to be disposable.

8.  Plastic coil, wire-o, or comb binding are used for books that must stay open and flat. Cookbooks, repair manuals, and other how-to books may opt for these types of bindings. The drawback is that they don’t have a printed spine. When put on a bookshelf the reader has to pull the book out.

9. Saddle-stitched. Saddle stitching is printer talk for two staples in the backbone.  This can be found more commonly on thin catalogs, or magazines. Think TIME magazine. It is the least costly way to go but has several drawbacks, there isn’t a spine, it seems like the book is not a book but publication, and there is a limit to the number of pages.

Can You Spend More to Sell More?

Making a wrong choice will impact your sales, there is no doubt about that. The funny thing is you can’t hedge your bet with spending more. Not only could you be wasting money, but it might backfire and decrease rather than increase sales. The rule is make sure your book cover and binding method are in sync with the demographics, psychographics, and expectations of the reader.