Chicken Scratchings

Posts Tagged ‘Cover’

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.

Yesteryear's Posse

It may seem odd to use a word like posse in connection with self-publishing a book especially since in today’s parlance it has come to mean a group of sycophants following the latest glistening celebrity. He who has the most toadies wins. No, I’m thinking more in terms of the Old West when the Sheriff sent out a call for citizen help and good, qualified people gathered to track down and capture the bad guy. They formed a team–a team on a mission–a mission to save the town and protect the womenfolk.

There will be some that disagree with me, and they will have a point, but trying to be the Lone Ranger when self-publishing is a hard road, even still, with the  exception of ePublishing, at the very least a self-publisher will need a printer. How many authors, besides Benjamin Franklin, are able to write and print books? Your desktop printer doesn’t count.

The typical self-publishers book posse consists of these:

• Content Editor (checks for plot flow, and sense–also accuracy of detail)
• Grammatical Editor (looks for typos, grammatical errors, etc.)
• Permissions Editor (checks the author’s right to use quoted or other material)
• Technical Editor (generally for non-fiction works to make sure the technical details are correct)
• Proofreader (proofreading is a skill that requires extraordinary attention to detail. The more eyes on it, the better.)
• Layout artist (takes raw copy and shapes it by selecting fonts, watching for functionality and ease of reading, margins, headers, pagination, etc.)
• Graphic Designer (Primarily for cover design. The objective a great book with a great cover.)
• Production Coordinator/Manager (This person brings it all together. They are the deputy in your posse. They assist in gathering the posse, getting pricing, arranging for shipping, etc.)
• Printing Broker (Serves as the posse’s guide seeking printers who provide the best value. Brokers, unlike company employees, have no self-interest in the transaction, and should there be problems can intercede in your behalf.)
• Printer (A good printer is GOLD, but you need to be careful, especially in this economic climate. Printers are hungry and as a result are going after any work they can get. Just because a printer can do, a job doesn’t mean that they are the best choice.)

After the book has been produced, you’ll need these for your posse:

• Distributor (makes sure book orders are shipped on time and at minimal cost)
• Warehouse/Storage (Where will the books be housed?)
• Marketing (Book sales don’t happen by themselves. What plans do you have to market the book? Who will help? What will you do?)
• Public Relations (includes press releases, interviews, book reviews, etc.)
• Travel Assistant (someone to help you coordinate speaking trips)
• Information Technology ( the Internet is critical–good IT people are a necessity)

Many of these people can serve in multiple ways. You, as the author, will take on many of the roles, and some will be filled family members or close friends, but be careful in your choices. Just because you have a nephew who can draw pretty well, doesn’t mean he has the skill to layout your book or create a K.O. cover. Here is where it gets tricky–be honest with yourself, are you knowledgeable enough to judge? Some of the worst books out there, the kind traditional publishers despise, come from potentially good authors who didn’t have the sense to hire experts. To them the book is incredible, but to a trained eye, it may be a wreck. Pay for professional advice and follow it, even if it takes you out of your comfort zone.

In coming posts I intend to describe the jobs of each of the posse members in greater detail and provide tips on finding and selecting the best ones.

A book that doesn’t sell is  landfill. We don’t need more landfill–what we need are books that get into the hands of readers. Social networking has proven to be an excellent way to reach possible readers and buyers, and The Author Platform (TAP) has developed a step-by-step program for authors to learn the ropes. Just click here to go to TAP and check it out for yourself.