How will Publish Central's book cover design help my book cover?
The appearance of your book matters. If your book cover design doesn’t look appealing, people will be less likely to pick it up, and then it doesn’t matter how good your content or your writing is.
At Publish Central, we offer book cover design as part of some of our packages for self-publishers.
If book cover design is part of your package, our book cover designers will ask you to fill in a questionnaire and provide us with some book covers that you like – this helps point us in the right direction to get the book cover design process started.
You might find it helpful to have a look at the books on your shelf or go to a bookstore to find some designs that you like and which reflect how you would like your book to look.
Think about design, colours, fonts and images. When you find some book cover designs that you like, you can send us the books, or you can photograph or scan the designs and email or SMS them to us. Or, if you have found the designs online, you can email the links or image files.
Once this has been done, Publish Central’s book cover designers will provide you with some design ideas based on discussions with you and the ideas you have provided. Once you have given us feedback on these designs, we’ll do another round and send them to you to check again.
Contact us today if you want to find out more about how we can help you with book cover design.
Your book interior
As with the front book cover design, a great way to find out how you want your book to look inside is to go to a bookstore and have a look through some books. Think about whether you want your book interior design to look modern, traditional, funky, fun – whatever! Also think about fonts, spacing, and design.
The inside of your book should match the tone of your topic. If you’re an engineer, you’ll want your book to look technical. If you’re a financial planner, you might want to make it look a bit more serious. Also, consider your target market. If you’re a financial planner who targets retirees, you might want the book to look serious and conservative; if you’re a financial planner who works with twenty-somethings, you could make your book look serious yet modern. We will provide you with some initial interior designs based on what you like and will work with you to fine-tune the one you choose.
- Highlighting where your book may benefit from additional information
- Pointing out any repetition
- Suggesting re-ordering, addition or removal of chapters
- Suggesting any significant areas of text that could be removed.
Copyediting is where your editor will start to focus on the text in more detail. You’ll work closely with your editor to make your book as good as it can be.
Proofreading is the final step in the editing of your book. It’s the final check for errors by an editor or proofreader who has not previously read the book. This provides a fresh set of eyes.
Copyediting and proofreading are essential to produce a high-standard book, but not every book requires a manuscript assessment or developmental editing. After having a look at your manuscript, we will be able to advise you on what editing is required.
Your book spine and back cover design
As well as a front cover design, you’ll need a spine and back cover design for your book. These are completed after the front cover design is finalised.
Your back cover should contain:
- Blurb (sometimes also known as ‘back cover copy’): don’t make this too ‘hard sell’. Your blurb should accurately reflect the content of your book while encouraging people to read it. A good way to summarise the content is to use bullet points.
- About the author: a few lines about you and why you’re qualified to write this book.
- Barcode: this is generated from your ISBN.
- Author photo: this is optional. If you do have an author photo, make sure it’s a professional image – don’t use a photo of yourself in shorts and thongs with a beer in your hand. If you don’t have any high-quality shots available, you should pay to have some done, or at least have a friend with a good camera take a photo of you in a professional outfit against a nice background.
- Web address: optional, but it’s always a good idea to include this on the back of your book.
- Price: again optional, but including the price can be a good idea, because it places a value on the book. When using your book in your business, you will often give copies away for free, and having the price on the back will remind people that they have been given something of value, which will make them appreciate it more.
- Category: You’ll notice that a lot of books have categories on the back cover; this is optional, and will help raise the professional feel of your book.
