Book-Production in Easy Steps

Book Production

Are you exhausted after finishing your manuscript? 

You invested so much time and talent into your book – and you have a lot of book marketing ahead of you.
Now let the professionals finish your book production:
editing, book layout and cover design.
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In the meantime get advanced reviews for the editorial review part of your Amazon page and the back jacket of your print book, prepare your book launch, and spruce up your social media networks.
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A Word of Caution:
NEVER, EVER use the “service” of vanity presses, subsidy “publishers” or “self-publishing” companies.  There is no need to sign away your rights and to pay over-priced book production services.
To give you just one example: Using a vanity company, who has the ISBN for your book and who set up your Amazon presence, you are totally limited in your marketing efforts.  You can never control your book marketing, such as sales campaigns, book giveaways, create a professional author page, or change distribution channels.  Don’t forget: these are no real publishers (even if they call themselves publishers), they charge a fortune for their services and are shunned by most book stores or librarians. Vanity companies make their money with expensive book productions – and NOT with the sale of books.  Authors will neither safe time nor money, and will sell their soul to the devil.
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Do Your Research!
Find out who edited, printed, formatted and distributes the titles and who did the layout among the bestsellers in your genre.
Ask your writer peers, your social media friends in forums and communities, or just type in your search words at your social media sites.  Most of these editors, formatters and layout-ers have a presence there.  It is easy to find lots of professional service providers to finish your book.
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You Get What You Pay For…
Don’t shop for the cheapest, rather the best partners.  We provide here just an overview what’s involved in book production, read Joel Friedlander’s really helpful blog article: Why Self-Published Books look Self-Published
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The Editing process:
Even though many authors are talented writers and often spectacular at grammar, they should never be the book editor of their own project. You might have logged long hours going through your manuscript with a fine-tooth comb, read, write, delete, re-write, re-read, delete…  Then, after carefully reviewing the spelling and grammar and fact-checking the document, you may have even handed the manuscript over to your your former English teacher and every member of your writing group, however none of this is equal to a professional edit.

Contact editors whose sites inspire confidence and ask about their work process, rates, time frames, and any other information you need to know.  Request a sample edit from the respondents you like.  Samples are often free, and around five 250-word pages.
The editing process is not meant to offend you or detract from all of the perfecting you have already done.  Rather, an edit is meant to increase the quality and success of your book, regardless of subject or genre.  There are several steps involved in editing and professional trade publishers often employ special editors for each of these steps:

  • Line editing
  • Content Editing
  • Copy Editing
  • Proof Reading

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The Book Cover and Title.
The correct title can really help to ensure the success of your project.  Or not… A great cover will raise the attention of potential readers. And yes, books are judged by their covers.

  • It must be easy to understand and speak.
  • It should ideally be less than 32 characters (plus the subtitle).
  • You must be able to purchase the exact URL for the title.
  • Buy your Author name domain also.
  • The title should clearly demonstrate to readers what they will discover in this eBook.
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PRINT BOOK LAYOUT

For e-Books:

  • Keep the design clean.
  • Use a focal point to orient the user
  • Make sure people can read it without glasses.
  • Make the design match the content.

For Print:

  • Use the spine properly.
  • Include a photo of the author.
  • The largest font size is used on the information that is most important

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Joel Friedlander has a great blog post series about book layout mistakes to avoid. You can learn almost everything about book design by following Joel Friedlander’s blogs and by reading his books, to be found at TheBookDesigner.com.  Technical information can be obtained at Basic Book Design or answers to your basic book design questions.
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Pre-Publishing Services:

EDITING:

Susan Uttendorfsky Adirondack Editing
www.adirondackediting.com

Daniel Kenyon Editing
http://danielkenyon.wordpress.com

PROOFREADING Jo Robinson
https://africolonialstories.wordpress.com/indie-author-services/

Samita Sarkar
http://samitasarkar.com/contact/

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COVER DESIGN INSPIRATIONS
http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/inspiration/creative-book-cover-story/
http://faceoutbooks.com/ (print book covers)
http://causticcovercritic.blogspot.ca/
http://www.book-by-its-cover.com/
http://bookdesigner.com/53972/book-covers/
http://bookcovers.creativindie.com/cover-samples/

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Two BOOK COVER DESIGNERS, I can personally recommend:

Anitra Jay http://www.anitrajay.com/page:designs

Laura Wright LaRoche http://www.llpix.com

David Cassidy http://davidccassidy.com/graphic-designer/ebook-covers/
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PROFESSIONAL e-BOOK FORMATTING

http://e-bookbuilders.com

http://ebookarchitects.com

… another important step in creating an e-book that should be done by real professionals,
here are two proven e-book designers:
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After going through the pre-production stages – the editorial and design part – your next step will be distribution of your new book, covered in the next blog post. However, while your book is at the pre-publishing service providers, don’t forget to actively market your upcoming book!
Prepare your author pages on Goodreads and Amazon, start Goodreads and LibraryThing Giveaways. Get as many pre-orders and reviews as possible, plan and invite all your potential readers to your book launch – virtual and in person. Lots of more tips can be found at 111 Tips on How to Market Your Book for Free.

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