What to Expect When You Hire a Designer for Your Book Project

WHAT SIZE SHOULD MY BOOK BE?

You've spent a great deal of time -- more often than not years -- writing your book, whether its a novel, non-fiction, poetry, or family history. You have re-read and proof-read, you've made corrections hundreds of times, and you feel that you're all ready to go. Or you are only just beginning -- and your project needs a lot of work.

Wherever your book is at, its a good idea to spend some time at your local bookstore. Look at books you like, or books that will be similar to the one you're creating. Get a feel for what size works well for your book's category, and keep within the standard sizes, 5.5 x 8.5 inches, 6 x 9, 8.5 x 11. You can, of course, create a book that is any size you can dream of, but keep in mind that printers will give you better prices on standard sizes, and bookstores will be more likely to take them.

PRICES / TIME FRAME

A good designer will give you a price estimate after looking at your material, or based on a clear description. What you need to outline is the approximate length of your text, whether there are graphics, charts, diagrams involved, whether there are multiple levels of headings (in non-fiction), or requirements for indented tables, side-bars, and other specialized treatment. Here at Budget Book Design, we can most often quote a fairly accurate price over the phone -- based on your information of course.

Ask for an estimated time frame, and be realistic.

Some people spend years writing and assembling a book, but often want the finished result pronto. If your book is a novel with chapter numbers and text, then your layout can be done here as quickly as five days. If your project is more complex, then be realistic with your time-frame. You might need to plan for at least 3-4 weeks. Its not fair to set up a book-signing party, or plan to present your book at a conference without careful planning with your designer and printer.

Expect to dialog with your designer, and ask for regular updates.

MY BOOK IS ALL READY IN WORD

Oh really? Stop in at your local bookstore. Pick up any book on the New Arrivals table. We'll guarantee that not ONE was produced completely in Microsoft Word! Here's how it works. Word is a program that makes things look wonderful on your monitor. Professional layout programs make them look wonderful on a printing press. Try it out - get your Word document all done, putting in all your running heads and page numbers, get it formatted to the right size, print it out and have a look - it probably looks OK. Now put your document on disk and take it down to the library, open it and print some pages. Does it look the same as what you'd printed at home? What happened!! A word document will look different on almost every computer you use - its just not a layout program. That being said - if you're confident that it all looks great, then go right ahead, but you will need to convert to PDF, because no commercial printing plant will take a Word document without charging you to convert to PDF.

WHAT TO GIVE THE DESIGNER

We love receiving text files that are well-organized, have all the elements needed already in place, and are easy to follow. If a job makes sense to us, and flows in a logical way, then we're confident that the reader -- your customer -- will be able to follow your train of thought, and find the book easy to use.

Be consistent with style. If you use only numerals for chapter heads,   don't suddenly   use "Chapter 12." If you decide to put a quote at the beginning of each chapter, then that becomes your style, and use do it for every chapter.

In a workbook there are often things for your reader to do. Make sure there are clear instructions. You have worked and re-worked your book, and know exactly what you want people to do. But the reader is coming in "cold" and may not understand how to use your book.

INCLUDING GRAPHICS?

If you're using graphics and illustrations DON'T use things from web-sources, unless they're from services that offer hi-res graphics. Most web-obtained artwork will look wonderful on your monitor -- that's because a monitor has the same resolution of only 72dpi (dots per inch) or about as good as cheap newspaper quality. You can print those web graphics, and suddenly you will see that don't look so hot. They'll look even worse in a printed book.

Some people think that if a photo is taken with a digital camera it's going to work well. Same thing. It could be better to use no photo at all than a low-resolution photo taken with your cell phone! If you're using a digital camera, check to see whether it will give you the results a printer needs.

So your book is a family history -- or about WWII, and all you have is old newspaper cuttings, and third-hand xeroxes. Then you're probably OK because people are very forgiving when it comes to historical photos, but don't use a photo from that cheap digital camera for your author's bio photo on the back cover!

Lots of folk have that free scanner that came with their computer, and they figure they'll save some by scanning all that stuff themselves. Fine -- but is the quality going to be sufficient? Rule of thumb -- if your scanner was free, then probably not.

Are your graphics pasted into your Microsoft Word document? Supply them individually as well.

Are they pasted into an Excel document?   -- we won't even go there!!

COVERS / BARCODES

Have all you text for the cover - front, back and spine ready in one text document. Give your cover designer some ideas of what you'd like, and let them go for it.

Is your book going into book stores, or is it for sale only on-line from your website? Is it for a family reunion or are you selling it at your own speaking engagements. The big bookstore chains have definite requirements, and will not take your book if they're not met -- a bar code from your ISBN number for instance -- so make sure you've decided exactly where you want your book to be sold.

Will people understand what the book is about from your front cover? It's fine to have a title that's not self-explanatory, but do you have a subtitle that will tell people what the book is about? If people don't understand immediately, they won't pick up your book, no matter how clever the design is.

Do you have a good description on the back cover? Are you including bullet points, telling people why your book is unique and gives them what they'll need to know? Do you have any endorsements, and is one of them good enough to go on the front cover?

QUESTIONS TO ASK

Prices, prices prices. Some print-on-demand companies are really good at coming up with more and more unexpected fees, so know EXACTLY what you're getting for the amount you're spending. If there's any increase in fees then you should expect to be asked first. Ask for samples, ask for client references. Is this your first book project? If yes, then ask everything you can think of. We always tell people that there's no stupid question other than the one they thought was too stupid to ask.

Make sure that you completely understand what you need to send for your project to begin.

WHAT YOU'LL GET FROM YOUR DESIGNER

Print-ready PDF files that are ready to send off to the printer. Remember that the quality of the product you get depends somewhat on what you're putting into it. If you must have Aunt Sophie's painting on the cover (or you're out of the will) so be it. If you have to have your not-very-good bio photo on the back -- fine. If you've supplied all your charts as 72 dpi because you created them in Powerpoint, and the designer did the best they could, then you'll have to accept it. If your book has lots of mistakes, a designer will probably say something if its spotted, but with big publishing houses, a designer may not change one period -- even if it is a mistake. Once work is completed here at Budget Book Design it becomes the property of the customer, who may use it to promote their book any way they want. We'll create promotional material based on the book's design too. You can ask us about our "Book Signing Kit." A completed PDF book cover can easily be converted to a web-ready image if that's what you need.

You've worked long and hard on your project, and now you're ready to spend some serious money getting your book professionally designed. It's a good designer's responsibility to make sure that the job is done well, and you're totally happy with the result.

Visit our website at: BudgetBookDesign.com