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Designing Poetry Books

As a designer I enjoy when I get to work on projects that allow me to stretch and flex my creative muscles. One such type of project is poetry book design! Poetry has experienced an upsurge in popularity during this time of pandemic and I've had the opportunity to work on a few poetry books recently. So, I thought I'd discuss the unique creative challenges that come with creating a book of poetry.

Poetry, being a work of art in itself, inherently contains much of the design in the way the author has written it. A very expressive form of writing, every carefully chosen word and specifically spaced or indented line helps to evoke feeling and meaning. Because each poem is an artistic entity unto itself the range of style and formatting can be quite vast.

With careful attention to each line, formatting poetry requires especially flexible design attention to ensure that the author's intended structure is, as much as possible, retained on the page. Poetry styles can vary significantly from poem to poem. Some styles are straight verse, some have short lines, some have staggered lines, some poems are very long and some only have one line. This can be a lot juggle when attempting to create a uniform book.

To ensure a beautiful book of poetry that is reflective of your work, a few considerations that we will discuss in our introductory meeting and that I will take into account as I design the pages are:

Trim Size
White Space
Position of page numbers and running heads/feet
Order of poems
Text and Page alignment
Hanging indentations for long lines that wrap to the next line
Page breaks for poems that require multiple pages
Facing pages for poems that require two pages

Poetry is a fun and particularly interesting challenge to plan and format with a goal that strives for balance on each page to achieve the overall best appearance for the work as a whole.

Proofreading your self-published book – don’t overlook it!

Let's talk about proofreading for your manuscript. Many times self-publishing authors are tempted to forgo this step for one reason or another. Some want to save time, some don't want to spend the money, and others say they've had a friend or family member "look over it." But this important last step is better left to a professional because no matter how good an author is they will inevitably miss errors in their own work. A fresh set of experienced eyes will see things much differently and more clearly than the set of eyes that has been intensely focused on the work for a very long time.

Although hiring a proofreader isn't a requirement to self-publish your book, it is strongly recommended to drastically reduce these errors and give readers a positive reading experience, uninterrupted by annoying misspellings, poor grammar, and inconsistent writing style. Having your manuscript proofread should be the last step in the production phase. Think of it as quality control and the last line of defense against lamentable inaccuracies.

It's also important to remember that even after a professional has taken their passes over your manuscript, something may slip through. Perfection is a difficult, if not impossible goal and even the big publishers miss every now and then.

BISAC Subject Codes

BISAC Categories: Help your reader find your book!

When it comes to self publishing, properly categorizing your book is critical when it comes making sure your reader can find it. To assign specific subject codes to your book you'll use the BISAC (Book Industry Standards and Communications) subject codes. These are codes that the whole book industry, from bookstores to libraries, use to understand where your book fits on their shelves so that readers can easily find it.

These codes are updated periodically and the most recent list was published in December of 2020. According to the BISG.org blog, "This year’s update added 155 codes and modified 123 literals, with two inactivations across more than half of the 54 top-level sections. A total of 23 sections had at least one addition to the code list."

You can assign BISAC subject codes to your book in several places including in your ISBN setup, IngramSpark and KDP. There are literally hundreds of BISAC codes and it's important to get as specific as possible. For example, if you're writing a business book for nonprofits, you have these options for categorizing your book:

BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Nonprofit Organizations & Charities / General
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Nonprofit Organizations & Charities / Finance & Accounting
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Nonprofit Organizations & Charities / Fundraising & Grants
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Nonprofit Organizations & Charities / Management & Leadership
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Nonprofit Organizations & Charities / Marketing & Communications

10 Tips for getting your Self Published Book Discovered.

10 Tips to Get Your Book Discovered Online

Choose effective keywords to help people find your book!

Keywords are one very important component of metadata that will help your book be successfully found by your audience. Use these helpful tips to carefully research and select your keywords.

10 Tips for Selecting Keywords for your Self-Published Book

You're metadata will be used in many places, so keep a master document on your computer so you have it handy when you need it. This method also makes it easy to add to and keep your metadata current.
In KDP you can choose up to 7 keywords and phrases, but have a list of 10-20 strategically chosen high quality keywords and phrases on hand.
Keep them generic words that readers would use when searching.
Don't repeat words in the title & subtitle - they are already taken into account by search engines.
Include synonyms and spelling variations.
Don't include misspellings. Amazon will offer alternate spelling of misspelled words to the searcher.
Make your keywords specific to your book. They should not include other author names or titles.
Do use search words and phrases that readers will use together to find your book and enter them in a logical order.
If your book is about a specific location be sure to include that.
It's also good to know that keywords work together with your chosen BISAC category and may increase your books' discoverability. So get as specific as possible with your BISAC categories because they are used by many companies throughout the supply chain to categorize books based on topical content. We'll explore more about BISAC Subject Codes in a later newsletter.

Metadata – The Key to your Book’s Online Discoverability

Increase your book's discoverability with metadata!

Do you find yourself wondering how people will find your book after it is available for sale? A large and critical part of the answer is metadata. Understanding metadata and applying it properly is extremely important in the discoverability of your book.

What is metadata anyway?! It's kind of a mysterious and strange, "techy" sounding word that seems like it might be hard to apply. In short, metadata is data that provides information about other data. (Is that enough "datas" for you?) In the case of your book, it is all of the information that describes your book and includes these categories:

Title
Subtitle
Author Names
Description
Editorial Reviews
Author Bio
Keywords
Categories
Product details
Community Reviews

Google, Amazon and other sites have powerful technology that analyses all of this data so that it can show users of their services the most relevant content possible. All of the pieces of metadata that you assign to your book work together to help online sites know to show your reader your book. It then will help that reader determine if they want to read and ultimately purchase your book. So you can see why it is very important that each metadata category be fully and accurately filled out.

10 Tips for Selecting Keywords

You're metadata will be used in many places, so keep a master document on your computer so you have it handy when you need it. This method also makes it easy to add to and keep your metadata current.
In KDP you can choose up to 7 keywords and phrases, but have a list of 10-20 strategically chosen high quality keywords and phrases on hand.
Keep them generic words that readers would use when searching.
Don't repeat words in the title & subtitle - they are already taken into account by search engines.
Include synonyms and spelling variations.
Don't include misspellings. Amazon will offer alternate spelling of misspelled words to the searcher.
Make your keywords specific to your book. They should not include other author names or titles.
Do use search words and phrases that readers will use together to find your book and enter them in a logical order.
If your book is about a specific location be sure to include that.
It's also good to know that keywords work together with your chosen BISAC category and may increase your books' discoverability. So get as specific as possible with your BISAC categories because they are used by many companies throughout the supply chain to categorize books based on topical content. We'll explore more about BISAC Subject Codes in a later newsletter.

Do you have an Amazon Author Page?

Set up your Amazon author page to promote your book!

Did you know that you can have your own author page on Amazon? Yes you can - and it is pretty easy to set up. It only takes a few minutes and it's free!

Amazon Author Central enables authors to utilize the Amazon author page as a way to connect with readers. The Amazon author page is a valuable marketing tool that you can personalize. It's essentially a landing page on Amazon where readers can learn about you, see all the books you've published, see your recent blog posts if you have one, follow you and more.

Here's a list of the things that you can add to your page:

Books: After claiming your page you'll need to add your books to it by searching for the title or ISBN.
Bio: Use this section to enter a short bio. Make sure to include your website if you have one. Some people use this area to list upcoming events, new release dates, their social media links and contact email. Get creative!
Photos: You can upload multiple images. Include a professionally taken photo of yourself so people can see you and any other images that are relevant to you or your books.
Videos: If you have created a book trailer or have other videos that help you connect with your audience upload them here.
Blog: Do you have a blog with an RSS feed? Be sure to include it on your author page. Whenever you update your blog, the blog teasers that appear on the author page on Amazon update automatically, within 24 hours of being posted on your blog.
Customized URL: An author page URL is an easily shared link to your page on Amazon.com. It can be customized with whatever you wish it to be as long as it hasn't been taken by another user. In that case you'll need an alternative. Use your author page URL in your email signature, blog posts, Facebook posts and tweets.

What goes on your front cover?

Tips for book cover design success.

Last month I talked about what content to include on your back cover, so, naturally, I thought I would expand on the important elements to include on your front cover. As with the back cover, it is critical to know who your audience is as you begin developing the copy and design of the front cover.

Because it is the first thing that potential readers will see, everything that is placed on the cover needs to be well thought out and intentional. The actual visual approach that you take with the design will vary depending on if your book is fiction or nonfiction, but in both cases the front cover should immediately speak to your audience when they see it.

Here are some things to include:

Title. The title will want to be the most prominent element on the page and set in a font that is fairly simple and easy to read. Keep in mind that if you are selling your book online the front cover will be thumbnail size when presented to online shoppers in browsers and reading devices. Therefore the legibility of the title needs to be crystal clear in both the larger printed version and the digital thumbnail size.

Subtitle (if applicable). This element is #2 in priority after the title. It also wants to be very legible and easy to read at small sizes. Often the subtitle is set in a smaller less "fancy" font than the title, but is still complimentary to the title. The design of the title and subtitle work together to create a typographic grouping that works with and enhances the rest of the design.

Series Number (if applicable). If your book is part of a series you can choose to include this information on the front cover. Usually it is quite small and worked into the typographic design of the title and subtitle or, in some cases, across the top of the page. Some authors choose to only put this on the spine or back cover, but if your book's fans will mostly be reading it as an ebook it can be helpful for them to see the series number on the front cover.

Endorsement. If you have an endorsement from a person with a well-known name, great for you! Endorsements can help add credibility to your book and it may work well to give a big name endorsement some prominence on the front cover, but limit it to one and keep it short. Start collecting endorsements and reviews early!

Author Name. Of course readers will want to know who the author is! This element is most commonly placed in the lower third of the front cover. Unless you are a super well-known and established author, the prevailing advice is to keep the author name small.

Design. Buyers do judge books by their covers! All of the previously mentioned elements need to work seamlessly with the overall design of the book. Hire a professional book cover designer to avoid a front cover design that is easily recognized as amateurish. The design of your book cover can be made up of images, or illustrations, it can be strictly typographic, or it can be a combination of all these things. Whichever direction you choose should reveal the tone of your book right away so that upon first glance the reader can instantly get a sense for the content inside. The design should also be reflective of other books in your genre - similar, but distinct, so that it "fits" with the other books on the shelf and also stands out. Finally - don't forget to look at a gray scale version of your cover - some e-readers don't display color, so the cover must still look good and be readable in gray scale.

After the audience is defined and the research and planning is done then is it ready for the design phase. When I design the front cover of your book some of my goals include:

Readability of the title font
Seeking creative continuity from the front cover, over the spine and onto the back cover (and inside/outside flaps if it's a dust jacket).
Making sure the cover scales down to smaller sizes well.
Creating a cover that is unique but fits in the genre.
And finally...ensuring that you - the publisher! - absolutely love your book's cover design.

Back Cover Copy – What goes here?

Learn about which elements should go on your back cover to help sell more books.

Ever wonder what to put on the back cover of your book? This area should be used as a marketing tool that helps people see the benefits of buying your book. The copy that you put here should be aimed specifically at your audience, using language that they resonate and connect with. Ultimately, the back cover content is what sells the book. After the front cover or spine has snagged their attention, the copy that appears here will hopefully seal the deal and result in your reader making the purchase. And, because attention spans are short, this content needs to be easy to quickly read.

Here are some things to include:

A tagline. Appearing at the very top of the page, use an enticing one or two line sentence to provoke interest or intrigue. Keep it short to grab your reader's attention and pull them further down the page into more details about the book.

A book summary or blurb. This one or two paragraph block should be written with your reader in mind. However, it shouldn't be written in the same style as your book. Think of it more like ad copy, and to write effective ad copy it is critical to know who your reader is and then talk directly to them using language that they'll relate to. The book summary can help your reader understand why they want to buy your book and communicate to them how this book will benefit their life.

Reviews, endorsements, testimonials. Include 2-3 of your best reviews on the back cover. These short statements of praise from others helps add a feeling of credibility to your book. Seeing that other people, maybe some of them well-known, have read, endorsed and recommend your book, builds a sense of trust with your potential reader. Be sure to include your reviewer's name and credentials if they have them.

Author biography and photo. Give people a way to start getting to know you as an author. Include a short bio about yourself and why you wrote the book. Keep it brief and clear, saving the longer list of achievements and story for your "About the Author" page in your book or on your website. Use a simple, professionally taken head shot for the photo.

Publishing Information. This section is for your ISBN bar code and could include the bookstore category, price (if you choose to include that), and your website address.

After you have all of the copy for the cover, only then is it ready for the design phase. When I design the back cover of your book some of my goals include:

Maintaining visual continuity that may come from the front cover and/or elements of the interior style.
Keeping the information on the back cover easily digestible with the most important copy presented in a way that grabs the eye.
Using various design techniques to eliminate any potential for an overcrowded, or cluttered feeling.

A Look at Imprints

Should you set up an imprint or multiple imprints for your self publishing company?

As a self publishing author, your books are published under your publishing company name. This is also called your publishing imprint and is what is recorded in book industry databases used by retailers, book wholesalers, and book distributors, it's on your copyright page and is assigned to your ISBN numbers.

You can also have multiple imprints that fall under your publishing company. For example, maybe you normally write and publish nonfiction under your publishing imprint (let's call it "Mountain Life Books"), but then you find that you want to write and publish cookbooks or some other type of book with subject matter that doesn't quite fit under your main imprint. You can choose a new imprint name (let's call it Tasty Eats Press) that better reflects the new books' subject matter. Then, on your copyright page and in other places, it would say "Published by Tasty Eats Press, an imprint of Mountain Life Books."

It is fun to think about different imprint names - you can get creative with it! An imprint represents your business and you as an author. You'll want to carefully research the name that you choose and then register it as either a Fictitious Business Name (FBN) or Doing Business As (DBA) with your state. Check with your local state regulations for specific details.

The Chapter Opening Page in Book Design

Elements and design choices to consider when designing a chapter opening page.

The first page of each chapter is one of my favorite things to design. This is one place where the tone of your book and its subject matter can be visually communicated. The design of these pages can range from very simple to more elaborate design choices that spread across two pages.

The Chicago Manual of Style says that each chapter normally starts on a new page, and can sit on a verso (left) or recto (right) page, although the first chapter almost always starts on a recto.

Some elements that you can expect to see on a chapter opening page are:

Chapter Number (the word chapter is often omitted)

Chapter Title

Subtitle (if there is one)

Epigraph (if there is one)

Drop folios (or no folio)

No running heads

The design of this page can vary greatly and should reflect your book's subject matter and tone. The right choice for you may be incredibly simple and understated with only the chapter title or number, or it could be more lively and contain graphics and other relevant display items.

Some possible elements for the chapter opening page design include:

Ornamentation or graphics

Illustration

A font complimentary to the body text and expressive of the feeling of the content

A font that echoes the font choice on the cover

A drop cap in the first paragraph of text

Italics or small caps on the first line of the first paragraph

Whichever design style that you choose for your chapter opening page, it is important that it does not distract the reader from their reading flow. Beautifully designed chapter opening pages can be enjoyable to the reader and a refreshing pause before diving into the next section of text.
Below are a few examples of chapter opening pages that I've recently designed.

When I work with you to design and format your book interior we will spend some time together before the project begins so that I can learn about your book and any style preferences or ideas that you have. Using this information I then go to work making that vision come to life. Depending on the project I will present a couple different options for the interior design that you can choose from so that you can see the possibilities and refine it to reflect what is best for your book.

Please email to set up a consultation to design your self published book!

jamie@openheartdesigns.com

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Help for Independent Presses

Book Design & Production

Help for Independent Presses

Book Design & Production

BISAC Categories: Help your reader find your book!

Help for Independent Presses

Book Design & Production

Choose effective keywords to help people find your book!

10 Tips for Selecting Keywords for your Self-Published Book

Help for Independent Presses

Book Design & Production

Increase your book's discoverability with metadata!

10 Tips for Selecting Keywords

Help for Independent Presses

Book Design & Production

Set up your Amazon author page to promote your book!

Help for Independent Presses

Book Design & Production

Tips for book cover design success.

Help for Independent Presses

Book Design & Production

Learn about which elements should go on your back cover to help sell more books.

Help for Independent Presses

Book Design & Production

Should you set up an imprint or multiple imprints for your self publishing company?

Help for Independent Presses

Book Design & Production

Elements and design choices to consider when designing a chapter opening page.

Help for Independent Presses

Book Design & Production

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