Category: Self Publishing | Open Heart Designs

Capture Your Reader’s Attention with Stunning Cover Design

Why Invest in Professional Cover Design?

A compelling cover does more than catch the eye; it speaks to the heart of your prospective readers, inviting them into the world you've created. With a blend of artistry and strategy, a well-designed cover can make your book stand out while fitting seamlessly within your genre. It's about creating a visual narrative that resonates with your audience, encouraging them to explore further.

How I Can Assist You

With my expertise, we can navigate the intricacies of cover design together. From understanding your book’s essence and target audience to selecting imagery and typography that amplifies your story I'm here to bring your vision to life and be your guide through the process to ensure your cover is not just beautiful but effective.

Here are some ways that we will collaborate on your book cover:

Personalized Cover Design: Your book's genre, target audience, and core message guide my design strategy. I delve into the specifics, from genre norms to the subtleties that make your book unique, crafting a cover that not only captivates but also communicates.

Technical Expertise: Transitioning from manuscript to print or eBook format is seamless when you work with me. I handle the complexities of file creation and formatting, ensuring your book is ready for platforms like Amazon's KDP and IngramSpark, without the technical headaches.

Collaborative Process: Your vision is paramount. Through regular updates and open communication, I ensure that the design aligns with your expectations, incorporating your feedback and providing revisions to perfect your cover and interior layout.

Showcasing Success

Every project is a story of collaboration and creativity, resulting in covers that not only captivate but also sell. For a glimpse into the transformative power of exceptional cover design, I invite you to explore my portfolio of recent projects and discover how I've worked together with authors to elevate their visions into captivating visual stories.

Ready to Transform Your Cover?

Embarking on your cover design journey is just an email away. Contact me to discuss how we can turn your vision into a visual masterpiece that attracts and delights your target readership.

I would love to be a part of your publishing adventure and look forward to creating something remarkable together!

Discover the Pros and Cons of Digital and Offset Printing

Few things are as exciting as opening the box holding copies of your freshly printed, self published book! After all the months, maybe years, of crafting and developing your story and making careful and intentional choices in its production, it is so satisfying to finally hold the finished book in your hands. In this newsletter we will explore common options for printing and some important differences between them that will empower you to make choices that will help bring your book to life and save you potential disappointment from unexpected results.

Self-publishing authors are faced with many choices during the production process of their book. An important one is the choice between digital or offset printing. While both methods have their pros and cons, the decision ultimately depends on personal preferences and budget. Here's a quick breakdown of each:

Print on Demand (POD) platforms like Ingram Spark and KDP have made self-publishing more accessible than ever before. They offer user-friendly tools and affordable options, allowing authors to publish their work and reach a wide audience through extensive distribution channels. However, it's important to note that POD books can differ significantly in quality compared to books printed traditionally with an offset press. POD relies on digital printing, which is cost-effective for small print quantities but unfortunately lacks reliable consistency in the final product. POD companies also work with multiple printers to get the job done. Each book is printed individually as its own print run and the machine is not calibrated between runs making it impossible to guarantee consistency between printers and runs. Nevertheless, readers will likely never see the book they have purchased side-by-side with the same book that may have been printed elsewhere, so the differences may go unnoticed to them.

Offset printing is ideal for larger print runs and delivers high-quality results. It offers greater consistency and precision in color reproduction throughout the print run. Offset presses also provide options for a wider range of colors and higher quality paper choices. However, with this method there is a large upfront expense, you'll need storage for the printed books, the lead times are longer, and you will need to arrange your own distribution for the book.

In summary, print on demand allows for quick, flexible publishing and easy distribution at a low cost. It's suitable for printing a single copy or a small quantity, and you can even dropship a book anywhere that you like. It will be a fine looking book but, it may not meet your desired level of quality. Offset printing ensures a high-quality product but requires printing a large quantity, storage space, and a higher upfront investment. Additionally, you'll need to manage the distribution process yourself.

Learn how hanging punctuation enhances the reader experience!

Create Visual Balance with Optical Margin Alignment

When you want your page to have visually clean, crisp lines, using hanging punctuation can help! Hanging punctuation was first used in the Gutenberg bible where hyphens and other text features were slightly bumped into the right and left margins to create visual uniformity on the page. It was a very tedious job in those days and usually there was one person dedicated solely to that task. In modern times, advanced typesetting software makes this a simple job. It includes more than just hyphens and punctuation, and is called optical margin alignment.

So...what is it?

This optical margin is the "invisible line" that your eyes see when looking at the right and left edges of a block of text. Take a look at the text samples below:

When characters like quotation marks, periods, commas, hyphens and dashes, and others are not hung into the margins, it creates a visual indent, or negative space, in the block of text as a whole that can sometimes feel distracting to the reader. Using optical margin alignment helps create the appearance of a flush right and left edge by removing the negative space. This more visually balanced text allows the reader a neat, clean, uninterrupted reading experience.

It should also be noted that, while this technique is widely used - especially with justified text, it's not a rule set in stone that it should always be used. It can be used throughout your book, or just in certain places, like excerpts, quotes or lists that, by design, are separated from the main flow of text. Ultimately the decision to use optical margins is a matter of preference that, as a self-publishing author, you can decide if it seems right for your book. Some people prefer the look of their text without the optical margin alignment and that's okay. The overall goal is to create a great reading experience and sometimes we get there in in different ways.

What goes on your Title Page?

Did you know that your book can contain two title pages? The first appears as the very first page when you open the cover and is called a half title page. The only thing on this page is the title of your book, usually small and understated. A half title page is not a requirement, and is mostly a leftover tradition from back-in-the-day when it is said to have been used as protective measure during the printing process.

Whether or not you choose to include a half title page is up to you and the needs of your books, but you wouldn't want to leave out the second type, the title page. The title page is an important page that acts as a welcoming committee to those who've opened the book. It is the official start of your book and its design and content is quite simple, containing the:

full title of the book
subtitle if there is one
author name(s)
publisher name and location

Depending on the genre of your book other information may also appear here, such as an editor name or edition numbers.

Just because a title page is simple doesn't mean it has to be boring (says the designer!) A common design technique is to echo the cover by adapting artwork and/or font styles used there to appear on this page. If complex artwork is used on the cover, you may have to simplify it so that it doesn't overwhelm the page and that it prints well in black and white (if that's how your book's interior will be printed.)

Here are a couple examples of title pages that I've recently designed.

What goes in the front matter of your book

Do you wonder what kind of content should go in your front matter? Front matter is all of the pages before your first chapter or part and contains information about your book, provides a way to navigate the book, and introduces it to your reader. These pages are numbered with lowercase roman numerals (i, ii, iii, iv, v, etc.) and, although they shouldn't be printed on the title page through the table of contents, they are included in your total page count. Page 1 usually starts at the first chapter or part.

Tips for organizing your front matter.

The Chicago Manual of Style indicates that the order of the front matter should be:

Book half title
Series title, other works, frontispiece, or blank
Title page
Copyright page
Dedication
Epigraph
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
List of Tables
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments (if not part of preface or in the back matter)
Introduction (if not part of text)
Abbreviations (if not in the back matter)
Chronology (if not in the back matter)

Clearly, not all of these elements will be in every book, but this will give you guidance on how to organize the parts that you do have.

Tips on how to prepare your manuscript for the book designer.

Preparing Your Manuscript for the Book Designer

So you've finished writing your book and are ready for the layout and design stage. Before you send it off to your formatter there's a bit of "house cleaning" to do first to ensure that they can clearly see and understand the formatting needs of your book. Remember, the designer is not as familiar with your content as you are, so preparing a clean document to send to them saves time (and cost) and helps eliminate guess work or misunderstanding of how an item is intended to look on the page.

So! roll up your sleeves and get ready to clean up your working document.

Tips for preparing your manuscript
for the book designer.

Send the final and complete manuscript in Microsoft Word. Including all the front matter, the book block and any back matter. If your chapter has titles, include a table of contents, but don’t add the page numbers. This is one of the last things your designer will do after all of the text is set.
Organization and consistency is key. Manuscripts that are complex, especially non-fiction can become messy very quickly and, if not organized properly, can make it difficult for your designer to know how to proceed. So make sure that each element, such as chapter titles, section titles, each level of subheads and bullets, quotes, or other similar content is formatted the same throughout.
Make sure the information hierarchy is clear. For example, with part titles and numbers, chapters titles and numbers, sub-heads, and sub-sections it is important to make sure each of these elements is formatted the same way throughout the manuscript - and each are different from one another. The idea is to make it so the designer can easily spot the distinct parts and format them accurately.
- For example: Format all part titles bold and 24 points, then make all chapter titles bold and 20 pt, so when the designer looks at your Word manuscript, they can easily see that those two items are not the same thing.
- The same would be true for subheads. To indicate which is which, maybe format level one subhead as bold and 14 points, and then perhaps make level two subheads italic and 12 points.
If you’ve used unusual characters, foreign letters or words or other symbols, point these out to the designer.

Format the manuscript simply

Use only one font throughout the manuscript. Times New Roman is just fine. It can be used for everything - the chapter titles, subheads, everything. If a complimentary font is desired, this will be communicated before the project starts and the designer will apply it appropriately in their professional layout software.
Use of bold and italic is perfectly okay. The designer can easily see and retain that formatting.
Tables should be formatted simply with no extra spaces or tabs in the cells
If there is a pull quote or a boxed text feature, indicate this in your manuscript by typing [boxed text starts here] before the text that should be boxed, and [boxed text ends here] after that text.

Things to avoid:

Tabs or multiple spaces to indicate indents.
Double spaces after periods.
Hard returns. These are not "real" paragraphs and usually happen on accident when you press shift + enter to force text to drop to the next line. If these exist in your document its hard to tell if you meant to start a new paragraph or you simply wanted a specific word to be on the next line.
Make sure to hit the enter key once after a paragraph.
Multiple fonts. Please only use one font for your entire manuscript. Your designer and you will discuss fonts before your project begins.
Text boxes or Word art. These are available as formatting tools in Microsoft Word, but will not translate well upon import to professional layout software. If you need something special such as boxed text or other special formatting use the method described above to show your designer where it should be placed and speak with them to communicate your intention.
Microsoft Word is not a great layout tool. As much as you may want to, please don’t try to predesign the pages in book form. This is your designer's job and all your hard work will only have to be stripped out of the manuscript before it can be worked with in professional layout software.

Images:

Do not place images into your Word Document. Instead include the image name and its caption in your manuscript in the area where the image should appear.
- For example: [imagename.jpeg, caption text]
Send the high resolution files (minimum 300dpi) in a zip file to your designer separately.
Name your images with the chapter number and something short that describes what is in the image.
Make sure you have permission to use any photo that you send. Do not send images that you find in a Google search. These will likely not be high enough resolution and you probably won’t have the necessary permissions to use them in your book.
If you need stock photos ask your designer for a trustworthy site to find the image you need. The price can range all the way from free to much more expensive, but generally you can find what you need for only a few dollars.

IngramSpark’s Book Returns Explained

When setting up your title on Ingram Spark, have you found yourself confused about the return options and their associated costs?

First, let's understand what book returns are and why they exist. Ingram Spark has the option to allow booksellers to return books. The book seller buys books to sell and if those books aren't selling, they need to be able to return them.

As a business owner they make calculated risks when determining which books to stock. A new or unknown author is more of a risk than an author with an established repertoire. Booksellers are more likely to take that risk on a new author if they can return those books if they don't sell.

If you, the publisher, choose to allow returns, please note that there are costs associated with that option. Therefore, it is very important to understand each option so you can make the right choice for your situation.

When you opt to allow returns IngramSpark will charge you for the wholesale cost of returns plus any applicable shipping and handling fees.

The three choices for book returns available to you on IngramSpark are:

No or Non-Returnable: IngramSpark will not accept returns from booksellers.

Cost to you: none.
IngramSpark will not accept returns from booksellers.

Yes – Deliver: Your titles will be sold on a returnable basis. If the book is returned it will be shipped back to you. (This return option is only available for books sold in the United States or Canada).

Cost to you: Wholesale cost of the book + $2.00 per book shipping and handling charge (when returning to a US address) or $20.00 per book shipping and handling charge (when returning to a non-US/international address) Be careful with this option as the costs can potentially add up quickly.
Book returns will be deducted from your publisher’s compensation for sales in the month that the return is shipped to the publisher.

Yes – Destroy: Your titles will be sold on a returnable basis. If the book is returned they will be shipped back to IngramSpark and destroyed.

Cost to you: Wholesale cost of the book. No shipping & handling. This is the preferred choice of many authors.
Book returns will be deducted from your publisher’s compensation for sales in the month that the returns are received from the retailer.

The opportunities and risks that these options enable should be weighed out with your goals for your book. Some say that if you are not marketing heavily to bookstores they will be less likely to order a book from a new author and in that case, it may not be worth the financial risk to allow returns. On the other hand the much larger reach that a bookstore will most likely have over yours may be worth lowering their risk to carry your book by allowing returns.

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

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Why Invest in Professional Cover Design?

How I Can Assist You

Here are some ways that we will collaborate on your book cover:

Showcasing Success

Ready to Transform Your Cover?

Help for Independent Presses

Book Design & Production

Help for Independent Presses

Book Design & Production

Help for Independent Presses

Book Design & Production

Help for Independent Presses

Book Design & Production

Tips for organizing your front matter.

Help for Independent Presses

Book Design & Production

Tips for preparing your manuscript for the book designer.

Format the manuscript simply

Things to avoid:

Images:

Help for Independent Presses

Book Design & Production

Help for Independent Presses

Book Design & Production

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

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Tips for preparing your manuscript
for the book designer.