If you are the author of a book and you are thinking of self-publishing it, the last thing that you will want to know is that your novel, or piece of non-fiction work, is going to be judged by the cover. You probably want people to read your work and be bowled over by the content and its quality of prose, not to mention the skill of your writing. It is a sad fact, however, that as your prospective reader peruses the shelves of the traditional bookseller, or views a thumbnail picture of your book on a website, what is it that they see? It's the picture of book's cover!
Although the written content weighs heavily in the buying decision of your book's customer, whether you like it or not your book is going to be judged by its jacket as well. As a self-published author you must, therefore, face up to the need to have a cover designed for you by a graphic artist, if you lack the artistic skills yourself. Some of you will probably be switching off here and saying to yourself, well I'll outsource this problem to someone else and so why should I be worried? My advise to you is to make a swift note of some of the pitfalls, that you could so easily fall into, if only to make sure that your designer doesn't!
You probably want your book to appear to be similar to all the others on sale in your genre. It helps buyers know that your title is similar to what they are use to reading. With this in mind, then the book needs to follow certain conventions. With your publisher's hat on you will have to specify to your printer the type and weight of paper to be used for the content and cover of your book. The thickness of the paper used inside is going to have a bearing on the measurements for the spine and as the front picture will, very often, wrap around from front to back of the cover, this needs to be borne in mind in the design stage. For a novel, or non-fiction type of book with few illustrations, you will probably stick to using a low-grade cream coloured paper. This seems to be the norm, rather than the shiny high-grade paper used for the coffee-table tomes.
Choosing the correct paper is a common fault among self-publishers. Some will get their novels printed on unsuitable paper which is either so thin, that the words show through from the other side, or so thick that it feels wrong. The quality of presentation can be really important in making your book a success, so try to avoid using inappropriate materials.
The book's jacket will need to have an International Standard Book Number (ISBN) and a bar code printed. Without a barcode and you will find bookshops and book wholesalers will not want to sell your book. No ISBN and it is harder still, as everyone from Internet bookstores, wholesalers and the smallest of independent shops all have stock control systems that rely on the ISBN. It is what they use to identify a book with on the database computer used for searching titles and Electronic Point of Sale systems (EPOS).
Registering for an ISBN, in the UK and Ireland, is handled by Nielson BookData () and in the USA by Bowker (). Take a look at their websites and you will see they provide help files for new publishers. It is a reasonably simple process to have an ISBN allocated and you will find there are various pieces of software for generating the bar code available. Alternatively you can simply go to the free online barcode generator at /~milgram/bookland/#online
So, now you have had your cover picture designed and it really looks great; you have included the ISBN and barcode so now you need to decide on the paper for the cover. What could possibly go wrong here? Well, you could so easily chose a cover that marks! Do this and you will have far to many damaged and unsaleable books as a consequence. Speaking from experience, as a book retailer of over19 years, I can tell you that, like most of our colleagues in the trade, we will look at the books as we unpack them and put them on the shelves. Any that are marked, scratched, torn or damaged in any other way are simply returned to the publisher for replacement, at their expense! The big publishing houses can handle this wastage. As a self publisher, however, this is going to cost you dear. Your own direct-sell customers are likely do the same - who do you know that wants to pay full price for a damaged item? It is so much better to chose a paper that is not going to suffer in transit and for this you are going to have to rely on your printer's technical knowledge. Ask them what they would recommend, always bearing in mind your budget.
My last piece of advice to you from the coal face, so to speak, is that booksellers know that a black cover, or black print, on a matt laminate paper will always mark! The publishers continue to churn out books with this type of finish and we continue to send them back again and again as damaged on arrival. So chose your paper wisely and take advice from your printer. Remember they will print your book on what ever you specify, whether it is suitable or not; but they will probably know the best solution for the job, if you ask them. Bear in mind the thickness of the paper used inside to make sure the printing on your spine is in the correct place, include an ISBN and barcode on the back and do try to steer clear of black covers!
There is more advice for the self-published author in the Write Your Way To Freedom manual and 3 Audio CD pack that my company has compiled for the new author/self-publisher. We are booksellers of 19 years experience and are passionate about books. Having gathered advice, from other experts in the book industry, we packaged it along with some resources on good English and other helpful information on writing and then selling a book. By doing this we are hoping to encourage authors to bring to the marketplace new books or all genre.
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