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Design & Production

How is your book going to look? Will you be publishing in print? In digital? What fonts should you use? What size should your print book be? What are Mobi and EPUB? Our design and production community can answer all these questions and more.

Steps in Design & Production

  • Choosing print and ebook layout
  • Choosing fonts
  • Adding illustrations
  • Using validation tools
 

Self-Publishing and Audiobooks

by Laura Dawson
Bowker | Tue Oct 22, 2013

iSpeech.org, a text-to-speech developer, has launched a text-to-speech converter for publishers. As reported by GigaOm earlier this year:

iSpeech gives publishers three options for creating content. They can convert PDFs to audio files; they can add a widget to a website that essentially adds a “play” button to an article; or they can use more sophisticated developer tools built on iSpeech’s API and add them directly to their web pages. Pearson is using the PDF option for its textbooks. Evernote is using the developer tools to integrate speech technology into its web reading platform Evernote Clearly.

Design & Production
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Opportunity Is Knocking: Why Authors Should Go Print

by Allison Horton
Bowker | Thu Sep 19, 2013

Once upon a time, self publishing print books was a costly and risky endeavor. Minimum orders, inventory risks, and lengthy lead times were not self-publisher friendly. Then, print on demand came along. POD creates one-off and entire print runs of bookstore-worthy hard copies from a “print-ready PDF” hours after an order is placed (i.e. when you place an order with the printer or when a customer purchases a copy on Amazon).

The ease and affordability of digital publishing makes for a great starting point for self publishers, but there are plenty of reasons to go print as well. To name a few...
 

Not everyone has an e-reader

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Self-Publisher's 5-Minute Guide to Book Printing Processes

by Joel Friedlander
Bowker | Fri Aug 2, 2013

Three Ways to Print Books

There are actually three distinct technologies to print books, all of which are widely used. Let's quickly run them down and see where each comes into play.

Design & Production
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17 Things Self-Publishers Need to Know About Book Design

by Joel Friedlander
Bowker | Tue Jul 30, 2013

Most self-publishers are concerned with book design for a few months during the production of their book. Book design is a specialty within the field of graphic design, in the same way that packaging design, or the design of signs are specialties. What this means is that there are a lot of conventions, a vocabulary and a set of practices and assumptions that underlie most professional book design. Since self-publishers only need to navigate this territory once in a while, I've frequently maintained that it's better to learn how to hire a book designer than it is to learn book design yourself. But since design is important to the eventual success of your book whether you attempt to do it yourself or hire it out, it pays to know something about those conventions and assumptions. After all, we don't want anything getting in the way of your communication with your readers.

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8 Mistakes that Will Absolutely Kill Your Book!

by Hobie Hobart
Bowker | Tue Jul 30, 2013

The covers we choose for our books are much more significant than many authors think. Over the years I’ve seen everything from a finely designed book cover, to one the author created himself. Now, there’s nothing wrong with designing your own cover - if you’re actually a cover designer. Otherwise, you should leave it to the pros.

I recently had an opportunity to sit down with my friend and colleague Hobie Hobart to talk about the importance of book covers. I think some of his answers will surprise you!

  1. How long does the average consumer spend viewing a book cover before they decide to buy or not buy the book?

Bookstore browsers spend an average of 8 seconds looking at the front cover and 15 seconds studying the back cover before making a buying decision where your book goes straight to the cash register, not back on the shelf.

Inside Publishing
Design & Production
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Designing a Successful Ebook Cover

by Adam Schnapper
Bowker | Mon Jul 22, 2013

Description: comparison of cover sizes.

 

Ebook Covers ≠ Print Covers

Ebook covers have different challenges than their print counterparts. Most readers will first see an ebook cover when it's a small thumbnail amidst a grid of ebooks on the digital storefronts. This is the critical moment where a reader will either notice the title immediately, or miss it. The small size of these thumbnails brings new challenges for your cover design.

 

The Title

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Mark Coker: 10 Trends Shaping the Future of Book Publishing

by Laura Dawson
Bowker | Tue Jul 9, 2013

Smashwords founder Mark Coker takes a look at the book industry landscape, and discusses how factors like ebooks, the shrinking number of brick-and-mortar stores, low-cost or free production tools, and globalization impact publishing, and what this means for self-published authors.

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The Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success

by Laura Dawson
Bowker | Mon Jul 8, 2013

Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords, is sharing some of his expertise with us here at SelfPublishedAuthor. In this presentation, Mark goes over best practices for publishing ebooks (beginning, of course, with the all-important point that "your best marketing is a great book". Follow the link to his slides here.  

Design & Production
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Mark Coker: Introduction to Ebook Publishing

by Laura Dawson
Bowker | Mon Jul 1, 2013

Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords, has shared his primer on ebook publishing with SelfPublishedAuthor.com. In this presentation, Mark discusses the trend of digital reading, self-published author success, and the nuts and bolts of what you need to publish an ebook. Follow the link below to read Mark's slides.

Introduction to Ebook Publishing from Smashwords, Inc.

 

Inside Publishing
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Going Digital? Don’t Make These Ebook Errors

by Matt Cavnar
Bowker | Mon Jun 17, 2013

Ebooks have revolutionized self publishing; opening the door to authorial success for anyone with a keyboard and an Internet connection. A myriad of marketplaces, each with their own special requirements, can raise some complications for the first-time digital author. So when first putting a title up for sale, it’s critical to make sure your ebook renders well across all devices. Save yourself from nasty comments criticizing poor formatting by easily avoiding these three big errors (learned through Vook’s own experience creating thousands of ebooks):

Error #1: Only designing an ebook for a specific device

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Getting Started

Create a Culture of Quality in Your Publishing Company

Thu, November 13

How to Write a Business Plan as Narrative (Part 2 of 2)

Wed, September 10

A Novel Planning Technique for Book Publishers (Part 1 of 2)

Fri, September 05

Do You Have the Write Stuff?

Wed, September 03

Today's Great American Novel (Part 2 of 2)

Wed, August 20

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