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You are here: Home / Archives for Publishing

Publishing


Publishing a book globallyBelow you'll find links to all the information about publishing that’s available on the Book Design Made Simple website, book, videos, and blog.

We gained a lot of experience from creating Book Design Made Simple. You can learn from our successes and avoid our pitfalls! We’ve written blog posts about entering book award contests and publishing a second edition, as well as explained how to get all the details you need for your copyright page.

 

Excerpts from Book Design Made Simple

  • Subject categories: how and where to get them for your book
  • Barcodes: what they include and where to get them
  • Book trim size: how to choose the right trim size
  • Ebooks vs print books: why not create both editions?
  • Book binding: many options beyond softcover and hardcover
  • Digital vs offset printing — which is better? what's the difference?
  • List of book printers for indie authors

 

Blog posts

Below are all the blog posts in the Publishing category, starting with the most recent post.

Self-publishing services compared

October 7, 2024 By Glenna Collett 12 Comments

Self-Publishing Services: image of an open book.Are you ready to find a self-publishing service for your masterpiece? In this article we hope to help you discover the right one for your needs, whether it’s a full-service shop, simply a printing press, or an ebook conversion. Even though—as we always say—you can do it yourself, everyone needs at least a little help getting their book out there.

Possibly the majority of new publishers go straight to KDP, but many folks prefer to avoid Amazon for their own reasons. We will focus here mostly on other well-known self-publishing services. Aside from the ones we mention, there are many more to be found online and even advertised on television. Please read our words of caution at the end of this article about all self-publishing services.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Publishing Tagged With: Amazon, book marketing, book printing

A style sheet template for your book

November 11, 2023 By Fiona Raven Leave a Comment

Style sheet word templateHaving a style sheet for your book helps to keep spelling and punctuation consistent throughout. It usually includes a section for each letter of the alphabet, and a space for notes at the bottom. It’s easy to create one while you’re writing your book, and you’ll be able to use it for your book’s website, marketing materials, and everything else you’ll be producing as an author. Below is a template to get you started.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Publishing Tagged With: editing

Writing your back cover copy

September 11, 2023 By Fiona Raven Leave a Comment

Photo of a back cover showing all the back cover copy.Back cover copy is the text that goes on your book’s back cover. Everyone judges a book by its cover (you know that!), and your front cover only gets a few seconds to grab a reader’s interest. However, once a reader picks up your book and flips to the back cover, this is your big chance to sell that book. You need to convince that reader to buy using compelling back cover copy.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Publishing Tagged With: book marketing

Our 10-year adventure in self publishing

July 10, 2023 By Fiona Raven 3 Comments

Fiona Raven and Glenna Collett at Book Expo America in Chicago.Self publishing is an adventure, especially when sharing the ride with a coauthor! Having a coauthor means having someone to depend on, someone to finish what you cannot, someone to push you along, and someone to come up with fresh ideas. And we think our collaboration has truly been ideal. We recently realized that it’s been ten years for us, so we decided to commemorate the anniversary with an online conversation.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Publishing

Self-publishing and book marketing: A success story

March 12, 2023 By Glenna Collett Leave a Comment

Self-publishing and book marketing success showing paperback and ebook editions.In this post we feature a self-published author, Joel Rubano, who has found remarkable success through book marketing. Not only is his book selling well, but he’s made an interesting career shift, too. We hope you find encouragement and inspiration from his story, no matter what your own book project looks like. Here is Joel’s account: [Read more…]

Filed Under: Publishing Tagged With: book marketing

Crop marks and other printer’s marks

January 8, 2023 By Glenna Collett 3 Comments

Purple image with crop marks in corner.Crop marks and other printer’s marks appear in the PDFs you send to the printer. In Book Design Made Simple, we mention crop marks exactly once and never define what they are, so we think it’s about time that we did so.

Simply put, crop marks are chop marks—they indicate where the printer will chop around the edges of the stack of printed pages to make them the correct size, and a nice, neat package for binding. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Publishing Tagged With: book binding, book printing

Navigating Amazon KDP ads and keywords

November 9, 2021 By Erika Sharma 1 Comment

Researching Amazon KDP keywords, showing glasses and a notebook.The advent of the internet has changed the landscape of books. Self-publishing is getting easier all the time, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. The biggest hurdle you’ll face as an online bookseller is marketing. Every self-publishing author in 2021 needs to know how to do keyword research! We’ll explain the basics of Amazon KDP ads and then show you how to find the most effective Amazon KDP keywords that will sell your books. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Publishing Tagged With: Amazon, book marketing

Amazon updates for book authors

November 8, 2021 By Fiona Raven 2 Comments

Amazon update showing detail of A+Content.Trying to keep up with Amazon updates? So are we! There’ve been a few changes lately, so we’re discussing them here to keep you up to date. The main Amazon updates for book authors are: 1) EPUBs are replacing MOBIs for reflowable Kindle ebooks, 2) hardcover binding is now an option, and 3) A+ Content is available for your book’s product page on Amazon. Let’s break it down for you.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Publishing Tagged With: Amazon, book binding, book marketing, ebooks, ISBN

What does a children’s book editor do?

August 31, 2021 By Brooke Vitale 6 Comments

Children's picture books laid out for display.Line edit, developmental edit, copy edit, proofread … there are enough editorial services to make a new author’s head spin. Which can be a real problem for an author who is planning to self-publish a book! And when it comes to publishing a children’s picture book, it can get even more confusing. Why? Because an editor really plays many roles in the children’s book publishing process.

Yes, editors finesse language. But it is also the editor’s job to know the target market, help with book design, and act as an art director. The truth is, not all children’s book editors are created equal. And an author who is self-publishing a children’s picture book may not find an editor who will fill all those roles. But it is still important to understand: what does a children’s book editor do? So let’s take a look! [Read more…]

Filed Under: Publishing Tagged With: editing, images

Book binding basics

July 12, 2021 By Glenna Collett 5 Comments

A display of book binding in hardcover and paperback books.Like everything else, the ancient art of book binding is automated these days, and the array of available binding machines is amazing. This article aims to quickly explain the basics of book binding methods so you’ll be able to choose a book printer wisely.

Book binderies can be separate entities but are usually integrated with a book printing company. And in some instances, printing and binding are done right inside the same machine. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Publishing Tagged With: book binding, book printing

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Recent Posts

  • Special signature inserts in books April 7, 2025
  • Designing a book title page January 13, 2025
  • Self-publishing services compared October 7, 2024
  • Book edge treatments July 8, 2024
  • Creative book cover treatments April 8, 2024
  • Designing book running heads January 8, 2024
  • A style sheet template for your book November 11, 2023

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