Having 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.
Publishing
Below 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.
Writing your 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…]
Our 10-year adventure in self publishing
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.
Self-publishing and book marketing: A success story
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…]
Crop marks and other printer’s marks
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…]
Navigating Amazon KDP ads and keywords
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…]
Amazon updates for book authors
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.
What does a children’s book editor do?
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…]
Book binding basics
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…]
ISBNs for self publishers: how to get and assign them
International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs) are important for self publishers. Some printers, print-on-demand publishers, and ebook vendors will offer to provide you with an ISBN, but it’s usually better to get your own. Part of the ISBN includes a “publisher number,” which is assigned to a specific publisher. Therefore, if you allow another company to provide the ISBN, then that company will be listed as the publisher of your book.
We’ll explain everything you need to know: how, where, and why to get your own block of ISBNs, and how to assign them to your print and digital books.
