Sadly, despite the best writing in the world, many great books suffer financially because the majority of people actually do judge a book by it’s cover. In an age when a thumbnail image on a website can be the difference in a sale or not, the attention to detail in design, layout, and even proper typography makes a huge difference in the perception of books in the marketplace.
The topic of book design covers an array of technical areas ranging from the cover and the layout to the finest points of how and why the letters are physically placed on the page and even psychological studies about how fonts, line lengths, and paper colors and types make your work easier to read.
We can guide you through all of these areas to help you create an object of beauty and desire, whether the final product is a physical hardcover book or an e-book on any one of thousands of platforms or devices. You’ve written a book to be a joy and wonder to read, why not design it to appeal to all the other senses as well?
Book Cover
Whether it’s in a physical bookstore or being seen online, let’s face it, the book cover is the first thing that potential customers are going to see about your book. We’ll create a sales plan for your book and then work with a variety of both in-house and external designers to create the best cover to communicate what your book is to the marketplace to drive sales.
It’s alright if you don’t have any idea what your book cover should look like or if you don’t know any designers yourself. We’ll leverage our experience and expansive Rolodex to come up with a variety of ideas and designs to maximize your sales.
Book Design
Not sure what verso and recto mean? Don’t know the more than 25 common parts of a book are or what order they’re commonly arranged? We’ve got you covered and can help you lay out the book, not only in the proper order, but make each and every section have a logical and beautiful look. From half title to colophon, we’ll give your book the attention to detail that it deserves and that will make readers love it all the more.
For technical documents, we’ll help you determine which parts work best for which target markets. Technical questions like “should I use footnotes or ‘hide’ everything in a list of endnotes?” need well thought out answers and may need some reasonable technology to work well for readers in ebook versions. Indices also don’t make themselves and the technical requirements can ultimately drive even the most patient author to insanity. Let us ease your burden and handle these seemingly innocuous and arcane, but important details, for you.
Typography
Whether you know it or not, readability of text is a huge area of thought and research. If you think back to that last 500 page pot-boiler you read, did the beautiful typography help prevent your eyes from becoming tired and assist in driving you on through to the end? (Chances are that it did…)
Our design team has put years of study and thought into how words and pictures appear on both physical and digital pages so that they’re not only beautiful, but fun and entertaining. We have a wealth of experience in leading software and tools, but also arcane topics like the typesetting of complicated mathematical equations, physical diagrams, and even international standards and minutiae like ISO 80000-2:2009.
Do you need the technical help to convert your Word (.doc) into a LaTex file? How about file conversions between and among the litany of formats in the e-book world including: .epub, .mobi, .azw, .azw3, .azw4, .kf8, .ibooks, .pdf, and .fb2. We can not only do it, but help you make the end result as beautiful as possible.
Contact Us
Please call or email us for a list of services and prices. We’re happy to help you get your next book into readers’ hands!