BOOK COVER DESIGN

Text Legibility and Readability

At age 40, most of us can read something 10 inches away. By age 50, that distance is usually closer to 16 inches and it increases as you get older. This condition, called presbyopia, is caused by the eye loosing its ability to focus and approximately 90 million Americans suffer from it.

When you consider this and other eye conditions that affect vision, you can understand how essential it is for publishers to choose fonts with great care. This doesn’t apply just to the interior of the book, but to the title, back cover text, online ads, websites, posters and any printed matter that will be used in promoting your books.

Here’s a little trick that will test the legibility of your font under less than ideal circumstances: just set a few lines and blur the text in Photoshop or similar software. Do letters such as a, o and d fill in? Do tall letters like i and t and l look alike? Are the letters so close together they’re just one big blur? Do narrow parts of the glyph (glyphs are the letters, numbers, punctuation marks, etc.. that we use to write with) vanish all together?

Paying close attention to the height difference in letters, the spacing between letters and worlds and the thickness of each stroke that makes up a glyph

Deep leading (space between the lines) aids legibility. Generally, 1.5 to 2 times the space between the words is sufficient. This can vary depending on the typeface.

For larger printed matter like posters, The Americans with Disabilities Act suggests height and weight ratios for signage should be between 60% and 100% of the height and that each stroke weight should be between 10% and 20% of the height.

Some fonts that fit this criteria include: Futura, Futura Condensed Bold, Futura Book, (but not Futura Light, condensed or bold), Frutiger Light, Frutiger, Frutiger Bold, Gill Sans, Gill Sans Bold (but not Gill Sans Light) Otpima, Bodoni, Bodini Book. Century Schoolbook, (not Century Schoolbook Bold) Garamond, Garamond Semibold, (but not Garamond Bold), Palatino and Palatino Bold.

Remember, no one is going to struggle to read your message.

Free eZine For Independent Publishers

Free eZine available for download.

Well, it's finally done! I published the first issue of K Means Black a few years ago, but never quite had the energy to go at it again until late last year. The new edition has some original graphics and many interesting articles.

The story about the importance of editing cites examples that should make any self-publisher think twice about self-editing; For instance, a Canadian cable company lost millions because of a misplaced comma and a Bible was published with the commandment, "Thou shalt commit adultery." I also combed the net and found some interesting opinions on the importance of editing from book reviewers, and also discovered comments on a blog written by Amanda Hocking,who made millions self-publishing her own eBooks and recently signed a lucrative deal with a well-known publishing house.

K Means Black also has a full chapter excerpt from Joel Friedlander's new book for self-publishers, and editor extraordinaire, Dick Marguilis has written an article for us.

India Amos, Queen of the Layout, offered some valuable advice early on and I hope she approves of what we did in the end.

Please go and download the eZine from my site BookCoverExpress. Your feedback on articles and layout is always welcome.

Image Desperation: The Kiss of Death for Independent Publishers

A Picture Might Be Worth A Thousand Words,

But There Are Times It Should Just Shut Up

The book cover is the first thing people see when they are browsing in bricks and mortar bookstores or online. It’s often the first impression people have of the book. While those released by large publishing houses might have been pre-sold via reviews or the fact they have a celebrity author, few independently published books enjoy such benefits. For this reason, self-publishers have to be extra cautious when deciding on a cover design.

One of the biggest mistakes is “image desperation.” That’s when a novice publisher is so desperate to have an image, any image, that he or she will “make do” with completely unsuitable photos or amateur illustrations that virtually shout, “self-published.” Sometimes the publisher simply doesn’t have the “eye” that can discern a good image from a bad one; Sometimes he or she does not understand what the image should be; Sometimes it’s a budgeting issue. No matter the reason, it’s not only unacceptable, it’s completely unnecessary. It costs just as much to produce a bad book cover as it does to produce a good book cover.

Everyone has seen the poorly rendered 3d-style images that look like robotic mannequins. Sometimes people will combine these with photos and even clipart. It’s bad. It’s really, really bad. It would be far better to go with a nice font and use the title to fill the cover. If you really must have some graphic detail, consider an abstract background or even a faded sunset to suggest romance, or an object that is significant to the story. Traditional publishers have been using this style for years. Check out Something Borrowed, by Emily Giffin, which is currently on the New York Times Bestsellers List.   

Image desperation isn’t limited to fiction by any means. Independent publishers of non-fiction are just as likely to succumb. How many times have you seen a book for freelance writers with a manual typewriter on the cover? How many freelancers are still using manual typewriters? What does a manual typewriter even have to do with freelancing in today’s world? I recently saw a manual typewriter on a book about blogging. Even a modern computer keyboard probably isn’t going to be interesting enough or unique enough to catch someone’s eye. Again, if you don’t have the budget or creativity to get to “wow”, consider a text-only cover. It didn’t hurt sales for the bestseller, The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell.

You can also manipulate the text to create interest like the designers did for the book cover for Drive, by Daniel H. Pink and Heat, by Bill Buford.

Another big mistake is the cliché image. Using chess pieces on books about business strategies has been done — to death! One book production company recently published a book that not only used the old chess cliché, it actually had the pawn featured on the book cover. Whose goal is to be a pawn? Other overused cliché’s that smaller presses can’t seem to let go of include puzzle pieces, people shaking hands and locks and keys. Unless you’ve thought of a completely fresh way to use these elements, come up with another idea. They have simply been used too often.

Image desperation sometimes leads people into choosing the wrong illustration all together. The cover should demonstrate the solution, not the problem. If your book is about raising a happy child, don’t put a crying toddler on the cover. Your solution — the topic of the book, the information people want — is the happy child, not the weepy one. When’s the last time you saw an obese model on the cover of a weight loss book? Hint: never! That’s because they’re selling thin, thin is the solution. And avoid the temptation to be too clever. If your book is called A Blueprint to Happiness, do not put the blueprints for a house on the cover.

Also stay away from anything that could be construed as offensive on a cover. One publishing company has its own promotional book cover featuring a naked statue with the male appendage almost dead-center. As if this weren’t bad enough, there is also an elbow poking onto the cover from the right, with no body.

I’m not suggesting these elements can never work, they just need to be handled carefully and with originality, otherwise your book will get lost in the crowd, look dated or worse, shout “amateur”. Amateur projects get rejected by the Barnes and Noble small press program, independent bookstore owners and even distributors and reviewers. Don’t make the mistake of thinking the public is your first line for sales . . . they’re not. Getting past the professional eye of retailers, reviewers and distributors isn’t easy, but having a solid, professional cover design greet them increases you’re chances of getting noticed.

Learn, Promote, Get Connected

LinkedIn Offers More Than Meets The Eye

Years ago there were a number of forums and eMail groups for self-publishers. These days, there are very few, and many of those that are there don’t seem to be doing the job they once did. The same groups that once had 50 or more posts a day are now lucky to get that many posts in a month. The “old timers” — members who could offer information based on years of experience, have gone (or were forced to leave, during one of the many infamous “flame wars” that took place); Some forums became too burdensome for volunteer moderators to keep up with and a few seemed to go down a dark path and ended up on Angela Hoy’s Whispers and Warnings list, one writing forum is there for not paying freelance writers of all things!

In some cases blogs fill a void. There are numerous blogs geared towards self-publishers that are run by very knowledgeable people in the design and publishing industries, who also know what a possessive noun is and does. They’re also quite entertaining writers, and interesting conversations sprout up in the comments’ sections.

Many more though, are run by people who are posting their own learning experiences with self-publishing as they go, and while that too can be both helpful and entertaining, the misinformation from lack of knowledge is worrisome. I often read things like, “well, I typeset my book in Word and it looks fine.” It’s just not a good thing to encourage someone to set a book in Word, with the possible exception of a someone whose Word mastery is at the level of  Aaron Shephard’s, but even there are issues involving color and spacing that simply cannot be handled in Word. One “expert” (his word, not mine) actually refers to sans-serif fonts as “san serf” fonts, periodically throughout the text. I guess spell check and proofreading were too much effort. That little gem also had a cover “decorated” with Microsoft clip art, which usually isn’t licensed for commercial purposes and even if he did obtain permission, Microsoft clipart rarely has any business on a book cover.

Oh, there was a day when clipart was self-publishers really had to choose from, but with the advent of micro-stock companies, reasonable images can be legally licensed for as little as $2, some offer free images even for commercial use. If that still doesn’t work for you, go with a text-only cover and make your title stand out as the feature element.

I will admit I missed the old forums, the lively discussions and the interesting cast of characters from all over the world, with all different levels of experience…and then one day a few months ago, I found them again! Maybe not the same cast, but a few of them were there, and many more who were just as brilliant and just as interesting. There were at LinkedIn.com

LinkedIn has numerous groups for writers, communications and marketing experts, publishers, authors, designers, and most that I belong to are fairly active. But it doesn’t really matter if any one group is active or not, because there are so many you can join, that each day there will surely be something on one of them that interests you.

Aside from the camaraderie and convenience of finding answers to your questions, LinkedIn’s social networking offers a wonderful profile page for its members, and I can tell you through experience that head hunting firms are tracking down potential job seekers using LinkedIn. I worked on a contract position in an office a few weeks ago and that was part of the job — finding qualified candidates who might be interested in a senior position with another company, if the offer was right.. Not only that, but I have recently been contacted about a contract position by a local company who found my profile on LinkedIn.

Artists can display their work on LinkIn via the free Behance Network. I am also going to have to gush over the Behance Network interface which is so remarkably simple (unlike the ever-changing interface of a certain blogging host I deal with), anyone should be able to figure it out in a matter of minutes. For example, I recently added a new image to my portfolio and then wanted to move that image to the top. On my left a bar appeared with a big white arrow that said “top.” Like Alice drinking the bottle that read “drink me,” I dared to click top, assuming it would take me to the top of the page. No! It moved the image I wanted to the top. Does it get any easier?

I also experimented with LinkIn ads. They were great for getting directly to my potential clients, but I did find the service a little expensive and it operated quite a bit like Goolge’s Ad Words, a system that confuses Google’s Ad Words’ staff at times, so I will continue advertising on Facebook. Facebook ads are both easier to use and inexpensive. The only drawback with them is your credit card number is linked to any games you play. That’s fine if you’re aware of it, but I accidently made a purchase one night that I hadn’t intended to make, and it processed through the credit card I had on Facebook. Thankfully I only made a $2 purchase, there was a $1000 option there I could have just as easily clicked on when trying to figure out how the game system worked.

Are Your Feet Cold?

I ask, because surely that place below us has really frozen over!

Well-known book cover designer Henry Sene Yee, creative director at Picador, winner of AIGA's 50 Books / 50 Covers; recipient of The Art Directors Club GOLD Cube and proud owner of awards from The Type Directors Club, The New York Book Show, The Society of Illustrators, Print Magazine's Regional Design Annual, Communication Arts...and so on, created a book cover using Comic Sans!

 The book is called The Subject Steve, by Sam Lipsyte and is featured on Yee's blog, right above a link to Timothy McSweeny's site, which features a  hilarious monologue from Comic Sans, by Mike Lacher.

Lipsyte's book is available on Amazon, or better yet, get if from your local bricks-and-mortar bookstore.

 

Print-on-demand: Publishing Revolution or Hype-filled Exploitation?

The Down-and-Dirty on Publishing’s

Over-Promoted Technology

by Peter Bowerman

(Adapted from The Well-Fed Self-Publisher: How to Turn One Book into a Full-Time Living, by Peter Bowerman. Fanove, 2007).

In a recent year, Xlibris, one of the big names in POD (Print-on-Demand), celebrated paying out their one-millionth dollar in royalties. The prior year, they helped authors publish more than 7,000 titles and sell over 300,000 books. Impressive, huh? Well, let’s do the math. $1 million for 7000 titles comes out to an average royalty of $149 each. Not exactly worth bragging about…

How POD Works

In the past few years, POD has generated a huge buzz in the industry, promising to “provide the keys to the serious publishing kingdom for all those authors heretofore locked out of the game” and other lofty claims. Not really. Remember, POD isn’t some “miracle” or a “publishing revolution”; it’s just a printing technology, nothing more. Let’s try to separate the reality from the hype...

With POD, you submit your book to a POD publisher (AuthorHouse, iUniverse, Trafford, Xlibris and PublishAmerica are big players) in an electronic format, pay a fee (typically $400-1500 depending on the company and the marketing options selected; see below), they’ll “produce” your book and load it onto their system. No physical books are printed until someone orders one (i.e., through a bookstore).

POD – The Upside

POD makes sense for three particular scenarios:

1) Authors whose goals are to get in print, say “I’m an author” and have the book available for friends and family, but without the funds to finance an offset print run.

2) Authors taking the long view. Meaning, they indeed want to be a successful writer, know full well the limitations of the POD model, but know how hard it is to attract a publisher, and want to start building a platform for themselves. In those cases, they use POD to create the best (aesthetically speaking) possible book they can, knowing that it might take 2, 3 or 4 books to finally build up a name (and perhaps attract a publisher). And POD can help them cut to the chase.

3) Larger publishers with out-of-print titles which now, thanks to POD, can be reactivated and start earning new income streams.

POD – The Downside

The POD Business Model

By definition, conventional publishers have to be selective about the books they take on because their payoff doesn’t come until they sell a bunch. By contrast, because POD publishers make the lion’s share of their income on upfront fees – and because web space isn’t exactly in short supply – they have every incentive to sign up as many authors as possible, regardless of manuscript quality, and once signed up, virtually no incentive to promote them. Heck, they’ve made their money! They know most of the books won’t be successful, so why expend much more effort when the returns will likely be minimal?

The Marketing Hype

POD publishers will undoubtedly pitch you on their aggressive plan to market your title – at an extra cost, of course. Don’t get your hopes up. It’ll be an impressive sounding menu of window-dressing. They’ll promise to send a press release to thousands of potentially interested parties – a standard cookie-cutter piece, mass-mailed to people who get far too many anyway. Even if they do read it, once they figure out it’s a POD book, unfortunately, that’ll work against you. And here’s why…

No Respect

Why are most POD books not taken seriously by bookstores, media and reviewers? For starters, with typically higher printing costs, lower print quality and usually a “no-return” policy, (i.e., less profits and more hassles), the big bookstore chains aren’t exactly falling all over themselves to carry POD books. More importantly, POD is viewed as relatively “barrier-free” publishing.

Let’s examine the hierarchy. At the top is a conventionally published book. A book with a reputable publishing house’s imprimatur has jumped through many hoops before finally making the grade. The “book-sales-before-profits” equation ensures only the best survive.

One step down is a book like mine – “conventionally” self-published (i.e., I’ve paid for design, typesetting, offset printing, etc.) Yes, as the author, there’s no screening process other than my decision to publish, but, on the plus side is this: a self-publishing author has to totally finance the venture – typically, $8-12K to bring a 2500-5000-unit printing to market. Presumably, that implies an at least marginal grip on reality. Few people will drop that kind of dough on a lark unless they know they’ve got a good product.

Then, there’s POD publishing: a publishing decision left completely to the author and one with a minimal financial investment. So, quite legitimately, the key reviewers and bookstore chains ask, “What’s stopping any Tom, Dick or Harriet from getting published?” Not much anymore. Hence, low barrier = low respect.

Self-published books – even done the high-end way – already fight an uphill battle for respect and credibility. Why? Because, in truth, most are inferior in content and production quality. With POD, it’s a double-whammy.

Royalties, Not Profits

In self-publishing as I do it, after expenses, all profits are mine. By contrast, most POD publishers will have you sign a contract that pays you royalties and in many cases, has you turn over the rights to your creation – at least for a certain period of time. And those royalties are often based on net proceeds (after discounts to wholesalers, etc.), not retail price, reducing them even further.

Not YOUR ISBN

When you self-publish a book, you want to be the “publisher-of-record.” If you’re not, then that book wouldn’t technically be self-published, would it? You’re the “publisher-of-record” only if you own your ISBN number. Most POD publishers own the ISBN numbers for their authors’ books, so they’re the “publisher-of-record.” Which, incidentally, is the only reason they can get away with calling themselves “publishers,” and in the process, confuse unsuspecting authors into thinking they’re “publishers” on the par with a real one.

You NEED Cheap Books

Commercial success with your book demands a LOT of book marketing and promotion and that means sending out LOTS of review copies. With POD, buying your own copies of, say, a $20 retail book, will cost you roughly $8-10 each (similar, incidentally, to conventional publishing, where authors typically buy their own books for 50% off retail). Add about $3 more for press kit, mailer and postage and you could go broke in a hurry. My books? About $1.50 each, making a full review package less than $5 each.

Not to mention you’ll miss out on all those juicy personal book sales at events, seminars and out of the trunk of your car. With book costs around $2 each, you can afford to discount books 25-50% and still make a nice profit. With POD, no can do.

Depending on your goals, POD might be just the ticket or it could be a dead-end. Do your homework. Understand its limitations and be realistic about its potential. Read contracts carefully and ask questions about royalties, rights, minimum book purchases and artistic control. You could save yourself a truckload of disappointment.

________________________________________________________________

Author Peter Bowerman is known for the award-winning (and self-published) Well-Fed Writer titles (on the lucrative field of commercial freelancing), which have provided him with a full-time living for over five years. (http://ww.wellfedwriter.com.

Bad Review? Still Good News

 

Reviews Are An Effective Form

of Book Promotion

by Dan Poynter

More than 300 titles are published each day.There is no way anyone can know and rank them.That is why bookstores, libraries and readers rely so heavily on book reviews. Reviews sell books.

Occasionally a book receives a negative review.The reviewer might be having a bad day, might be envious of your success or may dislike your stand on some issues. Take heart. Any review is a good review because it results in ink. Exposure, kind or unkind, will bring in orders. Focus on the amount of ink, not the character of the words.

While some readers may be discouraged from buying your book because of a bad review, others will see past the review and buy the book because the subject interests them.

Most reviewers are underpaid and overworked. Their contributions to bookselling go unrewarded and unrecognized. No one ever built a statue to honor a reviewer.

Just write the best book you are capable of writing; then, take solace in the fact that most people do not buy books on the basis of any review they actually read. —Steve Wasserman, book editor, The Los Angeles Times

Few new products get the free publicity showered on books. Authors, publishers and booksellers owe a debt of thanks to reviewers. Hope for good ink and be grateful for bad ink. Ink is ink and ink is free. A bad review is better than no review.
____________________________________________________________

Dan Poynter, the Voice of Self-Publishing, has written more than 100 books since 1969 including Writing Nonfiction and The Self-Publishing Manual. Dan is a past vice-president of the Publishers Marketing Association. For more help on book publishing and promoting, see http://ParaPub.com. © 2003

Do Facebook Ads Sell Books?

Facebook Ads to Market Your Book?

Introduction by Cathi Stevenson: I've had success with Facebook ads and I've clicked through my fair share of them. I found them less expensive and the interface far less complicated than the ad program offered through Google (which I ran three time and never made a cent on).

by Pete More

It would seem a no-brainer that the world's so-called "third largest country" would be a prime advertising medium, but that's not necessarily the case. While Facebook may boast over 400 million users and have produced a projected $4 billion in advertising dollars for 2010, that doesn't mean it's necessarily the advertising gold mine it so obviously seems on the surface to be.

After you're done website building, next comes the ongoing task of website marketing, and to do that effectively-and not wastefully-you'll need to dig a little deeper to find the truth of which online advertising sources deliver the best bang for the buck.

Of course, the counterargument to that could be that ads on Facebook are distributed based on a user's Likes and their other Facebook activity, including-perhaps most notably-the recommendations of their Friends, said to triple a Facebook ad's effective durability. Still, it's hard to argue that an ad appearing in direct, real-time response to a specific search is more relevant (or at least timely) to the viewer than one based on their overall profile.

Costs More, Less Effective

according to social media news source Mashable, Facebook ads increased in cost from 2009 to 2010 but decreased in effectiveness. The Webtrends survey from which they gleaned this data, which examined over 11,000 ads on Facebook, also found that Facebook advertising produced about half the click-through rates of traditional banner ads.

For Which Demographics Are

Facebook Ads Most Effective?

The same Webtrends survey found that the older the viewer, the higher the click-throughs, although with a noticeable drop-off after age 65. This means that, provided your target market is not senior citizens, the older the audience, the more likely that advertising to them on Facebook will deliver.

Interestingly, the survey found no difference in the click-through response of men and women.

For Which Industries Does

Facebook Advertising Deliver?

It should come as little surprise to learn that the most effective ads on Facebook were the ones for products and services considered "fun", including entertainment, media and blogging. The least popular campaigns on Facebook were for "drier" industries like computer software and health care.

Using This Information To

Choose A Website Maker

Many of the website maker services online offer free Google and Yahoo search advertising integration, and many more website builder services offer free credits for search advertising on those engines. Nowadays, you'll also find quite a few website creator services offering Facebook advertising features as well. The question is, is Facebook advertising support a feature worth seeking out in website building software or no?

A website builder that integrates Facebook advertising functionality is certainly a boon to a site, but for comprehensive support with a well-rounded online marketing plan that delivers you the best chances of getting the highest click-through rates on a consistent basis, a website creator that incorporates a full selection of all the standard online advertising options-including Google AdWords and traditional display and banner ads-is best. At least for now it seems unwise to eschew any one form in favor of the other.

Read more at http://www.articlealley.com/article_2046433_3.html?ktrack=kcplink

Pete Moore is Co-Founder of award winning website builder, ezweb123.com (http://www.ezweb123.com).

Sell Ads Inside Your Book

Selling Ads Inside Books

by Angela Hoy

Don't you wish companies would offer you money to include an ad about them in your next book? Most of us would love such an infusion to our writing income. A question about this coveted practice arrived in my in-box.

Wendy wrote in with the following:

"Several years ago, my first health-related book was released. I am in the process of updating the manuscript and preparing for the second edition. While doing so, I also did a little research and found several companies whose nutritional products would benefit my reading audience. Before approaching these companies, I plan to set up a mock page with their product, formatted in the style of the section of my book for which it would be placed. However, before I approach these companies, I would like to have a good idea of a realistic dollar amount to ask for featuring their product. How do I go about finding out what a 'customary' fee should be for someone to advertise their product in a book?"

Unfortunately, this is one of those "what to charge" questions that you won't find any firm answers to, no matter where you look. If you feel you have a manuscript that may interest potential advertisers, there are several questions you should ask yourself.

Self-Published or Not?

Is your book going to be self-published or is a traditional house interested in it? If you're turning over the rights to your manuscript to another company, they will want to do any advertising negotiations directly and they'll probably choose not to sell any advertising at all. If they do, they'll be paid for that advertising space. If you're self-publishing, you get to keep any advertising income that comes in.

Are you established or unknown

in your genre or field?

Let's be realistic. Unless the author already has a built-in customer base through current contacts, such as prominent membership in a large organization, ownership of a successful electronic or print publication, writes a newspaper or magazine column, has impressive sales on a past title, or has the potential to draw incredible press based on current events, advertisers just aren't going to want to risk their money on someone who can't offer them any distribution and publicity guarantees. Your chances of success in this endeavor will be much greater if you're already known in your field, if you have had past success with book sales on a previous title, or if you have a really incredible opportunity to draw. Authors with a strong local angle may have success selling ads to local companies.

Fiction or Non-Fiction

Fiction authors won't have as much luck as non-fiction authors in attracting advertisers, and must be pretty creative to figure out advertising candidates for their titles. But, this can actually be fun.

One idea for fiction authors is to attract sponsors instead of advertisers. For example, you might be able to convince the manufacturer of a certain type of lingerie to pay you to have your main character only (and repeatedly) wear their brand of lingerie in your romance novel. Or, if there is another type of recurring theme in your book (like your character frequently drinking a certain brand of soda), you may be able to work a deal with a manufacturer of that product. If one manufacturer says no, try switching brand names and approaching another. I'm sure your character won't mind being addicted to, say, Dr. Brown's (yes, that's a real soda) instead of Nehi. Why didn't I mention Coke and Pepsi? Because I'm being realistic. When trying to work one of these deals, you should focus on smaller companies that aren't yet a household name. A small, specialty soda manufacturer will probably be more receptive than Coke or Pepsi to a creative sponsorship deal like this.

If my romance novel was set in Bar Harbor, Maine, for example, my main character might be addicted to Bar Harbor Root Beer, manufactured by Bar Harbor Brewing Company and Soda Works. If I were writing a ghost story set in Bangor, Maine, perhaps I would approach local restaurants for sponsorship opportunities, before I decide which old restaurant houses my protagonist spirit. Sure, my first choice would be The Sea Dog, right there on the Penobscot River, but there are other riverfront restaurants in the area that would work just as well. If you think about it, you can probably come up with some pretty clever ideas! And, using local companies and locations increases your chances of local press! In addition, any local companies appearing in your book will probably want to carry copies of your book on consignment for their customers.

If your book does sell well and eventually lands a traditional contract and sells even better, whatever company your character is associated with may very well be a household name in the future.

You may also be able to convince other authors who write for your genre to run ads in the back of your book for their own books...though they'll probably just offer you an ad swap. But, why not swap ads with your author friends and help each other out this way?

For non-fiction authors, the possibilities are much greater...and less creativity is required when trying to determine who might want to advertise in your book. Simply create a list of product and service categories that will complement the topic of your book. Which companies might your readers be most interested in? Approach them about running ads in your book.

Having a hard time coming up with a list of potential advertisers? Pick up a magazine that targets your book's audience and make a list of the advertisers appearing therein. You can usually find some quick contact information about them in their ads, too.

Printing Press Or Print On Demand?

If you're self-publishing, are you going to be printing offset, or are you publishing digitally with Print on Demand (POD) technology. If you're purchasing thousands of copies of your book up front, you're probably using an offset printing press. Advertising income helps to defray those initial printing costs. With POD, unless you're using one of those companies that charges inflated setup fees, you probably won't need advertising income to pay the setup fees. But, it's okay to try to earn extra money by selling ads anyway!

How Much To Charge?

If you're selling just enough space to cover the initial costs, figure the amount you'll be spending on editing, design, and printing. That'll be the dollar amount of advertising space you'll need to sell to cover your fees on that run. How many ads can you put in the book (without diluting the quality of the material you're offering)? Divide your costs by the number of ads you think you can sell and that's how much each ad should cost. You can, of course, sell the ads for more money. If you want to try to earn more than your costs, go for it!

You should not accept any payment, or accept only a token down-payment, until your manuscript is finished and ready to publish. The advertiser will trust you and be more willing to work with you if you don't demand money before you need it for production.

What Can You Guarantee

The Advertiser?

Potential advertiser are going to want a guarantee for their dollars. How many eyeballs will see that book? You will probably need to promise that a certain number of books will be printed and distributed/sold. If you collect enough advertising income up front, you may be able to give away enough free copies to satisfy the advertiser's demand for distribution. That's how controlled-circulation periodicals work. They sell enough advertising to enable them to distribute their publications for free to a specific type of readership. But, if you are skilled (and lucky!) enough to sell enough ads to give away your book, your advertisers are going to want specific guarantees about how, when and where your book is being distributed to a targeted list of people that will be interested in the types of products and services advertised in your book.

If you can't guarantee distribution or sales, you may want to offer to also promote their company on your website and/or in your eZine, or other promotional materials, such as press releases. If you're publishing through POD, you may want to offer the advertiser space in your book for the first X number of books sold/distributed. You can then approach them for additional money if they want to keep advertising in the book after the initial limit is reached.

The advertiser is also going to want distribution information for your book. Where will your book be for sale? What online bookstores will have it listed? What local bookstores or other retailers have agreed to carry your book? How many unique website visitors do you have each month? How many people really subscribe to your eZine? Make sure your list is clean and only contains live email addresses!

Do you sell advertisements on your website and in your eZine? How much do companies pay for those and do you have repeat advertisers (which indicates the ads are working)? Your book advertisers will probably want a list of testimonials or references from any current advertisers. And, if you do have paying advertisers, those should be the first people you approach to advertise in your book!

Are you getting married?

Whatever you do, don't offer to run their ads in your book for an unlimited amount of time or in an unlimited number of books. You never know what can happen! You could be offered more money from one of their competitors. The company could get some really bad press, making your relationship with them undesirable in the future. You may want to simply stop publishing the book (while they demand you keep it on the market and keep selling copies). Your book may be picked up by a traditional publisher who may insist on changing the name of the sponsorship companies, or may want to drop all ads. The problems that can arise from marrying yourself to an advertiser like that are endless.

What about competing ads?

Will you allow competing companies to run ads alongside each other or does each type of company get the exclusive right to advertise in your book? The latter makes the deal much more appealing to the advertisers, but you should charge them more for that exclusivity to make up for lost sales from other potential advertisers.

Ad Or Advertorial?

Let's face it. Ads are boring. Advertorials (advertisements that appear to be articles) are much more interesting! Offering more space in an advertorial format for advertisers will be very tempting for them. In fact, their ad may appear to be just another chapter in your book! But, you should label the ad as such. (I'm sure you've seen advertorials in your newspaper with that microscopic font at the top that says "advertisement.") Don't ever do anything to try to fool your readers or your reputation could be ruined. For sponsorships, you should be honest and acknowledge in the beginning of your book that ABC Corporation is a valued, paying sponsor of your work.

How To Sell?

1. Your manuscript should be finished or you should have enough of your manuscript completed to offer as a sample for potential advertisers. Your manuscript should be edited and formatted and should resemble a book. The advertiser should get a true feel for what the final product will look like. They're much more likely to buy an ad if they can picture what the final product will look like in their minds. If you're approaching specific businesses for sponsorships in your novel, you can use a generic name in the book text until any sponsorship deals are complete. You can then insert the name of the sponsoring company throughout the book. (Word processing software makes this a breeze!)

2. You should create a tempting pitch letter for potential advertisers that lists the different sections of your book which will feature ads, information on the cost of sponsoring each section, and a note about any exclusivity offered (will you allow competing ads in the book or not?).

3. The reader above had planned to create mock ads for each company she was approaching...before she approached them. While this could obviously be an incredible waste of time for her, it may also offend potential advertisers. They may think she's being too forward or that she's assuming a relationship already exists. It's a better idea to create a generic ad as an example. You could design a generic ad for each "section" of the book (targeting a different type of advertiser for each section). The potential advertiser can then see what an ad for a company like theirs might look like in that section of the book.

If you're trying to solicit a sponsor, you can provide text from your book for a specific chapter that says Acme Cola or ABC Lingerie or some other obviously generic name. The potential sponsor can then imagine their company's name appearing wherever one of those generic names appears.

4. Unless you already have a relationship with these companies, emailing your pitch to them would be considered spam. A better idea is to mail a pitch letter to each company (using your own letterhead that features your book's cover, of course) with one of two links. You can either provide them with a link to a private area of your website where they can download your manuscript (that includes sample advertisements). Or, create a private section on your website just for potential advertisers and publish your advertising pitch there, using nice graphics and including sample chapters for their perusal. Having a preliminary book cover graphic to feature on your site would also go a long way toward making the book look "real" to potential advertisers. You could name this part of your website something like "Non-fiction author Jane Doe is now soliciting advertisers for her new book."

You can, of course, print your materials and send them by mail to potential advertisers who you feel may not be online or who may be more receptive to print materials.

When a potential advertiser bites, you should have a contract prepared for their review that spells out the entire relationship between you and your advertisers/sponsors, and details every aspect of the deal. Have an attorney review your contract and make any necessary changes before distributing it to any potential clients.

And, finally, for non-fiction authors, never allow the purchase of advertising space in your book to sway your writing. One way to ensure non-biased writing in your book is to finish the manuscript before soliciting any advertisers.

Once your book is complete and the deals are done, collect all (or the final balance of) fees from your advertisers before printing the books or before submitting your final manuscript to your POD publisher. You don't want to print a bunch of copies of your book only to learn your advertiser is a deadbeat.

Oh, and one nice thing about POD publishing is that you can usually make changes to your manuscript at anytime (meaning you can submit a new book text with advertisements therein) for a nominal fee without calling it a new edition and without changing your ISBN. So, current POD publishers can still solicit and sell advertisements/sponsorships if they want. To avoid surprises later, be sure to check with your current POD publisher about their fees for changes before heading down this road!

With more newspapers and magazines folding each year, advertisers are looking for other creative avenues to reach their target audience. Why shouldn't one of those creative avenues be your book?

I'd be very interested in hearing from readers who have sold or purchased advertising space in books and how those relationships developed and ultimately worked out. I'd like to publish a follow-up article with examples and suggestions sent in by readers. Write to me at angela (at) writersweekly.com and I'll get right back to you.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

1. Ads in books aren’t a new idea. Click HERE  to see an example of ads in a textbook from 1936!

2. Haven Books has their ad sales data and rates posted online HERE.

Angela Hoy is the co-owner of WritersWeekly.com and Booklocker. WritersWeekly.com is the free marketing emag for writers that features new paying markets and freelance job listings every Wednesday. Booklocker.com, is rated a top POD Publisher by attorney Mark Levine. Mark's book, The Fine Print, analyzes the contracts and services of 73 top POD and ebook publishers.

 

How It's Made

Building a Book Cover

Sometimes book covers include only text, or color, or an image that’s almost ready-to-go, out of the package. Sometimes it takes a bit of creativity to get what you want. When Jessica James contacted me about designing the cover for her second book, Noble Cause, I jumped at the chance. She’s a great client…easy to work with, pays promptly and wins awards for her books.

All she really told me is she didn’t want any images, but wanted the cover to look like an old leather book cover. I looked around and saw many images that might have worked, but I had a few of my own that I thought might do the trick even better.

found a Bible printed in the 1800s at a local bookstore a few years ago and scanned it. The worn, embossed design seemed perfect for Noble Cause.

After some color adjustments I thought I could use it, but under closer scrutiny, I realized the image texture appeared to be “fuzzy” (it cardboard), so I scanned a vinyl portfolio case, worked some magic to make it look more like leather in Photoshop and placed that over the scanned cover, blending the two. I liked the result.

A few hours of blending, adding layers, and fiddling with the color options and I was satisfied. Next, I added some fleurons I had used on her first book cover. I made dozens of different fleuron designs many years ago to sell on stock art sites. They are one of the most useful design elements I have.

Trying to get the gold embossed text was a little tricky. I used a graphic enhancement licensed from Alien Skin for the basic look, then played around with the color. I ended up darkening the area around the glyphs so they’d stand out more against the background. This is what we ended up with:

You can see the thumbnail image of the original book we added to the back flap to promote it. Shades of Gray, has been featured on this blog before, when it won a historical fiction award.