The Book Production Process

Editing and Writing, Marketing and Promotion, Production and Publishing

A book is produced from the words up. It’s constructed like a building with front and back, sides and interior, and with many rooms. They all need to be appropriately placed and furnished for maximum functionality and aesthetics.

Covers

The cover of a book is the first thing people see, so it needs to represent the book’s contents. Despite the saying to the contrary, people do judge a book by its cover. It must catch the reader’s eye online as well as it would in a brick-and-mortar store.

A cover starts with the author’s words: the title, subtitle, author’s name, reading line (if any), and perhaps a short endorsement by a well-known expert or celebrity and the foreword contributor.

When we undertake cover creation at The Book Couple, we provide our clients with a cover design questionnaire to fully explore what they envision for their cover. We also do our own market research to cover all the bases. With so many covers out there, originality is key. Once a concept is established, the next step is to put it together electronically and visually. Great covers are formed with an interplay of typefaces, colors, and imagery.

The back cover a book generally includes promotional descriptive copy targeted to the book’s audience. Back cover copy is written by the author and/or editor or marketing expert. A short author bio as well as a photo introduce the author to the readers.

Interior

Anyone can take a Word file, make some words bold and italic, add some pretty fonts and funky dingbats, and call it a book. But when it comes to creating an interior that is eye-catching, easy to follow, visually appealing, and professionally presented, that is when you turn to a professional book designer.

The right combination of typeface, layout, and spacing is key to creating an interior that readers will want to keep reading. Whether your book is straight-text fiction or memoir, or a complex non-fiction reference book with tables, graphs, and images, the material must be presented appropriately and aesthetically.

A professional book designer has firsthand experience creating books and knows the subtle nuances of book production that cannot be duplicated by a DIY book builder.

Post-production

If you haven’t done so, you might want to take a look at our post “Printing: Commercial and Print-on-Demand (POD) Comparison,” which explains the differences between different printing options for paper books. At this point in the process, you’ll need to choose which option works best for you and create an account with the service you’ve chosen.

The designer will then finalize the book’s high-resolution files and upload them to that preferred service. You will also need to fill in the appropriate information in the website’s provided fields, including credit card, taxpayer information, and banking numbers, for wholesale book purchases, income tax purposes, and (direct deposit) royalty payments.

Once this is done, you can order a printed proof for review. Any corrections made at this point—that is, prior to publication—can be revised in your high-res files, and those corrected files can then be uploaded to the site. (Note: While Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) does not charge for additional uploads, IngramSpark charges $25 for subsequent uploads—another great reson to have your work professionally proofread before submission.)

E-books

E-books are composed from the final interior file and front cover. Although Amazon KDP offers a free generic conversion from a pdf copy of your manuscript, they do request formatted Word files for the best conversion. IngramSpark requires epub files for their conversions, which can be generated from the typeset InDesign file with minor modifications.

There are a few options as far as e-book distribution goes. Amazon KDP distributes files for Kindle only, and you must have an Amazon.com account to utilize your Amazon KDP account. You’ll need to go through a similar process to upload the book info and author data for taxes and royalties as you would for a print version of your book. IngramSpark distributes e-files to all the major e-book retailers, including Amazon. These files must be uploaded as fully formatted epub files and are evaluated by a third-party software analyzer for appropriateness.

Here’s How It Works at The Book Couple

Cover Design:

  1. The book’s title, subtitle (for non-fiction), and trim size are determined. Dimensions are based on the material within and the word count of the manuscript.
  2. Author fills out our custom cover design worksheet to streamline and target the design process. This worksheet outlines the necessary information, describes the book’s audience, other books in the genre, the author’s vision for the cover, and includes links to related covers the author likes.
  3. A number of unique front cover designs are created, from which the author chooses one and makes any desired modifications to that cover.
  4. The back cover and spine are added with the book description, brief author bio (and photo if desired), bar code including price and ISBN number (purchased separately), and BISAC category (based on the book’s genre; obtained online). A selling price is determined, also based on the book’s genre and estimated length.
  5. Cover material is proofread, finalized, and approved by the author.

Interior Typesetting:

  1. Once the manuscript is finalized, a number of appropriate design samples (using the actual text) are presented to the author for consideration, from which the author chooses one and makes any desired adjustments.
  2. The Word file is reviewed and “tagged” (to maintain text attributes) for import into the typesetting composition software (InDesign or QuarkXPress).
  3. Images (photos, illustrations, charts, graphs, tables, etc.) are placed within the body of the text as production proceeds. Any necessary graphics are created or modifications performed at this time.
  4. First-pass pages are presented to the author in pdf form, and the review process commences. At this time, a proofreader may be utilized to check grammar, spelling, consistency of type, and the layout of typographic elements.
  5. Corrections are made to the typeset file based on the author’s and proofer’s changes. These are verified, any additional changes are made, and the interior is approved by the author.

Post-production:

  1. The author opens an account with a POD (print-on-demand) service such as Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) or IngramSpark.
  2. KDP offers softcover only and e-book distribution (Kindle) through Amazon; IngramSpark produces and distribute hardcover books as well as distributes e-books through other partners such as Nook and iBooks.
  3. Finalized high-resolution files are created and uploaded to the site; necessary data on the book and author are entered into the appropriate fields on the website. (KDP does not charge for file uploads, while IngramSpark charges a $49 setup fee for file upload and processing of print books and $25 for e-books.)
  4. The author’s credit card, taxpayer information, and banking numbers are entered vy author for wholesale book purchases, income tax purposes, and [direct deposit] royalty payments.
  5. A printed proof is ordered and reviewed by the author. Corrections can be made at this time prior to publishing, and new files are uploaded. (While KDP does not charge for additional uploads, IngramSpark charges $25 for subsequent uploads.)

E-books:

  1. E-books are composed from the final interior file and front cover. Although KDP offers a free generic conversion from the pdf, they do request formatted Word files for the best conversion. IngramSpark requires epub files for their conversions (these can be generated from the typeset InDesign file with minor modifications).
  2. KDP distributes files for Kindle only (you must have an Amazon.com account to utilize your Amazon KDP account). You will need to go through a similar process to upload the book info and author data for taxes and royalties.
  3. IngramSpark distributes e-files to all the major e-book retailers. These files must be uploaded as fully formatted epub files and are evaluated by a third-party software analyzer for appropriateness.