There is a tendency to think that if everything is technologically handy, we are good at what we do–which is fundamentally a mistake. If you have a Facebook account, it does not mean that you know personal branding. Just because you have a video camera doesn’t mean you’re a director. If you have a camera, it does not make you a photographer. Likewise, if you have Open Office, Scribd, MobilPay, ClickBank, PayPal, and possibly POD (Print on Demand) at hand, it does not mean that you are good at publishing. Now, most of the ideas I’ve written here are things that seem to me to be minimal common sense for someone who wants to publish a serious book. On principle, „let it go like this,” many go… believe me, You don’t wantto know what the publishers think about these authors. Two critical operations are performed, par excellence, by professionals. And if you don’t happen to be a professional in these, it’s good to let someone else take care of them.
An exciting cover contains, in addition to the title, some graphic representations, which can be: photos, drawings, paintings, graphics, etc. It is good to think months in advance for the book’s cover, in a creative effort parallel to finding the book’s title. Sometimes the idea is clear from the beginning; sometimes, it comes along, and sometimes it is a topic of thought for the publisher and the author in the final stages of preparing to print the book. The best thing, I think, is to find a subtle and conceptual way to suggest content through an abstract representation. In theDeviantArt community. com or on the social network Flickr. com you may discover many talented concept photographers you can contact. For example, see the copyright stage management I mentioned in Part III of the series How to Create A Specialty Book, Everything Has Been Expressed Before. Only in Another Form. You could use their photos with their written permission or at least can find ideas from which you can draw. Another perfect solution is Pixabay, where you find high-resolution conceptual photographs offered in the public domain by talented artists.
It is already an element of marketing, which, the sooner it intertwines with the drafting process, the better. Of course, it may not always be clear to you what your book will look like in the end or who will buy it, but the effort to have an awareness in this direction depends on how many readers–and ultimately buyers–the book will reach. That is true whether you have studied marketing or not. The cover of Persuasion’s Paths to Negotiation was designed by Swedish designer Răzvan Goldstein, and the image on the cover was chosen by him and him. Following the proofreading process, the cover had to be modified and adjusted based on the sample copies.
There is not much proofreading in some countries, Romania included. The closest concepts with which proofreading is confused in the Romanian (and not only) publishing landscape are copyediting, correction, feedback, and formatting. In essence, proofreading is the work done by a proofreading specialist (or someone who has taken courses or has a job). Proofreading is usually done on printed material of the final product. This sample looks precisely like a final copy of the book (proof of concept) or a faithful, complete electronic version of a physical copy.
Here, production defects are ultimately detected – and it’s the last front line of the fix. Then, depending on this copy, the most delicate settings are adjusted in the ready-to-print file. Finally, when the material receives the „print” approval, it only has to receive the „cataloging before publishing a description of the National Library” and to be multiplied, either in traditional printing or in POD (Print on Demand), in several copies that can vary from a small 100 order to a standard 1000-1500. Careful! Once an ISBN is given to a volume, no space can be changed in that volume! Therefore, advertising pages must be unnumbered if they are to be switched between runs. Therefore, the cover design, proofreading, and obtaining the cataloging before publishing from the National Library are the last steps before the actual printing of the final product. The changes at this stage should be changes in finesse, improvements in image level, and the effective transformation of the book into a sellable product.
[…] Analytic Vision. The By Default Professionalism of a Publishing House (Viziunea Analitică. Profesi… […]
[…] Analytic Vision. The By Default Professionalism of a Publishing House (Viziunea Analitică. Profesi… […]