From Manuscript to Book Sales

Great! Congratulations you’ve written a book. Your journey has started – but now you’re wondering what do I do now.

I will run through the design and print process at BookPrint, there are two options.

If you have finished artwork.

Note finished artwork means PDF files with 3-4mm of bleed and trim marks. For perfect bound or hardcover books the cover file should be one page only as a spread including back cover, spine, and front cover. The text PDF should be individual pages, i.e. a 300-page book should be a 300 page PDF.

1. First up is you get a quote, we can meet with you and show you paper samples and examples of different options. You can choose which will work best for your project.
2. Then we produce an unbound proof.
3. You sign it off. Pay a 50% deposit.
4. We manufacture your books (typically our turnaround time is 9 working days).
5. You get your books delivered to your door.
6. You pay the final amount due.
7. I say thanks for the job, and you say thanks for the books.
8. Keep in touch! I love to hear how everyone is doing.

If you have finished your manuscript.

Note that finished here means finished. We don’t do editing or proofreading so that needs to be completed. (If you need an editor or proofreader we can recommend people). We do all the pretty parts like cover design, text design, help you with choosing paper stocks, laminates, and binding style, and then by making you beautiful books.

First up, send through the manuscript.
This allows us to take a look at how tidy it is! Please make sure you’ve used paragraph styles religiously. Seriously. If you don’t know what paragraph styles are I wrote a book called Professional Book Design for Amateurs, download the chapters for paragraph styles here. Paragraph styles in Adobe Indesign, or Paragraph styles in Microsoft Word.

We then meet/email or chat to discuss the look and feel of your project. Who is your audience, what are they expecting, how do we achieve that for the least money (let’s be realistic… everyone wants a book that looks like a million bucks but costs $10 or $2). After prodding your brain until we understand as much as possible about the book we then go away and make 1 or more designs for your feedback. We will typically typeset one chapter.

After your feedback, we will modify the design until you are happy. Once you’re happy we will work through the book designing all the remaining chapters. Design can be a tricky thing to have confidence in because many people take it very personally. However, book design is about communication, professionalism, and ensuring your book stands proud in book shops. This is what we offer at BookPrint our designs don’t win awards but we also don’t charge award winning rates. You will get a great design at a cost that is fair.

The cover design process is very similar.

Conversation -> Concepts -> Modify -> Finalise.

After both designs are complete we can then produce the proof.

Then once the proof is signed off printing commences. It typically takes 9 days once the proof has been signed off.

Delivery to your door.

Thanks and congratulations all round.

If your curious as to how much it would cost and what your manuscript could look like professionally designed please get in touch.