The Top 3 Mistakes Writers Make When Designing Their Books

by Toni Serofin

In 1979 at the age of 24, I started working at a
small family-owned commercial printing company in Vancouver, BC.

By the late 1990s, the owners wanted to retire but no one in the family wanted to take over the business. They made various arrangements that allowed them to slowly ease out of day-to-day operations.

Eventually the company was acquired by an international printing corporation. That is when annual lay-offs became a regular occurrence. In July 2006 my position as a graphic production artist was terminated in a round of layoffs.

It was a great run. It had never occurred to me that it would end.

The Thought of Starting a New Job at the Age of 51 Was Unappealing

After I recovered from my shock over the pink slip, I called my therapist. It took months of talking, meditation, exercise and weeping to let go of my hurt feelings. Twenty-seven years is a long time. I’d worked with many of my colleagues for decades. In a sense, we’d grown up together.

When my modest severance package ended, I was eligible to collect federal unemployment insurance which allowed me several more months to weigh my options.

From the outset, I’d convinced myself that no one would hire a 51-year-old graphic production artist. Besides, did I even WANT to be a 51-year-old graphic production artist?! The thought of starting a new job at that age was very unappealing.

Through my network I met a career counselor who told me about a government-funded program designed to help entrepreneurs wanting to start their own business. In late 2006, I was accepted into one of the programs administered locally by the YMCA.

How I Landed My First Freelance Gig

A few months after my layoff, a chance meeting with a former printing colleague at an industry event landed me my first freelance gig at a design studio. And I wasn’t even looking.

I went to work every weekday for four months with a delicious feeling of freedom. This was entirely new for me.

I’d felt bored and trapped in my printing job. I consider it a gift from God or the Universe that I was booted out or I might still be there.

At the design studio, I worked with graphic designers and account managers who appreciated my experience and skillset as a graphic production artist. My work allowed me a much different perspective of my industry and I learned a lot.

At the end of my contract they offered a full-time job and I turned it down. The studio was a noisy and busy environment. I work best on my own and decided freelancing was something I wanted to pursue. My line-of-credit at the bank was my security and I was ready to take a risk.

With Lots of Determination and a Mortgage to Pay, I Started Freelancing

In 2007 I didn’t have a cell phone. I’d barely heard of LinkedIn and I my computer was an old iMac “Bondi Blue” from a friend. I had lots of determination and a mortgage to pay. I also had my work rolodex (yes, the kind with the paper cards).

I started dialing for dollars and scheduling appointments with ad agencies and studios that hired contract workers. I hit up every printing colleague I could think of and got the word out that I was freelancing.

With each successful gig, my confidence grew. I researched potential clients, attended networking events and gained a reputation for being a connector. When I got fed up with working on other people’s computers in studio, I purchased my own equipment started working exclusively from home. I set up in a corner of the living room in my one-bedroom apartment. I did my own invoicing and bookkeeping. I was in business.

Design a Book? How Hard Could It Be?

It was 2011 when I received a call from the studio that had been my first freelance client. They asked if I’d be interested in doing a book for one of their corporate clients, the Prince Rupert Port Authority.

I recall thinking, “I’m a graphic designer and a print production artist. A book design is just a bigger job that requires the same skills as what I’ve been doing for the studios. How hard could it be?”

It WAS challenging but maybe not in the way you think. The hardest part of the job was the time involved in communicating with the author.

The Port Authority was paying for the work but my client was a septuagenarian physician with definite ideas of how he wanted things done. He was very protective of his vision and I was accustomed to my advice being heeded. I spent far too many hours writing and responding to emails.

Fortunately, we maintained a good relationship throughout the project and I learned some valuable lessons in my first book design project. It was very satisfying to see the final result when we got our advance copies of the book. Everyone was delighted.

The Most Common Mistakes Writers Make When Designing Their Books

1. Not studying the covers of best sellers in their genre.

Research the covers of best sellers in your genre to see the latest design trends and what sells. This will help guide your creative decisions.

2. Allowing the book to look self-published.

Do not use drop shadows on fonts or cover images. It looks amateurish and is a dead giveaway a book was not designed by a pro. Also make sure your images are high res (300 dpi). Do not use low res (fuzzy) images.

3. Failing to provide a focus point on the cover.

Do not use everything on your cover. Less is more.

Create a focal point with your design elements. A successful focal point catches the reader’s attention and prevents their eyes from moving on to the next cover on the shelf. For a detailed explanation of focal points check out this article over at the Cover Design Studio.

4. Not creating enough space.

Keep your text and images 2.5” away from the trim and fold edges.

3 Things a Book Cover Must Do

1. Communicate the genre.

Audiences are accustomed to seeing a traditional cover style in their preferred fiction genre and they need to be able to identify it with one look.

For example, romance covers typically use white, turquoise, pink, red or violet and have images of couples. Science fiction uses abstract elements and drama and blue, black, green and red predominate.

2. Explain what’s included.

On the back cover, explain what the reader will find inside. Sometimes you will see a quote or a banner across the top of the front cover with similar information (common for non-fiction).

3. Attract a reader’s attention.

Attract their attention so they’ll look inside. A simple way to do this is to use text hierarchy to emphasize the title and create contrast between the background colors and the text to make the title pop off the page.

Mistakes Writers Make When Hiring a Book Designer

1. Hiring solely on price.

Do not hire solely on price. There are more important considerations to take into account.

2. Failing to communicate.

Practice good communication by responding to emails and returning phone calls in a timely manner. Be clear about your expectations before the project starts.

3. Not using Styles in Word.

Use Word’s paragraph and character Styles in preparing your manuscript. (Using Styles ensures that whatever layout software the designer is using to design and format the book, the manuscript will be imported intact with bold, italics, etc.).

To find Styles in MS Word, go to the Home tab and click on the “Styles Pane” which will reveal a list down the right side of the page. From there you can create your own custom styles or use Word’s default styles.

4. Providing poor quality images.

Don’t try to include images with 250 dpi or lower resolution in your book. They won’t look professional.

How to Make Sure Your Book Cover Does Its Job

The steps I take to so a book cover does its job of attracting the author’s audience:

1. Take the client through a discovery process to gather information for the design concepts — either a phone Q+A or I send a Project Brief questionnaire and follow up with a phone call.

2. Ask clients to provide 3-4 examples of covers that they like and don’t like and provide links to the best sellers in their genre.

3. With the Project Brief as a guide, I research the book topic online (non-fiction). I’m looking for inspiration and ideas before I sketch out the concepts.

4. Read some of the manuscript to familiarize myself with the story or topic and to find further inspiration.

5. Confirm how the book will be published so we know what sizes are available.

6. Review back cover content to ensure it is adequate for the space we have to work with.

7. After I submit 2-3 cover concepts and the client has chosen one, I get to work finalizing the design and the artwork.

Using the Book Design to Create Promo Materials

Use the book cover design as a jumping off point to create promo materials. It’s easier to have one designer do everything rather than coordinate two designers (book designer and marketing designer).

• Social media ads and post template(s)
• Promotional images
• Posters (when we’re ready to do in-person readings again)
• Business card
• Bookmarks, pins, stickers, etc.

What are the Most Important Design Elements on the Interior of the Book?

Self-published books are often missing the small details that make reading easier such as “em” dashes (instead of hyphens). The books can lack consistency in the font styles and sizes of subheads and contain widows and orphans. (Auto formatting apps don’t catch everything.)

Books are more interesting to read when they contain design elements appropriate to the genre (you wouldn’t want to use ALL of these in the same book):

Call-outs, side bars or pull-quotes.

Icon or flourish as a scene divider.

Drop cap on the chapter start.

A graphic on the chapter start or title pages.

The most important design elements of a book interior are:

Primary font — body text.

Secondary font — Chapter title, headers, footers.

Size of the text, line spacing, paragraph width.

Margin sizes — top, bottom, inside and outside.

White space.

Images

What If I Can’t Afford a Book Designer?

Though hiring a professional book designer is your best bet for creating a dynamite looking book, if you simply can’t afford it, consider these options (with drawbacks included).

Check out your local college design program students (low cost, no experience).

Source a book printer with in-house design services (often a loss leader to gain the printing contract, little thought put into the design).

Lease Adobe Suite of products and do it yourself (high cost and learning).

Do it yourself with KDP cover creator. (Free, limited number of non-exclusive templates—that means everyone can use them, works with KDP website.)

Use Canva (some e-book non-exclusive templates).

Advice for Other Creative Entrepreneurs: Get On LinkedIn!

I could say “don’t do your laundry during work hours” or “don’t work in your pajamas” but that kind of advice never worked for me. Well, I’ve never worked in my pajamas…

Get on LinkedIn, learn how to use it, and be consistent. If you think LI is only an online CV, you’re missing out on a powerful and free marketing tool.

If I hadn’t been on LI, I would have been more hooped when the pandemic descended. I also would not have met Colleen Story and had this opportunity to share my expertise with you and to promote my business.

Oh, and take regular breaks and enjoy the freedom that working from home offers.

* * *

In 2006, at the age of 51, Toni Serofin involuntarily left her position as a graphic production artist in the commercial printing industry. It was a blessing in disguise.

Toni is a sole proprietor operating under the name “Sanserofin Studio.” Fourteen years into the freelance thing, she feels like she’s finally hitting her stride just in time to (maybe) retire later this year.

Since 2011, Toni has worked with self-publishing authors providing project management, design and formatting services. With her decades of experience and background in printing Toni believes she is uniquely qualified as a book designer.

Toni’s mission is to help non-fiction authors sell books so they can impact the lives of readers with their words. She does her work with care and integrity because every author deserves a professionally designed book.

For more information on Toni and her work, please see her website and connect with her on LinkedIn and Twitter.