Congratulations. You are in good company with many others. Now, can you publish a book that will not be mistaken for “another one of those self-published books?”
I think you can but you’ll have to be prepared to spend some money, make necessary changes, and trust others who are talented in other ways.
You will need the following:
Editor
Proofreader
Book Designer
Cover Designer
If you make the mistake of thinking you, as the author, can do any of these things you are doing your book and potential readership a big disservice. Even if you are a graphic designer I will suggest that you will still need 2 of the above and probably a ghost writer as well.
Let’s assume you are a new author.
You have the manuscript ready. You read, and re-read and even re-read it again. You are sure you’ve found every stray comma, incident of passive voice, and subject/verb switch that crept into the masterpiece. You even tucked all those punctuation’s neatly inside their quote containers. You’ve done the editing and proofing. Really!
Probably not.
You are reading what you wrote. That usually means you are reading it the way you want it to be, not necessarily the way it really is. You know what you wrote so of course that’s what you have there… right? Most likely, wrong, because our minds don’t work that way.
Editors and Proofreaders are what separates you from the rest of the pack. Readers who stumble over style issues and grammar/punctuation mis-steps aren’t likely to think you are a very good writer, even if you are a great one.
Have you ever picked up a book and wondered why it looked the way it did? Or saw a gorgeous cover and had your fingers just itch to curl themselves around the spine so you could see if the inside matched the cover? Granted you might have to be a book junkie to think about such things but readers do think about them to some degree even though they aren’t aware of it.
A good book cover will pull you toward the book and should reflect in some way what will be coming at you inside. You should certainly be able to know who wrote it, published it, and see it’s ISBN. Some will contain brief author bios on the back and testimonials; others will give a brief overview of the contents.
Inside you should have a designed that is aimed at getting the reader to delve further and absorb what’s written. Most fiction have a pretty basic interior design while non-fiction and children’s books will have a much different approach and IMO contain a much more complex designing aimed at presentation. Magazines also have a different design style and process. Competition is fierce and magazines need to deliver ample content in a consistent, effective, efficient and often trendy way. As we see more and more books and magazines being designed for non-print media designer’s skills are expanding to include presentation on new devices such as book readers and PDF.
Design isn’t just for the junk mail that arrives in your mailbox daily, or web pages. It is most certainly for every book you read whether it’s hard cover, soft cover, or magazine. Design can be a very important part of how a reader chooses which book or magazine to take to the checkout and which they leave on the shelve or in the virtual shop.
You are the writer specialist. Let your speciality be complemented and enhanced by having editorial and design professionals work with you to finish what you started.
Everyone wins that way.
