Don't Judge a Book by Its Cover?

Since receiving the quote to have my book designed outside and in by a professional, I have been mulling over which way to proceed. While I do understand that the pricing I received is not out of line, or so I'm told by authors who have already trekked the somewhat treacherous path of self publishing, I still can't wrap my mind around how many books I'll have to sell just to pay the design fees, let alone the printing costs. I headed back out last night to one of the local mega bookstores to do some undercover (or should I say cover?) research. I first picked up Dan Poynter's "Self Publishing Manual" as I had learned from borrowing a library copy that it was a book I'd want on my own shelf. From there I went to the table reserved for books of local interest. I thought I would be able to pick out which ones were self published by looking at the covers and flipping through the pages. Surprisingly, I found that I certainly couldn't judge a publisher by the cover. One of the books I found to be the least attractive was actually put out by a local publisher who has turned down my book. Well, I always say that things happen for a reason and now I am grateful that the future of my "baby" is not in their hands. After that I went to the non-fiction section and began to pull books that were of a how-to or workbook nature off the shelves. It was an enlightening experience. People definitely WILL judge a book by its cover, and I realize now that I do need to put the money into a professional design. No one will pick up my book to see what it offers if they can't get past an uninspired cover.

Designed to Sell

This morning I met with a graphic designer to discuss my book. Everything I have heard and read indicates that you should not hire just any graphic designer, but instead find one who has done book design in the past. Seems book design can be a little quirky and technical. Hmmm...sounds like writing a book! Anyway, I met Peggy at a St. Louis Publishers Association meeting last week, and she had designed a book written by an author with whom I was familiar. So she met the first requirement of being both a designer and having experience with books. The second requirement is coming up with an award winning cover on a minimal budget. Okay, so it doesn't have to be award winning, but it does need to look professional and not cost me an arm and a leg. (Especially not my "write" arm.) Because my book is on researching house history in St. Louis County, I have a very small market. I understood that when I decided to write the book, but this approach will be the most beneficial to the reader. Since I won't be selling a lot of books I need to keep my overall expenses as low as I can. Having said that, I also don't want the book to look like I designed and printed it on my home computer. Don't I sound like the typical American? I want it all and I don't want to pay much for it! Peggy listened to my concerns and came up with a reasonable approach where I think I may get to have it all. She will get a proposal back to me next week, and we'll see if we both get what we want.

The More I Learn the Less I Know

That pretty much sums up how I feel about self publishing. I have finished my book on how to research the history of a St. Louis County home, and had hoped that a local publisher would take it on. After all, they specialize in local authors or stories of local interest. My book satisfies both of those requirements. Alas, the owner does not feel that he can sell enough of my books to make it worth his while. I hate to admit that he is probably right. My book has a really narrow market by design. There are a lot of books out there on how to research a house's history. While some of the content is universal, those books do not help with the quirky steps which need to be taken in St. Louis County. So it looks like I will need to self publish. Sounds easy enough; people do it every day. However it is one thing to self publish when you know you have a potentially large audience. And it's another thing to self publish when you only want a small quantity to hand out to friends and family. But what if you want a book that needs to look polished enough to go into libraries for research and to be used as a textbook when teaching a class, yet still only requires a small print quantity? People are telling me that a book cover and layout design will cost me aroung $1,000. Then there is the professional copy editing to be done. How about purchasing ISBN numbers, possibly having to set up a corporation to become my own "publishing" company? How many books do I need to sell to recoup those expenses? I didn't write this book to make a lot of money. I did it because I want to help other people open the door to their house's history. But that doesn't mean I want to see my investment go the way of my 401k either. So how I do I turn out a professional-looking yet user friendly book without selling my first born? Well, okay, my second born since the first one is married off.