Book Production – Finalizing Your Manuscript

Getting your manuscript ready for formatting means adding front and back material and completing your copyright page.

For your copyright page, you’ll need the ISBN numbers for each edition. Make sure you have your book description, eBook cover, and author bio ready before you get started. You’ll need a separate ISBN number for digital, paperback, and hardcover editions.

You can use the same print ISBN at Amazon KDP and IngramSpark, but you’ll need a separate one for Barnes and Noble if you plan to upload direct. Otherwise, IS will get your print book listed at Barnes and Noble. You can use the same ebook ISBN at all vendors.

For detailed instructions on how to buy and assign ISBN numbers and why this matters, go to: https://nancyjcohen.com/buying-and-assigning-isbn-numbers/

Aside from the title page and copyright page, what else can go in front of your book? And how about items you can add in the back, such as Acknowledgements, Author’s Note, Book List, and more? It’s best to leave the front end as clear as possible for the “Look Inside” feature, so the reader doesn’t have to scroll through several pages to get to the first chapter. Instead, put most of that material in the back. Here’s a detailed look at what these pages might include: https://nancyjcohen.com/adding-front-and-back-material-to-your-book/

Once you have finished your front and back matter, you’re ready for formatting. You can do this yourself, use a third-party aggregator such as Draft2Digital to convert your files for free, or hire a professional. Once you have your pdf file, you can give your cover artist the page count for the paperback cover.

Now that you have your ePub and/or pdf files and your covers, it’s time to upload your work to the various book distributors and either save them as drafts or submit for preorder.

PRIOR POSTS:

Book Production – Cover Design
Publishing Choices

Coming Next: Book Production – Uploading Your Book

DEALS AND STEALS

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Book Production – Cover Design

If you’re an indie author, you have full responsibility for book production. This includes the cover, formatting, metadata and more. Let’s start with the cover. You can be working on this aspect while finalizing your completed manuscript.

Getting Started

Choose a ready-made cover, design one yourself, or hire a talented cover artist. I prefer the latter because I want my book to look as professional as possible, and I have no skills in this area. Plus, for a series, you need a coordinated look. Decide which route you’ll go and then consider these elements below.

Sample Covers

If you’re not sure what type of look you want, go to Amazon and put your genre in the search window. Click on any covers that attract you. Then click on the series title and see them all laid out. Decide what it is about them that draws your attention. Collect the links to several cover styles that appeal to you and send these to your cover artist as examples.

Type of Image

Do you want a person, pet, architectural/landscape scene or an object on your cover? These are listed in order of popularity for cozy mysteries according to a recent market report. For my next release, I’m choosing to have a person on the cover and a scene depicting where the story takes place.

Here’s an example from Hair Raiser. The original cover needed a revamp (see image on left). I knew I wanted a chef on the cover. In the story, his Bananas Foster erupts into flames. But how to get that fire just right? See these proofs.

Color Palette

What colors represent your author brand? Are your stories dark and suspenseful, or are they light and humorous? Do they take place in a particular locale such as a tropical setting with bright, bold colors or at a seaside resort with pastels? Again, you may vary the colors from book to book, but the overall look should be consistent.

Placement of Author Name and Book Title

Think about placement for the title and author name. Top or bottom with the image in the middle? Or some other arrangement? How about your series title? Make sure the text stands out clearly against the background images. These choices should remain the same for each book in a series.

Font

The text font should also be consistent. It can help set the mood for a serious or funny work. Make sure whichever one you use, that it’s legible on a thumbnail-sized image.

Subtitle

Do you want a subtitle on the cover? How about a series logo? These are other things you may want to add.

Paperback Cover

Before you can do a paperback cover, you’ll need to have a pdf copy of your book with a page count. Then think about what you want on the spine. Your author name and book title? Series logo? Publisher imprint? Series number?

What about the design on the back? Do you want to carry through the image from the front, or use a solid color on the back page?

You’ll need to be ready with the back cover copy. Aside from the story blurb, will you include review quotes? If you don’t have any yet for this book, are there previous books in this series or another series you write that you can use?

Note that print cover templates differ for Amazon KDP and IngramSpark. If you plan to upload to both distributors, you’ll need two separate covers in pdf format. Give your cover artist the print ISBN number, but you do NOT need a bar code. The distributors will automatically create one for you.

Next, we’ll discuss finalizing your manuscript with front and back material prior to formatting so you can get the pdf page count you need.

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Size Matters

Have you noticed how the size of your favorite brand items in the stores have shrunk while the prices remain the same or are higher? You’ve probably observed how your grocery bill has increased while portion sizes have gotten smaller.

While I was writing A Bad Hair Day Cookbook, I had to adjust recipes that called for box sizes no longer available. For example, cake and pudding mixes come in smaller boxes than in the past. This means less dry ingredients for your recipe. Take a look at your older cookbooks or family recipes and you’ll see what I mean. For other items, the bottle sizes have shrunk or the items inside are no longer as large or as plentiful. The manufacturers benefit while we get less and pay more.

Does this also apply to book lengths? Do readers today, with short attention spans, prefer shorter works?

I looked at a few books from popular indie mystery authors and came up with these averages:

My books – 291 pages
Author A – 336 pages
Author B – 163 pages
Author C – 171 pages

What does this say? Those last two averages are considerably lower than mine. Does this mean readers prefer shorter and more frequent works? My books come out an average of once a year. If I wrote short, how many more stories could I produce? Being prolific isn’t my goal. I like to write a meaty story and that will take as long as it takes.

Another factor I noted is that all three of these authors have their e-books exclusive to Amazon in Kindle Unlimited. They are successful with this choice, but I don’t care to keep all my eggs in one basket. I’d rather offer my e-books wide. I do get sales from these other venues, including libraries, so it’s been worthwhile for me. My print books, too, are available wide through IngramSpark and KDP.

But this still begs the question – Do readers prefer shorter books that are quick reads with more frequent releases? A subscription service like Kindle Unlimited? Or books that are available from a variety of sources in varying lengths? What’s your opinion?

Do book lengths matter? #indiepub #publishing Share on X

GIVEAWAY

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