“Jeff ’s work is superb and unbelievably beautiful. He is wonderfully cooperative and helpful, very reasonable and definitely the best person I could have found for my book.”
—Dr. Lloyd Miller, author, Afghan Music and Dance |
Jeff Fuller, our graphic designer, has more than
30 years’ experience in print media design and production. In addition to being a master at InDesign and Photoshop, he is a self-confessed (and half-Swiss) efficiency nut. Jeff takes pride in being able to deliver everything needed to bring a finished manuscript to publication—cover and back cover design, interior design, typesetting and layout—all for a very reasonable price. It’s that Swiss thing: beauty and efficiency, together. Contact Us Scroll down for publishing tips & terms |
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About Publishing
Once a courier came by to pick up a client’s manuscript to fly it express to NYC. He said—looking around the room at the empty plates and stacks of papers and harried people clutching red pens—“This is how you make a book? I thought you just sat down and wrote it.” We did not offer him cake.
In the books and years since that courier’s visit, we’ve learned that publishing takes guts and daring and lots of hard work, but it need not involve anguish or terror. Here are a few lists we hope will help smooth your book’s way into print. |
How to Save Money on Your Book Project:
“We have worked closely with Jeff for nearly a decade now on many large projects: book design, website design, annual reports, e-letters, and text editing on a wide range of subjects. He is insightful, creative, flexible, fast, and fun to work with, and is very conscientious about keeping costs down. We recommend him without reservation.”
—Elias Amidon and Elizabeth Roberts, authors and teachers, The Boulder Institute for Nature and the Human Spirit |
Finding the perfect cover photograph is by far the most time-consuming (i.e., expensive) part of the design process. Therefore, you can save BIG bucks by helping in the search. Here’s a list of stock photo sites that have served us well.
Provide a clean Word document—thoroughly proofread, with no track changes showing. Make sure you've added one space after periods, not two. Make sure all revisions to the manuscript have taken place prior to the typesetting phase. Once typesetting has taken place, changes can be very time-consuming. (Again, think expensive.) Have a two-line description of your book and a brief synopsis for the designer to use as inspiration. He will not have time to read your whole book! Rather than creating a whole new interior layout from scratch, use one of our sample page layouts as a starting point. |
How to Save Headaches on Your Book Project:
“Jeff's design for Recapture is the perfect container for these stories: a cover that conveys a mood of landscape and longing, combined with a straightforward, unsentimental interior.” —Erica Olsen, author, Recapture |
Get your ISBN number and Library of Congress number in advance.
Make sure your manuscript really is ready to print. Has it been professionally edited? Choose an editor and stick to her/his advice. Do not give your book to friends and colleagues and try to rewrite by committee. Too much feedback kills good writing. Get permission in advance to use all quotes and images. Get book endorsements early. Send out ARCs (Advance Reader Copies) 3-6 months in advance of your publication date. Provide your own author photo, one that you love. Create short, compelling back cover copy for the book description and author bio. Or let us do it! Set up a free DropBox account for sharing large electronic files. |
Order of Events for Your Book’s Interior:
"The importance of Jeff Fuller to the creation
of this book cannot be overstated. As both editor and book designer, he has benignly influenced every aspect of the process—including the well-being of its grateful author.” —Mary Settegast, author, When Zarathustra Spoke |
For best results, events should proceed in this order:
Author creates rough draft of a complete manuscript. Author works with an editor to improve and finalize the manuscript. This is called content editing. It focuses on the BIG PICTURE. Author rewrites and polishes according to content editor’s suggestions. (Two or more rounds of content editing may be required.) Once all substantive changes have been made, the manuscript gets a line edit: line-by-line suggestions to make the style, tone and grammar of your manuscript consistent and clear. This process focuses on the MIDDLE PICTURE. Author enters all agreed-upon line edits. The final manuscript is then checked by a professional proofreader who ferrets out all typos, misspellings, and spacing errors. This takes care of the LITTLE PICTURE. The manuscript is now polished. The final, polished, proofread manuscript (as a clean Microsoft Word document) is now ready to be sent in for typesetting. After the book designer and author have agreed on the page size, typeface, font size, chapter headings, etc., the typesetter pours the manuscript into a page layout program and generates a set of galley proofs. Galley proof PDF files are sent to the author. At this point, most authors choose to have 12 to 24 ARCs (Author Review Copies) printed by a print on demand service, in order to distribute the book to endorsers and reviewers. ARCs are usually generated 3-6 months in advance of publication, and may also be sent out in electronic form. A rough draft of the book cover is provided, with the words “Uncorrected Proof” appearing on the front cover. One ARC is sent to a professional proofreader for a final proofreading. Notes of errors (which should be very minimal at this point) are given to typesetter in written form via email. A phone conference may also be used for communication of errors. Typesetter enters final changes. (One hour for final typesetting revisions is included in our estimated costs; any additional time is billed extra.) While all the above is taking place, work is being completed on the cover design of your book. Once the cover design has been approved by the author, it is joined with the completed interior to make the finished book. Final files are then electronically sent to the author and/or printer/publisher. (Shelfish also mails a DVD of the final files to the author for archiving.) |
Glossary of Publishing Terms:
“Capturing the essence of a book in a single image takes talent, patience, and persistence. Jeff has all three qualities and then some. When designing the cover for The Ordinary Truth, Jeff listened to my words, he asked me questions about my vision, and he patiently worked with me to get it just right. He also understands that the aesthetic doesn’t end with the cover. He pays attention to the small details of interior design to create a beautiful product inside and out.”
—Jana Richman, author, The Ordinary Truth |
ARC— Advance Reading Copy. An ARC is a rough but complete version of your book, sent out 3-6 months before your publication date for endorsements and reviews. (The book cover at this stage is a simple, unpolished version with the phrase “Uncorrected Proof” appearing prominently on the front.)
Cover design— All of the elements—text, photography and/or illustration, and typography—that come together to form the front cover, back cover and spine of your book. Editor— See a description of the three different types of editors here. Electronic publishing— The production and distribution of written content to e-reading platforms such as Kindle, Nook, iPad, etc. Endorsements/blurbs— Experts in your field send brief quotable praise about your book. Use these quotes for promotion, featuring the best quotes on the book’s front and back cover. Font— Typeface (i.e., Times New Roman, Goudy, Adobe Garamond, etc.) Galley proof— Once the manuscript has been typeset, a galley proof is generated so that any final errors can be caught before the book is printed. Interior design— All elements of the layout of a book’s interior, including page size, typeface, font size and leading, kerning, tracking, chapter headings, headers, footers, page numbers, table of contents, index, photographs and diagrams, etc. Kerning— The amount of space between letters. Leading— The amount of vertical space separating lines of type. Line edit— A close line-by-line reading of a manuscript to check for style, tone, clarity, consistency, grammar, etc. Offset printing— Traditional professional printing process, using ink, metal plates and paper to produce high-quality books and documents. POD— Print On Demand. Books are printed one at a time, as they are ordered. Rather than using ink and etched plates, POD books are printed using high quality digital laser printers. Press proof— The final proof provided by the printer prior to the actual print run. (Corrections at this stage can be costly.) Print run— The number of books printed at one time. Promotional writing— Writing which appears on the book cover to interest readers and make the sale. This usually includes a two-paragraph synopsis of the book and a brief author bio. Promotional writing also includes press releases. Proofreading— Checking a document for typos, misspellings, and spacing errors. Reviews— Longer critical appraisals of your book, published in magazines, journals, and/or online. Serif— Extensions at the termination points of letters which serve to enhance their legibility (i.e., the pointy tips descending from the top of a capital “T,” as well as the two small pointy feet at the bottom). All classical typefaces have serifs. Contemporary typefaces like Helvetica, having no serifs, are called “sans serif.” Royalty-free stock photography— Professional photographs sold on a royalty-free basis, used for commercial design purposes. They are a cost-effective way to get great images without hiring a photographer for a custom photo shoot. Typesetting— The process of converting text into a form ready for printing. (In the old days, pieces of metal type were manually “set” in rows in preparation for the printing process.) Unlike word processing programs, typesetting programs (such as Adobe InDesign) allow the book designer virtually unlimited control over how text appears on the page. Widows & orphans— The typesetting term for short sentence fragments left dangling at the top or bottom of a page, leaving too much white space. Typesetters correct these “rivers of white” by adjusting kerning, tracking, and hyphenation. |
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