Like many things in life, we can do it ourselves or pay a professional. Book cover and text design is no different. But just because you can, doesn’t mean you should! Unlike tiling your bathroom, book design involves more rules, skill, and details than your typical DIY project. Cover design relies on marketing tricks and principles that have a great impact on the sales of your book, while text design is more about design traditions that have been developed over centuries. Investing in professional text and cover design will save you time, get you noticed by buyers, and respected by industry leaders.

What Readers Look For

Readers who favor a particular genre will be enticed by a fresh take on a familiar style. While you may be well-acquainted with the popular styles of your genre, your intimate knowledge of your book will hinder your ability to boil it down into a single, cohesive design. Studies have proven that DIY designs sell less books. Reedsy (a prominent publishing aggregator) ran a cover design study and found “a 35% increase in the marketability of books with professional cover designs” (Reedsy Marketing Value of Professional Book Cover). The numbers were even higher for the genres of mystery and romance. Avoidable design flaws may include low visibility online, amateur Photoshop skills and unfortunate typeface choices. Don’t get us started on how much time and technical expertise it takes to prepare files for your book printer…a nightmare of details and software know-how for the uninitiated.

Interior Design

Interior text design may follow obscure rules that take years to learn, but can really make or break the readability of your book. Often unnoticed by the untrained eye, you can guarantee that a critic, publisher or librarian can tell at a glance (and cringe) when these rules haven’t been followed. Common rookie mistakes are; unconventional typeface choices, uneven spacing or unjustified text, spaces between paragraphs, misplaced headers, and generally poor readability. While you may have business software that is capable of page layout (sort of), it is a time-consuming process that will push back the release date of your book, maybe even stalling it completely. The bottom line is your book’s interior text design needs to work. Professional text design is the fastest way to make that happen.

Cover Design

Designing your cover or text yourself may be tempting for various reasons; money, ownership of the process, making all your own decisions and using software you already have. However, you are missing out on the full potential of your book and you may even be literally selling it short. A professional touch is likely to make you more money, get you more views, gain you more respect and save your valuable time.

What Makes Your Book Sell

For the best book sales success, you will need respect from industry experts and professionals. The last thing you need is to hand out your book at a convention only to have your content be dismissed as unprofessional. Professional cover and text design will allow you to be taken seriously from book-industry influencers or even big-name publishers. Respect can give your book wings to fly in a busy marketplace. Hiring a professional book designer would give you the edge you need to sell your book because they have the knowledge, the experience, to will make your book shine.

Meet Gorham Printing’s Lead Designer

At Gorham Printing our design department is beyond compare and has worked with authors in every genre. We would like to shine a light on one of the most experienced and talented designers in the industry. Her name is Kathy Campbell and with thirty years in the book design business, Kathy’s broad experience allows her to meet the needs of diverse book genres. Over the years, she has designed thousands of book covers. Many of these books, both novels and histories, etc., can be found at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Her talent and attention to detail along with her creativeness can be an asset to any author wanting a professional book cover that will stand out in a busy marketplace.

In addition to cover design, Kathy specializes in complex interior text layouts. From coffee-table books to scientific and medical works, she has experience in forming scattered elements into a cohesive whole. Creative problem-solving has kept her engaged and excited to meet the next challenge.

Choosing the Design Package that Fits You

Now that you know you want professional book design, it is time to choose what book design package that will best fit you. Check out Cover Design Packages and Text Design Packages at gorhamprinting.com. Or take the easiest route and simply email or call the Gorham Printing team to discuss your book project. Because every book is as unique as the author who wrote them!