I'm a self-published science fiction author and I need YOU to help me (please) :D

Honest feedback on the cover I came up with would be great. The story is about enhanced evolution and environmental engineering, featuring a few horror elements.

Wilderness Five is 120,000 words and I'd happily share ARC copies with interested folk. Thanks!!

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Hello I’m a writer who has written a picture book. I have the art as well but am in need of someone to put it together for me. I also need someone to create a cover using some of the existing art as well as creating a title font. If interested please contact me. We can discuss the book further as well as compensation.

Hi! I’m a freelancer designer from Brazil and I’ve done some jobs for the US and never had any problem. But there’s this particular client right now that won’t answer me anymore or pay for the job, it’s been months now. He’s already published the book, I can see it at Amazon. Is there a way to legally request him to do so? Or at lest scare him to pay?

No need for advices on how to avoid it next time or what I should have done, I’ve learned my lesson.

I recently received a quote from an independent publisher, and his designer told me she charges $250 per hour. I was stunned. Is this normal?

Hi all,

I'm in the midst of a mid-life career change, currently studying design with the hope of becoming a book designer and illustrator. As part of my research into the book design industry, I'm interested in knowing your thoughts on gig sites like Fiverr, Upwork, and Freelancer.

How do you think these sites have impacted the industry? Have they changed how you work, or changed client expectations?

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Hi, I’m looking to gather a small amount of data from folks who are picture book designers (full-time in-house employee or freelance for established publishing houses, not self-pub jobs). Designers, not illustrators. I’ve worked in the industry for several years as both an in-house employee and via freelance work. I’ve noticed interesting trends during that time regarding how the designer is treated before, during, and after the book making process and I’m working on writing something related to these trends. If you have interest in responding to 1-4 quick questions via PM about your experience, let me know and I will reach out with the questionnaire. Estimated time of completion less than five minutes. Thanks in advance!

Hello. Short of trying out many different apps/software myself, any advise would be much appreciated. This is my first ebook and I've just begun on the rabbithole journey that goes into creating one! I'm perfectly happy using indesign but realised quickly this is not the tool for ebooks. So Sigil, Vellum, D2D, Atticus, Kindle create (although I'm aware it can only be used to create kindle books)etc... does anyone use any of these? Are they worth bothering with? Are any better than others dealing with images in terms of design scope? TIA

Hi, I typeset books and was in the middle of designing a volume within a 4 part series when CanStockPhoto went out of business.

He uses lots of imagery (up until then, paid images from CanStockPhoto) and since the source we used went out of business, we cannot locate the names of the accounts to attribute photo credits to.

We are in a pickle, to try and find the photo attribution, or not attribute the photographers, seeing as each photographer’s name is no longer available to attribute (CanStockPhoto site closed down).

Is it okay to publish the book with the paid-for images with no attributions?

Hello! I've been a graphic designer for about 5 years now and I've started to gain an interest in book design over the past year with a focus on YA, Fantasy and Romance. This is something that I want to pursue but I'm having a bit of trouble figuring out where to start in terms of clients.
I've done some research but I was wondering if anyone knew of specific places where authors and writers search for designers to hire?

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I’ve written a history of a very old club; it’s about 85,000 words and 500 images (a mix of b&w and color). We’re looking to publish it as an oversized book, kind of like a coffee table book. I’m currently getting cost estimates from book printers.

I’m looking for a book designer with experience with books of this size/length/image-count to design the interior layout, overall look, and also (ideally) the cover. If anyone does this work or can recommend someone who does, please DM me.

I’m also curious to hear what people think the design of a book of this size/length/image-count should cost?

Appreciate any wisdom you can send my way.

I just finished the first draft of "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats" for my first attempt at binding a book. This book has some long lines that wrap to the next line, and there are also some unusual formatting choices. See this page from the draft.

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Sample Page from draft of OPBPC

Another book designer suggested abandoning the original formatting, splitting the long lines, then formatting in the common way for poetry, that is to center the longest line in the text frame, then left-align all lines with that longest line.

But something feels very strange about reformatting someone else's poetry. So seeing what some other book designers think about this would be very helpful.

If you have any thoughts about this point, or anything else about the layout, they would be very welcome.

Sorry for the size of the screen capture. I could not see a way to shrink the image.

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I know I have an app that can tell me how many pages are inside PDFs, but it doesn't say anything about comments.

I'd like to submit more of my work to cover design contests, but I really only hear about them through the grapevine or if a client submits my work on their own.

Specifically, are there any contests that aren't constrained by the year? I'd like to submit designs I did two or three years ago that I'm still really proud of.

Also, are there design contests for things like anthology covers? I do a design service for college seniors who bind their creative writing pieces as a final grade, and some of their covers turn out really well. But the books aren't exclusively fiction or nonfiction—they're always a mixed bag that range from short stories to technical writing and even journalism. Most of their covers end up looking very genre-fiction because that's what this group of kids really like, so it would be cool to use them in contests to build up some credentials on that front. I just don't know if they would qualify for "normal" contests.

Thanks for the advice!

I got reached out by a person on bumble bizz. She wanted educational books for children of age 4-9.

My job would be to ideate on content , weave stories around lessons. do the art and layout as well. For a book of 25 pages it would take me 18 man days i.e roughly 3.6 business weeks.

How much do should I charge? I stay in india. The client is indian and is running on a low budget not more than 4 lakhs Rs (6000 dollars ) for around 20 books. I am considering charging 80,000 rs (960 dollars) for 1 book. Let me know your thoughts

Hi guys I need help formatting my children's book in indesign. I am clueless on how to calculate the margin & bleed. It is 8.5 x 11, 35 pages color paperback. I know that KDP has a calculator or something but I can't find it. THANK YOU!

Dear Readers,

I'm thrilled to introduce my new brand of book/brochure holders and would love to invite you to be among the first to test and provide feedback on our latest product.

Our goal was to craft an exquisite holder that boasts a sleek and premium finish, inspired by the sophistication of Apple products. I'm keen to hear your thoughts on its design, functionality, and overall quality. Your honest reviews will greatly help improve our product and benefit future customers.

I have a limited number of products available for this trial - only 10 to give away! The only requirement is to live in the US; because of our stock.

Thank you

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https://preview.redd.it/ojb88hx9la7c1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=b30c06a8f0eb4f3fe98b6ac2373324a4a3c280cd

Or actually, what my real question is, does anyone know of an 80gsm copier/printer paper that comes in a standard 500 sheet ream of A4 paper that most closely resembles the cream paper that's used to print fiction novels?

I'm printing out full page spreads with graphics to help me get the opacity of the background graphics behind the text and it dawned on me that it would be better to do it on the actual cream color that the books will be printed on as opposed to the superwhite printer paper I have.

I took a stab and bought some "Chamois" paper from Q-Connect but it's way too yellow. So here I am asking so I don't end up with 30 reams of paper that I mostly can't use.

I am self publishing a book and need a small scale distribution in UK (from within UK). Anyone have any recommendations? Amazon won't work in this case. Any help is much appreciated.

How would you prevent people taking copies of your book instead of buying it

What is the best cover for a children's picture book? Are the glossy covers and dust jackets more durable? Do some distributors require one or another?

I love the soft look of a mat cover, but the depth of color seems better on the glossy. Thanks for your help.