Making a Professional Book

All authors have their own idea of success. Whether your goal is to get your book read by thousands or just a select few, getting noticed and making sales begins with the creation of a book that looks professional and is packaged according to market demands.

To make your book look professional, you need:

  • Someone to edit your book. You don’t want readers and reviewers to discard your book because of spelling errors, hard-to-read sentences, or larger problems with organization.
  • Someone to lay out your book. You need your manuscript transformed into a book with clean, easy-to-read text and properly placed illustrations.
  • A strong title. In the case of fiction, make sure that your title is snappy and easy to remember. For nonfiction, be sure that the subject of your book is clear in your title.
  • Clear back cover copy, providing potential buyers with interesting information about the book and its author.
  • Someone to design the cover. You want your book cover—and especially the title—to catch the eyes of potential readers.

To make your book easy for booksellers—or anyone else—to sell, you need:

  • A barcode and ISBN number. This is standard in most stores, big and small.
  • A BISAC subject code. This helps bookstores correctly place books on their shelves.
  • Cataloging-in-Publication data through the Library of Congress. This registers your published book through the Library of Congress.
  • The “right” format. Are similar books paperbacks or hard covers? Keep in mind that paperbacks are typically less expensive than hard covers—to produce and, in turn, sell.
  • The “right” sized book. The most common book sizes are 5.5 x 8.5 inches and 6 x 9 inches. There may be a good reason for your book to be a different size, but realize that odd-sized books are more difficult to get placed on bookstore shelves.
  • The “right” binding and packaging. Bookstores like books that fit on their shelves easily and don’t have any extras. If there isn’t a good reason for spiral binding or complex packaging, such as boxed sets, avoid those things.
  • A title that is easy to remember and contains, in the case of nonfiction, a clear identification of your subject. Without that, how will someone looking for that subject find your book?

I want to be taken seriously as an author, do I need:

  • A hardcover book with a dust jacket? Absolutely not. Hardcover books are more expensive to produce, and they are more expensive to sell. There are some circumstances where you may want hardcover books with dust jackets (such as limited, collected editions), but consumers most often will choose the book with the lower price.
  • To copyright my book with the U.S. Copyright Office? Present copyright rules make it unnecessary to register a copyright. For more information on this, check out this link:http://www.copyright.gov/. Authors who wish to register copyright may take handle this on their own. All Bluebird books list the author as the copyright holder.