Publishing Desk

    You’re walking through the aisles of books in your favorite bookstore, and all you see is an endless array of spines and titles of books that mean little or nothing to you. One book stands out to you. Why? What makes a book a best seller? Is it a compelling story, captivating characters, or the quality of writing perhaps? It is much more visual than one might think. No matter how much we hear the phrase ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ but the reality strikes a different chord. The good news is that your book gets judged by its cover, and it's a great opportunity to attract the readers at a single glance.

Book cover illustration is a complex balance of colors, text, images, and information. One needs to understand and find a perfect balance on how each of these fragments interacts with the other to best sell the book. If your book stands a chance to stick out and succeed, its design must match or exceed what other companies are putting out. In this blog, you will pick up some nifty tips on how to design a book cover that is catchy and enticing to the readers.

 Understand the Anatomy of a Book Cover

A book cover should communicate a story even before the readers crack open the pages. It has to effectively communicate what a book is all about — its style, content, and genre. If the jacket of your book is misleading, promising 'Angels and Demons' type page-turner, but fall short to deliver, then the readers will be disappointed, or you will end up attracting the wrong audience. 

 Stick to Your Genre’s Style

It is pivotal to stick to the expectations of your genre. However, when the readers shop, they look for familiarity, but ultimately the yearn for an element of surprise. Commercial fiction books are the ones that fall in a particular genre such as romance, fantasy, thriller, horror, and science fiction. The cover design styles of these genres have been established decades ago. Mostly, fiction book covers call out to the readers’ minds, and non-fiction cover speaks to their hearts. Your cover aims to sell books, so it should at least evoke the standard-bearers of the genre.  Embrace the expected and find a new way to come up with creative book cover designs.

Best Colors for Book Cover

Colors play a pivotal role in setting the mood you want to create around your book and boosts its visibility. A variety of studies have researched what colors communicate to people, and one can incorporate and take full advantage of that information. Black and white work great for a copy and come across as clean, simple, and clear. However, covers look catchy with two or three colors as well. Book covers with dark backgrounds like red, black, or navy blue convey a sense of seriousness, danger, suspense, or authority. They work best in fiction such as fantasy book covers as they are intriguing and mystical. Pastels such as lighter shades of blue, green, and pale yellow soften the appearance and are often suitable for books with heartfelt stories. As a rule of thumb, bold and bright colors convey bravado, excitement, and passion, whereas softer shades express delicacy and nuance.

Take Book Format Into Consideration

Where the book will be sold is an important factor to consider while designing a book cover. With the rise in the e-readers, many authors prefer to opt for an ebook format and ditch the traditional print format. For instance, if the book is sold online, then the design will be different. The ebook cover design has to stand out, and the text has to be larger to catch the readers’ eyes as they scour through many books on the screen. However, one has more liberty in printed format as readers can have a more tactical experience.

Get Your Typography Right

Figure out the typography and what design needs to emphasize. The imagery, color, typography, and format all play an important role in bringing the design together. The author and title name hold the utmost value. Try to use a different typeface for the author's name, title, and tagline. Unless you are really famous, keep the name relatively small then the title. Keep it simple and avoid fonts with a lot of baggage.

Book Cover Trends That You Will Find on Shelves

All over the world, book marketers and publishers put much effort and thoughts into what will make a book stand out to the potential readers. Let’s have a look at some of the most recent design trends that you will find on the shelves these days.

-     “Big book” designs

-       Floral elements

-       Catchy colors like orange and yellow

-       Big fonts

-       Abstract or overlapping designs

-       Mid-century modern illustration

Recently, we have witnessed the rise of “big book” designs; bold colors, prominent author names, and book titles being incorporated by debut and self-publishing authors.  In the past, they are usually reserved for famous authors with a great track record.

Some of the year’s biggest covers eschew tradition and indulged into the floral trend as it beautifully interacts and obscures the text elements. Moreover, a heavy resurgence of mid-century modern designs is also observed. Big fonts and bold colors are also in.

 Among the myriad of book designs, some of the publishers that are pushing the boundaries and breaking rules are Austin Macauley with a vessel of compelling and subversive covers that are sheer delight. Their book cover designing technique is truly off the charts. Behold some of their fascinating book cover designs below.

When you are new to the publishing world; it can be an overwhelming experience, and you will soon find that any expectations that you had about the industry has often been misjudged.

This blog addresses five of the most common beliefs that new authors have when entering the publishing industry that turn out to be misconstrued!

1.      Your book will be published in a couple of months after signing a contract.

2.      The publisher will take care of the publicity. 

 3.      Once you are published, you become a best-selling author! 

4.      Self-publishing is more profitable. 

 5.      A publisher will get my book into all of the book shops.

With an aim to promote higher quality in children’s books, Franklin K. Matthiews, the librarian of the Boy Scouts of America, proposed creating a Children’s Book Week in 1919. Today, it is acknowledged as one of the longest-running national literacy initiatives, as events are held nationwide in libraries, schools, and bookstores to encourage and promote the love of book reading among children.

There are countless values of reading books for kids as it provides an avenue to promote their brain development and help them to build their language and literacy. 

Here are our top books for your children to read this Children’s Book Week:

 1.      Elle of Portuana by Samuel Narh

2.     Little Boys Like Pink Too by Janice Stouffer 

 3.     Maybe Autism Is My Superpower by Ben Blanchet 

 4.     So Many Questions by Jhonny Ray Moore  

 5.     Where the Sugar Bugs Live by Carrie Wucinich 

Promoting a book is not all about the book launch, it’s about reaching out to your prospective readers and telling them why they should read your book and what’s it all about. With the increasing number of newly published books every day, the book market has become too saturated for the new authors and marketing a book is one of the biggest challenges an author can face after publishing it.

In this blog, we will be sharing some of the most effective ways by which you can promote your books online and amplify the visibility of your book among your target audience.

Create Your Blog or Website

Build a Following on Social Media

Email Marketing

Influencer Marketing:

Share Free Samples

Join Reading and Writing Forums

Promote your Books by Guest Blogging

There are many benefits of book reading. Those who have habit of reading from their young ages got more its positive effects. Kids who read perform better in school - Reading help to build their character – Reading open the mind and develop a child’s imagination – Improves the concentration power – exercises our brain – build the power of hope.

Although there are many benefits of reading but the important part is what kind of book you are giving to your children’s. You need to choose the quality books, We present to you the Top 5 reads from Austin Macauley’s best children’s books, which will appease them by acceding their interests and help revive book reading culture among the little ones!

The Fish with a Wish

Funny Little Rhymes for Funny Little Kids

Now You’re a Big Boy

The Hope Star

The Bear at the Fair

The fact that the children’s book seems shorter doesn’t support the misconception that they are simple and easy to write to. It is undoubtedly a competitive field and requires passion and responsibility to write just like any other adult book. There is no definitive guide to the process but a few considerable points to let you achieve your professional goal prepared.

To help you walk in the process with eyes wide open, here are a few things listed down to assist you during your journey

Research the Market

The foremost important thing you need to do here is research and research! You need to get in conversation with children’s book publishers, book professionals and study the market trends. Look what is being sold as the best on the shelves.  List down the things in the children’s market that interest you to write about.

Read Good Children’s Literature

This can be the best tip one can adapt to collect the dust! Read plenty of literature and observe what interests kids today. Pay attention to the topics that hit them and characters, they develop fondness with.

Talk to Booksellers and Librarians

The best sources you can consult in order to look for the traffic of these books are librarians and booksellers. You can easily derive down the information about what titles are the hit among the young readers in recent times.

You can always choose to borrow and go through the best sellers and list down their key features.

Types of Children’s Book

Surprisingly, children’s literature has a lot of variety to it. However, there is no precise manner and uniformity that has to be followed. You just need to own your unique self-expression and write a book including your own style to it.

A lot of children’s books come with a message or a moral note. It can be about being humble, honest and kind or about taking care of your family and the surroundings. You need to keep in mind that the moral should not dominate the story as the story is about its characters and not about any social issue.

Children’s books can broadly be divided into four precise categories, namely;

 Picture Books - under 5 years old, under 500 words

 Early Readers - 5+ years old, 2,000 to 5,000 words

 Chapter Books - 6-9 years old, 5,000 to 10,000 words

 Middle Grade - 8-12 years old, 30,000 to 50,000 words

Spend Time with Your Audience

For writing a successful children’s book, your firsthand best resource is definitely your target market. You need to look into the themes that best interest them. Interact with them and ask about the preference they might be expecting from a book. Know what their favorites are and ask how they prefer a story to develop. Readout to them and observe how they respond and how their facial expressions trigger along with the development of the story.

Join a Group of Children’s Book Authors

You can get a clear picture of what interests the public by following this effective measure. A lot of ideas and tips can be generated through these settings.

Research Internet

Research is the key tool in writing a book. You need to look for the popular one among the rest. Look for the books that caught the interest of not only children but their parents as well.

Spice it with Humor

The most popular hit among children has proven to be the silliest of humorous gigs and ideas are written in the book. Kids love to laugh and enjoy, that is what you have to furnish through your book.

Use Simple English

In order to make your book a success, keep in mind that your book and its literature should be age-appropriate. The understanding and comprehension level in kids vary greatly compared to adults.

Writing for a five-year-old is even different than writing for a fifth-grader. You need to choose your audience before starting to write the book and then be true to that group. Your writing should be extremely simple and effortless to understand.

Eye-Catching Cover Design

For specific to children, larger and bold fonts have known to be more popular and appreciated. In order to manage yourself a good sale, you need to look for ways that will stand out your book among the rest on the shelves. Look for book covers that have managed prominent positions on the rack and pen down their attributes.

Proper Planning

Give yourself an outline and plan to follow. In this way, you can refer to the list when you get jammed and the goal will be more reachable. You should not start a book that you might never finish writing. After listing down the outline of your work, pay attention to the copyrights and other legalities and see what they will cost you.