We endeavour to produce a quality cover design that will help sell your book. Our self-publish package is designed to be budget friendly as well as professionally presentable. For the low price we offer our standard package, our cover designs offer basic but very effective artworks. Our designs are superb value and include a particularly valuable feature: A back cover blurb review, where we will assess the sales effectiveness of your back cover text. This is very important, as it will feature on the product listing where you eventually sell the book.

What we need

The author is to supply all the text required for the front, back and spine of the book. Consider the following:

Front Cover

1. Main title
2. Subtitle (or/and title series)
3. Short promotional endorsement (if any)
4. Author name or pseudonym (“written by” or “by” should be avoided)

Back Cover

1. Back cover text. Supply around 200 words of text that provides the potential buyer a snappy, attractive overview of what the book is about, which will help sell the book. This is your main tool for attracting buyers. This text will be used across all platforms on the internet as the description of what the book is. It is vital you make this as clear and informative as possible, with clean, error free use of English.
2. About the author. If you would like to include information about yourself, please supply this text. You may also want to include a portrait photograph of yourself. Any imagery should be supplied to us with the design brief.
3. Website address. If you have a website address, think about including this information on the back cover too, to enhance visibility of your personal brand.
4. An ISBN barcode will be placed on the back of the book, if you have one. For more information about ISBNs, click here. For publishing just to Amazon, you don’t need an ISBN.

Spine

We automatically add the book title, author and optional logo on the spine. Please advise if you wish to change this. Note: The book must be a minimum thickness for any text to fit and be placed on the spine.

The Design Process

We will produce a suitable design from a simple brief that you may supply (or you can let us interpret the book). It is essential the brief is as clear as possible, and within reasonable limits of the design being based on using stock image library photographs and illustrations, together with attractive typefaces. Custom drawing, photography and hand illustration is not part of this package. If this is required please contact us. You may have your own graphic or photograph you would like to use for the cover. This should be supplied as a 300dpi digital file at the size of the book format chosen.

There will be opportunity to tweak the design, within reason, at no further charge, prior to finalising it.

Our cover designs offer a Money-back Satisfaction Guarantee, so no risk involved.

We will convert your manuscript into the two standard commercial digital formats: ePub and Kindle format. These formats are used by Amazon Kindle, the world’s foremost eBook retailer, as well as iBooks and other popular digital sellers. We do not supply PDF eBooks, because they are not suited for portable e-reading devices due to their fixed dimensions. Kindle and ePub eBooks enable you to enlarge the text, and flow it onto a single page without zooming, making it perfect for smartphones, iPads, computers and Kindle readers.

Typesetting is the formatting and laying out of text on the interior pages of the book. We don’t use templates, and all pages are individually created, ensuring they keep professional standards. We eliminate widows and orphans where possible, balance hyphenation and justification with the visual readability of the text, and produce attractive structure and style throughout the book.

Typesetting alterations after marking up first PDF proofs

After you have submitted your manuscript it will be sent for typesetting. It is critical that your manuscript is as clean, checked and proofed as well as possible, because the scope for changes following the typesetting stage are restricted. Once the manuscript is typeset, you will receive a set of PDF page proofs to check that all your content is there, correctly laid out and in the format requested. It is also an opportunity to check any last minute minor errors.

Images & Illustrations

This standard self-publish package includes up to 10 images or illustrations.
For black & white interiors, you can supply as part of your package up to ten photographs or illustrations, which should be of sufficient resolution and clarity to be suitable for reproduction. These will be reproduced in grey scale (or colour, if you specify). For good image quality, please supply photographic images at a resolution of 300dpi (dots per inch) at the size you wish it to appear in the book. Line art or illustrations should be 500 dpi for sharp reproduction.

If you have any concerns, we can advise you during the process.
Please contact us if you need to specifically work with colour images and illustrations.

We are able to produce a variety of book sizes suited to your preference.

Common Trade Formats Available

5 x 7″ (178 x 127mm)
5 x 8″ (203 x 127mm) Perfect Bound
5.25 x 8″ (203 x 133mm)
5.5 x 8.5″ (216 x 140mm) DEMI Perfect Bound
6.14 x 9.21″ (234 x 156mm) ROYAL perfect Bound
6 x 9″(229 x 152 mm)

Formats Typically Available (with b&w interiors)

5 x 7″ (178 x 127mm)
5 x 8″ (203 x 127 mm)
5.25 x 8″ (203 x 133 mm)
5.5 x 8.5″ (216 x 140 mm) DEMI
5.83 x 8.27″ (210 x 148 mm) – A5 FORMAT
6 x 9″(229 x 152 mm)
6.14 x 9.21″ (234 x 156 mm) ROYAL
7 x 10″ (254 x 178 mm)
8 x 10″ (254 x 203 mm)
8.25 x 11″ (280 x 210 mm)
8.5 x 11″ (280 x 216 mm)
8.268 x 11.693″ (297 x 210 mm) – A4 FORMAT

A Note About Colour Books
If you would like colour books please contact us with your requirements, and we will happily review your project.

Our standard package also includes a complimentary graphic depicting your book cover in a 3D image, and includes a simple social media graphic you can use to start marketing your book.

For reasons of keeping costs low for authors, professional editing is not including in our standard self-publish packages. However, you can contact us for a quote, for editing as an additional service. Editing is expensive due to the sheer amount of time it takes to work through and correct manuscript text.

Publishing tip!
Whilst editing is absolutely standard for professional publishing, you should weigh up the cost/benefit. For the majority of self-publish works, it’s recommended you solicit help from talented friends or family and make sure you have thoroughly checked the work yourself, using the excellent spell check features in MS Word or your editing software.

As part of the interior design, you may have a number of photographs, illustrations or particularly complex tables or designs, which you want to include in your book. As part of the package, you may have up to ten such insertions/treatments. If you would like to include more, then we charge £5 per item to be added. All images will be converted to greyscale, unless colour is requested.

If you are publishing solely to Amazon KDP (which is totally free and highly recommended), then you will not require an ISBN. If you want to publish to Ingram Spark or other platforms that sell to bookshops, you will need your own ISBN – the ISBN is what defines the barcode on the book.

Every book that is intended for trade distribution must have an ISBN (International Book Standard Number) – unless published by Amazon KDP. An ISBN is used by distribution channels to uniquely identify every edition of any book that has ever been produced, and to serve as a single point of reference. Very often books can have the same title, and even the same author. An ISBN identifies exactly which book it is and provides database references to who the publisher and distributor is for that book. Bookshops also use the ISBN and barcode for their own ordering and inventory management.

Thee ISBN holder is considered the publisher of the book, which is why it is necessary you should purchase an ISBN as a self-publisher. In the UK, you can only buy them at Nielsen Book Agency. In the US, you can only buy them via Bowker.

Zaccmedia will recommend various selling platforms where you can set up your own book selling accounts. Some are free, others are paid.

Free Print & Distribution: Amazon KDP

The most popular and hugely successful platform is Amazon KDP, which is both free and easy to set up, offering global sales of books through Amazon’s own marketplace. You don’t need an ISBN, you get 60% of the sale in royalty from Amazon, and they pay direct into your bank account. They give superb reporting features and you can print and buy author discounted printed copies of your own book. It’s very easy to open an account and upload your book files, and we help you if you get stuck.

Paid Print & Distribution Platforms:

Other printing platforms that are not free but are good value are:

• Ingram Spark
• Lulu
• Blurb

Printing

If you want a premium printed book that has a heavier cover card, thicker paper and an overall more professional feel about it, then consider printing with an independent printer and learn to distribute the book yourself, say from a spare room, for fulfilling orders. This is ideal for those who publicly speak, promote and sell their books at events. Exclusive to those using our standard self-publish package, we can advise on printers to use and paper type specifications.