Category: Publishing best practices

How to Create a Competitive Cookbook

Post author By Michael Rohani
Post date August 1, 2018

Caroline Hale’s book, Live Simply Plant-Based is such a book—hundreds of recipes, especially appealing to anyone looking for an all-vegan, all gluten-free experience. Aside from being a book designer and publishing consultant, I’m an incurable foodie always on the lookout for new recipes and cuisine. For me, one of the points of traveling is to discover and enjoy new foods. Even in my own home city, I can’t resist searching the Mediterranean, Indian, Asian, and Mexican grocery stores for something new to try. So I was very happy to be able to help Caroline Hale put together the Live Simply Plant-Based book project. While this is a vegan recipe book, it is much more than recipes. Even if you’re not interested in a vegan diet it is easy to see that this book is beautiful.

Normally, to get a competitive price point for a coffee-table book of this quality would require sending it offshore. But there are downsides to offshore printing, such as long shipping times that some clients can’t accept, so I was happy to discover a U.S. printer able to handle the project at a comparable unit cost. The samples looked good, but it was still a bit riskier than my usual offshore options. U.S. printers don’t do wet proofs or dummy books to test the jacket fit. This is not a problem for simpler books, but for this design, 100% accuracy was important. Thankfully, they didn’t disappoint. The final fit and production are solid and I look forward to sending them more work.

If you like recipe books, check out Caroline Hale’s Live Simply Plant Based.

Even if you’re thinking, “I like meat, this isn’t for me” — there are whole sections of smoothy recipes, snacks, and energy breakfasts where you are unlikely to be missing meat.

And when you want to invite a vegan over for dinner, you’ll be equipped to please everyone.

Caroline Hale—who holds a degree in natural health and a doctorate in naturopathy—provides in her book a detailed and practical guide to the benefits of the vegan diet and how to easily make the transition. This is a very comprehensive guidebook with background nutritional information that even includes convenient tables for what to stock in your pantry and refrigerator as well as how to cook grains, beans, and lentils. Want to take it to the next level, she’ll help you do that with instruction for how to make your own cheeses and nut milks. And when you are out and about, she has vegan tips for eating out and when traveling.

If you’re already sold on the idea that a vegan diet is a healthier way to live and a good way to treat animals and the planet, you’ll want to go straight to the over 200 recipes. And wow, things have changed. Today’s vegan diet is not what our hippy parents were eating. There’s a lot here that anyone can enjoy without ever knowing it is vegan or gluten-free.

This has been a great year for book design projects, and this project is definitely on my top picks for 2018.

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Tags Cookbook design

Print strategies Print-on-demand Publishing Publishing & Entrepreneurs Publishing best practices Publishing for businesses Publishing Success Stories self-publishing

Self-Publishing Success Stories: 7 Secrets Guys Will Never Tell You

Post author By Michael Rohani
Post date June 5, 2017

One of the great things about my job is that I get to work with decision-makers and experts in a variety of fields, people who make a positive difference in the lives of others or who are on their way to becoming influential. Jackie Brewton is one of those accomplished people—she is the go-to person for people and institutions who need a motivational speaker and teen relationship expert.

If you’re a teen or a parent of teens like me, her book, 7 Secrets Guys Will Never Tell You: A Teen Girl’s Guide on Love, Sex, and Relationships has obvious value.

Book display — Copies of 7 Secrets Guys Will Never Tell You at the book launch.

When I got the call from Jackie, she had already worked with a designer on the cover, but the production values were lacking. This seems to be happening to a lot of authors. In the last two years, I have seen an increase in calls from people who have hired designers who, it turns out, could not complete the project in a satisfactory way or who have simply gone missing before the job was finished.

Book Marketing Independent Publishing Publishing best practices Publishing Success Stories self-publishing

Book project, Living Large in Small Spaces: The Cottages of Lake Worth

Post author By Michael Rohani
Post date June 2, 2017

I love self-publishing success stories. Sometimes success comes just by chance and sometimes by thoughtful decisions and a commitment to quality. The book, Living Large in Small Spaces: The Cottages of Lake Worth is the latter case.

Cottages, Lake Worth, small homes, self-publishing, independent publishing, book design — Living Large in Small Spaces: The Cottages of Lake Worth. Front cover jacket. Under the jacket is an adhesive case with the same cover design and image.

I knew from the start I was working with smart people who had a brilliant idea and a lot of great content. Too often self-publishing authors are thinking “sell globally” on the Internet when, in fact, success is much easier when you start with “sell locally.” If you’re selling a coffee table book that is $32.95, like The Cottages of Lake Worth, direct sales for even a small print run of 3500 books, adds up to $115,325.

As Alex Shephard recently wrote in the New Republic, what sells books is discoverability. “Guiding audiences to a book is the key to successful bookselling. Word-of-mouth buzz can turn a book like The Girl On The Train into a cash cow, as can reviews and other media coverage…” Obviously, Word-of-mouth buzz is much easier to start locally than nationally or globally. That’s good to know, because it can steer many aspects of a book project.

The group behind The Cottages of Lake Worth book project were themselves cottage owners and an award-winning photographer, which is why there are so many excellent photos in the book. The book brings together popular topics that are of interest to audiences everywhere—inspiring cottage photography, garden design ideas, and solutions for living in small spaces. But getting almost instant success comes from having many local advocates, beneficiaries, and stakeholders such as the cottage owners featured in the book, the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County, and various supportive individuals and local businesses. There are also many local venues and opportunities for selling the book. So, not surprisingly, I received this email shortly after the book was published:

Hi, Michael—“Can you believe it, we are going for our second printing of our book? On Monday, the board gave a collective thumbs up for more books. . . . We are down to fewer than 150! Thank you again for making our book so, so successful!”

Cottages, Lake Worth, small homes, self-publishing, independent publishing, page design, book design — Chapter openers feature a custom sun and wave design.

Yes, I could definitely believe it. Their success had nothing to do with Amazon or national bookstores—which they didn’t use to sell the first print run. In fact, it was mostly word-of-mouth marketing and commitment to creating a quality product.

A big part of the book’s success comes from the creators’ decision to go beyond self-publishing. That started with creating their own publisher identity to become an independent publisher. They carried this through, following publisher best practices with the editing, design, branding, printing, and marketing strategy. They were receptive to professional guidance and made decisions guided by marketing ideas that you would expect from an acquisitions editor at an experienced publishing house. The result is a book that anyone would find interesting and enjoyable to look through. Not only does it not look “self-published,” it is easily competitive with the best books in its category.

“. . . it was wonderful that we chose to work with you after receiving a recommendation from mutual friends. Our book has been a huge success and you are a great part of that success . . . People love it and smile when they look at it. You were always available to talk to us and guide us through some important decisions . . . AND the book is beautiful, thanks to your design! We could not have asked for more . . . By the way, we are selling so fast that we are depleting our supply of hardbacks . . . We should have listened to you when you wanted us to print more! The Best to You.” —The Cottages of Lake Worth Book Committee

“Well, it seems we ALL did a great job on our book. The public loves it, and they are selling fast.” —Janice Snearer

Cottages, Lake Worth, small homes, self-publishing, independent publishing, book endpapers, spot varnish printing, book design — Flaps with spot vanish and custom endpapers.

Here’s a video that shows the spot varnish effect:

Publisher logo design created for the Cottager Press

The photographer who created the photos in the book was kind enough to send me this nice endorsement:

“Michael Rohani . . . guided us through the production of the book . . . Without him, we are certain, that our book would not be the successful tribute to Lake Worth and its cottages. His sage advice saved us money and helped us make good decisions to ensure that we produced the most beautiful coffee table book our region has ever seen. In four months, we have sold 80% of our print run. I wish Michael could hear the wonderful comments from those viewing the book. He would hear praiseful words such as “wonderful,” “professional,” “gorgeous” and “spectacular.” We always say, “Well, the best decision we made was hiring Michael.” We appreciated his warm, patient and personal approach through the laborious process of getting our book to print. . . . He completed his tasks quickly and expertly, and our pages reflected his immense talents. We can’t recommend Michael Rohani more highly.”
—Taylor Jones, Photographer for Living Large in Small Spaces: The Cottages of Lake Worth

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POSTSCRIPT

Fantastic news! The Next Generation Indie Book Awards has just named The Cottages of Lake Worth book a finalist under the Coffee Table Book/Photography category! I’m very happy to have had the opportunity to design this book and work with talented photographer, Taylor Jones, and the team who made this project happen.https://indiebookawards.com/fpreview658349862

Publishing Publishing best practices

The Most Important Thing to Do When Publishing

Post author By Michael Rohani
Post date March 16, 2017

For anyone who wants to benefit from publishing, and especially for businesses, it is critically important to follow publishing best practices to ensure quality and control costs. Get an editor who understands proofreading and a designer who is experienced with books and knows how to prepare reliable press-ready files. The same is true with printers. Only use a printer who understands books.

This advice is true even if you plan to sell your books directly through your own business or website. Even if you don’t need a win over distributors, book reviewers, or store owners, printing a book with embarrassing mistakes or paying for files that don’t work correctly is just bad business practice.

If you do want a book distributor, and book reviewers and store owners do matter to you, then it becomes even more critical to make sure your book is trade quality, meets retail requirements, and meets industry expectations. Find someone experienced who knows the process and can guide you through each step.

The old low-quality vanity publishing business model has given way to a new low-quality model that cuts costs and quality to sell authors printing services—usually print on demand (POD). To avoid the pit falls of these companies, find a book service that doesn’t profit from printing. You should be able to send your book files to any printer of your choice.

When you look at the costs outlined in my post The Math Publishers Don’t Want Authors to Know!, you’ll notice that cutting out quality production and quality controls—such as professional editing, design, and typesetting—doesn’t save much money, certainly not enough for the increased difficulty of selling a less attractive and less professional product.

For businesses, a DIY book is an especially high risk that can involve embarrassments and brand damage. I know a guy who self-published without using a professional editor or book designer. The largest American membership-only warehouse club was ready to carry his photo book until the buyer saw that the foreword in the book was spelled “Forward.” Seeing that one error, they suspected the DIY quality and dropped the offer. All it took was one word to undo the deal—an error spell checker software would not catch. Quality matters! He came back with a second book project done professionally, and they carried it, agreeing to start by taking 1700 copies. Persistence and a new commitment to quality paid off.

Remember, you may only have to sell around 280 copies to cover your costs for B&W books and around 550 for color books. His book was a hardback picture book, so he needed to sell slightly more. Of course, if you are not confident that you can sell more than 300–600 copies, using print-on-demand and/or publish ebook editions may be safer strategies for you. To learn more watch for my forthcoming post, Picking the Right Publishing Strategy.