The Proof Angel is the trading name of Sarah Perkins, freelance editor and proofreader.www.the­proof­angel.co.uk or http://ow.ly/sNlFs © Sarah Perkins 2014

The book production process: December2013

Design a book cover

We all know book covers are an important part of a marketing strategy.Some people will want to attempt the task themselves, but I think it isimportant to understand the process if you are going to have help.

If you have an idea of the concepts behind the process, it is much morelikely that you will:

• go into the process prepared.

• come out of the process with what you need.

• avoid having a cover that appeals to you, but doesn't appeal tothe market.

And nothing undermines confidence quite as much as that naggingfeeling that you are out of your depth.

So have a look at these three posts:

• The first one sets out some design principles about layout, andanalyses some examples:

http://ow.ly/sNZk0

• Then font and pictures get the same treatment:

http://ow.ly/sNZtn• And finally, a look at some good covers tosee why they work:

http://ow.ly/sNZLO

Here are a couple more posts about cover design:

• How to optimise your cover for online salesto keep the impact in a thumbnail:

http://ow.ly/sO03Q

• A behind the scenes look at the process at Random House:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2Z86L25v30

As an author, do you need to think about insurance?

An article about insurance came to my attention on LinkedIn. This isn'ta subject that occurred to me as a top priority for an author, but once Ihad started to think about it I pretty soon came to the idea at thebottom of any similar question about insurance.

The need for insurance depends on what you are doing, and how riskaverse you are. And that will always be true, because insurance is onerisk management tool in a whole kit.

We all take risks all the time, whatever we are doing. Writing is nodifferent. The type of risk varies considerably with what you arewriting, and each type of risk will have at least one appropriate tool.

Most of us have a difficulty with the concept of insurance. We wouldlike to believe that it is a magic product. I've paid my premium, sonothing bad can happen to me. Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that.

Most insurance works like this:

• Something happens to someone else, & they can prove that

• they have lost financially, and

• it was your fault, and

• whatever happened is mentioned in your policy, then

• the insurers will pay out to whatever limit was specified inthe policy you bought, unless

• you have done something they have said they won't cover,like breaking the law.

So before you get bogged down, you need to think what you want tobe covered. To do that, think of:

• What risks am I taking by writing this book?

• What steps can I take to reduce that risk?

For example if your book explains to the DIY enthusiast how they canre­roof their own house:

• Are you properly qualified to explain the task?

• Have you checked that someone who isn't a specialistunderstands enough to get it right?

www.the­proof­angel.co.uk or http://ow.ly/sNlFs © Sarah Perkins 2014

• How likely is it that I'm going to sue you because I followedyour instructions, & my beautiful house is now ruinedbecause...

On the other hand, if you are writing about some nice gentle plottaking place in a backwater the chances of a claim will be considerablyless.

If you have a list of risks you would like to be covered, you might wantto think a little about how a stranger could find out enough to work outhow much to charge you to take some of that risk away. Because thatis what insurance does.

On the other hand, you might prefer to go straight to a decentinsurance broker to discuss the position.

Anyway, here is the article. It is written from an American perspective,but the ideas are the same everywhere:

http://ow.ly/sO1m5

An author talks about editing

This is an interesting take on the editing process from author MichaelJecks.

http://ow.ly/sO1tW

E­book software worth a look?

Are you looking for some e­book creation software? Have you triedJutoh? I haven't done any experiments, but it looks as though it isworth considering.

http://ow.ly/sO1Bt

www.the­proof­angel.co.uk or http://ow.ly/sNlFs © Sarah Perkins 2014