FAQ
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Yes, it’s not a problem to expand the e-book cover into a print cover in the future. We charge $150 for the print upgrade (the difference between the print cover package and the e-book cover package).
We offer a wide variety of services. You will find clear pricing on each item. If your project requires a custom quote please contact us by using one of our forms.
Once we’ve scheduled your cover design, we will give you a delivery date. We’ll send you a first draft on that date and then work with you through up to three rounds of revisions to fine-tune your cover. The time between the first draft and the final cover depends on the depth of revisions. Our usual turnaround takes one to two weeks.
Just visit our Contact Us page to get in touch. Please note that we’re located on the East Coast of the US, so we're on Eastern Standard Time.
You don’t need to wait. We can start on the front cover design and finish the spine and back once you have all the information for the print book.
It varies, but lately we've been booked out at least a months in advance. It’s best to get in touch as early as possible.
We’re open to working with all genres. We do reserve the right to refuse any content that does not meet basic moral standards. NO bestiality*, incest, underage sex, or child abuse topics will be accepted.
*Most Werewolf, Vampire, and Shapeshifter content is acceptable.
First we gather information about your book via our About Your Book form. We ask for a detailed synopsis, an excerpt or the full manuscript for reference, your ideas, important themes and symbols, and example of covers you like or that convey the tone you’re looking for. Some authors have specific ideas for their covers, while some give us general thoughts on the design, and others just want to see what we come up with. Once we have all the information we need, we’ll develop a first draft and work with you through up to three rounds of revisions.
Ultimately, that’s up to you. Some possible elements to include on the back are: the blurb, an author bio, an author photo, review quotes, your author website, social media links, your publishing name/logo, ISBN barcode. It can be helpful to look at the backs of books in your genre for other ideas.
You can pay via PayPal or credit card at checkout.
Book Branders offers a full range of services for a professional marketing or launch campaign. Visit our Marketing page to read about our services and order your free consultation with one of our marketing specialists.
eBook technology is changing very rapidly. You’ll find a host of firms online who promise to “convert” your manuscript to an eBook for little or no cost, then publish, promote, distribute and sell it for a commission.
Many assign one of their own ISBNs to your title, which makes them the publisher of record for your eBook…a bad idea any day, but especially if they go out of business. And, their free conversions, run through a software robot, are usually awful.
We recommend a different approach, starting with an investment in proper eBook formatting.
eBook formatting involves quite a bit of coding and time, but the result is an eBook that displays well on a variety of devices. Once eBook formatting is complete, we recommend uploading the .mobi version to Amazon Kindle, and the ePub version to Barnes and Noble’s PubIt. Kobo and Apple’s iBookStore are also good choices. Most eBooks are purchased at these sites, and managing your own accounts doesn’t take much time after the initial setup.
No. The ISBN identifies the book and the publisher, not the printer. Think of an ISBN as a product number. If the product differs, a different ISBN should be assigned. For example, if you release your printed book as a hardcover and a softcover, each binding style should have its own ISBN. Later, if the book changes substantially and you release a new edition, again new ISBNs should be assigned, so the Books in Print database will clearly show the old and new editions. At this writing, Bowker recommends one ISBN for all formats of your Book.
A Library of Congress Catalog Control Number (LCCN) is a unique identification number that the Library of Congress assigns to the catalog record created for each book in its collection. Librarians use this number to locate a specific title in the national databases and for other purposes. Under certain circumstances, a Preassigned Control Number (PCN) can be assigned before the book is published. For details and eligibility, as well as links to copyright information, visit http://pcn.loc.gov/.
Every book needs an ISBN (International Standard Book Number), which is obtained from R.R. Bowker, the official ISBN agency in the United States. Visit http://www.myidentifiers.com to choose the option that is right for your publishing goals. We recommend buying a block of 10 numbers. They never expire and can be used for various formats of your book (for example, hard cover, soft cover, large print editions, eBook editions, etc.) It may not be necessary to purchase the barcodes offered. We include a free barcode with every cover design.
Absolutely! See our Customer Reviews page for a continually updated list of happy clients. Feel free to contact any one of them to check us out.
As the oft-repeated adage goes, “Nothing in life is free.” Especially not DIY books. Companies that make this promise are offering templates that you use to create the cover and the interior layout of your book yourself. Not only will your book look unprofessional (and look like a hundred other books styled on the same template), it will not meet expected publishing standards and YOUR READERS WILL KNOW IT!
You won’t get any editing or proofreading, even though a second set of eyes is critical in avoiding typos and more. At some point you will get frustrated and reach out for help, and these companies know that you will. When you do, they are ready and willing to sell you a slew of packages and services to help you on your way.
Hiring a professional designer seems expensive, especially when you don't know how may books you will actually sell. However, would you say, “I don’t know if I’ll get the job, so I’m not going to dress well or prepare for the interviewer’s questions”? Buyers don’t care about your budget. They care about value, and if you don’t deliver, they will tell EVERY FUTURE BUYER on Amazon that they were disappointed. What will that cost you? Also, as an author, you should be treating your book project as a business. You have a product to sell: your book. You need a budget, a marketing plan, a sales target, and someone to help you get there. Book Branders is that “someone.”
First, look at our Steps page, which is full of information about self-publishing and is great for first-time publishers.
If you still have questions, don’t hesitate to e-mail us or call us; we’re really friendly! A phone call with an Book Branders consultant will give you more information than hours of Internet research, and it will be much less confusing, we promise. We can talk specifically about your book, where you’re at, and what comes next.
However, if you’re just looking for some general information about self-publishing, we have written an eBook just for you: 10 Steps from Writer to Author. Click here to get your free copy.
Lightning Source, hands down, for two reasons: cost and returnability.
Lightning Source is owned by Ingram, and setting up your title there automatically lists your title in the Ingram database for a 55% discount. At Lightning Source, you may choose the option “returnable/destroy,” so bookstores are happy to special order books printed here. Lightning Source also offers robust and expanding international distribution options.
CreateSpace Extended Distribution likewise runs your title through Ingram, but at a 60% discount. Unfortunately, bookstores won’t special order books from CreateSpace because they are not returnable.
See this discussion on the CreateSpace forum (oddly enough):
https://www.createspace.com/en/community/message/171451?tstart=0
As with everything in our rapidly changing publishing world, this information is subject to change, so be sure to do your own research.
We recommend Lightning Source http://www.lightningsource.com (owned by Ingram) for simple, cost-effective print-on-demand and fulfillment services. Lightning Source is not a subsidy publisher. In fact, most subsidy publishers print their books at Lightning Source and pay you a small royalty for each copy sold. You can set up your title at Lightning Source and keep the difference between their manufacturing/distribution cost and the cover price (less retail discounts) while working directly with the largest POD printer in the world. We recommend that you set up your title as a publisher (creating your own publishing company, if you don’t already have one), and not as an author. The author track at Lightning Source will bounce you right back to their subsidy publisher clients.
You may also wish to set up your title at CreateSpace.com, owned by Amazon. We’ve all heard the rumors that Amazon displays books from Lightning Source as “not in stock”. We think this is simply a computer algorithm at work, not a big-company conspiracy theory as some suggest. Since Amazon’s CreateSpace is not printing the book, technically, isn’t in stock. Unfortunately, this policy leaves buyers unaware that Lightning Source prints and ships books 24 hours after receiving the order from Amazon. See the extended distribution question above for other reasons to set up your title in both places.