From the first glance at the cover to the first flip through the pages, you want your book to grab your potential readers and turn them into customers. This presentation brings together experts to share invaluable information about how to succeed with this, and to answer your questions about design. Join BAIPA as we delve into the extremely important world of the design of your book. Panelists include book design experts Joel Friedlander (TheBookDesigner.com), Jim Shubin, (http://www.shubindesign.com/books/), and David Kudler (StillpointDigitalPress.com). Topics: What elements make a book cover attract our target market? What subliminal messages are we sending with the cover? How does the internal layout and design impact the reader? Should an author do a preliminary layout and design before hiring a designer? What guidelines are there for determining how to include photos, illustrations, charts, tables, callouts, etc.? At what point in the process of writing and publishing should an author seek out and hire a designer? What criteria should be used to select a designer? How does ebook design relate to print design? Let’s get YOUR questions about book design answered so your book stands out in the crowded marketplace and your target markets become your customers.

1. DESIGNING
EBOOKS
WHEN “ANYTHING’S POSSIBLE”
SOMETIMES MEANS “NOTHING WORKS”

2. DESIGNING EBOOKS
1. The Promise of Ebooks
2. The Reality of Ebooks
3. Some Suggestions

3. THE PROMISE
OF EBOOKS
Ebooks are, of course, 'smaller' than physical books. The 2GB Amazon
Kindle, for example, holds around 1,500 books (in real book terms, that's
around 80 stone in weight), which can be stored and carried around – ideal
when commuting or holidaying.
You can also buy an ebook more easily and quickly than a physical book, so
if you get a midnight craving for Jilly Cooper, you can satisfy it immediately.
In theory, ebooks ought never to go out of print. And because distribution
costs are lower, ebooks could make it easier for small publishers and
individuals to get into the market. Some stores will allow you to re-download
purchased ebooks should you lose your reader – a lost paperback is truly
lost, however.
Finally, some ebook readers can do stuff that's impossible in paper format:
change the size of the text, read aloud, hook into the internet, sync your
place in your book across multiple devices and more.
— Michael Phin, TechRadar.com, May 6, 2010
(AND HE DIDN’T EVEN MENTION THAT COLOR DOESN’T ADD COST!)

4. PROMISE FULFILLED?
Myths to Live By by Joseph Campbell

5. PROMISE FULFILLED?
The Seven Gods of Luck by David Kudler
Illustrated by Linda Finch

6. PROMISE FULFILLED?
Excursions to the Far Side of the Mind by Howard Rheingold

7. THE REALITY
OF EBOOKS
From a publisher’s or designer’s point of view, ebooks
present all sorts of unique challenges
• Multiple platforms = almost unlimited possible display
possibilities, styles
• Ereader contraints and user preferences frequently trump
many design choices
• Most multimedia is not yet supported by most retailers
(especially for independent publishers)

8. THE REALITY
OF EBOOKS
• Multiple platforms = almost unlimited possible display
possibilities, styles (Ebooks are just webpages in boxes!)

9. THE REALITY
OF EBOOKS
• Ereader contraints and user preferences frequently trump
many design choices
iBooks for Mac Kindle for Mac Kindle Fire (KF8)

10. THE REALITY
OF EBOOKS
• Ereader contraints and user preferences frequently trump
many design choices
Kindle DX (KF7)

11. THE REALITY
OF EBOOKS
• Ereader contraints and user preferences frequently trump
many design choices
Adobe Digital
Editions for Mac

12. THE REALITY
OF EBOOKS
• Ereader contraints and user preferences frequently trump
many design choices
iBooks for iPad
Stanza for iPad

13. THE REALITY
OF EBOOKS
• Most multimedia is not yet supported by most retailers
(especially for independent publishers)
• Only Kobo and Apple currently accept audio, video, and
scripting for all of their ereaders/apps
• Amazon accepts audio and video (though they don’t make
it easy) but it will only display on Kindle apps for iOS
• Even when and if other retailers accept enhanced ebooks,
most have size limitations that will make them impractical
(most often either 20MB or less — around around 30sec of
SD video)

14. SOME SUGGESTIONS
Keep It Simple, Stupid!
Not that you’re stupid. We all try to make things more complicated
than they need to be.
• Keep the design as simple as possible
• Unless you really care, don’t get too invested in particular
fonts — there are some nice typographical elements that a
good designer can add without them. Remember: green
Zapfino. (Also — your license for the font almost certainly
doesn’t include ebook distribution. Don’t be a pirate. Arr.)
• Don’t go overboard on fancy design elements (drop caps,
ornamentals, lots of color, etc.). They can be added, but
they may not always show up the way you expect.

15. SOME SUGGESTIONS
Keep It Simple, Stupid!
• Don’t use art you don’t really need
• If an image adds to the argument or plot of the book in
some essential way, great — otherwise, ask yourself why
it’s there. (And use the smallest image you can.)
• Same goes for multimedia, only more so. And if there’s a
video you really want to add to the iBooks and Kobo
uploads, you can instead embed a video widget from
YouTube, Vimeo, etc. or audio from SoundCloud — and if
the designer does it right, clicking on the widget will play
the video within those companies’ ereaders but will link to
the YouTube page on others’.

16. SOME SUGGESTIONS
Keep It Simple, Stupid!
• Cheat when you have to (shh)
• If you have a book that’s full of tables… Good luck. Tables
should just work. Except when they don’t. If at first you
don’t succeed… use a screen capture of the text table and
embed it in your ebook as an image.
• Same goes for fancy header treatments!
• Similar advice for ordered lists. If you have lots of complex,
nested lists, triple-quadruple check to make sure that
they’re displaying properly across multiple screens, and if
not… dump the HTML lists and hand-number them.

17. SOME SUGGESTIONS
Check, check, and triple-quadruple check!
Proof your ebook on as many different ereaders and ereader apps
as you can. Ask friends, ask online “betas.” Don’t simply trust the
retailers’ online emulators! They’re helpful, but not the same as a
real-world test on real-world equipment.
If you spot a problem, don’t despair. Go back and do your best to
fix it.
Just remember:

18. SOME SUGGESTIONS
Digital Publishing
Means Never Having
to Say You’re Finished!