Just a short note today because I don't know about you, but summertimes are insane around this part of the world. First of all, there are the out-of-school kids and their unpredictable schedules, then there are the friends and relatives who show up week after week, on vacation and ready to party. (I live in a really nice 'part of the world' for summer fun.) And, since it is summer and maybe some of you writers and would-be publishers have a little extra time on your hands, I advise a little trip to the bookstore.
Say you've got a self-help book you want to self-publish. Go to the bookstore and check out the covers and lay-outs of books like yours. Check out how they've ordered their back-cover endorsements. Look at how they've arranged illustrations, table of contents, index, page numbers, headers, etc. Look at their chapter title designs. Take notes and make your book look like theirs.
I am completely amazed by the submissions that come into the office. Fiction covers that look like history, health titles that look like children's picture books, memoir that looks like nothing at all. If you're in a bind with publication dates, don't have a cover and need to get your book out for reviews with the requisite 5-6 months, send the book as a galley, i.e. no cover, just plain with stats. We gets lots and lots of those and they in no way deter from our considering the book for review. An awful, amateur, hasty cover and lay-out does, however.
Another sign of the amateur is a decorated envelope. We get them with little drawings, photos afixed with tape, hand-written messages to "Look Inside!" This is not elementary school and no one's going to give you a star because you can draw a flower.
To sum: Go to the bookstore, check out titles that are like yours, make your book look like it belongs on the same shelf. Then, put it in a plain brown envelope and send it to us.
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