In our recent effort on Jill Shoenberg’s book “Journal Buddies” we hit the print on demand bleed barrier. Lightningsource.com does a great job for a lot of our clients. In this case we had to improvise as our interior design was originally created to bleed past the trim marks.

The solution was to pull our images back and leave enough margin so that the limitation looks intentional. Mission accomplished!

99% of the time this is a non-issue as most interior designs do not need to bleed. Just be aware that your print on demand printer of choice may have some limitations to consider before your hire a typesetting company like AuthorSupport.com.

We knew when we were awarded the Journal Buddies project by Jill Shoenberg and Blue Night at Sky Publishing that we were taking on a big challenge. The new design needed to match the cover, up the target age range a bit, pull the reader through better and inspire new heights of creativity along the way!

Our interior designers and typesetters hit the mark by incorporating hand drawn sketches of various items with a consistant, more sophisticated design. The result is a book that demonstrates new ways of journaling to the audience.

We’d like to recommend Shel Horowitz’ new book “Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers” to our clients. Chances are you are discovering that as an author you are responsible to promote your book way more than you originally thought. This book gets down and dirty by covering the entire spectrum of book promotion…. from getting in and out of bookstores to being noticed at tradeshows and book fairs.

For all your promotional material needs AuthorSupport.com is the right company. We can create bookmarks, postcards and other creative giveaways to help create reader loyalty and buzz!

AuthorSupport.com recently launched CoverTemplate.com to showcase our quality book cover design in easy-to-change layouts that are more economical!

Book cover templates will start at just $99. Our book cover designers will be adding new templates in the coming weeks and months to meet the needs of our growing list of clients!

Many of our authors are looking for economic solutions to printing, warehousing and fulfillment of their new self-published book. The biggest concern with print on demand is “quality.” Sue Brenner is a recent AuthorSupport.com client who has been satisfied with Booksurge.com’s print on demand quality.

Now, normally we would not want to steer our readers to a company that also competes with us in our main service offerings of Book Cover Design and Interior Layout/Typesetting. Our confidence is in our designers. We are regularly getting calls from their clients asking for help… they love the print on demand services of BookSurge but hate the weak effort they get from their book cover designers and interior layout people.

If you are looking to see a real sample of BookSurge’s printing capabilities we highly recommend that you purchase Sue Brenner’s The Naked Desk. The print quality is excellent and Sue’s advice for staying organized and on top of your workload are great information for every self-publishing author! While you’re over at Amazon, check out our book cover design and interior layout in the “Search Inside” section.

Our typesetters take pride in creating a seamless book presentation. Check out the cover for The Mid-Level Manager in Student Affairs by NASPA! Now compare that book cover to the chapter header to the right. Pretty neat, eh? Readers love that!

Our primary opportunities for creativity in the interior are section breaks, running heads and chapter heads. Of course fonts, leading, intial caps are all important too!

Interested in what we can do for your book? Check out our Interior Design and Typesetting Services section.

AuthorSupport.com is proud to highlight a recent effort! The Mid-Level Manager in Student Affairs was challenging cover design. After several efforts our book cover designers pitched the following winning idea. The publisher, NASPA, loved it!

Once a project is completed ALL working files remain the property of AuthorSupport.com. Working files are defined as editable files. Photoshop layered files, Illustrator files, InDesign files and Quark Files are all considered working files.

If you require these file types please discuss this with us up front. Possession of these types of files means a potential loss of revenue should there be future revisions or iterations of the work.

Here are the types of files you will own upon completion of project:

• Adobe Acrobat PDF at Print Resolution.
• JPG files of the final effort (Both High and Low)
• EPS files for vector work (Logos and other spot graphics)

We require 50% of the estimated project cost up front prior to scheduling your project in. This is beneficial to both of us. You can invest a portion of your budget to get a feel for how we work and we will have a partial payment to protect our investment of time.

50% also represents our “kill fee“. A kill fee is the monies paid to cover the work completed when either party needs to stop production. As stated above 50% protects our investment of time. We will refund the monies paid at a proportional amount to the work completed.

Possible reasons to abandon a project and incur the kill fee…

• After multiple mock-ups you do not like our work.
• After multiple mock-ups we do not feel we can capture your vision.
• Your financial stresses dictate you putting the project on hold.
• The market has changed and you do not feel your project is relevant any longer.

AuthorSupport.com reserves the right to reject any project for any reason. We scrutinize projects on the basis of our subjective standards… in essence, if we are not comfortable with the spirit and nature of the project we will refund your money (if no work has been completed) and notify you of our decision via email.

CASE STUDY ONE:

John Doe tells us that his book, “Desert Dawn” is about finding love and acceptance in a small town full of intrigue. We accept the project and bill Mr. Doe for half of the estimated cost. A week later one of our typesetters flags that this is an “adult” book about erotic encounters! Unfortunately, we were a third of the way through before discovering Mr. Doe’s omission. We will refund a portion of the monies and stop production immediately.

CASE STUDY TWO:

Amy Johnson tells us that her book, “Overcoming the Odds” is a collection of helpful suggestions for getting past difficult situations. We accept the project and bill Ms. Johnson for half of the estimated cost. A week and a half later one of our typesetters flags that this book is really ten ways to make contact with your spirit guide. We were half of the way through before discovering Ms. Johnson’s omission. Because we were half way done and had billed for half upfront we will not refund any of the monies and stop production immediately.