Publishing News Roundup Series: Its All About the Color Pop for Bookend Design
by Maureen Crisp • June 7, 2016 • Follow
Published in News • No comments
This week we talk a little bit more about BEA, and we focus on a Wall Street Journal article that talks about the importance of bright colors on bookends.
Book ends are an important part of a book; they are what get it noticed from within a store bookshelf. If a book is not featured in the front of the store, a bookend is what gets it noticed. That’s why its important to make sure those bookends are noticed. A pop of color with some simple, clear images and lettering is sure to get it from a book on the shelves to a book in a readers hand.
In The Fine Print
Pic: from inside a Romeo and Juliet – Choose Your Own Adventure... by Ryan North
This week I’ve been catching up with what was happening at Book Expo America (BEA) which is North America’s largest book fair. Porter has a quick run down of what everyone was talking about.
The Wall Street Journal took a good look at book covertrends… it’s all about yellow! Cover designers are being asked to pop it on book covers because…digital. (And here I thought the ‘in’ colour was blue and there had to be water on the front.)
Meanwhile Meg Rosoff was collecting her Astrid Lindgren medal and stating publically that childhood now is under threat from governments. Well said Meg!
In Ireland Catherine Ryan Howard was musing about what happened when she chucked what she thought she should write in favour of what she wanted to write – everything changed.
Kris Rusch is continuing her great Deal Breakers series with a MUST READ on Rights clauses. Writers need to be reading this series by Kris. This week I have also seen comments about authors needing specialised lawyers to read publishing contracts because they are getting trickier.
Bookbub and Goodreads have been learning off each other... changes are afoot. This is an interesting article that Indie publishers should scan.
Becca and Angela are bringing out two new writers thesauri and in their research have come up with 5 ways to help your favourite authors.
In the Craft Section,
Character development a two sided sword– Jami Gold -Bookmark
What are those strange pinch points? C S Lakin- Bookmark
A writers guide to editors– Ruth Harris -Bookmark
Turn cliches into reader surprises– Zoe McCarthy
Botched beginnings- common first page killers– Kristen Lamb
In the Marketing Section,
How to optimise your book description and Email sign upforms– Jane Friedman Bookmark
Facebook advertising– Joanna Penn- Bookmark
How to find and select a cover designer– Janice Hardy
Making our books visible on Google– Elizabeth S Craig – Bookmark
Website of the Week
The Alliance of Independent Authors (Alli) has been posting video and audio from their fringe events at London and BEA. This is a great resource. Here are just two excellent postings Mark Coker on using pre orders effectively and Kiffer Brown on the 7 must haves for self publishers. Trawl around their site for other great resources.
To Finish,
Sometimes you need to stop and reassess what you are doing and what you want to achieve. Kate Moretti has a great guest post on Writers in the Storm about Cutting through Busyness to get to writing. This is excellent advice here for the writer feeling overwhelmed with what they didn’t tell you in the fine print.
Maureen
@craicer
About Maureen Crisp
Maureen Crisp has been writing her weekly publishing roundups for over seven years. She is a traditionally published children's author as well as indie-published. She lives in New Zealand and is heading the team organising the 4th National Conference of Children's Writers and Illustrators. She is currently trying her hand at writing a children’s book series if she can drag herself away from forever tweaking her Mars novel or obsessing over space.