Signature Books
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New Publishers
Publishing is an occupation that appears simple from a distance and more intricate close-up. We can help by guiding a new publisher through the basics of publishing so that they reach the vexing part sooner.
ISBN
The International Standard Book Number is an identifying number unique to a book. To sell your titles throughout booktrade each title must have an ISBN. These are available from the ISBN Agency, who dispiritingly for the new publisher allow you to buy your first ISBN only as a pack of ten.
Advance Infomation Sheets
AIs [Advance Information Sheets] are critical selling tools for book representatives and targeted mailings. To work well and compete with other AI's all trying to get buyers attention they need to be: concise, simple and presented on A4 paper, produced at least 4 months ahead of publication , include a cover illustration, and include all relevant bibliographic details; Title, Author(s), Editor, Price, Publisher, No. of pages, publication date, supplier and subject area (using BIC code, see below) and territory for which you the rights to publish the title. It is important that the last two are included as without this information the titles will not be loaded on to Waterstone's in-house bibliographic system, Phoenix.
The book trade works in advance, not arrears. So you need to get details of the book you are publishing into the trade, well BEFORE publication of the book. Most sales reps work 3 months or more in advance of publication date - so when they visit a shop in March, they are showing titles due to be published in June or later
An Advance Information sheet must be no longer than one side of A4, and should include all bibliographic data, plus clear, concise blurb about the title, and a little information about the author (eg if the author is an academic, say where they lecture and list any other books by her/him). You should always include a book jacket for the reps to show buyers, even if the cover you present to the reps is not the same as the one that eventually appears on the book.&
Sales reps have very little time to convince a buyer to take a title, so they rely on high quality materials to sell the book. It is worth remembering that sometimes the rep will not be able to see a particular buyer for a subject area and will have to leave sales materials in the shop, for the buyer to read at a later date. Booksellers have very little time and small budgets - they will want to know why they should buy your title instead of someone else's. If your Advance Information sheet is long-winded and there is no accompanying jacket, they will choose to spend their meagre budget instead on the title with a snappy, concise AI outlining key sales points and eye-catching jacket. The Book Industry Communication provide a sheet which tells you what information it is necessary to include on your AI. These are examples of some of the AIs that our publishers use for their titles.
BIC codes
Harper Collins's guide to BIC codes is probably the best. It is only necessary to have the first identifying letter to be compliant.
Book Images
Your book image should ideally be over 5cm high and with a resolution of 300dpi. This size will be suitable for all trade uses. If your image is over 300k, Then you should resize it. Likewise an AI should be no more than 300K. if your AI if larger than this than you should resize the image embedded in it. Large AIs and images are likely to alienate buyers and retailers.
Pantone PDF
Use this useful guide when you are talking to your cover designer, saves long, dispiriting conversations arguing the colour of taupe.
Lorem Ipsum
Dummy latin text of the printing and typesetting industry.